The God Who Waits
Hosea Chapter 3
As we continue our series on the book of Hosea we will continue looking at the tumultuous relationship between Hosea and Gomer. In chapter 2 we witnessed a faithful husband who came to the point where he could no longer provide for his unfaithful wife who refused to return. He realized that the only hope for her returning was to allow her to feel the sting of her choices with the hope of renewing the relationship and her status as her wife later on when she came to her senses. Through all of his wooing her to return she did not. So Hosea let her go. In Chapter 2:2 we see the annulment of the marriage. (Read Hosea 2:2) Hosea let her go.
Now we are starting Chapter 3 and we see things are getting worse for Gomer. (Read Hosea 3:1-5)
Gomer did not return. She went further and further down the path of destruction. Just as Northern kingdom had continued to reject God and went further and further down the road of destruction. The raisin cakes are again a reference to the worship of the fertility god Baal, because raisin cakes were offered to Baal in thanksgiving for a good harvest. Israel continues to follow the gods of sticks and wood that were crafted by their own hands and imaginations.
In verse two we see how far down the road Israel and Gomer had traveled. Hosea had to purchase Gomer. It appears that Gomer had become so indebted to her lover that she had become a concubine slave to the man. Remember Hosea stopped providing for her. So Hosea was told to go pay for her and the price paid was that of a slave. Let’s read Exodus 21:32 - 32.
So we see the price of a slave was set at 30 shekels of silver. It appears that Hosea did not have the cash on hand so he worked out a deal to pay half in silver and the other half in barley. It is also interesting to note that this is also the purchase price for Judas to betray Jesus. Jesus was betrayed for the price of a slave.
When we get to verse 3 things get a little strange. (Read Hosea 3:3)
What in the world is going on here? You are commanded by God to go purchase your adulteress wife back who is at the time in a sexual relationship with another man and to love her as the Lord loves the Israelites. So Hosea does it and purchases Gomer, brings her back home and then tells her there will not be any sexual relationship between us or any other person. We will be together but celibate!
Why? Remember Gomer has not returned on her own. She was purchased with the price of a slave and now is a slave to Hosea. She is still in rebellion and is not ready to enter into the covenant relationship again with her husband. In her heart Hosea is her master and she is a slave. She must obey because she has no choice in the matter. She will not stay faithful and love her husband at this time. She is still a rebellious woman. Until she returns with all of her heart and desires a relationship with her husband again she cannot and will not be allowed the privileges that are part of the marriage relationship.
Gomer is a slave not a wife and she will not be able to return into the marriage relationship until she returns with all of her heart, soul, mind and strength to her husband. Verse 4 and 5 puts this scenario into perspective in the larger picture of God’s relationship with Israel. Let’s continue to read: (Read Hosea 3:4-5 - 4)
Hosea is prophesying about Israel going into captivity. God has pleaded with Israel to return to him. He has provided for them even when they were attributing those gifts to foreign gods. He has let them taste the sting of their actions letting the foreign nations harass them. Israel has suffered famine and loss, but they have remained stiff necked and continued whoring with other gods.
Israel has found itself in a position where they are no longer God’s chosen people, because they have chosen gods of sticks, of fashioned wood. They are lost and enslaved to everyone around them. Now God is going to send them into captivity where they will not be able to go a whoring with any false gods. They will have no king or prince to protect and represent them. They will not be able to sacrifice to God or use sacred stones in worship to their false gods. They will be celibate from worshiping the True Creator God or any false god. They will be captives, slaves, in a foreign land.
Israel is to be isolated so they may hopefully return to their senses and return and seek the Lord their God with all of their heart.
One cannot enter into a marriage relationship when the other person is not consenting. God cannot force Israel to return to Him and to His love. No, it takes both parties willing to enter again into a relationship. Israel like Gomer is not ready. After all of what God has done to show them that their actions are hurting them dearly, they still are refusing to return.
So God is going to take away their gods, they will suffer dearly for their hard hearts. But it is still all done for the hope that Israel will return and desire to enter anew into a relationship that God desires with them.
So we have Hosea prophesying to Israel warning them that their nation was going to fall. Hosea lived to see the destruction of Samaria, the capital of Israel, in 722 B.C. by the brutal Assyrians.
Their temples are gone. Their high places are gone. Their nation destroyed. They now are in servitude. No place to worship. No place to sacrifice. No access to their idols and their pagan worship. They are now without any hope. Their false gods have not protected them. Their only hope is now in the Creator God who they have rejected. Who they have left to go prostitute themselves to things they created themselves. Will they find the humbleness to return?
This is the end of the story of Hosea and Gomer, it never tells us the end of the story. Gomer is a slave in Hosea’s house with Hosea waiting for Gomer’s heart to change. But the story of Israel does not end there. In verse 5 we have a very strong Messianic thrust. It is no longer the old Israel which is in focus here, for the new Israel suddenly enters the picture. We know this because of the words “afterward” and “in the latter days”. Also the phrase of the return to “David their king” can only mean that the return will be to the Lord Jesus Christ, the true Son of David. In Matthew 1:1 it says, (Read)
The apostle Peter on the Day of Pentecost discusses the importance of the Son of David this way: (Read Acts 2:14-41)
Wow, what a plan that our loving father had! Rebellious, stiff necked Israel who was God’s Chosen people. Who blew it big time and was divorced from God and made” Not my people”. A people who refused to return to him and was taken into captivity and never returned. This people, and including us today, God wants to marry again. Not in the same way as the Old Covenant, but in a New Covenant. The Covenant that was opened up by Jesus Christ. What an opportunity we have! Are we guilty of going a whoring? Oh, yes we are. But even in our wickedness, Christ died for us!
In a Wednesday night class a few weeks ago we were discussing justice in the book of Proverbs. What did we see? We saw that we serve a just God. A God that desires that we are a just people. That we are honest witnesses. That we do not put innocent people to death. That we do not let the guilty go free. When we look at Christ what do we see? We see perjury, men telling lies. We see an innocent man being put to death and we see the guilty being let free. Christ allowed wicked men who were doing what God hates to crucify Him on the cross. Why? So, Christ would be able to provide an opportunity to be able to forgive the sins of the very people who were putting him on the cross.
(Read Romans 5:6-11)
He died for those who falsely accused Him. He died for Barabbas who was guilty and set free. He died for the people of the Northern Kingdom who were so wicked and evil that God sent them into captivity and never were heard from again. He also, died for you and me.
We serve a just God who will not let the guilty go unpunished. We also serve a very patient God. A God who sent Israel into captivity in 722 B.C. So roughly 750 years passed before Jesus died on the cross. That is a long period of waiting. God is very patient, yes indeed and He is waiting for you and for me.
I’ve heard it said numerous times that if God wishes all of us to be saved and he sent His Son to die for our sins, why does it take anything from me? All I have to do is believe in God, right? The answer is no. Would you enter into a marriage relationship if your future spouse had that attitude? “ Oh, look. I believe you love me and that we should be married, but I’m going to continue on with my life as if we were not married. If I want to date someone else I will.” How ridiculous is that? The reality is in a marriage relationship each person enters into a covenant with the other. For better or worse, richer or poorer. We commit ourselves to each other and it requires changes in our lives to uphold the covenant made. The same is true with God. He is waiting for us to give Him all of our hearts. To stop whoring around with this world and to give Him our hearts. No turning back. All for Him. He has been waiting a long time for some of us. He has not left us, but we certainly have left Him. Today is the day to return to Him and enter into a new covenant with Him.
(Read Hebrews 3:12-4:2)
Don’t harden your hearts by sin’s deceitfulness. Return to God today.
