In 1990, there was a romantic comedy that hit big screen called “Pretty Woman”. It was marketed as a modern update of the story of Cinderella. Richard Gere played an unscrupulous businessman who was on a business trip and - on a lark - he picks up a hooker – played by Julia Roberts. As the movie unfolds, the two fall deeply in love and they end up living happily ever-after. Although it’s left to your imagination if they actually get married.
The film saw the highest amount of sales ever in US for a romantic comedy. And worldwide, at the time of its release, it was the 4th-highest-grossing film of all time. The top 3 movies at the time were: E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial ($619 million at the time), Star Wars ($530 million at the time) and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade ($474 million at the time). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pretty_Woman
But “Pretty Woman” was built on a classic Hollywood concept: A hooker with a heart of gold - forced into a wayward life by adverse circumstances, but longing to be delivered by the handsome leading man who discovered her true worth, falls in love with her, and they settled down to raise a happy family.
Now that was a movie. That was a classic Hollywood script.
However, in Hosea, we see a real-life script being played out. A drama in real time. A man marries a prostitute (who does NOT have a heart of gold) they have 3 kids and she leaves him for other men and, when her life falls apart, he goes, he buys her back and restores her status as his wife.
The point of the book of Hosea is that the prostitute (Gomer) symbolized the spiritual problems that Israel had.
Hosea 4:9-10 “I will punish (the people of Israel) for their ways, and reward them for their deeds. For they shall eat, but not have enough; They shall commit harlotry (prostitution), but not increase; Because they have ceased obeying the LORD.”
Hosea 5:3-4 “O Ephraim (another name of Israel), you commit harlotry; Israel is defiled. They do not direct their deeds toward turning to their God, for the spirit of harlotry is in their midst, and they do not know the LORD.”
The rest of the book of Hosea is built on that concept. Israel had become a harlot/ prostitute because they were God’s wife and they’d sold themselves like a prostitute to other nations. And they refused to repent.
For centuries, theologians have struggled with this story of Hosea marrying prostitute. The idea of this prophet marrying a prostitute… just doesn’t sound moral. And so they’ve come up with all kinds of explanations to make it more palatable. And one of those explanations was that Hosea’s marriage was a vision - it wasn’t real. And other theologians speculated that it was merely a parable - it didn’t really happen! They couldn’t imagine God having a prophet do this.
So I gave some serious thought to these speculations… and I’ve concluded that I DO NOT AGREE with those theologians. And one the reasons I don’t agree with them is this: there was nothing morally wrong with what Hosea did. There’s nothing in the Bible that condemns a man of God marrying a woman with a sordid background.
ILLUS: I recently heard a preacher tell of a friend of his who’d recently entered the ministry. His friend was about to get married and he and his fiancé were at a gathering with the preacher I was talking with. While the friend was distracted with something else, the fiancé came up to the preacher and began to cry. She admitted that before she met her soon-to-be husband she’d led a life she hadn’t been proud of. She’d slept around and taken drugs, and she was ashamed. And she wept as she confessed that she was worried her husband was being forced to lower his standards by marrying her. Now, she’s a Christian and God’s forgiven her. But she couldn’t accept the idea the idea that her husband would be able to forgive her.
You see, that’s the message of Hosea: God forgives sin. He can - and He will - forgive any sin. And He wants to forgive our sins. God is a relentless lover. But you’ve got to want to change. All through Hosea, God is telling Israel – there are consequences of sin. There are punishments for rejecting and disobeying God.
Speaking of Israel (his bride), God declared “I will hedge up her way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her, so that she cannot find her paths. She shall pursue her lovers but not overtake them, and she shall seek them but shall not find them. Then she shall say, ‘I will go and return to my first husband, for it was better for me then than now.’
And she did not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the wine, and the oil, and who lavished on her silver and gold, which they used for Baal. Therefore I will take back my grain in its time, and my wine in its season, and I will take away my wool and my flax, which were to cover her nakedness. Now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one shall rescue her out of my hand.
And I will put an end to all her mirth, her feasts, her new moons, her Sabbaths, and all her appointed feasts. And I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees, of which she said, ‘These are my wages, which my lovers have given me.’ I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall devour them. And I will punish her for the feast days of the Baals when she burned offerings to them and adorned herself with her ring and jewelry, and went after her lovers and forgot me, declares the LORD.” Hosea 2:6-13
There were consequences for Israel’s sinful lifestyle.
But then God said: "Behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. And there I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt. "And in that day, declares the LORD, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more.” Hosea 2:14-17
God was saying: I will pursue my bride. I will woe her again. I will bring her back into a relationship with me. God said: I am a relentless lover. And, to illustrate that scenario, God had Hosea marry a prostitute who bore him children and then deserted him and the children to return to her old lifestyle.
But then, God had Hosea go and BUY HER BACK. “So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley.” Hosea 3:2
Hosea paid a price to redeem Gomer. He paid this price, and bought her for himself even though she didn’t deserve it. Hosea paid a price for her? That sound’s kind of familiar, doesn’t it?
I Peter 1:18-19 says “You were redeemed from your empty way of life inherited from the fathers, not with perishable things, like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ...” You and I were redeemed! There was a price paid so you could be saved from an empty way of life! And what was the price that was paid? The precious blood of Jesus.
Hosea paid a price to redeem his bride and… Jesus paid a price so that we could become His bride.
ISN’T THAT COOL? But it gets better.
Hosea is an interesting name. Do you know what it means? Hosea means “Salvation”. The Hebrew for his name is the same root word as… “Jesus!” Do you remember, an angel speaks to Joseph and tells him that Mary “will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will SAVE his people from their sins.” Matthew 1:21
Hosea’s story (in this book) is a portrait of who Jesus was to be. Hosea paid for the life of a sinful person so she could be restored, and Jesus paid for YOUR life so you could be restored.
Now, thinking back on those theologians who were uncomfortable with the idea of Hosea marrying a prostitute… why were these theologians uncomfortable? Well… Gomer was a prostitute. And (for these theologians) prostitutes are kind of a lower forms of life. She had no business being married to a prophet of God.
In the days of Jesus, the Pharisees (the theologians of the day) had a long list of people they wouldn’t associate with: Tax Collectors… Samaritans… Drunks… and of course Prostitutes. (https://www.jesusfilm.org/blog/5-attitudes-jesus-condemned-in-pharisees/). Something about a prostitute that makes righteous people cringe and back-up. Prostitutes are somehow unclean… and irredeemable.
ILLUS: There’s a story in Luke where Jesus was invited by a Pharisee named Simon to eat at his home. Simon has invited a number of folks to the meal but it’s fairly apparent that Simon didn’t really like Jesus. He didn’t wash Jesus’ feet; he didn’t greet Him with a kiss; and he didn’t anoint His head with oil. These were all things a good host would have done for an honored guest. and I’ve always thought Simon was looking for a way to embarrass Christ in front of his friends.
But then, in walks a “sinful woman.” And from the details it seems obvious that she was a prostitute. And she’s crashed the party! She’s not welcome… but she shows up anyway!
And we’re told that “she learned that (Jesus) was reclining at table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment. Luke 7:37-38
You can almost see Simon thinking “I’ve got you. I’ve got you Jesus! If Jesus were really a prophet He’d know what kind of woman she is!” And Simon intends to create a scene and embarrass both Jesus and this weeping woman.
Now Jesus had been insulted by better men than Simon. He could handle whatever insult Simon could dish out. Jesus could handle attacks on His own character. But He’s not about to put up with an arrogant attack on this woman’s sorrow. With the precision of a surgeon Jesus proceeds to cut Simon to his heart and He reveal the hypocrisy that lay within.
"Simon, I have something to say to you." And he answered, "Say it, Teacher." "A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?" Simon answered, "The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt." And he said to him, "You have judged rightly." Then turning toward the woman he said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven — for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little." And he said to her, "Your sins are forgiven." Luke 7:40-48
The problem for Simon - and the problem for those theologians I mentioned - is that they shied away from prostitutes because prostitutes were a lower form of life than they were. And that’s always a problem for “righteous” people. They tend see themselves as more righteous than … others. “Others may be sinners… but they aren’t.”
But God tells us that that’s not true. In the eyes of God, you and I are no more worthy of heaven than the prostitute is. That’s why Jesus told the chief priests and the elders (who depended upon their own personal self-righteousness) “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you.” Matthew 21:31
Ephesians 2:1-6 says it this way (speaking to Christians in Ephesus) “Once you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience — among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.(PAUSE)
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ — by grace you have been saved — and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus”.
You see, God loved us even when we weren’t LOVABLE. God loved us when we were like the unfaithful wife of Hosea. And He loved us so much that He gave His only begotten Son. God is a relentless lover who seeks to buy you, redeem you, restore you, and forgive you.
CLOSE: Tony Campolo was once a powerful voice for Christianity, and he told of how he taught in a secular college where he was challenged by one of his Jewish students who said, “Jesus never met a prostitute. Campolo said “I jumped at the opening; here was my chance, I thought. I could show this guy a thing or two about Jesus and about the New Testament. ‘Yes, He did - I’ll show you in my Bible - ’” And the young man interrupted him again. “You didn’t hear me, Doctor. I said Jesus never met a prostitute.” Campolo said: once again I protested. Once again I reached for my New Testament. I started to leaf through the pages of my Bible searching for passages which showed Jesus forgiving the “fallen woman.” I searched for the place where He gave the woman at the well a chance for spiritual renewal. And once again, my Jewish student spoke out, this time with a touch of anger “You’re not listening to me, Doctor. You aren’t listening to what I am saying. I am saying that Jesus never met a prostitute. Do you think that when he looked at Mary Magdalene he saw a prostitute? Do you think he saw whores/// when he looked at women like her? Doctor, listen to me! Jesus never met a prostitute!”
Well, if Jesus didn’t meet a prostitute … who did He meet? He met women who’d made bad decisions and damaged their lives. He met women who’d been so buried with sin and shame that they didn’t think anybody would want them… let alone God. And here’s my point – when God looked at Gomer, the prostitute who married Hosea, God didn’t see a prostitute. But He knew the self-righteous would – which is why He used her as an illustration of Israel sin.
And when God looks at you, He doesn’t see the mistakes and sins of your past. He sees the man/ woman whom He can forgive and give hope to. God is a relentless lover who will not give up on you.
INVITATION
