A Strange Relationship: The Prophet and the Prostitute
Scripture Reference: Hosea 1:2 – 7
Thesis: Our relationship with God should not be weighed by how we relate to the things of God, but how we relate to the person God. So let us stand fast in the relationship that God desires to draw us into.
Introduction
If I were to ask you to rate certain relationships on a scale of 1 – 5, how would they rate? For instance, how would you rate your relationship with your supervisor? On the scale of 1 – 5, with 1 being poor and 5 being good.
How would you rate your relationship with your peers, your co-workers on that same scale? How would you rate your relationship with your spouse… with your children… with your parents… with your siblings?
Now you know that I have to ask you, how do you rate your relationship with God based upon who He is rather than what He has done? Don’t rate based on what He has done for you lately, but rather how intimate you are with Him. Drawing close to Him as much as He desires to draw close to you. What’s your number…1, 3, a 5?
Transition
You have to agree with me that our text this morning offers what I have called a strange relationship...the marriage of a prophet and a prostitute. There is a man whose name is Hosea and a woman whose name is Gomer. Hosea was a young preacher in the nation of Israel. Gomer was a young woman living in the land.
There is nothing unusual about a man loving a woman enough to want to marry her. There is no mystery when a woman gives her hand to be united to a man until death do them part. But this is an unusual relationship.
This is an abnormal covenant between a man who will be answering a call to God and a woman who would be answering a call to men. Hosea was called to preach, Gomer was called to…
The prophet – a man of God
The prostitute – a woman of the night
The Prophet – a lover of one
The Prostitute – a lover of many
The prophet – saved for God
The prostitute – estranged from God
The prophet – a name known in time
The prostitute – a name known in town
The prophet – who stands up for righteousness
The prostitute – who lays down in unrighteousness
This is a strange relationship…but the one who actually initiated and sanctioned this strange relationship can easily overshadow our attention to this unusual union. Did you get the fact that God was the one who instructed Hosea to go marry this woman?
Wait a minute God…you want me to do what? Lord, I understand you called me into a ministry, but now you are calling me into a marriage. Not with the daughters of the prophets Isaiah or Amos my contemporaries. Not with the girl next door but a girl which I would never bring home to momma.
It’s one thing God, that that I am going to get married and you have found me a wife. But at the same time you are telling me ahead of time that she is going to be unfaithful, that she is going to be an adulterer.
You know church, God does strange things at times, things we don’t always understand, things we can’t categorize, things that don’t fit into what we think we know of him.
It is a mistake to think that everything God asks us to do will be easy. It is also a mistake to think that we will always understand what God is up to. At times, it even may appear that God has acted in a way contrary to His character. But God is in the business of speaking to men.
It was a strange thing when He asked Abraham to slay his son, Isaac. It was strange when God told Moses to stretch out his rod over the Red Sea to part the waters. It was a strange thing when God spoke through the mouth of a donkey to save an unsaved prophet’s life.
It was a strange thing for God to ask Noah to build a boat three-football field length when it never had rained before. It was a strange thing when God asked the Jews to slaughter animals so that blood can be shed for the atonement of sins. It was a strange thing that the walls of Jericho fell down from marching and shouting.
Listen, and this is not the first time God has asked His prophets to do some strange things:
Did you know that God ask Ezekiel to eat a scroll, a book which would represent Him eating the Word of God and to then go to Israel to deliver a message?
He also asked him to lie on his left side for 390 days and on his right side for 40 more days to represent the number years Israel and Judah will be punished. Ezekiel was also asked to preach to a valley of dry bones so that they would come to life.
Jeremiah was asked to construct a yolk complete with straps to wear around his neck to demonstrate the yolk bondage around the necks of Israel.
Isaiah 20:3 - Then the LORD said, "My servant Isaiah has been walking around naked and barefoot for the last three years. This is a sign – a symbol of the terrible troubles I will bring upon Egypt and Ethiopia.
You do remember how God asked Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach? This was one of Israel’s known enemies. An enemy so brutal, that they would leave the carcasses of their enemies in the middle of the street piled up.
And let us not forget that He asked Jesus, the prophet of all prophets to die on a 6x9 piece of wood for the sins of the world.
Here in our text this morning God has called Hosea to something strange, but powerful. We are privy to a wedding bringing together a prophet and a prostitute in order to send a nation a message they cannot ignore. This is one of those strange things.
2 When the LORD first began speaking to Israel through Hosea, he said to him, "Go and marry a prostitute, so some of her children will be born to you from other men. This will illustrate the way my people have been untrue to me, openly committing adultery against the LORD by worshiping other gods."
Let me restate my thesis once again and then we will move for the application. Our relationship with God should not be weighed by how we relate to the things of God, but how we relate to the person God. So let us stand fast in the relationship that God desires to draw us into.
Let’s deal with…
I. The Prophet Represents
It is evident now, that this arranged marriage was commissioned to be a visible and physical symbol of behavior and activity by the nation of Israel as it related to their relationship with God. God was trying to tell them something.
God is ensuring that the message of this prophet will not be obscured by guesses - that there would not be any confusion over what the Lord wanted to say to this people.
God told Hosea to find a wife, and told him ahead of time that she would be unfaithful to him. Although she would bear many children, some of who would be by other baby’s fathers. In obedience to God, Hosea married Gomer.
His relationship with her, her adultery, and their children became living prophetic examples to a nation that had turn its back on God.
Now you must understand that this man, this prophet represented faithfulness. He represented unfailing love for an unfaithful woman. What a man, who had more love than hatred, more blessing than bitterness, more patience than pity.
He demonstrated obedience to the nth degree. Submission to God was a mantle he wore as valor along with a dedication and commitment to a woman he knew was going to do him wrong.
He knew she was going to cheat. He knew she was going to leave him. He knew she was going to go downtown. He knew when he saw the kids that they didn’t have his eyes or his ears. He knew she would eventually marry another man. Watch this…yet he married her and loved her anyway!
Hosea would provide for her, protect her, clothed her and care for her. But in spite of all of that she still cheated. In spite of what he offered her, she still wasn’t satisfied.
A. God Is the Great I am
Do you get who the prophet represents? God. I don’t believe that there is a person in here who can deny that our God isn’t a faithful God.
Lamentations 3:22 It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. 23 They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. 24 The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. 25 The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.
Allow me to give you a short theology lesson. Life can never be what it was intended to be for you or me unless that life consists of God’s life being lived out in us. He is a changeless person with a changeless purpose revolved around a changeless character and who is an eternal being.
Yes, God is a provider. You know it and I know it. Yes, God keeps on blessing me. Yes, God has opened doors and windows that no man can shut. Yes, God watched over me last night, last week, and last month.
But if that is the only time that you have truly experienced God then you have a fundamental flaw in your relationship with God this morning. God doesn’t want you to grow weary of Him when it seem like the pump is dry, the dessert is hot, the water is deep, and the cupboard is empty.
God provides not so that you run after it, but that you run after Him. God knew that we were going to sin before the foundation of the world, but He made us anyway.
God would provide for us, protect us, clothed us and care for us. But in spite of all of that we still cheated. In spite of what he has offered, we are still not satisfied.
This prophet made visible the character and the nature of God in a way that you knew it had had to be God at work in him and through him. The prophet represents leads to the prostitute reviewed.
II. The Prostitute Reviewed
Let me review what made this woman a prostitute. She had left her husband and went after other love interests. She had lost interest in her husband and ran after others.
Now you must understand that this woman, this prostitute represented unfaithfulness. Her background would lead you to understand why she became such a woman.
Verse three stated that she was the daughter of Diblaim whose name signified “double layers of grapecake” which speaks of one completely given up to sensuality.
Herbert Lockyer is quoted as saying, “With such a father that she had, we can understand why Gomer became such a woman of sensual pleasure.”
Don’t forget that she had children and that God named them to represent the behavior of the people of God.
How would like to call the name of your children and each time they would remind of a sin you committed and your reaction to that sin. Every time you called one child it reminded you that God was going to scatter.
When you called another child you were reminded God would show no mercy. And you called the third baby it reminded you that you were not God’s child.
She was using herself illegitimately while involved in illegitimate relationships and produced some illegitimate children. This woman’s behavior locally represented Israel’s behavior nationally.
Jeroboam was one of the wicked kings of Israel and the nation was going through a difficult time when Hosea was preaching. People were "living it up," as we might say, and didn’t have much time for God.
They wouldn’t have said that, of course; nobody ever says that when it is true. Instead they may have said something like we do -- that it was just a case of not having quite enough time to meet the demands that God made upon them; they were so busy with so many other important things. The spirit was willing but the flesh was ready for the weekend.
They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man’s, shall he return unto her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted? but thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, saith the LORD. – Jeremiah 3:1
Ezekiel 16:31 You build your pagan shrines on every street corner and your altars to idols in every square. You have been worse than a prostitute, so eager for sin that you have not even demanded payment for your love! 32 Yes, you are an adulterous wife who takes in strangers instead of her own husband. 33 Prostitutes charge for their services – but not you! You give gifts to your lovers, bribing them to come to you. 34 So you are the opposite of other prostitutes. No one pays you; instead, you pay them!
That is what Israel ended up becoming. They had the best and still were not satisfied. They took the gifts God had given them and gave somebody credit for it. No thanks, no praise, no worship, no honor, no love. (Read Hosea 4:7 –13)
The prophet represented led to the prostitute reviewed; now we have the prophecy revealed. I pray you see what I see.
III. The Prophecy Revealed
God was simply restating to them the covenant He had made with them and they with Him. A covenant had been made and God had been faithful. His love was steadfast and his commitment unbroken.
Yet they broke their commitment to Him. They no longer made God their priority. They became to self-centered and to self-absorbed to spend time before God.
A. Biblical Revelation
This is talking about Israel as a nation. This a people chosen by God to be a marriage partner. He cared for them and gave them everything, but they committed adultery on Him. They proved to be an unfaithful people over and over again.
B. Spiritual Revelation
There is also what I call a spiritual revelation. That is, Israel was unfaithful to God. But if the truth be told there are Christian today who have been unfaithful to God. This text doesn’t address those who don’t know God, but those who know Him, but now is cheating on Him.
James 4:4 You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with this world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again, that if your aim is to enjoy this world, you can’t be a friend of God.
I know many are saying but I’m not out there. You need to understand that you could be in here and still be estranged from Christ…Because you are prostituting yourself to the things of God rather than being faithful to the Son of God. Remember this:
Revelation 2:1 "Write this letter to the angel of the church in Ephesus. This is the message from the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand, the one who walks among the seven gold lampstands: 2 "I know all the things you do. I have seen your hard work and your patient endurance. I know you don’t tolerate evil people. You have examined the claims of those who say they are apostles but are not. You have discovered they are liars. 3 You have patiently suffered for me without quitting. 4 But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first! 5 Look how far you have fallen from your first love! Turn back to me again and work as you did at first.
C. Current Revelation
Is this message hitting you this morning? Is the prophet speaking to you? Is God saying to you, “You have loved me only for what I provide rather than who I am.” You run the streets to late Saturday night, and then come see me when you are all tired out.
There is a story of a woodpecker who was pecking on a tree. Just as he flew away, lightning hit the tree and split it right down the middle. The woodpecker heard the noise, turned back, and said, “Look what I did!”
A lot of us are like spiritual woodpeckers. We walk around consciously and subconsciously and say, “Look at the house I’ve bought. Look at this car I drive. Look at the school I went to. Look at the job I have. Look at what I have done.” But the only reason why we have anything is because God let lightning strike.
If you have not strayed, tell somebody that I’m not going anywhere. If you find yourself there, say it is time for me to turn back now!
Conclusion
But in spite of that entire track record God did a strange thing. Just when you think that it is over for the marvelous grace and mercy appears in the midst of a troubling life and a messed up past.
Hosea 3:1 Then the LORD said to me, "Go and get your wife again. Bring her back to you and love her, even though she loves adultery. For the LORD still loves Israel even though the people have turned to other gods, offering them choice gifts. " (He even change the children’s name!)
This is your story and my story isn’t it? So many times we try to satisfy ourselves with the lying idols of self-importance or wealth or a good time. Ours is the blindness that like Gomer’s cannot distinguish between lust and love.
We try to run from God and drown our miseries in empty pleasures or drink or work or social life but as surely as we think we have escaped, as surely as we think we have run far enough.
But God touches our sleeve with his love saying My child, my name and my nature are love and I must act according to what I am. When you tire of all your running and your wandering and your heartbreak, I’ll be there to draw you to myself again."
That is the story of the Bible isn’t it? At Bethlehem God entered the slave market where the whole human race was putting itself up for auction, prostituting itself and its humanity to a cheapened life.
But on the cross the Lord Jesus paid the price, the full price for our freedom, and bought us back. This is the story of God’s love and God’s heart -- his loving desire to make of his people the full persons he intended them to be.
I ‘m here to tell you today that Jesus formed a strange relationship. He who was holy became married to those unholy – strange relationships.
