HOSEA: The Prostitute

One of the next prophets to bring a message to the people of God is the prophet Hosea. Before the people have been ransacked by Assyria, they will continue to be confronted with a message of repentance. The message is stunningly clear.

Again, God chooses to speak through His prophet in the form of pictures and images. A prophet was very often performing a version of “guerrilla theater.” It was subversive and provocative. It was poetic and electric. It was something that would have gotten everybody talking. A prophet was known for being somebody who would run into the square, set up a little drama, speak a thunderbolt of a message, and run off — leaving the crowd to talk about what they had just seen.

Prophets often had an image that drove their message, or maybe more appropriately said, a message that’s buried in an image. And some of their images might have been chosen by the prophet himself. However, we do know some of the prophets received their image directly from the LORD. Hosea is one of those prophets; and the picture that God has him put on display is certainly a provocative one.

Hosea is instructed to marry a prostitute named Gomer. When they begin to have children, God gives them the instruction to name their three children “Not Loved,” “Not My People,” and “Jezreel” (which means ‘scattered,’ probably in a negative sense).

Sounds like fun! It gets worse.

Gomer then abandons the family and returns to her life of prostitution. God, who seems to have had this up His sleeve the whole time, tells Hosea to go and buy Gomer back and marry her again, this time changing the names of their children to “Loved,” “My People,” and “Jezreel” (probably in a positive sense this time).

The life picture of Hosea is clear: This is what Israel has been like to me.

One immediately begins to think back to all of the imagery that floods the Text throughout the narrative. One thinks back on the wedding ceremony at Mount Sinai and God’s initial grace and forgiveness with the golden calf. One remembers the command to put tassels on the corners of their garments so that they would not forget the commands of the LORD and “prostitute themselves to other gods.”

And yet, this is who Israel has become. They have forgotten where they come from and have traded a marriage with the King of kings for a lifetime of prostitution to the gods who demand appeasement.

She’s a dirty harlot.

But this reminds us of one thing that is true throughout the prophets. With only one or two exceptions (I would argue none at all), each and every prophet issues a declaration of hope. Gomer is not lost. Even though she feels like a worthless harlot and even though her offspring will feel at times like they are not loved and have no redemptive identity, scattered all over the earth, they are, in fact, pursued and loved by their husband. And even though her husband will let her choose and pursue the life she desires, he will never stop loving her with a jealous, passionate love that would chase her to the ends of the earth.

The same is true for Israel: There is hope. Even though they have chosen to return to their former days of prostitution and forsake their true Bridegroom, they are loved. Even though they act as if they are not God’s people and will find themselves scattered by Assyria all over the earth, they will be pursued. Even though they feel abandoned and alone, they will be redeemed.

The prophets offer warning.
The prophets offer woes for failure to heed the warning.
But the prophets offer hope.

This isn’t to say that their plea for repentance isn’t true, genuine, angry, and urgent. The threat posed by Assyria will be brutal and the punishment from God will be graphic. People will starve; children will die. Women will be raped; the elderly will be taken advantage of. This is not some light or trivial lesson about God’s fluffy CareBear love. I don’t want to downplay the graphic messages of the prophets.

But again, just like our fascination with the “sin cycle,” I feel that the fame of the prophets is in their endless pronouncements of doom and not in their explanations of God’s discipline or their assurance of God’s presence and grace.

And that’s a shame. Because God’s discipline is often real. And it can hurt. And there are consequences for our sin.

But God never leaves us or forsakes us.

And somewhere, out of the ashes of the mess of Hosea’s life, comes the heralded refrain of Hosea in chapter 2. It’s part of the prayers and blessings that Jews recite every morning.  Right before they say Sh’ma, many Jews recite this passage:

I will betroth you to myself forever.
I will betroth you to myself in righteousness, and in justice, and in love, and in compassion.
I will betroth you to myself in faithfulness and you shall know the LORD.

And the Jew renews their wedding vows, every morning:

Hear, O Israel, the LORD is our God, the LORD alone. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might…

That we might never leave him again.