I was at a wedding ceremony the other day and I must say it was one of the most beautiful wedding ceremonies I have been to in a while. The ambience was glorious and radiated the kind of peace that comes from Jesus Christ. It was a union between two young people who have Jesus at the centre of their lives and now building a home with Jesus Christ at the centre. Everything about their vows and the ceremony pointed to Jesus, and without a doubt, anyone who attended could tell that this couple areJesus lovers to the core.
I am not writing to you today to go on and on about this beautiful couple, I am writing to you to share a thing or two about another beautiful couple – Hosea and Gomer. The pastor at the wedding I atteneded spoke about the Hosea-kind of love– the kind of love that loves regardless, the kind of love that follows God’s instructions always. The pastor gave a background to pastor Hosea and his wife Gomer and highlighted lessons from this union. Out of the whole sermon – Hosea 3:1 would not leave my head and so I went ahead to go read the first five chapters of Hosea again. But just in case you are in wonder about the content of Hosea 3:1, it says –Then the Lord said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by a lover and is committing adultery, just like the love of the Lord for the children of Israel, who look to other gods and love the raisin cakes of the pagans.
I love how the Message translation puts it –
Then God ordered me, “Start all over: Love your wife again,
Hosea 3:1
your wife who’s in bed with her latest boyfriend, your cheating wife.
Love her the way I, God, love the Israelite people,
even as they flirt and party with every god that takes their fancy.”
This above instruction is perhaps God’s instruction to you today who may be thinking of walking out of your marriage. God is saying to you to start all over again, do a reset, and go back to the very beginning when your spouse meant the world to you. Regardless of what that spouse has done to you, learn from your father in heaven who nonetheless loves you and His other children endlessly. We do the most unspeakable things to God, yet He still loves us, forgives us, takes us back and gives us the good things in life. So you should do the same with His help.
God’s Children and Prostitution: Now allow me share some things that I learned from reviewing Hosea chapter 1 through to three. Hosea had a relationship with the Lord, He knew the Lord for Himself. I could tell because He was able to disern distinctly God’s voice. And even more salient was the fact that He obeyed God’s instruction to marry a harlot despite the gravity and the repercussion of this union. His obedience to God’s instruction was salient in clearly illustrating to God’s children the weight of their filthy ways. Because sometimes, it may be hard for us to realize that we are doing anything bad until an external party points it out to us. For example when King David had committed adultery and murdered Uriah in order to try to cover his sins. For some reason, king David was blinded to the filth of his actions and did not feel any remorse until prophet Nathan came to point it out to him. The same applies to God’s children back in the day, they went about their harlotry perhaps without realizing the gravity of their acts. So God decided to pick out someone popular, someone of reputation, someone well respected amongst them in order to show the extent of their actions. It is more or less unheard of for a man of God to be joined together with a harlot, this particular action of becoming one with a harlot is more or less what God’s children do whenever they wander off into the world to frolick with other gods such as money, women, men, fame, fornication and sin generally. Men of God are somewhat highly respected because of the Grace, annointing, Glory and intimacy they are percieved to have with the Lord, therefore it sounds unreasonable to have such a man joined with a harlot. In this same way, God has crowned us with beauty, Glory, favor, honor, annointing from our intimacy with Him. And therefore, we should not stoop low to meddle with sin or become one with its vices. I can only imagine the thoughts that ran through God’s children when they saw this union between prophet Hosea and harlot Gomer.
Union With Sin/ the devil only births more evil: Reading through Hosea chapter 1 verses 2 through 10, the union between Hosea and Gomer the prostitute bore offsprings. These offsprings were given names as instructed by God. The first child was born and named Jezreel which means, “God will avenge the blood of Jezreel on the house of Jehu and bring an end to the house of Israel”, and the scond child was born and named Lo-Rumah which meant that God would cease to show no mercy to the house of Judah. This in itself is a pointer to the kind of things that are birthed from the union with the world. Nothing good comes from the union with the world. The union between prophet Hosea and Gomer only led to more disaster for the community of Israel versus if Hosea had married a God-fearing woman like himself.
This in itself is a reminder for believers to wait patiently on the Lord for direction and guidance to be joined with God-fearing spouses that could colloborate to bear more lights in this world except you are a rare believer like Hosea. Furthermore and even more salient is our personal walk with the Lord because we would give account of every single decision we make on this earth. The Lord has told us that we are not of this world, although we find ourselves in this world. His expectation from us is to remain loyal to Him. And may He help us in Jesus name.
God’s Inexplicable Love For Us and Generations to Come: Although God was clearly displeased with His children and they would suffer the repercussion of their sins, God still blesses them. He depicted this with His pronouncement over Jezreel’s life. Although he was born in sin and probably continued in the sins of his mother, the Lord found a way to restore His children back to Him and even bless them-Hosea 1:10-11. Even mind blowing is the fact that despite Hosea’s uncontional love for Gomer, she still cheated on him with her former boyfriends (Hosea 2), yet the Lord tells Hosea to still chase after her and bring her back home(Hosea 3). This is the same way God chases after the one lost sheep in His fold. He wants for all of us to experience and be in His loving embrace forever. I love what He tells us in Hosea 2:16 – “And it shall be, in that day,” that. you will call me,”My husband, and no longer my master”. This is the level and depths of intimacy God wants with you and I, no matter how filthy you think your past may have been – He loves you unending. So my dear friend, who may be struggling to let go of your past, you are reading this because God loves you and He wants you to have a booming relationship with Him. Unsure of where to go from here? Make the confessions here and find a Jesus believing church to fellowship or you could send me an email -info@abimbolaswalk.com or send me a direct message on my socials @abimbolaswalk.
Lastly, something that I see God saying loudly to us is to be just like Him, we should show mercy to people around us and be as patient with people as He is with us. If Hosea who was a mortal man of God just as we are could love a harlot relentlessly and even chase after she cheated on him- we sure can forgive anybody, show mercy to anybody and be at peace with anybody with the help of God. Ask Him for His help today.