“I am Gomer, and my husband was Hosea, the last prophet God sent to Israel. It was around 150 years before Judah fell, but Israel was in a hurry to see her own destruction.” She shrugged her shoulders as she added, “…and I was on that same path myself.”
“God told Hosea to marry me. However, his approach to me was unlike anything I had ever known. He was a man of God, and I’d had plenty of men who claimed they were God’s men,” she said, wagging her finger for emphasis. Laughing, she added, “They all thought they were God’s gift to the world.”
“But Hosea was different. He did not want me like that. He told me right from the start that God had told him to marry me. And he would not take ‘no’ for an answer. Now in my day, good women, even women of high position, had little control over their lives. So who was I to argue with Hosea? I married him, and we had a son. God named our son ‘Jezreel’. Hosea said it was a prediction that the horrible place, famous for Jezebel’s blood, would become a place of sacred celebration someday. Hosea prophesied that God would redeem even the land stained with violence”
“Looking back at our life together, I realize it was unreal, bizarre. Who would put up with what Hosea endured? I wasn’t used to the kind of life he offered. My body and my spirit had been trained to corruption. Love and honor were foreign to me. I was driven by my desires—my illusions. So after our first son was born, I went back to my old life. Now I added adultery to my sins.”
“Men offered me all kinds of gifts. I burned in lust and craved the attention men had given me. In my foolishness, I enjoyed being sought after. Yet, they were ugly and cruel. They promised me riches but they paid me with abuse.”
“Hosea rescued me, with kindness and patience, and another child was born, a daughter this time.” With tears in her eyes she whispered, “God called the child ‘Not Wanted’.”
“Hosea did everything he could to stop me. I was so caught up in the vicious cycle, that I didn’t even see the evil and destruction. All I saw was the partying, the games, the passion. Somehow I was oblivious to the ugly and detestable things I was a part of. The consequences my foolishness always always punished me. Every time he found me broken, Hosea took me in. If I crawled back to him he accepted me. Another son was born; ‘Not Mine’ was the name.”
“Hosea told me: ‘I will have mercy on the unpardonable. If you say you do not belong to me, I will say you are mine…and I am yours. And I will say I am your lover.’”
“I see now that he was always the one who gave me what I wanted and needed. But he refused to demand my love, he never forced me in. It had to be my choice—and I did make a choice. If it was the right choice, some day you and I may have a conversation about redemption and reconciliation—about the tender mercy of true love.”
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This story is found in Hosea 1–3. Find a Bible study that coincides with this story on The Women Speaks page.
Addicted to Joy 