Hosea 3:1-5.  Today’s reading completes the story and explanation of the “living parable” of Hosea’s life.  We have seen that Hosea was commanded to marry a “cheating kind” of woman.  He had at least one child with her and she had two others.  All three were named by Hosea and lived in his house but the second two may have been the children of other men.  We do know that Gomer, the wife, cheated on Hosea.  We also saw that the names of the three children were given to teach the Israelites what God thought about their unfaithfulness to him.  The fact that the people of Israel were turning to false gods, idols, meant that they had to be punished.  Although permanent banishment from God is what they (and we) deserve when we turn away from God that is not what God wants.  God wants to forgive and restore and have a relationship with us again. We see in the explanations of the children’s names that that is exactly where God is going to take the people of Israel.  We need to understand, though, that God can not just ignore sin, it must be dealt with.  The structure of Hosea so far really put an emphasis on the seriousness of sin (disobedience and rebellion to God).

While the children represent the actual people of Israel, Gomer, so far has represented the society of Israel (Israel as a group with it’s cultures and leaders).  In Hosea 3:1 God again talks to Hosea.  The first time God spoke to Hosea it was to tell him to marry Gomer.  Now God is talking again and he is telling Hosea to go love a woman who is involved with another man, an adulteress.  He is to do this as a symbol of the way God still loves Israel even though they are cheating on him.  The rasin cakes mentioned in the end of the verse are parallel to turning to other gods.  It is probably a reference to the wild parties that would take place in the temples of false gods.

In verse 2 Hosea pays a price to get Gomer back.  There is no explanation of why he must pay to get his wife back.  One possible solution is that he sent her away for cheating on him.  In that society in those days it was almost impossible for a woman to live without the support of a man, either her father or a husband.  As an outcast Gomer may have turned to prostitution or sold herself as a slave to someone.  If she had become a slave she her owner would have to be paid off for Hosea to get her back.  In Israel there were specific offerings that had to be made for sins.  Another possibility is that Hosea was making those offering s to God as a sign of his willingness to deal with her sin.  It is interesting that Hosea used both money and products to pay for Gomer, It is possible that this shows us that Hosea was using much of his wealth to get her back, it cost him a lot.

After Hosea gets Gomer back it’s not “happily ever after” though, not yet.  First there is a time of suffering, for both of them.  In the life of Hosea Gomer has to stay away from other men, but Hosea stays away from here too.  I guess if she wound up pregnant Hosea would be able to say, “Hey it wasn’t me, you must be cheating again.”  Again we have an explanation of how this applies to Israel.  The nation will have a time when they have no king or prince of any religious worship at all (The meaning of most of the things mentioned in end of verse 4.  Household idos would hav e been totally forbidden under the rules God gave to Moses.  The ephod was a coat worn by a priest when he was making offerings.  Offerings were things given to a god or God and sacred pillars or stones were monuments to honor a god or God.  Theses items could be used to honor God or dishonor him by honoring false gods.)  After many days the people of Israel would turn back to God and look for him.  They would also look for “David their king”.  The reference to “David their king” is a way of saying they would look for the promised descendant of David who was to be their king forever.  This promised one was called, messiah.  In the New Testament the word for messiah is Christ and Jesus is that promised coming king (though as we saw in Isaiah he had to be a suffering servant before he can become king.  Isaiah 53).  In the last days Israel as a nation will come back to God in fear looking for his care.

This part of Hosea is a lot like one of the parables of Jesus that we studied in Sunday Scripture Exploration (Sunday School), the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32).  In that story we see the son who had abandon his father and family coming home with the idea of becoming a servant in his fathers home.  But the father has an entirely different idea and the son is received back as a son.  Of course the people of Israel in the days of Hosea didn’t have that story to look at but the message of Hosea is clear, God is good and loving and caring and wants to fix our relationship with him but he is also serious about sin and it must be dealt with properly.  As we saw in Hosea 1:7, God himself will deal with our sins.  As we learned in Isaiah 53:6, Jesus, the messiah, would pay the costly price for our sins.  Jesus is our Hosea (God saves) and the Hosea of the Israelites.  May we return to him and be faithful as we wait for that day when we enjoy a fully restored relationship with him.

Lord I have been unfaithful but you loved me so much.  As the old hymn says you sought me and bought me with your redeeming blood (or is it love?  Actually it’s both).  Thank you for seeking me.  Thank you for buying me back.  Thank you for giving me your Spirit so I can live faithfully for you.  Help me honor you with my life as I wait for your eternal kingdom.