The Gift of Dysfunction – Hosea 1:2-3

Hosea Commanded to Marry a Whore
Hos 1:2 When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.”

Hosea Commanded to Marry a Whore
Hos 1:2 When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.”

God’s command sounds bizarre. Notice the reason is given. God is not a man that He should keep His plans a secret. Hosea is put into the difficult position of literally demonstrating God’s relationship with His people. Hosea’s marriage to an unfaithful wife serves as a pointed example of God’s relationship with unfaithful Israel. The image of sexual sin vividly illustrates God’s view of idolatry and general defilement of holiness by a people who are unfaithful and refuse to know God as intimately as a faithful marriage partner.

Obedient Example
Hos 1:3 So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.

Acting out the role of obedient and suffering servant, Hosea gives us a taste of the obedience we would later see carried to the cross by the ultimate suffering servant, Christ. Although there is no specific significance to the name Gomer, she clearly represents unfaithful Israel in the immediate prophecy Hosea’s contemporaries. Her children represent the consequences of her sinful nature. Just as Hosea is a faithful husband to Gomer, so God points out, corrects, and overcomes the sin of His bride.