When people search for a marriage partner they often begin with superficial motives. We see an example of this in the book of Esther. When Queen Vashti refused to entertain King Ahasuerus and his guests at a party, he set up a beauty contest in order to select his new queen. Modern society tries to be a bit more sophisticated, but much of the superficiality remains. A potential spouse usually has to pass an appearance test before going through a personality and character assessment. Eventually, everyone realizes that compromises have to be made somewhere. Nobody is perfect.
How would an all-knowing, all-powerful God go about finding a bride? He would not need a beauty contest or personality and character assessments. He would already know who would make the best fit. Of course, he would have to compromise, but at least he could know beyond the shadow of a doubt that there were no better options.
Hosea is all about how God chose a spouse and what it cost him to maintain that relationship. The first three chapters of Hosea clearly contain a marriage theme. However, it reaches beyond the temporal relationship between a man and a woman. The story is shocking from many angles. God doesn’t select his bride because she was the best available. He does not choose the one with the most beauty, or the most intelligence, or the purest character. God selects a bride who would fail all modern evaluations.
God frequently called upon the prophets to provide a visual demonstration of their message. They were often called to engage in activities that we would consider very strange.
1. Jeremiah was expected to remain single and refrain from attending any funerals (https://ref.ly/logosref/Bible.Je16.1-9 (Jer 16:1-9)). God’s judgment upon Israel. Families would be wiped out; no time to mourn & lament.
2. Isaiah was called to walk naked and barefoot for three years (https://ref.ly/logosref/Bible.Is20.3 (Isa 20:3)). Judgment upon Egypt, who would be led away naked and humility, enslaved by the Cushites.
3. Ezekiel was asked to bake bread on human excrement (https://ref.ly/logosref/Bible.Eze4.12 (Ezek 4:12)). It was a visual representation of God’s judgment upon Israel who would soon be eating their meals in foreign lands.
4. These commands are strange indeed, yet Hosea’s calling surpasses them all! Hosea was called to marry a prostitute. Whereas, each of the previous instances were signs of future judgment, Hosea’s calling is—remarkably—a sign of future grace.
Read https://ref.ly/logosref/Bible.Ho1.1-9 (Hosea 1:1-9).
I. The Call to a Broken Marriage (1:1-9) Hosea is told to marry an adulterous woman. That is the plain reading of the text. However, many have tried to soften this command apparently out of its sheer unbelievability. They suggest that Hosea was called to marry a woman who was chaste at the time of their marriage, but that she would become an adulterer later. Others suggest that it is metaphorical language of Israel’s idolatry. There is indeed a metaphor here, but the point is that Hosea was called to physically live out that spiritual metaphor. The metaphorical language will become clear later. Here, on the other hand, we have clear historical narrative.
There are a few other strange interpretations, but all of them seek to evade the simplest and clearest reading of the text. They require the reader to find something beneath the text, something that is not there on the surface. The text clearly tells Hosea to marry an adulterer. Nothing in this passage suggests a metaphorical interpretation. If we take Gomer’s whoredom as metaphor should we do the same for the strange callings of Jeremiah, Isaiah, and Ezekiel mentioned above?
Hosea is not only told to marry a prostitute, he is also told to “have children of whoredom.” Of the three children named in the first chapter, only one of them appears to be Hosea’s child by birth. As was the usual case, the names of the...
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