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The promiscuous wife of a prophet of Israel and the mother of mankind walk into a Bible lesson…. The joke is on us if we don’t catch why the Hoshea (Hosea) was told to marry a harlot and connect her predicament of being discovered to the test given to Chavah (Eve) at the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Bad (Genesis 3–4).
Here’s a hint: “Nakedness” is an important symbol of a spiritual condition used in teachings in the Hebrew and Apostolic scriptures.
How can God tell a righteous prophet to marry a prostitute when the Torah commands that people who were found guilty of prostitution were supposed to be executed for it? When we play the harlot, God shows His immense mercy in that, although He has to expose our sin for our own sakes, He doesn’t kill us.
Hosea is one of the two least liked prophets in rabbinic Judaism (Ezekiel is the other). The Sages have certain rules on how a prophet conducts themselves in office and Hosea breaks those rules.
The major issue Rabbinic Judaism has with Hosea’s story is that God commands Hosea, who is supposed to be a righteous man, to marry a prostitute. This instruction by God to Hosea to them is absurd on its face.
Three children are born to Gomer while she is married to Hosea: Jezreel, Lo-ammi and Lo-ruhamah. Only Jezreel is referred to being born specifically from Hosea.
Why did God say He would no longer have mercy or pity on Israel?
Based on what we read in Hosea 4, Gomer wasn’t a mere harlot. She was most likely a temple prostitute. Men would feign to worship their false gods by having sexual relations with her. The Northern Tribes of Israel at this time was steeped in the worship of Canaanite gods that they mixed with the worship of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob purposefully and methodically to confuse the people so they would not leave Israel to worship the true God properly in Jerusalem.
Historical Context:In Israel, they built them two golden calves, appropriated God’s holy name on them. They also gave their god many wives who had many sons and daughters who were worshipped as well. They also shifted the timing of the holy days so they would never coincide with the holy days at the Temple in Jerusalem, which effectively severed most, if not all the ties, between Judah and Israel, even though they were the same family, same ethnic tribe. The kings of Israel did not want their people to possibly go back to Jerusalem and go back to Judah and to the true God.
The priesthood in the north also went to the highest bidder, it was not a hereditary process. By Hosea’s time, this split has been in effect for several centuries/generations.
“Then she conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. And the LORD said to him, “Name her Lo-ruhamah, for I will no longer have compassion on the house of Israel, that I would ever forgive them. “But I will have compassion on the house of Judah and deliver them by the LORD their God, and will not deliver them by bow, sword, battle, horses or horsemen.”” (Hosea 1:6–7 NASB)
Gomer represents the Northern Tribes of Israel prophetically. It is governed by priests and aristocratic leaders, all of whom are men. God will not show Israel’s leaders any mercy. God knows the leaders of Israel will never repent honestly of their grievous sin against God. They will make a political show of it, but never really change and follow through.
There is a small sliver of hope in this prophesy. Hosea changes his tone, when he speaks about the distant future.
“Yet the number of the sons of Israel Will be like the sand of the sea, Which cannot be measured or numbered; And in the place Where it is said to them, “You are not My people,” It will be said to them, “You are the sons of the living God.”
And the sons of Judah and the sons of Israel will be gathered together, And they will appoint for themselves one leader, And they will go up from the land, For great will be the day of Jezreel.” (Hosea 1:10–11 NASB)
Hosea originally spoke his prophesies orally and their sermons were written down by scribes. The scribes also records how people responds to his words.
Most of the links between Hosea and the first chapters of Genesis are covered in Hosea 2:1-4. This shows Hosea’s charges against his wife. These charges are against both Gomer and the Northern Tribes of Israel.
We don’t expose the false leaders by stripping their clothes. We expose false leaders by making all their false deeds public. God will expose the corruption of the false leaders and false priests. God will show who you are actually serving when serving these false leaders and false priests.
The false priests encourage people to sin, moving themselves away from God, so they could become wealthy from their falsehood.
Gomer’s motivation to serve herself up to these false lovers include: bread, water, flax, wool, oil, wine, silver, gold. All of these are how one generated wealth and prosperity in those days. God warns that He will block her ability to obtain all these things that make life easy and comfortable.
In this section, we see Gomer chases after these things, even though she is going to be exposed to shame. She has a dilemma, just as the false leaders and priests of Israel do.
The corrupt leadership and priesthood want to live lives of comfort, wealth and power, but that desire come with a consequence of the public exposure of their sin. They will be kicked out of their land, forever.
A rational person would say that it’s not worth it. Security should be worth more than these things but for Gomer/Israel, they enjoyed their sin too much. Some things never change.
God refuses to have pity on Israel because her repentance will not be sincere. He who knows the end from the beginning knows if our repentance is sincere, even if those around us don’t.
Where did sin come from?
Sin was introduced to mankind in Gen. 2. The earliest passages of our bible discusses the early history of sin in our world in a particular way, but as the TaNaK progresses, people got smarter and realized there is more to sin than we thought.
We see the involvement of the spirit world in mankind’s sin more often from the time of Moses and the Pharaoh to the time of King David. Sin is more involved and complicated than “I chose to break the law.” We can be influenced by internal or external deception.
These events don’t happen in a bubble and the prophets and apostles who record them were not insulated in bubble wrap either. The prophets and the Apostles were astute students of history. They all grappled with the problem of sinning even when one doesn’t want to sin.
As we see the nature of sin and how it works, we can look at Gomer and the Northern Tribes of Israel a little more fairly.
“Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. The LORD God commanded the man, saying, ‘From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.’
“Then the LORD God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.’ Out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him.” (Genesis 2:15–20 NASB)
God had Adam do this for two reasons: to establish his dominion over the earth and for Adam to observe that he didn’t have a proper helper to help him administer the garden. Also note that only Adam received the command regarding the tree.
“And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.” (Genesis 2:25 NASB)
Animals and even human children do not know they are naked. Awareness of nakedness is something only adult humans understand.
Notice that when the serpent speaks to Eve about the tree of knowledge. There’s a subtle change.
“Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, ‘Indeed, has God said, “You shall not eat from any tree of the garden”?’ The woman said to the serpent, ‘From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, “You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.”‘” (Genesis 3:1–3 NASB)
The instruction not to touch it was not in God’s original command to Eve. What is the first lie? We are usually taught that the serpent’s reply to Eve in Gen. 3:4-5, “You surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” I would submit that the first lie, at least unintentionally, was Eve’s comment that they could not touch the tree of knowledge. God never said that.
Animals don’t know good and evil, they only know what they can do and what they can’t do. The serpent is smarter than she is. Concerning Gomer, God is more upset with the leaders and priests because they were smarter than her and should have known better. She was deceived by them. In the Garden, Eve obeyed the one who was smarter than her.
The first thing Adam and Eve did when they sinned was not to create a bomb or a car, they created clothes for themselves.
Hidden things are always revealed
Sin does not like light or exposure, sin works in darkness. Adam and Eve’s instinctive reaction was to try to hide themselves. They wanted to conceal their nakedness.
Even though they had clothing, they still hid themselves from God. Adam and Eve realize that the fig leaves, rather than concealing their sin, actually reveals it so they try to hide from God. Our desire is to get away with sin, which is simply human nature.
God certainly knows they already ate from the tree, yet they are trying to hide it. Israel is concealing their sin and Hosea is warning that their sin was going to be exposed.
“To the woman He said, “I will greatly multiply Your pain in childbirth, In pain you will bring forth children; Yet your desire will be for your husband, And he will rule over you.”” (Genesis 3:16 NASB)
In Hosea, Gomer’s desire was for wealth and comfort and the evil, corrupt lovers she receives these from.
“Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life.
“Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field;
“By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return.”” (Genesis 3:17–19 NASB)
Adam’s desire will not be for his wife, but to eat and that desire will consume him until he returns to the dust, too.
Adam and Eve have two sons: Cain and Abel. We know that Abel brought a better gift to God than Cain and Cain was jealous of this.
“Then the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? “If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.”” (Genesis 4:6–7 NASB)
Here we see sin personified. It is not alive but it does get to us. Sin does not walk away, it doesn’t leave. God doesn’t tell Cain to shoo it away, He tells Cain to overcome and master it. Sin desires man just as man desires food or the woman desires her husband.
God personified sin to explain an important idea. Sin is waiting for the opportunity to satisfy its desire. In other words, sin does not go away from us and leave us along, but rather it is always at our door.
Adam and Even desired clothing and desire to hide from God, who is the source of light, to conceal nakedness in darkness. We desire our sin and our sin desires us:
- We desire concealment of our sin from God.
- We desire bread from the soil which is the source of our desire bread
- We desired to be rued over by our husband.
- We desire to be greater than our fellow brothers
At the same time, we desire what is good:
- To live forever
- To be accepted by God
- To master over our sins and weaknesses.
Cain realized how big his sin was and how great the punishment he was called to bear. Death would be an easier punishment for Cain than the “black thumb” curse God placed on him. Instead God protects Cain from death and extends mercy. God doesn’t remove all the punishment but weakens it enough to make it a little more bearable.
Cain repented for the murder, in a sense. In the Torah, we are told to kill a murderer but Torah was not given at this time so the consequence for murder was not immediate death. The repentance of Cain resulted in God reducing the consequence of Cain’s sin and preventing his execution.
Cain was cursed from the ground. Note that most of his descendants developed city or civilized occupations.
You and I are similar to Gomer. We carry the same motivations, the same desires. When we sin, we want to “get away with it.” We don’t want our sin revealed. We still have to have control over our desires.
Banner Photo: Painting of the The Prophet Hosea and the Delphic Sibyl Fresco Borgia Apartments, Hall of the Sibyls, by Pinturicchio.
Summary: Tammy.