The beginning of the word of Jehovah through Hosea. And Jehovah said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms, and children of whoredoms; for the land is entirely given up to whoredom, away from Jehovah.
God's first word through Hosea is not a sermon but a command that reaches into the prophet's own home. Why would God ask this of His servant, and what did the marriage mean?
Words alone had stopped working on Israel. One writer explains why.
Sometimes mild measures achieve nothing. Only extreme and drastic ones are of any use. In the days of the kings named at the start of this prophecy, Israel had sunk so low that mere words were useless. They would have fallen on ears that were completely deaf.
So the prophet's life carried the message. The command also worked on Hosea himself.
The first chapter mainly consists of symbolic action, which represents the course of God's purposes… God commanded the prophet to do something bound to be most painful in itself. As a man of God, he must have felt it to be humbling and repulsive. But this was Israel's attitude to their God. Jehovah would make the prophet, and those who paid attention to the prophecy, understand in some measure what He must feel about His people.
The word is not chosen loosely. A real marriage bond stands behind the charge.
The sad truth is that Israel was married to Jehovah, as the prophets remind the people (Isa. 54; Jer. 3). So their unfaithfulness is branded, not like the New Testament Babylon as prostitution, but as adultery (so in Hosea 3 and elsewhere). Yet in time His grace may deal with Israel not as a guilty widow but as a woman forsaken and a wife of youth.
Some think such an order is unworthy of God. One writer answers from God's rights as Creator.
We must not imagine things to be unworthy of God because they do not commend themselves to us. God does not set aside the moral law, because the moral law has its source in the mind of God Himself. To set it aside would mean to contradict Himself. But God is absolute Lord of all things He made. At His sovereign will He may dispose of the lives or the things He created… He who created marriage told Hosea whom he should marry. At God's bidding the prophet took a defiled woman as his lawful wife. This did not defile him, however hard a thing it was.
Commentators differ on whether Gomer was already immoral at the wedding. One writer answers from what the marriage was meant to picture.
The all-knowing Lord called Gomer "a wife of whoredom," in anticipation of her future conduct. She fell and became immoral after her union with Hosea, and not before. In this way she became a symbol of Israel, married to the Lord, but later becoming the unfaithful wife… Yet the prophet still loved her despite her unfaithfulness, and did not abandon her. This illustrates Jehovah's love for Israel.
Another writer leaves both readings open.
Another possibility would be that the word "prostitute" or "wife of whoredom" (chap. 1:2) anticipates what Gomer would do after her marriage. On the other hand, the wording may also mean that Gomer had led an immoral life before her marriage. Given how far the people had fallen, that would be quite understandable.
The marriage bears fruit, and that fruit is judgment.
In this action Hosea might say, in the words of another prophet, "Behold, I and the children whom the LORD has given me are signs and portents in Israel." All of this clearly sets out the apostasy and judgment of Israel. The marriage of the prophet with the wife of whoredom is Jehovah's covenant with faithless Israel. Its fruit is therefore judgment, until the children of Israel were found, as they now are, rejected silver, a "Lo-ammi" — a people disowned by their God.
The sentence is not the last word, and the opened door is wider than Israel.
God has now pronounced the judgment of the people briefly but clearly. At once He announces, with equal clearness, His sovereign grace towards them… But this grace opens the door to others besides the Jews. "In the place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' it shall be said to them, 'Children of the living God.'" The apostle applies this passage to the Gentiles in Romans 9:24-26.
- Cause. The land had left the Lord. Because Israel was married to Him, that departure counts as adultery.
- Command. Words fell on deaf ears, so God turned the prophet's marriage into the message — an acted sign no one could ignore.
- Cost. The order was humbling and repulsive to Hosea. That was the point — he felt a little of what God feels about His people.
- Question. Commentators differ over whether Gomer was immoral before the wedding or only after. Either way, God may dispose of what He made, without setting aside His own moral law.
- Consequence and grace. The children stand as signs of judgment, ending in "not my people." Yet in that very place comes the promise: children of the living God.
And he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim; and she conceived and bore him a son.
Hosea's first sermon was not preached but lived: God told him to marry, and he obeyed. That short verse still raises three questions: was this a real marriage, who was Gomer, and why did God ask it?
The verse records no protest and no delay. One writer weighs what the order cost, and why God gave it:
God commanded the prophet to do something bound to be most painful in itself. As a man of God, he must have felt it humbling as well as repulsive. But this was Israel's attitude towards their God. The Lord would make the prophet, and all who listened to the prophecy, understand in some measure what He Himself must feel about His people.
Commentators differ here. Some read a real marriage. Others read the whole scene as a picture:
The prophet was to unite himself to a corrupt woman (a prophetic picture, I have no doubt), whose conduct expressed that of the people.
The objection to a real marriage is moral: such a union seems beneath God. One writer answers that marriage belongs to God in the first place:
We must not imagine things to be unworthy of God simply because they do not appeal to us. God does not set aside the moral law, because the moral law has its source in the mind of God Himself. To set it aside would mean contradicting Himself. But God is absolute Lord of everything He made. He may at His sovereign will dispose of the lives or the things He created… He who created marriage told Hosea whom he should marry. At God's bidding the prophet took a defiled woman as his lawful wife, and this did not defile him — however hard a thing it was.
Was Gomer already immoral when Hosea married her, or did she fall later? Commentators differ. One reads God's words as naming in advance what she would become, and finds the same message in her name:
Gomer was called "a wife of whoredoms" by the all-knowing Lord, in anticipation of her future conduct. She fell and became immoral after her union with Hosea, not before. In this way she became a symbol of Israel: married to the Lord, but afterwards the unfaithful wife… The woman's name is also telling. Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, means "Completion — a double cake of figs." The name pictures Israel's wickedness as complete, and the double cake of figs stands for sensual pleasures. And despite her unfaithfulness, the prophet still loved her and did not abandon her. This shows the Lord's love for Israel.
Once you see who the wife stands for, the wedding itself becomes the prophecy. One writer follows it to its end — a people their God disowns:
In this action Hosea might say, in the words of another prophet, "Behold, I and the children whom the Lord has given me are signs and portents in Israel." All this clearly sets out the apostasy and judgment of Israel. The prophet's marriage to the wife of whoredom is the Lord's covenant with faithless Israel. Its fruit is judgment, until the children of Israel were found, as they now are, rejected silver — a "Lo-ammi," a people disowned by their God.
One suggestion about the children runs straight into the wording of the verse:
Commentators have said, "The children were not the prophet's own, but born of adultery and presented to him as his." But that cannot be the meaning, in view of the plain statement that she conceived and bore him a son.
- Command. God tells Hosea to marry, and Hosea goes. The verse records the obedience, with no word of protest.
- Cost. The order was humbling and repulsive to a man of God — and that was the point. It let the prophet feel what God feels about His people.
- Covenant. The marriage stands for the Lord's bond with Israel. The wife falls after the wedding, as the nation did after God joined it to Himself.
- Completion. Her name and her father's name spell out the message: wickedness come to the full, fed on sensual pleasure.
- Constancy. Hosea kept loving the wife who betrayed him, and the son is his own. That love pictures the Lord's love for Israel.