You're joking aren't you? Marry a whore?? Come on
now...God must have been really hard up to order that!
Yes, God was so bent on illustrating His dire warning
to Israel that Hosea had to go look for a bride in the red light district.
But wasn't prostitution taboo in Israel?
Absolutely!...from Deuteronomy 23 verse 17, and
it was especially taboo for a priest to marry a whore. However the place had
become like a brothel so….. desperate situations call for desperate measures!
Yea, but this could be just a bit of a sordid
yarn....
...not when we're given full names. Hosea was son
of Beeri and he picked Gomer daughter of Diblaim who bore him three children,
named by God -
-
a son, Jezreel, meaning 'God will scatter'
- a daughter,
Lo-ru-hamah, meaning 'no mercy'
- another son, Lo-ammi,
meaning 'not my people'...just nobodys
Wow!... that really spells it out! "You've been behaving like a whore in a brothel so I'm going to toss
you out - without mercy - and disown you!" Was he for real?
Sure. The kingdom of Israel by then was
independent of the kingdom of Judah, so the corrupt family of king Ahab was
annihilated in Jezreel and finally Israel was wiped off the map by the Assyrian
Empire in 722 BC, confirmed by Assyrian records held in the University of
Chicago. The land was deliberately repopulated with Gentiles and Israel has
never been the same since.
Well that's that! It wasn’t just a yarn - God
finished with most of Israel in 722 BC.
Not quite. Hosea's wife got bored and had an
affair, as they say, with his friend.
Huh, friend!? What did Hosea do?...go and stone
them? I bet he felt like it!
He had to go and buy her back with 15 pieces of
silver and some barley - the price of a female slave and...wait for it...love
her again!
Aw, come on now!…your missus, who had a checkered past, cheats on you with
your mate and then you have to buy her back?...and love her as if nothing
happened??
Urr, not exactly. It looks like Hosea put her on
a long probation of celibacy – not even intercourse with Hosea, who promised to
remain faithful too. Oh and by the way, Gomer’s name is said to mean ‘heat’.
This is almost unbelievable!...you can just about feel the tension!
Just like between God and Israel ever since:
“For the children of Israel shall abide many days
without king, and without prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an
image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim…
Mmm…so even though they’re back in Palestine, they’re still like that
today.
Okay, take back a cheating missus - but why pay up too?
Okay, take back a cheating missus - but why pay up too?
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