A Savior in Our Sorrow
Hosea chapter three continues the story of Hosea and Gomer, his unfaithful wife, with deep new insights into our hopelessness and God’s promise of redemption. Hosea is commanded by God to go again and love Gomer even though she’s continued to be unfaithful to Hosea. To do this Hosea has to bid for Gomer in a slave auction. Gomer has been rejected by her other lovers and is being sold as a slave. Most likely she would have been auctioned naked to people with ill intentions. Imagine her shame, her sorrow, her hopelessness. She’s at the lowest point in life. In fact, Hosea is able to buy her for less than the price of an injured servant (Exodus 21:32).
Initially, being purchased by Hosea is probably the most terrify outcome of the auction for her. For everything she’s done to Hosea, she could only expect that, now as his purchased property, he would kill her. Instead, Hosea does something miraculous. He asks Gomer to be faithful and live with him as his bride again. Even more amazingly, he tells her that he will live with her as her husband! Hosea forgives Gomer and only asks her to commit to him in the same way he is committing to her. This is a vow renewal! This doesn’t happen often, especially today. Typically we see the betrayed spouse treating the “forgiven” spouse in a way that demands pay back for all the pain they caused. But we see here that in our shame, in our sorrow, in our hopelessness, we have a Redeemer; a Savior!
As we discussed this together as a group, we came up with some thoughts. Hosea doesn’t treat Gomer fairly. By forgiving her and redeeming her for a loving relationship, he gives her what she doesn’t deserve. We saw that we, like Hosea, could never accomplish this act without God. Often in life, we tend to make sure that others (spouses, family members, friends, co-workers) treat us fairly. We keep score of how often we forgive or provide favors, become passive aggressive or exaggerate our emotional dissatisfaction, or use ultimatums to force our desires or personal sense of justice. The gospel of Jesus Christ invites us to see our situations differently and treat others as better than they deserve since we have already been forgiven for so much more in Christ.
We definitely don’t want God to be fair to us, because like Gomer and Israel, we deserve death for our sins. This chapter foreshadows how Christ redeems hopeless sinners at auction for a mutually committed relationship with him where we can enjoy God’s goodness forever. What an amazing chapter!
The community groups at our church are going through the Old Testament book of Hosea on Wednesday and Thursday evenings. All are welcome to join us next week on Wednesday or Thursday night as we look at the next chapter in Hosea.