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Gomer of the Bible
Gomer was the wife of the Old Testament prophet Hosea. She was a harlot, and God told Hosea to marry her. God wanted to use the marriage of Hosea as a model of His love for His unfaithful people, Israel.
After giving birth to three children, Gomer left Hosea and went back to being a harlot. She thought that her former life, with men giving her nice things and wanting to be with her, was better than her present life as a wife and mother. She didn’t realize how wonderful her life with Hosea was.
At this time, the children of Israel were also playing the harlot, putting other gods before the One True God. God left them to their sin, to follow their own desires, for a while.
After about three years of living in sin, Gomer hit rock bottom. (This is comparable to the situation the Prodigal Son in Luke 15 found himself in before he decided to go back to his father.) God asked Hosea if he loved Gomer still. Hosea said that he really did. God told Hosea to go get Gomer and bring her back home. He told Hosea to forgive her, clean her up, and make her as his own again. This was to show Israel how God loved them enough to do the same for them. Don’t forget, this was during a time in which men didn’t forgive women they found in adultery; they stoned them!
Hosea is a model of God. Just as Hosea had to literally buy his own wife from the slave trader, God had to buy His own children back with the blood of His Son.
I think we sometimes forget that God, Himself, paid so much for us. We think of the price Jesus paid, but do you think it was any easier for God to watch His only Son die such a horrible death, when He could have stopped it? Could you imagine standing by and letting someone kill your only child? What if you had the power to stop it, but decided that it was best for the killer's eternal soul to do nothing. That is a price not one of us could ever stand to pay!
The Definition of Gomer
Gomer means complete (Strong’s #01586). The root word is gamar, (Strong’s # 01584) and it is a verb. In addition to complete, gamar means to perfect or to finish. I love the use of this word in Psalm 138:8. It says that the Lord will not leave us in the lurch. He has a plan for our lives, and He will finish what He has started.
The Lord will perfect that which concerns me; Your mercy, O Lord, endures forever;
Do not forsake the works of Your hands.
from Gomers.net |
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Hosea Loves Gomer
by John William Smith
I have often been troubled by the story of Hosea. I mean, it's a good story with a great moral -- if you're a long-range observer, or if you want to use him as an example for a lesson you're teaching. But Hosea was a real person who had to live his life one day at a time with no sneak previews of how it was all going to turn out. He was a man with feelings and frustrations, a guy who loved his kids, baseball, fried chicken, and rooted for the home team. I wonder how he felt about being used as a symbol -- an analogy, a proof text, an illustration -- a walking sign board --
"Hi, my name's Hosea,
and I married
the town prostitute."
I wonder how he felt when God told him to that He wanted him to select a wife from the red-light district? What a slap in the face when she left him for her old way of life. I'm sure he thought he had done her a big favor by taking her in the first place (which is what a lot of husbands think). I mean, he thought she had a pretty good situation with him. I wonder how he felt when all his friends felt sorry for him or, worse yet, when he overheard the jokes they told about his shady lady. I'm sure they all felt he was crazy and that nobody could possibly love a woman like that.
I'm sure that he had some reservations about the whole deal, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if he argued quite a bit with God before he actually did what He told him. I bet he said, "Lord, let me make sure I heard You right. Now, did I, or did I not, hear You say that You want me to marry a prostitute? I mean, let me get this straight. You always told us to stone people like that, and now You want me to marry one?"
I think one of the real lessons from this story has to do with Hosea's willingness to obey God against all human wisdom and judgement, against all of his own desires, against his religious convictions and moral standards -- and with his willingness to trust god for the outcome and to be ridiculed by everyone for God's sake. I want to say that that is what we all must do in our marriages -- we must place that relationship in God's hands and trust Him.
A second lesson has to do with the fact that apparently Hosea actually came to love Gomer -- I mean, he really got attached to her. If he didn't, then this story loses much of its purpose because it's supposed to demonstrate God's never-failing love for His people in spite of their sins. Hosea learned what it's like to love someone in spite of their faults, and again, that's what every marriage is about -- loving someone in spite of their faults.
Gomer became an inspiration to Hosea's life -- every time he looked at her, he was reminded of God's love; and the more he loved her, the more he loved God and understood Him. He understood why it was so important to God that Israel do right and that they love Him, because
more than anything,
Hosea wanted Gomer to do right
and to love him.
Isn't that what we all want? And you know what? I think maybe she did come to love him. It may have taken a long time to understand that kind of love, but when she did -- I mean, when she understood how much she was loved and what love really is -- I believe she knew that it was the greatest thing that had ever happened to her. I want to believe that she became a beautiful person -- that she blossomed into all that she was meant to be --
because that's what love
and marriage
are supposed to do,
you know.
Posted: 02/17/2000
URL: http://www.heartlight.org/articles/200002/20000217_hosea.html |
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Hosea and Gomer
By John Piper December 23, 1990
[Like Gomer, "dark harlotry" runs in our blood. But God's love cascades over our crude lives. He makes us his wife, "blood-bought and beautified by grace." John Piper's poem "Hosea and Gomer" declares the glorious truth that "the steadfast love of the Lord is better than life."]
The old man and his wife sat by
The winter fire and looked out high
Above the plains of Ephraim,
And saw around the last regime
Of Israel the shadows snake
Their way from east to west and take
Possession of Samaria.
"How long until Assyria,'
They thought, "would break Hoshea's rod,
And violate the wife of God?"
But strange as it may seem, the doom
They saw across the land left room
For hope. And when they looked into
Each other's eyes, as they would do
At night, they knew, as none could know
But they, that God would bend his bow
Against the charms of foreign men,
And take his faithless wife again.
They knew it could and would be done,
As surely as the rising sun
Drives darkness back unerringly,
And drowns it in the western sea.
They knew, because they had rehearsed
The tragedy and played it first
Themselves with passion and deceit.
"It's true that life is far more sweet,"
Hosea thought, "when it is lost,
Then bought again at dreadful cost;
And love grows strong when it must wait,
And deep when it is almost hate."
Such things as these he often said
To Gomer as they watched the red
And crimson echoes of the sky
Descend Mount Tabor's cliffs and die
In darkness far below. And she
Would say to him, "Your love for me
Was like a mountain waterfall,
And I the jagged stone. Of all
The knives and hammers once applied
None made me smooth or clean. They tried,
But harlotry was in my blood,
Until your love became a flood
Cascading over my crude life
And kept me as your only wife."
They knew as none but they could know
What it would mean that long ago
The Lord allowed his love to swell,
And married faithless Israel.
The passing of the years now found
The children grown and gathered 'round
This night: Jezreel and Loammi,
Hosea's sons, and at his knee
Loruhamah. The room was sweet
With memories, and each replete
With pleasure and with ample pain.
Among the memories one main
Experience above the rest
Embraced them all. It was the best;
Indeed it was the mountain spring
Of every happy stream from which
The family ever drank, and rich
With hope. It was Hosea's love.
The children stood in wonder of
The way he loved, and Gomer too.
But this had not always been true.
Hosea used to say, "It's hard
To be a seer, and prophet bard.
The price is high when he must sing
A song of ruin over everything
In lyrics written with his life
And lose his children and his wife."
And so it was, Hosea heard
The Lord. It was the strangest word
A holy prophet ever got:
And every pointed precept shot
Like arrows at Hosea's life:
"Go take a harlot for your wife,"
Thus says the Lord, "And feel with me
The grief and pain of harlotry.
Her father's name is Diblaim;
He makes fertility with cream
And raisin cakes. He will not see
Her go without a price, for she
Has brought him profits from her trade.
Now go, and let her price be paid;
And bring her back and let her bear
Your son. Call him Jezreel. For there
Is coming soon a day when I
Will strike and break the bloody thigh
Of Jehu's brutal house, and seal
With blood the valley of Jezreel.
And after that, though she's defiled.
Go in, and get another child,
And make your tender face like rock.
Call her Loruahmah and lock
Your heart against all sympathy:
`Not pitied' is her name. No plea
From faithless Israel will wake
My sympathy till I forsake
My daughter in the wilderness.
Now multiply once more distress:
Hosea, go beget a son,
For there is yet one child to shun,
And call him Loammi, in shame,
For `Not My People' is his name."
Hosea used to walk along
The Jordan rim and sing the song
His father Beeri used to sing.
Sometimes the tune and truth would bring
Him peace, and he would pause and look
At all the turns the Jordan took,
To make its way down to the sea,
And he would chant from memory:
Think not, my son, that God's great river
Of love flows simply to the sea,
He aims not straight, but to deliver
The wayward soul like you and me.
Follow the current where it goes,
With love and grace it ever flows.
The years went by, the children grew,
The river bent and Gomer knew
A dozen men. And finally
She left and traveled to the sea,
And sold herself to foreign priests
Who made the children serve at feasts
Until they had no shame.
And then
The God of grace came down again,
And said, "Hosea, go, embrace
Your wife beside the sea. And place
Your hand with blessing on the head
Of Loammi, and raise the dead
Loruhamah to life in me,
And tell Jezreel that I will be
For him a seed of hope to sow
In righteousness. Hosea, go,
The gracious river bends once more."
And so the prophet loved these four
Again, and sought them by the sea,
And bought them with the equity
Of everything he owned.
That was
The memory tonight, because
Hosea loved beyond the way
Of mortal man. What man would say,
"Love grows more strong when it must wait,
And deeper when it's almost hate."
Jezreel spoke softly for the rest,
"Father, once more let us be blessed.
What were the words from long ago
That gave you strength to love us so?
Would you please bless us with your rhyme,
And sing it for us one more time?"
"Think not, my son, that God's great river
Of love flows simply to the sea,
He aims not straight, but to deliver
The wayward soul like you and me.
Follow the current where it goes.
With love and grace it ever flows."
"And children," Gomer said with tears,
"Mark this, the miracle of years."
She looked Hosea in the face
And said, "Hosea, man of grace,
Dark harlotry was in my blood,
Until your love became a flood
Cascading over my crude life
And kept me as your only wife.
I love the very ground you trod,
And most of all I love your God."
This is the lamp of candle four:
A bride made ready at the door.
A shabby slave waits her embrace,
Blood-bought and beautified by grace.
© Desiring God
Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way and do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction. For web posting, a link to this document on our website is preferred. Any exceptions to the above must be approved by Desiring God. |
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THREE STRANGE NAMES
Now when she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, she conceived and
bore a son. Then God said: "Call his name Lo-Ammi, for you
are not My people, and I will not be your God." (Hosea 1:8-9)
Hosea the Prophet had a unique and difficult job - God told him to
marry a prostitute as a way to illustrate the relationship between
God and His people. When they married, like any husband Hosea
hoped that their mutual commitment to each other would keep them
together - but his wife (named Gomer) didn't give up her prior
profession. Because of his cheating wife, Hosea had a unique
perspective on how God felt about cheating Israel, who didn't
faithfully love God the way that God loved them.
In the course of time three children were born to this unhappy
family, and each child is mentioned in Hosea 1. The first son born
to Hosea and Gomer was named "Jezreel" and his name spoke of
two things. First, Jezreel means "Scattered," and Israel would soon
be scattered in exile by a conquering Assyrian army. Second,
Jezreel refers to the Valley of Jezreel, where Jehu - the founder of
the dynasty that currently ruled Israel - massacred all the
descendants of the previous dynasty, thus establishing his throne
(2 Kings 10:11). God directed Hosea to name his son Jezreel to
confirm His promise to avenge the bloodshed of Jezreel by judging
the house of Jehu.
The second baby was a girl, and named Lo-Ruhamah. Her name
meant "No Mercy." Every call to this child with the unfortunate
name reminded Hosea and everyone else of coming judgment and
exile. For the northern kingdom of Israel, God's time of mercy had
expired. He extended mercy for hundreds of years, but now it was
time for no mercy.
Then Gomer gave birth to a second son, whose name was Lo-
Ammi. The name Lo-Ammi means "Not My People." Every call to
this unfortunately named child reminded Hosea and everyone else
that the people of Israel had pushed away the Lord God, and
should no longer be considered His people.
Since Gomer did not give up her prostitution, there may have been
a cruel irony in the name Lo-Ammi. Perhaps this son really was not
the son of Hosea, but of another man. Perhaps the appearance of
the child made this evident. You can almost picture Hosea and
Gomer walking down the street pushing the baby carriage with little
Lo-Ammi, who didn't look anything like either one of them.
Someone asks about the name of the baby and Hosea answers,
"Not My People." The message God had to deliver to Israel through
Hosea was hard enough, but God also made Hosea live the
message.
Summing up the meaning of the name Lo-Ammi, God said this to
Israel through Hosea: For you are not My people, and I will not
be your God: This was not so much of a sentence or a penalty, as
it was a simple stating of fact. It wasn't as if the people of Israel
really wanted to be the people of God, yet God would not have
them. Instead, the people of Israel rejected God, and here the Lord
simply recognized the fact. He would not play "let's pretend": "You
pretend to be My people and I will pretend to be your God." The
time for those games was over.
When we think about the relationship between Hosea and Gomer,
there was a lot of pretending. Hosea pretended not to notice when
she went out to prostitute herself. She came back pretending
nothing ever happened. As much as they could, they pretended to
be a happy family. God used the pretence in Hosea's family as an
illustration of the pretence between Himself and His people. This
brings it back to your relationship with God. Is it filled with
pretence? Are you really a follower of Jesus Christ, or are you more
than a pretender? What God did through Hosea shows us that God
will allow that to continue for a time, but there comes a day when
the pretence must end. Today should be that day.
By David Guzik
Enduring World |
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As I study through this weeks Sabbath school lesson, I am caught in the story as I have not really thought of it in terms of an example of the people in their adultry violation to the Lord.
It makes a person sit back and wonder how our UNION with the Lord really is. Are we in love with the Lord as much as He is with us?
Are we faithful?
Do we have no other "partners of adultry"?
Do we take our vows of love and faithfulness to Him and ONLY HIM for the rest of our lives with the Lord seriously?
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when the texts speaak of "Gomer was a harlet" is is assumed that Gomer is a prositute, or when the texts speaks of "At this time, the children of Israel were also playing the harlot, putting other gods before the One True God. God left them to their sin, to follow their own desires, for a while." is Gomer an idoloter, and not a prositute (profession)? |
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| | | From: mae | Sent: 9/21/2007 4:38 AM |
Hi Tex, Thanks for this thread. You asked these questions, so I gave them some thought. It makes a person sit back and wonder how our UNION with the Lord really is. Are we in love with the Lord as much as He is with us?
Are we faithful?
Do we have no other "partners of adultry"?
Do we take our vows of love and faithfulness to Him and ONLY HIM for the rest of our lives with the Lord seriously? In contemplating them, I was reminded of an experience I had a few years ago. At that time I had known the Holy Spirit for about 4 or 5 years, and I well knew what it was to have intimacy with Him. I knew what it was like to hear His voice, and feel His sweet Presence. One evening at a relative's house the TV was on, and we were sitting around. I started to watch a movie that had just started, called Wuthering Heights. The opening scenes created the impression of a haunting by the spirit of someone who had previously died. Normally, as soon as I saw something like that, I would lose interest in watching something so blatantly from the kingdom of darkness, and if I'd been in my own home I would have turned it off. But being that I was at someone else's place (and I was kinda bored anyway), I kept watching, and within minutes the thing had gripped me. It lured me, and drew me in. It wasn't that I was unaware of the Holy Spirit's voice just then, as He softly warned me. I heard Him. But just kept on watching. I kept on, for about half an hour. Finally, I tore myself away and went to bed, where I wept as I experienced the grief of the Holy Spirit while He convicted me that I had just committed spiritual adultery. Needless to say I repented. I had committed spiritual adultery, because I had for a time become lured by a spirit other than Him. I had chosen, willingly, to give my mind and heart to something I well knew was not of God, but was in fact of the devil. Some may be thinking right now, 'come on, that was just a movie', but I know better. Movies carry powerful messages, that get right into the spirits of those who watch them. The junk people watch as "entertainment" has the ability to spiritually contaminate them. Although movies are fairly recent in terms of earth's history, I believe the Scripture that says "I will set no evil thing before my eyes" is applicable advice here. Your questions reminded me of this experience. I will never forget the lesson I learned that night. Blessings, Mae |
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There are many examples in the Bible where the prophetic uses something in our natural realm to explain things in the spiritual realm. Jesus taught that way all the time. The Kingdom of God is like ....... God considers his people, as a Bride. When the sons of man worship any other god they commit Idolotry. Idolotry is the same thing in the spirit, as adultry is in the flesh. God even went so far as to call Himself jealous over us ( see the second commandment). Hosea married Gomer, a harlot, at God's command. ( Collins Dictionary says Harlot = prostitute /whore). It was a prophetic example to demonstrate how He feels when His bride goes astray. It was to help us see how God really cherishes us. Isn't God awesome. Love-n-Grace |
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| | From:  yo-nc | Sent: 11/28/2007 9:43 PM |
Of course, Gomer, was "beloved of a friend", but when she was bought back again, didn't Hosea declare that she would be having a bit of down time at his place, and that he, likewise would reserve himself for her, until they might re-bond? Breaches of marriages are common in this age. My neighbor, a long time missionary in various parts of the world Michael Pridham was convinced from his reading, that a man should never divorce his wife, if he is a true Christ-like Christian. Profession won't matter in the end, it is the record of our lives that reveals our character. Jesus did everything He could to save Jerusalem (His unfaithful spouse/fiancee?) save to dishonour His Father's command. In her final rejection of Him, and the price He paid is revealed how God agonizes over souls that are rushing along the path of demolition...if only they(we!) might turn back before we plunge over the precipice of eternal ruin! O! let us appropriate the truth of Heaven towards our ruined natures and characters! But how much more advantage to God and man if we always do those things that please the God and Father of The Lord Jesus Christ! Amuv. |
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| | | From: yo-nc | Sent: 12/5/2007 2:56 AM |
Nothing in my hand ai bring Simply to Thy Cross ai cling Lord Jesus, save the purchase of your blood the three onyx stones (where from one bible ai read, are layered dark/light throughout) are aranged like day and night, day and night! In the High Preist's garb (the ruler of the people) there are fourteen stones aren't there? The sapphire (law stone?) is in the center of the top three by three stones in the breast-plate The old system, before sin, had the onyx in the center of the three by three (nine) grid. Wasn't this the system before sin entered? God in the center? When ever we put ANYTHING in place of the Living God and His good and perfect will, be-ware of adding unto His words, lest, you be found a liar! whom ever you are~ |
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