I am firmly of the opinion that the character of the person I marry should reflect my relationship in Christ. In II Corinthians 6:14 Paul says that we are not to be yoked together with an unbeliever. Now there are many ways that we yoke our life together with someone, it could be business partners or best friends, but who we marry is certainly at the top of the list that Paul is talking about. So why would God tell you to marry someone who obviously fits into the “don’t be yoked together” category? I guess we just have to ask the prophet Hosea for that is what God did ask of him.
When God began to speak to Hosea the first thing he told him was to go take an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness. God also tells him why. Many of the prophets not only spoke God’s message to the people, they lived it out. For further lessons on this read the prophet Ezekiel. God loved and cared for Israel as a father and husband. When the children of Israel came to occupy the Promised Land, God fought many of the battles for them. Remember Jericho, all they had to do was to march around the city and then blow the trumpets and the walls came tumbling down. Over the years what had been Israel’s response? Time and time again they turned and worshipped other gods, ignoring the covenant and the promises.
The life and marriage of Hosea and Gomer was an object lesson to Israel. God is telling them of his hurt and rejection. But just as he sends Hosea to buy Gomer back from the slave market, so God is telling his people that he longs to have them back and will forgive them if they will turn to him.
It may seem strange to us the way God sent his message to Israel and what the cost of that message was for Hosea, but God is speaking all the time to us. Certainly we have His Word, the Bible to turn to but he also speaks to us through the experiences we have and the experiences of others. God is willing to use any means necessary to get our attention. Some folks have found God at the end of a divorce, others through bankruptcy. Some find him at the end of their rope or the bottom of a bottle, but make no mistake, God is talking, God is reaching, God is loving us all the time, and we need to listen.
Don
When God began to speak to Hosea the first thing he told him was to go take an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness. God also tells him why. Many of the prophets not only spoke God’s message to the people, they lived it out. For further lessons on this read the prophet Ezekiel. God loved and cared for Israel as a father and husband. When the children of Israel came to occupy the Promised Land, God fought many of the battles for them. Remember Jericho, all they had to do was to march around the city and then blow the trumpets and the walls came tumbling down. Over the years what had been Israel’s response? Time and time again they turned and worshipped other gods, ignoring the covenant and the promises.
The life and marriage of Hosea and Gomer was an object lesson to Israel. God is telling them of his hurt and rejection. But just as he sends Hosea to buy Gomer back from the slave market, so God is telling his people that he longs to have them back and will forgive them if they will turn to him.
It may seem strange to us the way God sent his message to Israel and what the cost of that message was for Hosea, but God is speaking all the time to us. Certainly we have His Word, the Bible to turn to but he also speaks to us through the experiences we have and the experiences of others. God is willing to use any means necessary to get our attention. Some folks have found God at the end of a divorce, others through bankruptcy. Some find him at the end of their rope or the bottom of a bottle, but make no mistake, God is talking, God is reaching, God is loving us all the time, and we need to listen.
Don
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