When the LORD began to speak through Hosea, the LORD said to him, “Go, take to yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness, because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the LORD.”

Hosea 1:2

Ah, January—fun fact: “January was named for the Roman god Janus, known as the protector of gates and doorways which symbolize beginnings and endings. Janus is depicted with two faces, one looking into the past, the other with the ability to see into the future” (almanac.com). Time to put on our two faces of Janus this week and dig into the book of Hosea to build some godly wisdom for 2024.

Hosea, you say? Hmm! I knew about Hosea and Gomer—everybody had heard that story! But why in the world did God order His prophet to marry a woman who would be unfaithful? And then why did He say, “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress” (3:1)? I thought fidelity in love and marriage is the key.

At least, that was the relationship God intended when He created woman for man way back in the beginning: “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24).

Deeper than that, the intimacy of marriage is the closest word picture of the intimacy God desires with His chosen. It is evident in Isaiah 62:5: as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you; corroborated by Jesus in Matthew 19:5; and made perfect in Revelation 19:7: “For the wedding of the Lamb (Jesus) has come, and his bride has made herself ready.”

And so God chides Israel through Hosea: “the land (meaning the nation Israel) is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the LORD.” Gomer will be the poster child for infidelity, Hosea God’s example for true love.

Israel needed to face the fact that they were “looking for love in all the wrong places”*. So do we sometimes!   

Nancy P

All Scripture quotations are from the NIV 1973, 1978, 1984, unless otherwise noted. *Written by Wanda Mallette, Bob Morrison & Patti Ryan, recorded by Johnny Lee, 1981