v.1 Hosea Commanded to Love Again. Gomer is no longer referred to as Hosea’s wife but merely “a woman”, though it was the same person. She had been unfaithful to Hosea after their marriage, so she is called an adulteress: a parallel to Israel who had departed from Jehovah into idolatry. Hosea is not told to do something beutiful, but very unnatural: to love again this unfaithful woman. This was something not even required by the law, to show grace to an adulterous wife (Deut. 24:1). That is the love of God, which we are called to show to others: “Go again”. When we are wronged, “Go again”. He is told to go again, and love her, “beloved by a friend”. It was friendly love that he was have, which would be very difficult to do. But the Lord tells Hosea, that this grace is “according to the love of the LORD toward the children of Israel”. The the standard for a husband’s love to his wife is a Divine measure: “even as Christ also loved the church” (Eph. 5:25). In spite of their sin and rebellion – “though they turn to other gods, and love raisin-cakes”¹ – the Lord still loved them, and would restore them to Himself. We Christians can take a lesson from this!

 

 

v.2 Gomer Redeemed. There was a cost. Gomer’s unfaithfulness had ended her in bondage. So it is with sin: it holds the alurement of freedom, but produces bondage.The purchase price was to be paid half in barley and half in money. Barely was the food of the poor. The cost of a working age female slave was thirty shekels, for an old or young woman, only ten shekels (Lev. 27:2-7). This shows the level of degradation that Gomer had reached: half the price of a good slave. So with Israel, they ended up in captivity: Ephraim in Assyria, and Judah in Babylon. Greater still was their bondage to sin and the sentence of death. The sacrifice of Christ that was required to redeem those who were under the law from its curse (Gal. 3:10). On the cross, the redemption price was paid, and and the righteous foundation for Israel’s future restoration was established.

 

 

vv.3-4 Many Days Without Adultery. Hosea told Gomer that she would remain with him for a period of “many days”. During this time, she would “not play the harlot”. Now we learn something new, not disclosed in the book until chapter 3, that between the period of Israel’s idolatry ending with captivity, and the time of her full restoration to Jehovah would be a period of isolation. This describes exactly Israel’s present state over the last 2000 years.². Israel, after the return from captivity, would not take up with idols again. Jehovah’s union with Israel would not be restored during this time, but “thou shalt not be another man’s, and I will also be for thee.” Though they are “given up” outwardly (Mic. 5:3), God has pledged, if I may speak this way, not to choose a new earthly people instead of Israel. He will wait for her! Now, hidden as a mystery is what God introduced meanwhile; the heavenly calling. It is just like of wise God to describe the period thus: as “many days”. It doesn’t necessary convey the idea of centuries, which could have shaken the hopes of believer in the early church, but as the years rolled on, it could be see to the eyes of faith that the isolation of Israel was allowed while great heavenly parenthesis is unfolded. All of these was foreseen by God and allowed according to His perfrect will. As the apostle Paul says in Romans, “For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in” (Rom. 11:25). During this time, Israel has continued without a royal family, without an approach to god, without idolatry, without a levitical preisthood, without household gods (teraphim). Israel today is “the most anomalous spectacle the world has ever seen — a people who go on age after age without any of those elements which are supposed to be essential for keeping a people in existence. For they have lost their king and prince, they have neither God nor an idol. They are not able to present a sacrifice, having nobody that they know to be a priest”³. This is true of the 400 silent years to an extent, but truer of the last 2000 years, during the calling of the Gentiles.

 

v.5 Israel Returns to Jehovah. Though the “many days” if Israel’s isolation have shown themselves to be centuries, God has not finished with Israel. His goal is full restoration. It says that they will afterwards “return, and seek Jehovah their God”. This doesn’t describe Jews recieving the gospel and being brought into the church as members of the body of Christ, but as a nation, returning to the place of blessing through repentance. They will return to “David their king”, refering to the Messiah of the royal tribe, which indicates also a healing of the breach that occured in Reoboam’s day.⁴ This will all take place “at the end of the days”.