ADULTEROUS: SHOWN MERCY
Despite being a chosen bride, Gomer had yet to fall in love with her husband. She did not understand that Hosea was able to give her both satisfying love and provision for her needs, she had no need to roam for love. She was loved. She had no reason to search for provision. Provision was given her.
Gomer would go live with a man who was not her husband and say: “these are the wages which my lovers have given me” Hosea 2:6. She saw all she had as a her own doing. She sought love for money, and money for love. She thought both would fulfill her and she thought both were in her power to attain.
Israel is clearly illustrated through Gomer’s story. And even yet, the prophecy remains unfulfilled as many people of the Jewish race seek gods of their own making, and are blind to the complete satisfaction and joy to be found in Jesus.
Looking in Gomer, I can see glimpses of my own heart. I belong to God, called by His name, yet “I will go after my lovers, who gave me my bread and my water, and my wool and my flax, and my oil and my drink” Hosea 1:10. I often seek all things that I think bring comfort and joy and satisfaction to my soul. I tend to use God’s gifts of money, home, family, marriage, friendships, and provision to sacrifice to the gods of my heart.
Yet all the time it was, and is Him. “And she did not know that is was I who gave her the grain, the wine, and the oil, and who lavished on her silver and gold, which they used for Baal” Hosea 2:8.
It is God who has provided for me. He has purchased me for His own and I am His. “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” I Corinthians 6:15-20
God is my Husband. It is God who has given me any cause for celebration and joy in this earth. It is God who has shown me mercy, when time after time I have praised and worshiped much, but not Him.
How easy it is to follow my own heart, to my own demise, instead of simply learning to fall in love with my Husband wherein the complete satisfaction and joy of all life resides.
What the adulterous deserves? Divorce. No one, even God, should have to put up with such unfaithfulness. But what does the gentle Husband do? He clothes. He shelters. He provides food. He even gives causes for celebration and festivities. And in all that, He shows the most mercy by staying His righteous hand from breaking His vow to His unfaithful bride.