Dave Willis and hosts explore Hosea 1:2, where God tells Hosea to marry Gomer, an unfaithful woman, as a picture of Israel's betrayal. They connect the ancient story to modern marriages dealing with addiction and repeated infidelity, showing how redemptive love pursues even when betrayed.
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Welcome to Summer of Scripture on the Naked marriage podcast. For 66 days in a row, we're releasing a short daily devotional for your marriage. Over these 66 days, we'll be sharing one scripture from each of the 66 books of the Bible and talking about how it applies to your life and marriage. Listen to all 66 episodes of these and you'll have a better understanding of God's word and his perfect plan for your marriage. Let's dive in to today's scripture. Hey there. Welcome. Welcome back to the Summer of Scripture here on the Naked Marriage Podcast. We're on day 28, you guys. We're in the book of Hosea. Chapter one, verse two says this. When the Lord first began speaking to Israel through Hosea, he said to him, go and marry a prostitute so that some of her children will be conceived in prostitution. This will illustrate how Israel has acted like a prostitute by turning against the Lord and worshiping other gods. So this interesting.
This whole story is nuts. Really.
It is nuts.
The story of Hosea, people who are.
Familiar, you got to paint this picture because it is a crazy story.
So Hosea was a prophet, a godly man who God told him to marry this woman named Gomer, which isn't unfortunate.
There's.
Yeah, I mean, if, I mean, you know, not making fun of anybody's name, but.
No, no, it just doesn't seem, it doesn't seem like you're like, that's an interesting name.
It's an interesting name.
Maybe it's. Maybe some people love it.
Yeah. So, hey, if that's you, go for it.
Yes.
But Gomer was his wife and she was a prostitute and he was faithful to her and she was unfaithful to him. And it was heartbreaking to him to have this wife who was unfaithful. And God had led him into this situation again to illustrate what his people, the nation of Israel, was doing to God, that we were being not as Jews, but now as modern day Christians even. We all have a tendency to be unfaithful to God by pursuing other passions, by worshiping little idols. And this can take on anything in our heart that we value more than God. Anything in our life that we value more than God is something we're being unfaithful to God about. So God wants us to be faithful to him for our sake, for our good, and for his glory. Now Gomer returned to prostitution. Hosea would go and try to rescue her from it and bring her back. It's really a beautiful story of grace and Redemption and pursuing someone with love, even when they're. They're acting unlovable and even when they're breaking their vows in the worst kind of ways. And ultimately, the story ends where Gomer has gotten so deep into this depraved world that she's essentially now been trafficked as a sex slave. And Hosea goes after her and actually purchases her freedom, like, purchase her. So legally now he owns her as property. And so she comes to him broken and humble, looking to him just now as her master, as her owner. But he says, no, no, I'm your husband. Like, he would not let her come to him with that kind of posture. It's like, even after all that she did, after all that she put him through, he wanted her to know all this was so that we could have a loving, healthy relationship and family, and that there's grace for what you've done, and there's healing, and now let's move forward. And it's a picture of what God does for us. It's a picture of the extravagant grace that God makes possible in our lives because we've all been unfaithful to him, and yet he pursues us. He purchases our freedom, which is what Jesus did on the cross. He bought us back from the slavery of sin so that we could be in his family forever. And it's. It's a messy story. This story is a messy one.
It is.
But I'm telling you, it is a powerful one.
It is. Actually, there's a recent movie about this. I'm trying to remember the author's name. It's your mom's favorite book. Maybe as I'm saying this, you'll remember it, but the title is Redeeming Love. Do you remember the author?
Oh, gosh.
If you all look it up, it's a famous book. It's been out forever. I mean, it's been out probably for 30 years, but they finally made a movie about it. And I've never read Redeeming Love. I know. Oh, Francine Rivers. That's it. Francine Rivers. I heard an interview that she gave on this. It was one of. I think it's one of her first books that became so, you know, widely read. But they did a movie on this, and the movie had mixed reviews. And I. And I watched it on a plane because I'm like, well, I got to see this, because, you know, it is. Technically, it's a. It's a retelling in a different day and time.
Obviously, it's a Western, like the.
It's Western times. Yes, but it's the story of Gomer and Hosea. And so I think if you go in not knowing that's what it is, you're going to be shocked. Like, oh, gosh. But let me tell you, they tell it in such a beautiful way because it really shows that a lot of people who find themselves in prostitution, they have backgrounds where they've maybe been abused, they've been not protected, they've been neglected and just used in the worst kind of ways. And. And that was this lady's story. I can't remember what they named her in the. In the actual book, but. But it was just, you know, this. Seeing it played out kind of on the screen and, you know, more. More modern retelling of the Gomer and Hosea story. It's captivating because the thing about Gomer and her character that kind of struck me is that she would experience this love from Hosea that she'd never had before, like a true love, and didn't.
Know what to do with it.
She didn't. Right.
Because she'd only been used.
And it felt wrong to her. It felt wrong. And, you know, I think, how does this, you know, how does this apply to our marriages today? I think that, you know, maybe there's not that actual situation going on, you know, in the Gomer Hosea situation, but it could look more like maybe an addiction, where you have a spouse who's addicted and for whatever reason, they keep on going back, and it's like, they're clean for a while. Life is good. You're like, life couldn't be better. But then they go back. And we've walked through that with people, and it's heartbreaking. You're like, why would you go back to this life? And just the amount of grace and forgiveness that Hosea demonstrated, but also that spouses, through those situations have to demonstrate while also putting boundaries in place and saying, no, this isn't okay. And, like, even in the Hosea Gomer story that is written out in the Bible, you know, not the redeeming love story necessarily, but in that story, it shows very much that Hosea does. You know, he tells her not to go back to that life, obviously. And I mean, so he sets those boundaries in place. Like, you are my wife now. We're going to live this life together. Right? And yet she keeps. It's like she takes it for a little bit. Like, she's like, oh, I think I may like this. But then it's like, no, I can't have this, I'm not worthy of this.
We just go back to what we know.
Right, right.
Even if what we know is completely broken. Exactly. But there's a comfort, there's a twisted comfort in returning to, you know, just like, you know, like the proverbs say, just like a dog returns to its vomit, like we'll eat up. It's. Which is a sick image. It is, but it's something that instinctively they will do. And I think as human beings, we foolishly in our sin can instinctively return to some really gross things. And I mean, I fell into that with pornography, where I hated myself for doing it, but I would fall back into it. And it's just something about the brokenness of our human nature apart from Christ.
And I've heard you even say, and then you'd believe, well, this is just who I am now. I'm just probably not. I'm going to have to. This is just who I am. I'm just going to be a porn addict probably for most of my life. You know what I'm saying?
And once you. And she believed that lie, she believed.
I'm going to be a prostitute.
She's just a prostitute.
This is just who I am now. I'm doing this.
It's all I'm good for and I'm not worthy of anything else. And I'm right. But God comes along and tells us different. Like, no, no, you're not who you say you are. You're not result of what you've done. You're who I say you are. And I say you are my child. Forgiven, redeemed a new creation in Christ. And read the story for yourself and just be reminded of God's amazing redeeming love for all of us. It really is a powerful story. And tune in tomorrow, guys. It's going to be a good one. We're going to be on day 29 in the book of Joel, and we will see you then.
