Hope! God’s message is always about hope! “Then the Lord said to me, ‘Go, and get your wife again and bring her back to you and love her, even though she loves adultery. For the Lord still loves Israel though she has turned to other gods and offered them choice gifts.” (Verse 1).
What happened to Gomer? She said she would “sell myself to them (other men) for food and drinks and clothes.” (Ch 2.5). Evidently business wasn’t as good as she thought it would be. Maybe she was asking for too much money or it may have been her personality. Probably, she had bought too much on credit and couldn’t pay her bill so she was literally put on an auction block to be sold as a slave.
Hosea found out about the sale and went to the auctioneer and bought her back. “For a couple of dollars and eight bushels of barley.” (Verse 2). He redeemed her but there was a stipulation. “You must live alone for many days, do not go out with other men nor be a prostitute, and I will wait for you.” (Verse 3). Has God ever asked you to do something you really did not want to do? As someone who has, I regret not doing what God asked me to do, and the things God asked of me were not as hard as what He asked of Hosea.
Verse 4 gives us part of their history. “This illustrates the fact that Israel will be a long time without a king or prince, and without an altar, Temple, priests, or even idols!” That period began in 722 BCE and appears to still be ongoing though they have to some degree returned to the land.
Verse 5 is prophecy still today. “Afterward they will return to the Lord their God and to the Messiah, their King, and they shall come trembling, submissive to the Lord and to His blessing in the end times.” The disciples asked Jesus ten days before Pentecost, “Lord, are You going to free Israel from Rome now and restore us as an independent nation?” Jesus responded, “The Father sets those dates . . . and they are not for you to know.” (Acts 1:6-7). People have set dates throughout human history, and they were all wrong.