The book of Hosea opens with a jarring command from God—a prophet is told to marry an adulterous woman. It’s not a love story in the conventional sense. It’s a divine drama meant to reflect the heartache of a faithful God pursuing a wayward people. Hosea, a prophet to the northern kingdom of Israel before its fall in 722 BC, shares a stage in history with Isaiah, who prophesied to Judah in the south. Hosea reveals a God who stoops low in relentless love.
Grace at the Altar: Hosea’s Marriage
“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)
Gomer was not a woman who would be unfaithful—she already was unfaithful. Her sin was public, shameful, and deserving of death under the law. Yet God tells Hosea to marry her, to offer grace where judgment could have fallen. This isn’t a how-to manual on marriage. This is a gospel picture and it mirrors the heart of Romans 5:8: “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (NIV, Rm. 5:8).
Just as Gomer stood guilty, so did we. And just as Hosea offered grace, so has God—through Jesus Christ, who rescued us while we were still rebels. Grace was the foundation of the relationship. Not because Gomer deserved it, but because God wanted to show Isreal and us something about His love.
Three Children, Three Warnings
The story intensifies with the birth of three children—each bearing a name that delivers a prophetic punch.
1. Jezreel – God Sows
Hosea 1:3b-5, “and she conceived and bore him a son. Then the LORD said to Hosea, “Call him Jezreel, because I will soon punish the house of Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel. In that day I will break Israel’s bow in the Valley of Jezreel” (NIV, Ho. 1:3b-5).
The name “Jezreel” recalls a violent past. It was a valley of bloodshed, where kings fell and kingdoms were torn apart. But there’s a second meaning—“God sows.” Baal, the fertility god, was supposed to bring growth and harvest. God declares, “No, it is I who sow.”
Paul echoes this in Philippians 2:13, “For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose” (NIV, Phil. 2:13).
The fruitfulness of your life, your family, your work—it comes not from idols, but from the hand of God. This includes the idol of self-determination. We too often like to think of ourselves as “self-made.” I had the chance to have lunch with another man from our church this morning and we talked about the broken view of God that the drive to be “self-made” can give believers in the U.S. We have to remember, just as God reminded Israel, it is God who sows. The efforts of our own hands, the efforts of the people and kings of Israel will only lead to a valley of destruction.
2. Lo-Ruhamah – No mercy or no more tender love.
“Gomer conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. Then the LORD said to Hosea, ‘Call her Lo-Ruhamah, for I will no longer show love to the house of Israel, that I should at all forgive them’” (NIV, Ho. 1:6).
God says He will no longer show mercy to Israel. This isn’t the gentle correction of a loving Father; it’s judicial wrath. We see this kind of wrath in Matthew 13:29-30. The enemy has sown weeds among the grain. The master tells his servants to wait and harvest both the weeds and the grain together, and THEN to take the weeds, bundle them and burn them. God has allowed the weeds to grow, but it is time to burn them.
Compare this with Hebrews 12, where God disciplines His children in love. There is a difference between discipline and judgment. The first is restorative. The second is final. All believers will receive God’s restorative discipline. But we will be spared his ultimate wrath in judgement.
3. Lo-Ammi – Not My People
“Then the Lord said, “Call him Lo-Ammi, for you are not my people, and I am not your God” (NIV, Ho. 1:9). This is perhaps the most terrifying of the three. It’s a glimpse of what awaits those who persist in rebellion without repentance.
Jesus picks up this theme in Matthew 7:21, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (NIV, Mt. 7:21). The message is clear: being religious isn’t enough. Fruit matters. Obedience matters. Good trees will produce good fruit. Those who are not true “children” of God will be sent away, separated from God.
Are you sure where you stand? If you are not, or if you are struggling with doubt, please take a second to connect with me or someone you believe is confident. I know it can be scary to admit your doubt and fear and uncertainty, but a moment of embarrassment is better than an eternity separated from God. And there is nothing to be embarrassed of, because we are all sinners in need of a savior. If you don’t have my cell number, you can reach me at johndavid.culbertson at gmail.
But Then—Hope
Just when the judgment seems irreversible, the tone shifts: “Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted. In the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’ The people of Judah and the people of Israel will be reunited, and they will appoint one leader and will come up out of the land, for great will be the day of Jezreel” (NIV, Ho. 1:10-11).
Grace again.
Even after rejection, God promises restoration. Israel will be like the sand on the seashore, and one day, there will be unity under one leader—a Messianic prophecy pointing us forward to Jesus Christ. You see this prophecy even more clearly point to Jesus in Hosea 11
Redeeming Love: Hosea Buys Her Back
By chapter 3, Gomer is gone. She’s left Hosea and sold herself into some form of slavery or servitude. But Hosea doesn’t walk away. “So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley. 3 Then I told her, ‘You are to live with me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will live with you’” (NIV, Ho. 3:2).
He redeems her.
This is scandalous grace. He doesn’t just forgive—he pays to bring her back. This is the gospel in miniature. Jesus didn’t just pardon us. He purchased us with His blood, see Galatians 3:13-14. James 4 reminds us of our own unfaithfulness: “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely? But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: ‘God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble’” (NIV, Jm. 4:4-6).
Gomer represents the nation of Israel in Hosea, but her story is our story. It is your story. It is my story. Jesus is the perfect and complete Hosea, not for one, but for all who would call him Lord and follow him with their whole heart.
Jesus: A Perfect Picture of Grace
Hosea 3:1-7
“When Israel was a child, I loved him,
and out of Egypt I called my son.
2 But the more I called Israel,
the further they went from me.
They sacrificed to the Baals
and they burned incense to images.
3 It was I who taught Ephraim to walk,
taking them by the arms;
but they did not realize
it was I who healed them.
4 I led them with cords of human kindness,
with ties of love;
I lifted the yoke from their neck
and bent down to feed them.
5 “Will they not return to Egypt
and will not Assyria rule over them
because they refuse to repent?
6 Swords will flash in their cities,
will destroy the bars of their gates
and put an end to their plans.
7 My people are determined to turn from me.
Even if they call to the Most High,
he will by no means exalt them. (NIV, Ho. 3:1-7)
Hosea 3:1 refers to both Israel and Jesus. We know this because Jesus tells us this is true in Matthew 2:14-15, “So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.’” (NIV, Mt. 2:14-15)
But where Israel failed to fulfill God’s perfect design, Jesus succeeds. Genesis 12:1-3, God calls his people out through Abraham with the intent that the whole world would be blessed because of them (Genesis 12:3). Israel fails in this divine endeavor, I fail in this divine endeavor, Jesus does not. Just as he is the perfect Hosea, he is the perfect Abraham. The founder of a mighty nation that would bless the whole world.
Hosea teaches us what rebellion looks like and what it costs us. It also teaches us what it cost our Lord and Savior. Remember always, Jesus was never plan B, he was always God’s plan for redeeming his adulterous people. He wants to do the same for you.
The Holy Bible: New International Version. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1984.
John-David 
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