If you’ve ever felt bound in chains of shame, the Old Testament book of Hosea has good news for you.
The book of Hosea certainly has some confusing elements. Maybe you’ve read it and scratched your head, wondering what it all meant. The book starts out with God asking Hosea, a godly prophet, to marry Gomer, a promiscuous prostitute. And you wonder: Am I reading this right? Yes, that’s what it says.
Perhaps even more puzzling are Gomer’s actions in chapter three when she leaves Hosea and goes back to her old life. Why would Gomer run out on a man who promised love and faithfulness, especially if she had been passed around as a human commodity in the past?
Did she leave because she felt too confined living with one man when she had become accustomed to many lovers? Did she miss the fringe benefits—money and jewelry and a fancier lifestyle—that other lovers gave but a humble prophet couldn’t afford? Or perhaps she returned to her old life because she acutely felt the shame of her past or sensed that everyone in Hosea’s circle judged her. Maybe Gomer simply wished to go where she fit in—even if it meant going back to a sad and depressing life.
When We Act Like Gomer
Perhaps you have had similar feelings at times. Although you’ve experienced God’s goodness, maybe following Him has felt stifling. The world around you offers many seemingly attractive options, and at times you think, Why should I limit myself?
Or maybe you follow the Lord because it’s the right thing to do. From your time as a child in Sunday School until now, you’ve been taught to obey the Ten Commandments and go to church—so you do. But would anyone characterize your relationship with God as passionate?
Or perhaps you come from a not-so-stellar past. When you attend church and sit with the people who know the hymns and where to find the Bible passage the pastor is talking about, you feel out of place. Satan pushes the shame button in your heart and tells you that you don’t belong. You think, Maybe I should go back to my old life.
Rescue From the Chains of Shame
We don’t know why Gomer left Hosea, but we do know that she got herself into some trouble. She needed rescuing. Thankfully, Hosea obeyed the Lord’s instructions and came to Gomer’s rescue and got her out of debt. Scripture tells us Hosea bought Gomer for the price of “fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley” (Hosea 3:2). Just in case you haven’t had to convert shekels and homers and lethechs lately, this amounted to about six ounces of silver and nine or ten bushels of barley, altogether about thirty shekels of silver—a significant amount, since this was the value of a human slave (see Exodus 21:32).
We’ve all had times in our lives when we’ve acted somewhat like Gomer. We’ve ignored God’s Word and His reassurances of love and we’ve gone off looking for something more exciting, more tangible. Along the way, we’ve become involved with the wrong people and gotten entangled in projects or businesses we know wouldn’t meet our Lover’s approval. We’ve hurt people, said things we wish we could take back, and stormed off in a huff. We’ve lost it when we’ve argued with our husband, our friends, or that horrible clerk at the big box store. Maybe we’ve crossed the line sexually, fudged an IRS form, or lied to a boss.
It’s then that we wonder, How could God love me again?
Like Gomer, who needed to be bought for the price of a slave, we can become enslaved by disgrace. Sure of our worthlessness, we may replay shame’s accusations: “You will never amount to anything.” “You’re a lousy mother.” “No one could ever love you.” So we try to free ourselves from the constant loop of blame playing in our mind by improving ourselves. But every time we take a step forward, shame snaps the chains and pulls us backward. Shame tells us that we could never deserve God’s love.
God Will Not Abandon You When You’re At Your Lowest Point
The wonderful message of Hosea is this: God will not abandon you when you’re at your lowest point.
You may have walked away from Him and given your heart to someone or something else. You may have ignored your most important Lover to seek excitement in another, but Yahweh won’t leave you there. He tells you, tells me, “You don’t need to wallow in your past, in your mistakes, in your shame.”
His relentless love means He paid the highest price possible to win you back. He paid the price with His own Son’s blood. His faithfulness means He will continually pursue you, seek your attention, and strive to bring you back to Him when you’ve walked away. Let’s all reject Satan’s lies and embrace the truth of God’s unceasing affection for us.
When we step into Christ’s relentless and redeeming love, the shackles of guilt and the chains of shame fall to the ground.
This post is an excerpt from my new book God’s Relentless Love: A Study of Hosea. Delve into this unusual story of the marriage between a godly prophet and a wayward prostitute and discover how God continually courts you, pursues you, and desires to have an intimate relationship with you. Find out more about the book and download a free chapter here. Or order your copy at CPH.org or Amazon!
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