Take to Yourself a Wife of Whoredom – Hosea 1:2-11

Paul understands this passage as giving Gentiles access to salvation (Romans 9:23-26).  If Israel can become “not God’s people” (as the Gentiles), then once again become God’s people, then so can Gentiles.

When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the LORD.” So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.

And the LORD said to him, “Call his name Jezreel, for in just a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. And on that day I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel.”

She conceived again and bore a daughter. And the LORD said to him, “Call her name No Mercy, for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel, to forgive them at all. But I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the LORD their God. I will not save them by bow or by sword or by war or by horses or by horsemen.”

When she had weaned No Mercy, she conceived and bore a son. And the LORD said, “Call his name Not My People, for you are not my people, and I am not your God.”

Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. And in the place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,” it shall be said to them, “Children of the living God.” And the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together, and they shall appoint for themselves one head. And they shall go up from the land, for great shall be the day of Jezreel.  (Hosea 1:2-11 ESV)

Yahweh uses Hosea’s life as an illustration of His relationship to Israel.  He has Hosea marry a woman who will become a prostitute.  They have three children before she becomes unfaithful to him, though only the first is said to be specifically his, and the names of these children reflect God’s final determination concerning Israel after decades and decades of unfaithfulness.  “Jezreel” was the place where the Israelite king and Baal worshiper Ahab, slew Naboth, a worshiper of Yahweh, to steal his land.  God was about to seize Israel’s land by the Assyrians and end this kingdom.

The daughter born is Lo-Ruhammah, No Mercy, because God’s mercy has come to an end, though He will allow the newly repentant Judah, the southern kingdom and Israel’s rival, to survive.  The son born is Lo-Ammi, Not My People, because He is done with them and is no longer their covenant God for they have repeatedly broken covenant. 

However, even after this He promises to restore them as His people and rejoin the two nations, Israel and Judah, under one king from the line of Judah and David, and once again possess the land of promise.

God’s willingness to forgive such a disobedient people is predicted in Deuteronomy 30 by Moses before Israel even conquered Canaan.  And this taking of people who were not His people to make them His people again is akin to taking Gentiles, those not born of Abraham, and making them His children, as He will do when Jesus comes, saving non-Jews as He has predicted many times in fulfillment of His promise to make Abraham the father of many nations.  As those who are in Christ we cannot disobey God forever but will be disciplined by Him as Israel was until we are restored.