The Wedding

When the LORD began to speak through Hosea, the LORD said to him, “Go, marry a promiscuous woman . . . for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the LORD.”   Hosea 1:2

It’s unlikely that Hosea phoned a dating agency to find the worst woman in town. The context seems to suggest that Hosea already knew Gomer. He’d fallen in love with her and was planning to marry her. But before the wedding actually took place, God told Hosea what the future would hold.

Imagine what this must have been like. One night, in a dream, Hosea sees Gomer with another man—and then another. He wakes up in a cold sweat, and somehow he knows God is revealing that Gomer will become an adulterous wife. Hosea is horrified, but he knows God is telling him to go ahead with the wedding. So he marries Gomer in the full knowledge of what lies ahead.

Picture the wedding. The minister welcomes everyone: “We’re gathered here today to join Hosea and Gomer in marriage. If anyone knows of any reason why these two should not be joined together, speak now or keep silent forever.”

Then he turns to Diblaim, the bride’s father. “Who gives this woman to be married to this man?” If Gomer was as difficult at home as she would be after she got married, Diblaim must have been relieved to get her to the altar!

The minister continues: “Hosea, will you take Gomer to be your wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse?”

Hosea knows there will be a lot of “worse” in the days ahead, but without hesitation he says, “I will.”

The minister turns to Gomer, “Will you have Hosea to be your husband? Will you love, honor, and obey him, forsaking all others, keeping only to him as long as you both shall live?”

“I will,” she says. Hosea knows she won’t, but he chooses to marry her anyway.

Throughout Hosea’s life, God’s people were two-timing. They had a covenant with God, but they also had other gods on the side. That was as offensive and painful to God as an unfaithful wife would be to her husband. Hosea’s painful marriage became a mirror in which God’s love for his people is wonderfully revealed.

For further reading, see Hosea 1