Expensive Women

Expensive Women

Gomer

Read: Hosea 3:1-3

Gloria stared at the locket through the glass case. Yes, that was the one that had been custom designed for her mother and later passed down to her. How dare he. . . . Gloria had begun to think that she had lost the precious keepsake, until her husband tearfully admitted to pawning it. He knew how much the silver locket meant to her, but gambling apparently meant more to him. Now Gloria was about to buy back something that rightfully belonged to her.

Gomer’s husband bought her back even though she was legally married to him. When Gomer deserted Hosea, she became someone else’s legal property, perhaps as a prostitute. In spite of her unfaithfulness, Hosea still loved his wife. He bought her back with silver and goods equaling fifteen shekels, the typical price of a slave. Then Hosea told his wife that her old lifestyle of adultery had ended. Gomer must have felt a deep sense of gratitude toward Hosea for redeeming her in spite of the way she had hurt and wronged him.

God created us, but he had to buy us back because we were sinners. Since sin entered the world in the Garden of Eden, each of us has been born as a slave to sin. God redeemed us from sin’s tyranny at a very high cost—the priceless blood of Jesus Christ. Once we accept the transaction made on our behalf, God tells us that our old lifestyle has ended. We no longer have to obey our sinful nature. How can we help but feel a deep sense of gratitude and love toward the One who gave his own blood to buy us out of slavery? We’ll never take our salvation for granted when we remember how much he paid to redeem us.

You know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And the ransom he paid was not mere gold or silver. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God.

1 Peter 1:18-19