Gomer

adapted from She, Delighting in the examples of the women of the Bible/volume 3, pp17-18

Read: Hosea 2 and 3 (note, while this may seem a lot of reading, it is a beautiful love story you won’t want to miss)

“Therefore, I will soon fence her in with thorns;
I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way.

Hosea 2:6

Gomer has long been one of my favorite women of the Bible. I first met her not through Bible study but through a novel written by Francine Rivers. The novel is called “Redeeming Love“. A story written to tell what I believe are the two most beautiful love stories of all time. One between a man (Hosea, the servant of the Lord) and a woman (Gomer, the adulterer), and the other between God (who loves Israel with an everlasting love) and Israel (God’s chosen people who continually chase after the other gods of the world).

Gomer’s story was instrumental in helping me to understand not only the deep relational love of God but His marvelous, life-changing mercy and grace. I have read both the book of Hosea and the novel version, Redeeming Love, more times than I can count – and am convinced that Christianity is more than a religion – it is about having a genuine and meaningful relationship with God; not just a god but the true and living God who pursues His people with a faithful and personal love. He is broken-hearted when we forsake Him for other gods, yet relentlessly loves and pursues us.

We cannot do Gomer justice with this one short look at her, but I hope to journey through her story over the summer. For now, I will borrow from the study journal of Delighting in the examples of the women of the Bible/volume 3, pp17-18, and give you the bullet point version of Gomer’s story:

• She left her husband, and suffered the consequences.
• She left her Hosea, but he loved her still.
• He redeemed her back to himself.
• She is a picture of the nation of Israel that was separated from Judah, but she is also a picture of us.
• Gomer serves as an example of how Jesus Christ loves us and wants to redeem us.

It struck me as I was working through this section of the journal that for Gomer, adultery meant running away, trading her relationship with Hosea for relationships with other men. But I have learned this isn’t the sole definition of adultery – for believers, for me, and perhaps even you – it happens whenever we have choose to forsake our relationship with God for one or more relationships with the gods of this world.

Friends, as Paul points out in 1 Corinthians 6:20, we have been bought with the high price of Jesus’ blood, and so we are to glorify God with our bodies. We are to pursue Him with a faithful love that turns neither to the right nor to the left but stays close to Him. We can do this in a number of ways:

• Prayer and staying in His Word are vital to a healthy relationship. (James 4:8)
• Keeping our eyes and minds on Him so that we are not easily swayed by the enemy and other loves of this world. (James 4:8; Isa 26:3; Philip 4:6-8; 1 Peter 5:8)
• Seeking to please and honor Him in all that we do and say. (Colossians 3:17)

do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? ²⁰ For you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your body.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20

May this be the way we live, surrendered to loving God with all of our hearts, souls, minds, and strength… living and loving like Jesus… and faithfully walking in the Spirit

The More We Know

How has Jesus redeemed us?