Hosea’s own family became an illustration, an example, a parable. He married the prostitute Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, at God’s command. Gomer had two sons and a daughter. The older of whom was named Yezreel, meaning “God sows.” This name intended to signify the replanting of Israel back on its own soil after it had been dispersed in exile. The second son was called Lo Ami, meaning “not my people,” to indicate God’s rejection of Israel as His people because of her faithlessness. The daughter was named Lo-ruhamah, meaning “the unpitied one.”
Hosea’s family life reflected the “adulterous” relationship which Israel had built with polytheistic gods. The relationship between Gomer and Hosea parallel the relationship between God and Israel. Even though Gomer ran away from Hosea and sleeps with other men for money, Hosea loved her anyway and forgave her. Likewise, even though the people of Israel worshipped other gods, God continued to love them and did not abandon his covenant with them.
Do you remember the movie: Pretty Woman? 25 years ago, this movie became an instant classic. It’s the story of a rich well to do man played by Richard Gere rescuing a (drug addicted – original script) prostitute, played by Julia Roberts, from a life of prostitution. It has a similar story line to Hosea except for the happily ever after ending. The original script ending to Pretty Woman had Richard Gere leaving Julia because of her drug addiction. It was supposed to be about the dangers of drug addiction until they handed the story to director Garry Marshall.
Ironically, the same director and the same actors made another movie called the Runaway Bride. It was about Julia Robert’s character constantly leaving the groom at the altar. Richard Gere falls in love with her and makes every precaution against her doing the same. The key is for Julia to maintain eye contact with Richard. A flash goes off. Eye contact is broke. The bride takes off. I love that the groom constantly chases after the bride. And he’s in pretty good shape, too!
Put these two movies together and you have the story of Hosea. Likewise, we are the bride. We take our eyes off the groom … and the groom constantly chases after us.
A church has very eloquently developed 6 short films (3 minutes each) to encapsulate the modern day version of Hosea. I was weeping by the 5th installment. It starts here.
