The Story Continued

So Hosea has a God-given method: He’s going to “speak to Gomer’s heart,” and he has a dream of the future. He will get her back, and they will reclaim happiness, intimacy, closeness, and all the good things.

That, at least, is the plan.

Over the page. We begin a new chapter.

God speaks to Hosea, and tells him it’s time to put his plan into action. It’s time for him to love her.

Go, again, love a woman who is loved by a lover and is committing adultery…

By this time, Gomer has deteriorated. Her world has imploded. Her situation has deteriorated to the point that the word “love” has lost all meaning. She is in so much pain and turmoil that the only things she can love is a hot-cross bun. (Hosea 3:1)

Hosea seeks her out and literally buys her. We assume she has a pimp, that she is working at one of the “high places,” as they were called, one of the clubs. Hosea doesn’t pay a lot of money for her. He pays fifteen shekels of silver, much less than the typical price of a slave, and one-and-a-half drums of barley. Then Hosea says to her, “You will stay at my house for many days…” It’s time for her to come home! She will live with him, but he will not touch her. Nor will any other man. He will give her speace to heal and grow.

So Gomer comes home with him. She gets her own room. She sleeps. A lot. She is emaciated, hobbles to the bathroom, coughs a lot and goes back. She’s like a stranger to her own children, and they watch on, with big, round eyes. “Is she okay, Dad?”

Hosea nods. “She will be. Soon.”

How long is “many days?” How long will this last? It’s unclear. I suggest it’s longer than Hosea hoped, but not as long as he feared.

The days turn into a week. Two weeks. Gomer gains strength. Hosea’s mandate: “Speak to her heart.” He makes her food and brings it in on a tray. He uses a kind, quite tone of voice. He buys her new clothes as her body starts to fill out again. “I’m here to listen,” he says.

Do you think she responded straight away? Did Hosea have immediate success?

If 7:14 is any indication, the answer is “No”:

They do not cry to Me with their heart
  when they howl on their beds.
They gather together for grain and wine,
    they rebel against Me.

Gomer gets enough strength to dress herself properly and get out of her bedroom. She picks fights. with Hosea, nitpicking at his words and his gestures.

I imagine her marching out the front gate, with thick makeup on. Her plan is to find her friends and get drunk. She wants to tell them how much of a bastard Hosea is. Hosea comes and finds her. “You are not to be with any man.” She goes back to her room, howling with rage, puts her head face-down into a pillow and sobs. When, minutes later, she lifts her head to see if Hosea is wrapped around her finger, he is implacable. She, on the other hand is a mess. Her mascara has smudged all over her face. Bastard!

Weeks turn into months. It’s hell. She’s angry, a lot. She’s bitter and unreasonable. She is hard. She yells a lot and throws things. She tries every trick in the book.

Hosea is frustrated and angry, and you can imagine him saying to God, “But I want to give her a piece of my mind! I want to set her straight!” and God replies, “Speak. To. Her. Heart.” You’re doing it, buddy. Keep running the program.

Clean in, Dirty Out

Shouldn’t Gomer be grateful? Shouldn’t she fall into Hosea’s arms? Back into his bed? What is happening?

I thought a long time about the meaning of these lines at the beginning of Chapter 7:

When I would heal Israel,
    the iniquity of Ephraim is revealed,
    and the wickedness of Samaria.

It means that when a broken and hurting person (Gomer) is treated nicely, when someone “speaks into their heart,” all sorts of rubbish and detritis comes out. Healing reveals iniquity and wickedness. Intergenerational trauma and abuse float to the surface.

It’s like when you pour clean water into a bucket of dirty, stinky water. It’s dirty water that comes out, not clean.

And, reading between all the ranting in Chapter 4 and onward, I can imagine God saying to Hosea, “There is something sick and rotten, deep inside the nation of Israel, Hosea. There is something sick and rotten deep inside Gomer, too. You don’t want that to stay inside, do you? It’s got to come out.”

Hmmm.

“Speak to her heart, Hosea. Mate, here’s what to expect. She’s going to kick like a horse, and howl like a banshee. If you are speaking to her heart, and she is responding like this, you’re doing all that you’ve been asked to do.”

Next…(Part 5)