“Not My People” to Children of God: the Story of Hosea & Gomer

 “Not My People” to Children of God: the Story of Hosea & Gomer

Sunday, July 27, 2025 – Ebenezer UMC & Black Creek UMC
Proper 12, Ordinary 17 – Hosea 1:2-10

The Image of the Church as the Bride of Christ

The Bible is full of symbolic language. God often uses metaphors to make understandable spiritual truths with vividness. For example, The image of the church as the Bride of Christ is found in several scripture verses, including Ephesians 5:25-27, which describes Christ loving the church and presenting her as holy and blameless. Also, Revelation 19:7-9 celebrates the marriage of the Lamb, indicating that the church has made herself ready for this union.

Ephesians 5:25-27 (NRSVue)

²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her ²⁶ in order to make her holy by cleansing her with the washing of water by the word, ²⁷ so as to present the church to himself in splendor, without a spot or wrinkle or anything of the kind, so that she may be holy and without blemish.

Revelation 19:7-9 (NLT)

⁷ Let us be glad and rejoice,
    and let us give honor to him.
For the time has come for the wedding feast of the Lamb,
    and his bride has prepared herself.
⁸ She has been given the finest of pure white linen to wear.”
    For the fine linen represents the good deeds of God’s holy people.

⁹ And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb.” And he added, “These are true words that come from God.”

I found ten Bible verses that refer to the people of God as God’s Bride – the church in the New Testament is referred to as the Bride of Christ. Five books of the Bible specifically refer to the harlotry of the people of God.

God would also give unusual instructions to the prophets. Sometimes the prophets were instructed to live out some symbolic act as a witness to the people of Israel and Judah.

God instructed the prophet Isaiah to walk naked and barefoot for three years as a sign against Egypt and Cush. This striking act symbolized the humiliation and captivity that these nations would soon suffer at the hands of Assyria. As the Lord said, “Just as my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot three years, as a sign and omen against Egypt and Cush, so will the king of Assyria lead the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Cush, both young and old, naked and barefoot, with buttocks bared, humiliating Egypt.” (Isaiah 20:3-4, CEB)

The story of Hosea & Gomer 

Hosea's unusual call. Just a farm boy called by God. I can imagine that in high school he would have been involved in the 4H Club or FFA. He would tend the farm passed down from his father and his father’s father. I can just see him stepping out his front door and with arms wide open begin to sing…

Green acres is the place for me
Farm livin' is the life for me
Land spreadin' out so far and wide
Keep Manhattan, just give me that countryside.
(Green Acres Theme)

 

Perhaps, while in high school, he found himself spending time with an attractive classmate. Falling in love with someone whose beauty just takes your breath away. He might even spend time saying her name out loud.

O Gomer, Gomer!

Wait!

When I think of someone named Gomer, this is what comes to mind!

“Well, gollllly sergeant Carter. Surprise, surprise, surprise!”
(Gomer Pyle Quotes)

But the beauty of the name is attached to the beauty of the person. As Shakespeare observes…

What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
(Romeo and Juliet)

But our text today tells of Gomer's infidelities.

As Gomer began to bear children, Hosea wondered how many of them were actually his. I imagine that birth control was non-existent. When you have a child born with features that bear a striking resemblance to the man next door (or the mailman, or the milkman) you can’t help but begin to wonder about your wife’s fidelity.

Why was Gomer unfaithful? I don’t know. Maybe she just couldn’t find any sense of contentment or satisfaction in life. Maybe she was just tired of Hosea or tired of the country life! Maybe her song was…

New York is where I'd rather stay
I get allergic smelling hay
I just adore a penthouse view
Dah-ling I love you but give me Park Avenue.
(Green Acres Theme)

Hosea became angry and upset. Gomer left the house. She left behind everything—her husband, her home, even her children. I cannot imagine the pain that they all must have felt. Hosea, feeling betrayed and left with the kids. The children, confused at all of the hostility and angry remarks that their parents had hurled at each other. Even Gomer, uncertain of why she behaved the way she did, unable to explain the desires that led her to treat her marriage the way she did.

Now Gomer was free again to live the way she wanted. She did need an income so she decided to make a living doing what she did best—she became a prostitute. Prostitutes lead difficult lives in our own society; it could only have been worse in those days. I don’t know how it happened; it really isn’t explained for us—but somehow Gomer ended up being enslaved. What Irony! She finally thought that she had found her freedom: freedom from responsibility, freedom from care, freedom from worries. What she found wasn’t freedom at all. What she found was slavery.

But, even in the midst of the pain and anger God’s love is still evident.

In the second chapter of Hosea we see…

16 Then once again she will call me her husband ... 19 Israel, I will make you my wife; I will be true and faithful; I will show you constant love and mercy and make you mine forever. 20 I will keep my promise and make you mine, and you will acknowledge me as Lord. ... 23 I will establish my people in the land and make them prosper. I will show love to those who were called "Unloved," and to those who were called "Not-My-People" I will say, "You are my people," and they will answer, "You are our God."

Perhaps this is what Peter had in mind when he wrote his first letter…

⁹ But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people who are God's own possession. You have become this people so that you may speak of the wonderful acts of the one who called you out of darkness into his amazing light. ¹⁰ Once you weren't a people, but now you are God's people. Once you hadn't received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (1 Peter 2:9-10)

Hosea Demonstrates God’s Love for Us

3:1 Then the Lord said to me, “Go and love your wife again, even though she commits adultery with another lover. This will illustrate that the Lord still loves Israel, even though the people have turned to other gods and love to worship them.”

2 So I bought her back for fifteen pieces of silver and five bushels of barley and a measure of wine. (Hosea 3 - New Living Translation)

Hosea and children went to the market one day. He was carrying with him much of the grain he had been able to grow on his small farm that summer. These trips to the market were important to families like Hosea’s. It is true that they grew much of what they needed, but it wasn’t enough. Their were other needs. If Hosea were fortunate he could sell all of his grain for money or barter it for the things that his family would need for the next year. That was foremost in his mind.

The kids loved the trips to the market. It was like the state fair. The town would be crowded with people. The streets would be filled with merchants from all over. Merchants who had just return from foreign lands with strange and exotic merchandise. There would be the food. A lot of food. All sorts of food frying and emitting wondrous and enticing odors. I can just see the children running from booth to booth with their jaws hurting because their saliva glands were working harder than they ever have in their lives. See the children running to their father, “Let us have some money,” “May we buy this?” Hosea would give them all enough to buy some of the unusual food to taste and enjoy.

The market. Hear the sounds of dickering over prices. Hear the sounds of the barkers calling people to witness exotic shows and performance. Hear the auctioneers calling people to make bids.

I don’t know what it was that attracted Hosea to that particular place. The man was auctioning off women—slave women. Some of them were young and desirable. They should fetch a good price. Then there were the others. They were older, tired and just worn out. Maybe some of them still had some desirability, but most likely they would be seen as more useful as domestic slaves. Many of these women had previous owners. Since they were getting older they were traded in for younger, newer models. Hosea saw the women, but when his eyes lighted on one he paused. There was that quickening in his heart as the moment of recognition came. It was Gomer. Older, her hair graying, did she look shorter? Maybe she was stooped over. Hosea thought that after that initial moment of recognition his heart would return to normal, but it did not. He recognized the feeling that overcame him. Dear Lord!, he still loved her.

Gomer, all she ever did was bring him hurt and misery. She had flaunted her infidelity. She had given him the children of strangers and he had accepted them and had raised them as his own. Did she ever bring anything good to their relationship. Yet, he loved her. Through the years of the pain that she had caused him, through the years of her absence as he was beginning to heal his own emotional being, he still loved her and realized that he would do anything for her.

That day Hosea managed to sell all of his grain. He had traded it for a woman—a woman that he would always love. He returned home that day with Gomer.