3
The Lord said to me, ‘Go. Show your love to your wife again. She is loved by another man. And she has committed adultery. But I want you to love her just as I love the people of Israel. They turn to other gods. And they love to offer raisin cakes to Baal and eat them. In spite of that, I love my people.’ 2 So I bought Gomer for 180 grams of silver and 180 kilograms of barley. 3 Then I told her, ‘You must wait for me for a long time. You must not be a prostitute. You must not have sex with any man. And I will be faithful to you too.’
4 So the people of Israel will live for a long time without a king or prince. They won't have sacrifices or sacred stones. They won't have sacred linen aprons or statues of family gods. 5 After that, the people of Israel will return to the Lord their God. They will look to him and to a king from the family line of David. In the last days, they will tremble with fear as they come to the Lord. And they will receive his full blessing.
1:1–3:5 Hosea brought messages of judgement and hope to the people of the northern kingdom. He spoke some messages as poems and shared some messages through actions of prophecy. Hosea obeyed God's instructions about who to marry and what to name their children. His marriage and the naming of his children were actions of prophecy. Hosea married a woman who had sex with other men. She acted like a prostitute. This was a picture of how the people of the northern kingdom treated God. God was faithful to them like Hosea was faithful to his wife Gomer. But the people weren't faithful to God just like Gomer wasn't faithful to Hosea. Faithfulness between Hosea and Gomer meant having sex only with each other. Faithfulness between God and God's people meant that God's people worshipped only God. It meant that they obeyed the Law of Moses recorded in the Mount Sinai covenant. Hosea gave his children names that meant Not Loved and Not My People. These names were a picture of how God would treat his people. He would treat them as if they weren't his people that he loved. This means that he would treat them as if the Mount Sinai covenant were broken. The covenant showed that God chose the family line of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He chose them to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. That was how God showed his love for them. But the people of the northern kingdom worshipped the false god called Baal. It was as if they had forgotten that God was their God. God never stopped being faithful to his people. God promised that one day Israel would recognise him as the Lord. God's people would enjoy the covenant blessings. They would be led by a king from David's family line. Jews came to understand these messages of hope as prophecies about the messiah. New Testament writers came to understand that Jesus is the Messiah.