COMPLETELY MINE
That night, Hosea wasn’t expecting a visitation, not after what he had carnally feasted his eyes on during the day.
It had been gruesome, disgusting even, but he still watched, especially at the most alluring object of the whole scene, until the mounting pressure in his chest grew too much for him to contain.
When had Israel strayed so far? Had things degraded to this hopeless state? Where was the God of the stories of the holy prophets and priests of old?
He saw young ladies, who should have been modestly covered, gyrating wildly as though possessed by vile demons from Sheol.
His eyes had been especially fixed on a particular specimen. Her gait was a bit familiar, like a distant memory.
Her movements were the most sensuous, her meagre clothing the most cobwebby. Her eyes and gestures were bold. She shook her hips to the rhythm of the fanfare.
It was obvious she was a temple prostitute for the heathen goddess, Asherah, who was being celebrated through the sacred streets of Jerusalem.
He had no idea why his gaze lingered on her. When their eyes met momentarily though her face was veiled with a thin purple veil, he noticed her pause and the deep sadness lurking behind her seductive large eyes lined with kohl. The memory of her eyes had been branded on his memory.
Now, as he watched the form of the Most High approach him in his dreamscape, he was certain it was because he had violated the law and was about to receive a scalding rebuke.
“Lord,” he whispered, his voice trembling as he fell to his knees. His heart thudded as the silky, tall grasses surrounding him followed suit in his posture of reverence before Elohim who was before him, shrouded in Light.
Hosea hastily continues, “Be not angry at your humble servant for his iniquity, Lord. I am unworthy to be visited by you at this time.”
“Hosea, I come to you, not to condemn you. What you feel is my love, frustration and desperation for my beloved people, Israel. She is playing the harlot with things that are not gods. And my heart breaks for her. I want to rescue her.”
Tears stung the back of Hosea’s eyes as he recalled all the evil he had seen in bold display earlier that day. All his initial trepidation that he was sinking down a wormhole of lust for a common temple prostitute was gone, replaced by a deep sorrow.
“Oh Lord, what can be done? Don’t strike us in your wrath. Please, O Elohim,” Hosea cried.
Flashes of his past haunted him.
He knew what pit of darkness he had been wallowing in before Elohim showed him the light. Once upon a time, he was conflicted about the whole concept of the law. The kingdom of Israel was in shambles and it seemed as though their glory days were over.
Hosea was tired of pretending he understood, so he let go of his faith in the law of Moses, choosing to try to find meaning and freedom elsewhere.
Despite the desperate pleas from his father, Hosea had ventured on his quest in the guise of being a Spice merchant. He had been exposed to debauchery and pleasures of all sorts but still, the emptiness persisted. Eventually, after many wasted years of roaming like a vagabond, he came back to Elohim, broken and surrendered.
“I am a God of Love, Hosea,” came the reply. “It is my nature and the established laws that make judgement inevitable.”
Hosea thought he could hear a hint of tears in Elohim’s voice. He bowed his head and allowed his tears to drop.
Something didn’t sound right about this declaration though. All his life, he had been subjected to the concept of a God who was all out to breathe fire and brimstone on those who failed to obey him.
That was what had repulsed and confounded him about Elohim at first to the point that he had tottered on the brink of apostasy. He thought his restoration was a one-time luck thing. Perhaps his praying father had been extra pious and had offered more sacrifices on his behalf during his season of waywardness.
But soon, he slowly learned that it was not a function of his righteousness or any good deeds. It was a new side of Elohim he wasn’t familiar with but that he was grateful for.
The lightened form of Elohim moved with purposeful steps and His face gazed at the infinite distance.
“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. All I desire is mercy, not sacrifice, the knowledge of me, not burnt offerings.”
Hosea didn’t know what to say to that.
Elohim continued, “How? How can I give you up? My heart is torn within me. My compassion is aroused.”
Hosea swallowed, soaking the words into his spirit. There was something Elohim was driving at with this heartfelt declaration. It resonated with him.
Suddenly, Elohim turned to face him. Hosea could see the shimmering tears falling like a fountain and being soaked up by the hem of Elohim’s sparkling white robe.
“Hosea, I have chosen you to be my symbol, a prophet to my people.”
Hosea gulped, shuffling against the grass. “I am your humble servant.”
“You will arise and take a wife…”
Hosea almost chuckled in relief. It was about time. At age forty-one, he was long overdue for marriage. In his wayward phase, he’d decided to be a free bird. Now that he was restored, he had considered being a monk. His aged father would be pleased by this news that Elohim was delivering, Hosea was sure.
“… a wife of whoredom. The very temple prostitute you had been drawn to earlier today.”
He scrunched his eyes in utter confusion. Had he heard right?
“Lord?”
“Her name is Gomer, daughter of Diblaim.”
Everything stopped as multiple dots connected in Hosea’s mind at once.
Diblaim had been a regular seamster until he somehow took up the mantle of a heathen priest after he claimed Asherah herself had appeared to him and commissioned him to be her banner in Israel.
The man immediately carried his entire family and initiated them into the practices of heathen worship. He soon ascended to the level of high priest. Consequently, all his female children were dedicated to Asherah the moment they entered their teenage prime. Gomer was the first to go for it.
The cruel joke was this, Hosea had known Gomer in his childhood days. Before the whole downward spiral for them both, they had been curious children who attended Torah lessons together. She was quite intelligent and never ceased to pester him with her wit.
The woman he’d seen today was the same Gomer? No wonder she looked so familiar.
“How can I do this, Lord?” Hosea asked, panicking. “She is publicly known as a whore! That will be a big blight on my reputation!”
“You will do as I say because you feel what I feel. This will illustrate the way my people have been untrue to me, openly committing adultery against the LORD by worshipping other gods.”
Even as the vision of the night faded out, Hosea knew that this decree had been sealed. There was nothing he could do to reverse it. Besides, he couldn’t deny that he had felt something for Gomer when he laid his eyes on her.
~~~
The next few days after the dream, Hosea battled with the notion of the ludicrous command Elohim had given him. How was he supposed to go about this mission?
Subtly, he made frequent visits to the pubs where he sat quietly in a corner while some lewd men would jest about their nights of exploring women’s bodies.
Each time, he would wince at the crude language and graphic speech. But he would wait until they got to talking about Gomer. Only a few men had been privileged to interact with her. She was very expensive and reserved only for the most honoured or whomever she chose.
Hoses had gone to Elohim with that excuse—he couldn’t afford it. The command didn’t change. Elohim told him to sell all of his last batch of precious spices. He yielded and sold it for forty pieces of silver. He spent half of that whooping sum both getting his house ready for her and to also spend regular nights of visit to woo her.
“I knew you would come,” she said in her sultry voice that caused Hosea’s awareness to spike the first night he paid to see her. It was very hard not to touch her. He had to keep his distance and pray nonstop to Elohim for strength.
He talked with her repeatedly and asked her to marry him. She also recognized him vaguely from their childhood. She didn’t say it directly but Hosea could tell she felt this was her only way of escape from her caged lifestyle.
Her father’s price had been outrageous for several reasons. Diblaim didn’t want her out of his jurisdiction. If not that Gomer had insisted and even threatened that she would kill herself if her father didn’t let her go, he wouldn’t have obliged.
After lots of haggling, Hosea eventually had to pay fifteen pieces of silver with one and a half homers of barley to claim her as his wife.
The night she was lawfully his, Hoses was very nervous. He didn’t know how to deal with her boldness. When she began to use her expertise to touch him, he restrained his desire and held her hands firmly as he said, “Goner, you must live in my house for many days and stop your prostitution. During this time, you will not have sexual intercourse with anyone,” He paused, grimacing as he laid down the last condition, “Not even with me.”
She looked at him as though he was speaking gibberish. When she realized he was serious, she retreated into her invisible shell like a frightened snail. She was angry, cold and irresponsive to him for the next few weeks.
But her defences melted because Hosea showed her a kind of love she had never known—unconditional.
~~~
Hosea felt as though a hot sledgehammer had been slammed against his ribcage when Gomer confessed the result of her most recent escapade. The level of the hurt she had inflicted on him this time around was too deep to be glossed over.
It was only in the first year of their union that Gomer had shown signs of keeping to their marriage covenant.
But after she gave birth to their son, Jezreel, she became restless again.
Every time Hosea went out on some important task the Lord would have him do, he noticed that Gomer wouldn’t be home. She would arrive late and sometimes drunk.
Then she was pregnant again. But he knew deep in the pit of his belly that that baby wasn’t his.
Elohim told him to name the girl Loruhamah, meaning Not Loved.
Tonight, Gomer told him tearily that she was with child again. She had been very dramatic about her show of regret. And that was because he confronted her with the gossip circulating that she had been sneaking back to the temple to offer her body at exorbitant prizes to select men.
To prevent himself from doing something to Gomer that he would regret, Hosea left the house.
He ran to the top of the lone hills in the countryside where shepherds sometimes brought their flock to graze. He hoped he wasn’t running mad. This time, he couldn’t shake off the imagination of Gomer entwined in the heat of passion with a strange man. It cut holes in his heart.
Maybe he was undesirable, boring, and not satisfying enough. Despite all his extra effort to love this impossible woman…
The sad thing was that he still loved her. It was etched on his heart with a branded coal prong. He knew this was Elohim’s doing and he was prepared to wrestle with Elohim until he got rid of this thorn in his heart.
When he had scanned the area through blurred eyes and was sure no one was within hearing range, he began to cry out loud.
“Elohim, please take away this pain. Take away the affection I still feel for this wretched woman. I am fed up.”
“Hosea…”
“No, Elohim. Please, don’t convince me otherwise. Tomorrow morning, I will return her to her father. I’m sure he will be pleased. I will get the divorce documents after. I will send Jezreel to my parents. She can find whoever owns the other babies she has decided to dump on me.”
“Hosea, my son…”
“Do you know what I’ve suffered, Lord? The ridicule from my family and acquaintances for my foolish decision to marry a used woman? The constant rejection and heartbreak Gomer made me go through? The emotional strain on me and even those innocent kids whenever she behaved like we meant nothing to her?”
“I know, Hosea. I’ve been there.”
“But, you’re Elohim. I’m just a man. My heart is shattered to splinters. I cannot bear this anymore.”
As he wept, he felt the warm comforting arms of the Lord wrapped around him. He crumbled to the floor, bawling and whimpering like a child bitten by a serpent.
When he rose, he was spent from too much crying and squirming. But he knew he had not won this wrestling contest.
“I will give you my heart, the kind that can melt every resistance, the kind that lays down its life in place of the one it loves. Eventually, Gomer will be wholly yours just as Israel will be completely mine. Be patient, my son.”
With a heavy and resigned heart, Hosea slugged home with one extra dose of knowledge: the child Gomer would bear would be a boy and his name would be called Loammi.
•••°°°•••
Author’s Note
Ever since I read Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers, I’ve been quite fascinated by the story of Hosea and Gomer. I’ve wondered what struggles Hosea had to battle to obey God’s (seemingly contradictory) instruction to marry a prostitute.
The truth is, we are all Gomers and Jesus paid a high price to buy us back from our slave masters. This story was written to reiterate that. I do not claim that the events I have written above are exactly how they happened in history. I simply wove a fictional narrative around the biblical backbone. I hope you not only enjoyed it but also were open to seeing and embrace God’s unconditional love. 💖💖💖
If this story blessed you, please feel free to share and leave a vote and a comment. I like those. 🤗
