The Prophet and the Prostitute

By Helen Jesze, 6th November 2015

“Sow for yourselves according to righteousness (uprightness and right standing with God); reap according to mercy and loving-­kindness. Break up your uncultivated ground, for it is time to seek the Lord, to inquire for and of Him, and to require His favor, till He comes and teaches you righteousness and rains His righteous gift of salvation upon you.”

Hosea 10, 12 The Amplified Bible

H​osea, the prophet, wanted a wife, so God told him to go to the red-­light district and marry a certain prostitute he would find there. What a comedown for a prophet of God, to go and marry a woman like this! A man of God, who had led a clean life, not been sleeping around – was this the only wife God could find for him?! He had always wanted a ​virgin​, now he had to marry a woman who had slept with many – perhaps ​hundreds of men!

But Hosea, wanting to obey God went down to the red-­light district. He looked along the row of prostitutes standing in various seductive poses, listening for God’s inner voice. Suddenly he heard it: “This is the one – ​Gomer!​” So he took Gomer out of the prostitutes’ house and they married. His neighbours probably sneered at his choice of a bride, but he had only one explanation. God had told him their marriage was to be a picture to the Children of Israel showing the relationship between Him and the nation of Israel and Judah, who had gone into spiritual adultery, bowing down to false gods. Not only was he to ​speak God’s word ​to the nation, but this message was to be ​lived out daily in his life and marriage!

A few years passed and Gomer bore children, each receiving a name which described the desperate spiritual situation of the nation. Hosea boldly declared his prophetic messages but the people mocked and did not listen, continuing in their sin and idol worship. One day Gomer ran away and went back to her old life. Hosea’s heart was filled with grief and disappointment, but this mirrored in only a small measure the boundless grief​ which filled ​God’s ​heart as His people ran away from ​Him.

Then God’s word came again to Hosea: “Go again, love (the same) woman (Gomer) who is beloved of a paramour and is an adultress, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods… So I bought her for fifteen pieces of silver and a half of barley (the price of a slave), And I said to her, You shall be (betrothed) to me for many days; you shall not play the harlot and you shall not belong to another man. So will I also be to you…” Hosea 3, 1­3 The Amplified Bible

The relationship of Hosea and Gomer had now reached a new stage. Not only had he gone looking for her​, but he had ​bought ​her out of ​slavery. She was now a ​free woman – free to make her own choice for him or her former lovers, for good or evil. Hosea had also ​forgiven her for her desertion to him, and given her ​another chance​, instead of divorcing her. His love remained ​faithful​, even though she had broken their covenant.

It’s time to seek the Lord

God’s message to Hosea continued to come that His nation would be rejected for a while because of their sin, but then they would start to seek Him, and He would be waiting for them. God’s love and longing pours out in Hosea’s words, “Come and let us return to the Lord, for He has torn so that He may heal us; He has stricken us so that He may bind us up. After two days He will revive us (quicken us, give us life); on the third day He will raise us up that we may live before Him.” Hosea 6, 1 + 2 The Amplified Bible.

Hosea’s neighbours and all in the city knew of Hosea buying back his wife, and that this was a picture that God, too, had come looking for ​them. ​He was ready to forgive and heal their backslidings, enter into a new spiritual relationship with them. In this context, Hosea sets a “trumpet to his lips” to shout out the message of our text today, that ​it is time to seek the Lord!

He pleads with the people to begin to sow seeds of uprightness and good living in their lives, and they would then reap mercy and loving­-kindness from God. It was time to break up the fallow, uncultivated ground of their hearts, to prepare it for God’s Word to be sown there.

Prepared Heart

Before a field or piece of land can be cultivated, it must be prepared. Stones and rubbish must be taken away and the earth turned over, ploughed and made soft, to receive the seed which will be sown. God is speaking also to us today, that the ground of our hearts which is often hard and cannot be fruitful, must be prepared.

It is also time for ​you and ​me today to seek the Lord in a new way. His forgiveness and the promise of a new relationship with Him is promised to us, for he has said He will heal our backslidings and will love us freely. The prepared heart will bring forth new, wonderful fruit, we will receive His favour; He will teach us how we should live and will rain His gift of salvation upon us. His faithfulness remains to all generations!

You might be thinking, well, someone like a ​prostitute or someone who has done ‘​big sins’ – they need to seek the Lord, but ​me​?! I don’t really need to do this. Or somebody else may be thinking that they are like Gomer, that they are far away from God and He could not possibly want them, for they are too wicked. But it is true today that God is still a God of mercy and He is going after every ‘Gomer”, and the blood of His Son – Jesus Christ – can wash away every stain of sin, and make that person ​brand­ new!

From a prostitute to a pastor

A friend of mine told me how she had just come back from a country in Eastern Europe, and had preached there in a church of 200 people which was being pastored by a young woman who had only been a Christian for two years, and who had been a prostitute before that! Normally we might think that such a young Christian and from such a background could not possibly start and lead a church. This is usually the case, but perhaps the testimony of her changed life was so great, that many believed in the Lord.

That was like the woman at the well in John chapter 4, who after meeting Jesus the Messiah face to face ran into the city and told everyone that here was a man who had told her everything she had done. This included being married five times and the man she was now living with, was not her husband. The people ran out to see this Man and hear for themselves. First they believed because of ​her testimony​, and later, because of Him.

It does not matter where we have come from but it matters where we ​are going to!

It does not matter what we have ​done​, but it matters what we do ​now ​when we hear this message portrayed through the lives of the prophet and the prostitute – that ​it is time to seek the Lord and to let Him change us.

​What will be ​your ​answer today?

Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for your faithful love and for going after me every time I have run away from you, going my own way, worshipping the things of the world instead of you. Wash me clean and make me anew. Let my relationship with you be even closer than before! I’m running to you now – for it’s time for ME to seek the Lord! Amen.