The Lord instructed Hosea to marry a woman who would not be faithful to him. The word rendered into English as "promiscuous" is the same word rendered elsewhere in the Scriptures as "prostitute" or "harlot". We don't know whether Hosea's wife Gomer was a literal prostitute that he took off the street and married or whether she simply began to play the harlot by being unfaithful to him sometime after their marriage. But several times in the Bible we find the Lord accusing Israel of "prostituting herself" as a way of describing her waywardness from the Lord. The Lord often refers to Himself and Israel as if they are a married couple. In this analogy the idolatry of Israel is compared to the adulteries of an unfaithful spouse.
Three children were born in the household of Hosea and Gomer. In our last study session we discussed the theory that one or more of these children were fathered by someone other than Hosea. It seems clear that the firstborn, Jezreel, was Hosea's biological son because the Bible tells us that Gomer "conceived and bore him a son". But when the next child, Lo-Ruhamah, is born, the Bible just says that Gomer "gave birth" to her. And when the third child, Lo-Ammi, is born, the Bible says that Gomer "had another son". Some scholars have come to the conclusion that the second and third child were not Hosea's but were fathered through Gomer's adulterous relationships.
I think this theory is quite likely because the Lord has set up Hosea's household in such a way that He can use it as a symbol of the spiritual condition of Israel in those days. In this symbol, Hosea represents the Lord who has been faithful to provide for and protect His wife (Israel) but whose wife has not been faithful to Him. Gomer, of course, represents wayward Israel; her adulterous affairs symbolize the way the Israelites have turned to idolatry. Some of the citizens have forsaken the Lord entirely for the gods of pagan nations and some of the citizens are dabbling in idolatry by mixing heathen worship practices with their worship of the Lord or worshiping both at the Lord's altar and at heathen altars. Right now Gomer is like those who mix idolatry with the worship of the Lord but a time is coming when she will completely forsake her husband for another man. At that time the Lord will still be using Hosea's troubled relationship with his wife as a symbol of the Lord's troubled relationship with Israel, for He will display His unending love for Israel by instructing Hosea to woo his wife back. Why does the Lord tell the prophet to take back a woman who has been unfaithful to him time and time again? Because the Lord is going to take Israel back, in spite of all she has done.
A time of chastisement and hardship is about to come upon the nation in the very near future in Hosea's day. The nation will be conquered and most of its citizens deported. But this isn't the end of Israel. This isn't the end of the people; they will not be wiped completely out and the survivors will multiply. The Lord will keep this promise He made to Abraham: "I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the sand on the seashore." (Genesis 22:17a)
The Lord restates that promise as we conclude Chapter 1. He has not forgotten the promise. He will not break the promise. "Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted. In the place where it was said to them, 'You are not My people,' they will be called, 'Children of the living God'. The people of Judah and the people of Israel will come together; they will appoint one leader and will come up out of the land, for great will be the day of Jezreel." (Hosea 1:10-11)
In Hosea's day there are two kingdoms but the northern kingdom is about to fall and the southern kingdom will also fall in about 130 years. From that point on, there will never again be a separate kingdom of Israel and Judah. It was a very long time before Israel became a sovereign nation in the world again but in our own day, with Israel a sovereign nation, the people who are the descendants of Jacob are all one people. They don't have a divided country where there is a North Israel and a South Israel. And a day is coming in which the eternal kingdom of the Lord is set up in Israel, when the Lord Himself will reign over the world from the throne of David, and in that day there will be no divisions among the Jews and no divisions between Jews and Gentiles. All who belong to the Lord will be of one family---the children of the living God---and all will have only one king---the King of kings---over them.
Earlier in our study of the book of Hosea we learned that the name of Hosea's firstborn son was Jezreel, which means something like "the Lord sows/the Lord scatters seed". The Lord instructed Hosea to name his son Jezreel to symbolize the fact that the Lord is going to scatter Israel throughout other nations just as a man might scatter seed all over a field. But when the restoration comes, the name Jezreel won't symbolize scattering among the nations; it will symbolize the Lord sowing (planting) the people back in their own land.
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