Hosea 3:1: “Then said the LORD unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of [her] friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the LORD toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love flagons of wine.”
Here it is very clear in the words according to the love of the Lord toward the children of Israel, that we find this whole story of Hosea is a picture and illustration from an actual life experience to demonstrate the endearing love that God has for His people.
Hosea’s wife has now left him for another man. God is telling Hosea to go and love this woman who has betrayed him, cheated on him and gave herself to another man. The wording in this passage is much different from the wording in Hosea 1:2 where he is instructed to take a wife of harlotry. But now he is instructed to love his wife who is loved by another man. The word for wife is ishah which is the same word for woman. Most our modern translations will render this as God telling Hosea to love his wife rather than love a woman. I believe using the word wife rather than woman fits the context much better. As this suggest a love relationship.
Note too, that she is no longer called a harlot even though she is living with another man. She is now said to be an adulteress. In Hosea 1:1 she is called a zanah which means a woman who commits fornication. The word can have a broad range of meaning. It could mean anything from a woman who is unfaithful in the sense of just being flirtatious to actually committing adultery, to being a prostitute or even a cult prostitute.
The fact that God no longer calls her a zanah in this third chapter but a na’aph which is an adulterous person suggest that she did enjoy a faithful and love relationship with Hosea before being drawing away to another man. Under Hebrew law Hosea could have had her put to death. But this did not often happen. Most often a man would just keep his wife in his household as a virtual slave. With her adulterous background He had the power of life or death over her and he could force her to perform her duties as a wife under the threat of death.
Hosea purchased his wife back from her other husband for fifteen pieces of silver and a homer and a half of barley. According to Exodus 21:32 that is half the price of a slave which was thirty shekels of silver. Numbers 5 suggest that barley was an offering for a woman suspected of adultery. The word for buy or purchase is from the root word karah which also means to dig. Some commentators say that this might refer to the boring of a hole in the ear lobe, to put a ring through it, sort of like branding cattle to show possession. The point, however, is that the first time Hosea just took his wife. The word took is in Hosea 1:2 is laqach which means to take away, take as a possession or to simply marry. Marriages were not always made out of love in those days. There is an old Jewish saying that you do not marry out of love but you married to learn to love. Often the first time a man and woman even saw each other was on their wedding day or when they were betrothed. They then would learn to love each other. They would spend a year in a state of betrothal, legally married but having no sexual relationship. Some men were even supported by their family so they would not have to work so they could spend all their time falling in love or learning to love their new wife.
In this case after a period of being married, Hosea is commanded to love his wife, even though she has left him for another husband. The phrase love flagons of wine or raisin cakes would suggest that her marriage with this other man was a marriage built on wealth as raisin cakes was often symbolic of luxuries. Yet the verse makes it clear that she is beloved by this other man. The word love and beloved both share the same root ahav. Ahav can be marital love or a selfish love. This chapter shows the two extremes of ahav. Hosea pays the other man for his wife that he loves and this old boy actually sells her to him for the price. Thus his ahav or love is not a heartfelt love but a selfish love. Hosea’s ahav was a heartfelt love as he purchased her. This did not mean that she loved him in return. We learn in the previous chapter in Hosea 2:16-18 that Hosea is going to allure her, take out into the wilderness and speak his heart to her and in so doing she will ‘anah which is to respond or sing to him. She will no longer call him Baali my master, but Ishi, my husband.
There can be many ways to interpret this story in light of the use of this word ahav. I chose to look at it from the standpoint of our relationship with God as it is a picture of God’s relationship to Israel. Israel loved God so long as God paid them well. If some other God came around that offered better benefits they would love that God. We respond to God because we don’t want to go to hell, we don’t want to be punished by Him. To us God is simply a Baali a master. Yet as we continue to dwell in God’s heart He no longer becomes our master but Ishi, our husband. We no longer serve Him because we fear we may go to hell or our lives may end up in ruin if we don’t, we serve Him because we truly love Him. We do not sin because it will send us to hell, we do not sin because it will wound the heart of the God we have learned to love.
For the last seven years I have been on a search for the heart of God studying the Bible in the original languages. Many of you have shared this journey with me through my emails and blog. I have personally found that in the last seven years since I began my search for the heart of God that the more I learned of His heart the more I grew to love him. One day not too long ago someone offered to pray for me with regard to a certain situation in my life. Without even realizing it I found myself saying, “No, that’s ok, you don’t need to pray for me.” What a horrible thing to say. How can anyone not want someone to pray for them for a healing or a deliverance from a difficult situation? When I was able to be alone I got on my knees and cried out to God, “What has happened to me? I don’t want anyone to pray for me, I don’t even pray for my own needs anymore?” I actually believe I heard God say, “What do you want from me? Just ask, ask for anything, healing, prosperity, bestselling books, a huge platform, just name it and I will give it to you.” My heart cried out, “Don’t leave me, just don’t ever leave me, that’s all.” He said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Why do you serve God? Is it because He pays you well, because you want to go to heaven, to live a blessed life? No problem with that, He purchased you with the blood of His Son just as Hosea purchased his wife. She came back to Hosea as a possession, Hosea was her Baali her master. You were purchased by God and you came to Him as your master. But when you begin to search for the heart of God you begin to feel His yearning for you to no longer call Him Baali my master, but Ishi my husband. You serve Him not to get a healing, a good job, a new house, a blessed life, a ticket to heaven, but you serve simply out of love.
I had a woman ride my bus the other day and she told me her grandson just lost his job. He got married a year ago and now they are really struggling financially. But then she said, “My grandson and his wife are so happy to be married to each other they don’t know how miserable they are.” Our circumstances could be very miserable and trying but somehow when we enter the heart of God and truly love Him and bask in His love, we just don’t realize how miserable we are.
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