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Hoseah marrying whore… I had to teach SS on this chapter. It went over like the probervial turd in the punch bow. I triehiso explain that women did not have economic opportunities as we enjoy. That maybe a family was poverty stricken and had all daughters and couldn’t come up with dowreries for them so they did what they had to do to survive. I brought up Rehab who tied a scarlet cloth to her window when the Israelites overthrew Jericho. What about Judah and Tamar when she disguised herself as a harlot because Judah wouldn’t allow the leverite marriage (tho predating Mosaic law) happen with his youngest son? Afterall, the Messianic bloodline came through the forbidden union between Judah and his daughter in law. Also Lot’s daughters sons became nations of the Ammonites and Moabites. These sons were products of incest between Lot and his daughtrrs yet Ruth was a Moabitess and contributed to the Davidic bloodline. I even tried to explain the symbolism when thr Lord called Israel a whore for idolatry and spiritually divorced them after their rebellion from the the kingdom of Judah. They were scatter by the Assyrians at the time of Hosesa.
The children from the marriage was symbolic of a future reconciliation and gathering of the lost 10 Tribes. As a people who believe we are Ephramites I thought they would see it as an awesome lesson. Ephraim through Jeroboam set up idolatry and calf worship so the reconciliation idea seemed awesome to me. Maybe I’m weird but the class generally couldn’t get over the whore part and chalked it up to a mistranslation.
“punch bowl” not bow and “triehiso” is “tried to”… I have also discovered that navigating with the back feature can cause double posts, at least on my cheapie android phone Interesting. I think things were so different back then that many people can’t believe how it was. Read Judges 19. It makes me want to cry. It sounds to me like the townspeople wanted to settle some differences and the guy said, “hey – take this woman and rape her and beat her up all night until she is killed and I am going to go to bed and see if she is still alive in the morning.” SICK SICK SICK no mater what time you live in. I love, love, LOVEthe story of Hoseah. I understand it as a metaphore of Gods love for us collectively and individually.
From my recollection of the story Hosea marries this woman, Gomer, who is a prostitute and saves her from that lifestyle. Perhaps she is not completely trusting in putting all her eggs in one basket with Hosea (possibly because of past bad experiences with men) and she resumes having extramarital lovers. She gives birth to 3 children, 2 of which Hosea does not seem to believe are his biologically. Finally she runs off with a lover and sends a note to Hosea that she is gone for good. Hosea longs for his wife – this is not merely someone that he must tolerate because God has commanded it.
Hosea later finds that Gomer’s lover had abandoned her and that Gomer through misfortune and poor choices has been reduced to slavery. Hosea searches for Gomer and finds her on the slave auction block in a wretched state. Hosea buys her, brings her home, and eventually retores her as his wife.
For me it is a different version of the parable of the Prodigal Son. The lessons it teaches about love and forgiveness are awesome. I do have hope and faith that pure love, given enough time, will make all the difference.
I do not know if it was historical or not, but I find the story very inspiring.
I am with Roy on this. Its one of my favorites. I tend to be an Old Testament nut, not the standard LDS Sunday School nut, but the Old Testament itself, this is one of the stand out pieces in it. I had to teach this lesson a while back. My favorite part is that his first child with Gomer is basically named “Not Mine.” I mean, that’s darkly funny, right? I get that lots of folks see it as a metaphor for God’s love for the church, sure, but take it at face value, and it holds up. How many prophets would admit to marrying a prozzie? And who knows if she was a prozzie anyway. Often, women who merely had sex before marriage were called prostitutes, whether they took pay or not, which is ironic since taking pay for it usually made them a wife, not a prostitute. 
http://www.theonion.com/articles/housewife-charged-in-sexforsecurity-scam,1773/ Not a literal marriage at all. What Roy said, word-for-word. Also, Old Testament culture was such that most modern people just can’t wrap their minds around it. That’s why so many Christians ignore it and publish the New Testament only. There is a lot of horrific stuff, but there also is a lot of really cool stuff. Hosea was a mensch, and that’s one reason I love the Book of Hosea so much.
Shawn wrote:Not a literal marriage at all.
Not quite sure what you mean by this Shawn. That Hoseah and Gomer were not historical or that their relationship wasn’t an actual marriage. If the former, I am curious why you wouldn’t consider them to be married?
Another + 1 on Roy’s post. I used to study Jewish legends about the lost 10 tribes and they referenced Hoseah’s children as a being a type and shadow/symbolic of the future gathering. as a figurative story, it is not only beautiful, it is probably THE most important and relevant book of the Old Testament. As a literal marriage, it is completely without merit. Like Shawn said, it wasn’t a marriage. Hosea has to be considered a matched book-end to the incident at Gibeah, in Judges. A levite (representing the alleged holiness of israel) has an unfaithful concubine (sound familiar?). He goes to her parents’ house to reconcile (symbolism?) and leaves. on the way back to his hometown, he stays in Gibeah, a city of the tribe of benjamin. they recreate the Lot/sodom incident (this is all figurative) insisting on raping the levite. instead, he pushes his concubine out of the house and the “Sons of Belial) rape her all night long. she crawls to the door, finding it locked, dies on the step. in the morning, the well-rested levite commands to her as if chattel, “get up”, but, being dead, she doesn’t. he packs her up on his mule, and when he gets home, cuts her into 12 pieces and sends them to all the houses of israel. nice guy, that representative if the holy priesthood! this started a war where all the men of benjamin are killed. the narrator of Judges comments that in those days, tnere was no king in Israel, every man did as they wished.
Shortly thereafter, god gave Israel kings — bad ones — because they wished to be like other nations. it’s an age old story: people want to submit to the powerful because they want the certainty and safety that “kings” and “king-men” give us. it’s the message of the book of mormon, so easily misconstrued that the bad guys are the “world”, when un fact, the bad guy, in he incident at gibeah, was the Levite! The priests in Israel had corrupted the love of god and converted it into a power structrure. It was the same in Israel, among the Jews at Jesus time, and it is just as true today, when in our church, we submit to the “king men” that want to dictate commandments of men taught for doctrine.
Hosea is the prophetic warning of a loving god who is fed up with his chosen prophets whoring after the things of this world. whether aligning with wealth in politics, or in hunting reserves, or in shopping centers, or in sumptuous temples that exclude all but the elite, or in doctrines taught over the pulpit requiring uncompromising loyalty or that god’s love is conditional, the god of israel is sick and tired of our whoredoms and idolatry.
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