Hosea Loves Gomer

~from Hosea (c. 760 BC)

And now, here’s what I’m going to do:
I’m going to start all over again.
I’m taking her back out into the wilderness
where we had our first date, and I’ll court her.

On the very same day, I’ll answer [1] —
This is God’s message:
“I’ll say to Nobody, ‘You are my dear Somebody,’
and she will say ‘You are my God!’”[2]

Yes, this is a poem, a Hebrew poem composed by Israel’s prophet, Hosea. It was written many years ago, but it reaches across the years and touches us even today.

It’s a poem about an unhappy marriage, something of which I know nothing by experience. I have, however, learned from some of my friends that there is no anguish like the unhappiness of an unhappy marriage.

Hosea’s poem grew out of his relentless love for his wife Gomer, a love that was unrequited. Time after time Gomer turned from Hosea to other lovers—infidelities that broke the young prophet’s heart. Yet he never stopped loving her. (You must read the entire poem for yourself in the Old Testament.)

They say we’re not punished so much for our infidelities as by them. Thus Gomer descended into a very dark place. I picture her—used up, worn out, drug-hooked, disease-ridden, laden with sadness. She had nothing left but Hosea’s love.

So, when all of Gomer’s lovers abandoned her, Hosea gathered her in, and, as the Hebrew text puts it so quaintly, “spoke love to her heart.” [3] Then he promised, “I will wait for you.”

Hosea’s friends and neighbors watched the story unfold. They saw the tragedy and the tenacity of Hosea’s stubborn passion and asked, “What is this illogical ‘reaction,’ this crazy love that loves beyond betrayal?” And someone replied, “Oh, I see! Hosea loves Gomer, just as God loves me!”

Seven hundred years ago, Julian of Norwich wrote, “This is what you must know and fix in your heart: that God never began to love you at some particular moment. For just as we know we will be with Him for endless ages to come, He has loved us from ages past without beginning. For His love has no beginning and no end.” [4]

At the end of Marc Connelly’s play Green Pastures, old Hezdrel tells God he’s not afraid to die because he believes that God himself is “the God of Hosea.” God replies, “Don’t you mean the God of Moses?” “No,” replies Hezdrel, “De God dat Hosea preached to us . . . de God of Love and Mercy . . . he ain’t a fearsome God no mo.”

And here in the dust and dirt, O here,
The lilies of his love appear.[5]

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[1] This is an important word in this context. The verb does not mean “to answer” but “to react.” (This meaning is clear in the many cases in the Old Testament in which the word occurs in a context that does not involve speech.) Essentially, it means a “willing response.”
[2] from Eugene Peterson’s The Message
[3] Hosea 2:14
[4] from I Promise You a Crown: A 40-Day Journey in the Company of Julian of Norwich[5] from Henry Vaughan’s “The Revival”

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