Week Two Day One Gomer, a harlot
Read again the first few verses of Hosea.
Hosea 1: 1 The word of the LORD that came to Hosea the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel. 2 When the LORD began to speak by Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea:
“ Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry
And children of harlotry,
For the land has committed great harlotry
By departing from the LORD.”
3 So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.
Let’s take a few minutes to see what we can discover about Gomer in the first three verses of Hosea 1.
1. What was Gomer?____________________
2. When did Gomer live?(during which kings)________________________
3. Gomer was the daughter of whom?__________________
Now let’s take a quick look at what some of the names mean in these verses to get a better understanding of the story. (Names usually mean something in the OT. We will see this more clearly when we get to the names of Hosea’s children.)
Hosea means the same as Joshua, the Lord saves, salvation
Beeri means a source of water such as a spring
Diblaim means double raisin cakes…the raisin cakes were offerings made to the idols
Gomer is usually a man’s name and means to finish or complete
Looking at the two families and their names, what importance do you think these names may have? (This is just our own ideas and not to be found in Hosea—so no wrong answers)
Remember when Hosea was written, this is at the end of the Northern Kingdom of Israel’s rule. During the life of Hosea, Israel is conquered by the Assyrians and taken away as captives. Could this be the end that Gomer’s name refers to? Also, we see that her parent, Diblaim is named for something that was associated with idol worship, and this idol worship is the main reason for the judgment that is coming on the Northern Kingdom.
On the other hand we have Beeri, a source of water and Jesus is called the living water and Hosea which is salvation. Even though Israel was soon to be destroyed, God still promises that there will come a time when Israel will be redeemed.
Gomer as a prostitute
There were two different types of harlots or prostitutes mentioned in the Old Testament. One is your everyday prostitute that sells her body in exchange for material gain, whether money, food, clothing, shelter or some other kind of perceived need. The other type is called a cult prostitute, and they could be male or female, and they did what they did as part of the religious practices of idol worship. Part of the worship of these idols included sexual practices that would stimulate the false idol to give fertility to the land and the people that worshipped them.
Being honest about human nature, why do you think these practices have had such widespread success?
Tomorrow we will take a more in depth look at how Israel had fallen into these cultic sexual practices, but for the rest of today let’s think specifically about Gomer.
We do not know Gomer’s background specifically from what Hosea wrote, but by looking at other parts of the Bible and historical documents we can know pretty much what her life was like. There were only a couple of reasons for a girl to become a prostitute. She could have been sold into prostitution by her family or master, if born a slave. She could have been left for dead after her birth and picked up by the Temple priests to become a prostitute or she could have been born to a prostitute, so this was basically the family business. Since we have the name of a parent, we can guess she had not been left for dead as a newborn. And because of the name, Diblaim, referring to raisin cakes, I would dare to guess this was the family business and more than likely they were not ordinary prostitutes but those in Temple service to one idol or another. Girls raised in an idol’s temple would see a lot that we as parents do not want our children to see. Sexual practices would be taught to her from a very early age and how to please the idol that was being worshipped. As stated, these temples had both male and female prostitutes as well as many other deviant forms of sexual activities. Her whole life she would be surrounded by blatant immorality.
How would growing up in an atmosphere such as this affect the child?
Do you think Gomer’s idea of marriage could have been affected by this life?
Without getting into any specific sexual sins, what would this lifestyle teach a young person about who they were and what was expected of them?
Is there any way to change this self image?
Many of us have been exposed to sexual immorality, either through how we were raised, or by sins that we have gotten into on our own. Whether we realize it or not, it will affect how we act in our marriage and other inter-personal relationships. That is why pornography is such an insidious sin. These sins take the joy away from our lives and can cause us to go looking elsewhere for our satisfaction.
Right now take a moment to write out a prayer that repents of this dis-satisfaction and ask God to help you enjoy your life to its fullest, whether single or married. If you are single then sex is not to be a part of your life and if you are married, then only sex with your spouse is what God has intended. In both cases, God intends for us to have a life of joy and satisfaction.
Prayer:
No comments:
Post a Comment