Thin,
haggard, disheveled, Gomer stands looking down to the ground of the filthy
slave market. Her neck was chained to an auction block, her hair matted, her
ribs protruding beneath her skin and her hands dangled downwards, failing to
cover her nakedness. She did not infuse a jot of lust in a single man who
passed by. The bidding reached 10 shekels of silver, 12 shekels, then 15
shekels, followed by a man who cried out 15 shekels and thirteen bushels
barley…. going once, going twice … Sold!
One of the
greatest love stories ever told happened in760 B.C. Hosea, a young budding
preacher once went to visit a family friend named Diblaim. It was there that he
was struck by the beauty of Diblaim’s daughter who was serving him water.
With the darkest, deepest eyes, jet black hair that cascaded on her back like
herds rushing down a mountain, a soothing smile and clothing that gave her a
radiant splendor, Gomer was hauntingly beautiful. As most young women of her
time, she had love for expensive clothing, jewelry and cosmetics. The preacher
had fallen in love with a prostitute. She responded to his love and they stood
before the Hebrew marriage altar to vow eternal love to God and each other. The
town gossiped mercilessly about how a preacher would take a prostitute for a
wife. However, the love of Hosea and Gomer blossomed and was rewarded by a
blessing of a firstborn, whom they named Jezreel.
Soon after
the birth of Jezreel, Hosea started to notice a change in Gomer’s character.
She became distant, restless, unhappy and even began to spend more time away
from home. Gomer’s frequent absence from home instilled prolonged pangs of
suspicion in Hosea. Gomer was soon with a child again and a daughter was born
whom Hosea named Lo-Ruhamah. But Gomer continued drifting away further from her
husband. Often, she would leave and not return until dawn or even stayed out
for days. Hosea sought every way possible to restore her, but to no avail.
After a
year, a third child was born, Lo-Ammi. Hosea knew deep within that he is
neither the father of Lo-Ammi nor Lo- Ruhamah. He pleaded with her, threatened
to disinherit her but still she kept running away with her lovers who promise
to lavish her with material things. She repeatedly returned back to Hosea with
repentance and each time he took her back with loving kindness. However her
contrition was short lived and she would run off again with a new lover.
Hosea’s
patience was drained within him and he wept, but his love for the mother of his
children never grew weak. Soon after, Gomer drifted beyond reach, leaving Hosea
to be the only caretaker of three children, two of which he does not even
father.He looked for her throughout Samaria but days, weeks and years passed
by.
Hosea
became an object of derision as the town kept referring to him as the pitiful
preacher whom after being deserted by his prostitute wife, is raising children
of adultery as if they were his own.
One day,
terrible news about the condition of Gomer reached Hosea. She had fallen into
the hands of a man who lacked the means to support her. So Hosea went out to
look for her and found her in a ramshackle house of a dissolute man. He then
begged her to return to him but she rejected all his pleadings. He later came
up with a plan to buy her all the jewelries, cosmetics and clothes she loved
dearly and give it to her lover in private so that all her needs would be
provided while she still thought it came from her lover.
Hosea had
not heard of Gomer for a long time after that but one day as he was walking by
a slave market, he saw Gomer up for an auction because of the dept she socked
herself into. He bought her with 15 shekels of silver and paid the rest of the
money she owed with barley because he could not afford more shekels of silver.
Hosea gave everything he owned to redeem his wayward wife. He then said to her,
“You shall stay with me for many days. You shall not play the harlot, nor shall
you have a man; so I will also be towards you” (Hos 3:2). He then took her to
live with him in the same house where they later on resumed their intimate
relationship after a period of celibacy.
7 JULY 2010
