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Prophet Hosea Loved Gomer

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(Hosea 2:19 ~ 20)

I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion. I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the LORD.

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There was a prophet named Hosea. In the time this prophet worked, a country called Israel did so many wrong things in front of God.

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The people of Israel who were set up specially by distinction to serve God didn’t serve God well instead they served idols which God really hated and they bowed down to those, betrayed God and did evil things in front of God. Hosea was a person who worked as a prophet in such an evil time.

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Following the sayings of God, Prophet Hosea got married.

The person God told Hosea to get marry to was a woman called Gomer who had done a very bad deed. She was a person who could never get married to Hosea but with very great love Hosea accepts that woman as his wife.

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Hosea and Gomer married and had many children between them.

The name of the first son was Jezreel and the name of the second daughter was Lo-Ruhamah and the third was a son who is named Lo-Ammi.

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But Hosea’s wife Gomer was a very bad woman.

She married Hosea but loved another man. This was a very bad thing.

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But God said to Hosea, “Hosea, love your wife Gomer again.”

God told Hosea to love again his wife who had left him and loved another person.

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“Israelites are just like my wife whom I love so much. But they put my love behind and served other idols and ate the things which they should not eat as people of God. But I did not throw out Israel and I loved them again so by the same heart as mine, love your wife again.”

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Upon hearing God’s words, Hosea realized how huge God's love was in providing for Israel. So following God’s sayings, Hosea decided to bring his wife Gomer back who had betrayed him.

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So Hosea gave 15 pieces of silver and one and a half homer of barley and brought Gomer back. He even gave presents in bringing his wife back.

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Hosea acted in great love. He could of found Gomer and embarrassed her in front of all the people and punished her greatly by acting accordingly to the laws at that time but instead Hosea gave lots of money to bring her back to be his wife again.

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Hosea’s bad wife Gomer had received such a great love.

From Hosea, she received great forgiveness and love which would still not be enough to be repaid even if she spent her whole life repaying it.

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There is a person who received more great love than the love of this Gomer had received.

And that is you and I.

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God loved us. We can’t go forward to God because of our sins but God loves us and sent Jesus to this world and died on the cross for us. And now, God gave us a wonderful blessing of becoming children of God when you believe in Jesus Christ no matter how many bad sins you have committed.

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We have received a great blessing of becoming the bride of Jesus at the very moment of becoming children of God. Just like Gomer becoming the wife of the holy prophet Hosea, we are called to be the bride of holy Jesus Christ.

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If we became the bride of Jesus Christ, we should only love him and only follow him but there are many times we aren’t like that. Just like Gomer, there are many times we leave our Jesus because there are many things we love more than Jesus. Just like Gomer, we hurt Jesus’ heart because we loved other things than Jesus.

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But every time we do those deeds, Jesus loves us so He doesn’t give up on us and takes care of us until the end. Every time we do those deeds Jesus requests earnestly to God to forgive us and this enables us to live as his bride until the end.

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So we should remember that we are receiving great love of Jesus every day and live with always having thankful hearts. And we should become friends of faith who will seek help from the Holy Spirit in order for us to not love anything else more than Jesus Christ.