Love Changes Everything By Micah BerteauSample

Day Three

An Unlikely Wedding

If you read through the sixty-six books of the Bible, you will find many stories and references to the love of God. However, one story reveals the immaculate love of God stronger than others, and that is the awkward love story of Gomer and the prophet Hosea.

I say awkward because it is like a fairy tale gone wrong. Hosea was a man doing his best to follow God’s will for his life. On the flip side, Gomer was a promiscuous woman—a harlot. 

God was not happy with his people Israel, because they were living in idolatry and abusing the love he had extended toward them. Hosea was ready to hear God’s voice so he could deliver the message from God’s heart. Gomer was living in sin. So naturally, the next move God made was to tell Hosea to marry Gomer. 

What! Wait a second. God told a prophet to marry a promiscuous woman? Yes, he sure did. And God explained himself by saying that this shocking union would represent how his people had been unfaithful. 

Without hesitation, Hosea married Gomer. 

I love that this whole story began with Hosea accepting what God said, even though it made no logical sense. If Hosea had stopped for two seconds and thought logically about what God was asking him to do, he most likely would’ve fought it. This is why you do not let your perception of reality shape God’s voice in your life. Rather, you let God’s voice shape your reality. 

With no further explanation of why God would tell him to marry someone so seemingly incompatible, Hosea went ahead and married her. We do not get a play-by-play of the wedding or what people thought, but I am sure opinions were flying. We do not even get to see what Gomer thought about this series of events. It was Hosea’s job to pursue; it was her job to say yes.

This story ends up being much bigger than a love story between a man and a woman. God used the story of Hosea and Gomer to remind the Israelites of his faithfulness in the face of their unfaithfulness.

Hosea took the first step. He made the first move. As we’ll see in tomorrow’s devotion, this is exactly what God does with us.

When have you experienced God’s faithfulness even when you were unfaithful to him?