Walking Among Them: Gomer

Posted by Lori | 0 comments

The object of this study is to take some time out of our busy, often chaotic days and spend some time with women who have gone before us. Not just any women, but 26 women of the Bible. We’ll “Walk Among Them” and see how their stories relate to our lives. It’s my hope that we will discover God’s presence and grace in our own lives as the lives and lessons of these women unfold before us this year.

Gomer

Imagine that God speaks to you. Cool, right? Imagine that He tells you to “Go, take to yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness, because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the Lord.” (Hosea 1:2) THAT is exactly what God tells the prophet Hosea to do, and the woman that is “THAT adulterous wife” is Gomer.

Oh boy.

Truth is she is NOT living a pure life. She is a party girl in every sense of the word. She has a reputation and Hosea knows this when he marries her. His obedience to God is ASTOUNDING but her behavior is reprehensible. What can we learn from a woman like Gomer?

Well the facts are not pretty. She tells Hosea that she “will go after my lovers, who give me my food and my water, my wool and my linen, my oil and my drink.” (Hosea 2:5) It’s sad really. Gomer has a husband who loves her and is faithful and children who would shower her with affection and continually she seeks out these adulterous encounters and goes back for more. She doesn’t seem to CARE about anyone else but herself.

Time passes as it will and there will come a time when even the most desired are replaced with “younger and more beautiful,” and Gomer was no exception. Gomer has left and word returns to Hosea that Gomer has hit rock bottom and sold herself into slavery. She was no longer valued and Hosea, after much heartbreak returns, and as God commands he purchases her for 15 shekels (6 ounces of silver) and ten bushels of barley. He tells her that’s it.

“Then I told her, “You are to live with me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will live with you.” Hosea 3:3

Hosea brings her home and LOVES her. He is told to “Go, show your LOVE to your wife again..” He isn’t told by God to just tolerate her, he is told to LOVE her. She is worn out and is not longer desirable. THIS is when Hosea takes her back into his home and loves her….LOVES her the way GOD loves the Israelites. Love her the way God loves HIS children when they are unworthy, unlovable and unfaithful.

Hosea was a living parable. Certainly not the path he would have chosen for himself, but this is what you do when you are CRAZY in love with GOD. You DO as He commands, and in this case it meant that Hosea would be the vessel in which God would show HIS unfailing love for Isreal, even though they had turned away time and time again. Although they had turned their backs on Him, worshiped idols and “raisin cakes.” (Hosea 3:1), He demonstrates His faithfulness through Hosea and Gomer’s story.

What does this mean for women in today’s world? I don’t have many friends who are prostitutes, and I’m certainly not a prophet, however there is much to take away from this brief walk with a prostitute named Gomer.

Reflections from the Walk

Journaling is a fantastic way to collect one’s thoughts. It’s not always pretty, but as we’ve seen with our walk with Gomer, God can handle the good, bad and the ugly. Rest assured, He’s seen it all.

2. Gomer was obviously self centered, and while most of us will not recognize ourselves in most of her habits, we can see glimpses of our own self centered behaviors. We live in a self centered world, and it’s easier than not, to slip if we take our eyes off course.

Are there ways in your own life that you place your desires above others? I have to share here….I have at times walked into Target and been TEMPTED by a particular endcap that just screams, “you HAVE to have this.” I admit, I have had NO regard for anyone else’s desires at that time and I know that I have to work on that. Prostitution? No, but certainly a sin of desire. I know it and I have to work on it.

We each bring to the foot of the cross our own struggles. For some of us it’s in dreams or desires that leave us with the “if only I had this…..” feeling. Spend some time this week taking inventory on your desires. Are they desires that are FOR GOD, ALL the time and look inward and honestly reveal to Him where you struggle and ask for His guidance.

3. Finally this week, look around you. There are Gomer’s living everywhere. Women who are struggling with low self esteem and looking in all the wrong places for love and acceptance. Extend a hand to someone who finds herself in a pit and wrap your arms around her with a card or sign of LOVE. The same God who LOVES you, loves her. HE needs you to be a Hosea to her. It likely won’t be easy, it certainly wasn’t for Hosea, but for the faithful, there is no other option.

Lori is a 5 year homeschool mom to 3. Currently a 8th grader, a 6th grader and a 4th grader. Lori insists that when she was wrestling with the decision to home school, a gentle voice guided her with the words, “you know what you should do.” Never looking back, accepting the challenges and rewards and CONSTANTLY clinging to THE ROCK…”No Storm can shake my inmost calm when to this ROCK I’m clinging.” Lori hopes to impart peace and inspiration amidst the daily chaos. Be sure to visit her blog at All You Have to Give.

With each woman that we study, I’ll have some thoughts and ideas for reflection, meditation and journaling that will be called “Reflections from the Walk.” It’s in Walking Among Them that we can learn lessons that we can take with us on our daily walks.