Gomer: The Lord's Relentless Love for the Church
By Rev. Lonnie C. Crowe

    Gomer, the wife of the prophet Hosea, exemplifies the love of the Lord for His Bride, His Church.  Paul understood the richness of that love when he wrote: “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38-39 (NKJV)

    Several years ago, Johnny Lee described the world’s fruitless search for love in the song, “Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places.” While the desire to be loved is universal, the search for it can lead us either into the depths of hell or into the secure love of our Lord.  God is love.  Therefore, it is in His nature, His DNA, to love us.  The story of Gomer in the book of Hosea is the story of God’s unconditional, relentless love for His bride, the Church.

    The first part of the book of Hosea contains three poems which illustrate how God’s people, time after time, prove to be unfaithful to Him.  God uses the story of Hosea the faithful husband and Gomer, his unfaithful wife to show the depth of the husband’s (God’s) love for the wife (the people of God.)

Hosea 1:2-9:  The beginning of Jehovah speaking by Hosea. And Jehovah said to Hosea, Go, take to yourself a wife of adultery and children of adultery. For the land has utterly gone lusting away from Jehovah. 

So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, who conceived and bore him a son. And Jehovah said to him, Call his name God Will Sow. For still in a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel on the house of Jehu, and will cause the kingdom of the house of Israel to cease. And it shall be, at that day I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel. And she conceived again and bore a daughter. And God said to him, Call her name No-mercy, for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel. But I will utterly take them away. 

But I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and will save them by Jehovah their God, and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen. And when she had weaned No-mercy she conceived and bore a son. And He said, Call his name Not-my-people. For you are not My people, and I will not be for you. 

    God commanded Hosea to marry Gomer, a wife of harlotry.  After giving birth to three children whose names describe both the judgment and the redemption of God’s people, Gomer walks away from her marriage and back into her harlotry.  In her unfaithfulness, Gomer moved away from the blessing and security of her marriage into the shame and disgrace of adultery.  What a painful picture of the Christian who has walked away from the blessing of an intimate relationship with God and back into the ways of the world.

    God then commanded Hosea to take Gomer back and restore her as his wife.  The story of Gomer is a story of God’s unconditional love, His tender mercy and grace even in the face of our ingratitude, selfishness and sin.   Our sin separates us from relationship with our Lord, but not even our sin can separate us from His love.  His loving desire is to bring us into a warm relationship with Him where we can rest in His favor.  

    If you have never known the love of God, it is time to move into that relationship.  Acknowledge that your sin has separated you from God.  Romans 3:23 (NKJV) “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”.  Know that God has made a way for you to have a relationship with Him. Romans 6:23 (NKJV) assures us that “the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Accept that Jesus’ death on the cross paid the wages of sin for you. Romans 5:8 (NKJV) “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” 

    If you, like Gomer, have walked away from your relationship with Jesus Christ, God’s heart is to restore you to Himself.  1 John 1:8-9 (NKJV) “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 

    No matter where we have walked in life, the desire of our Bridegroom is to restore us unto Himself.  Just as Gomer was restored to Hosea, each of us can be restored to Jesus Christ.  

“Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling,
Calling for you and for me;
See, on the portals He’s waiting and watching,
Watching for you and for me.
Come home, come home,
You who are weary, come home;
Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling,
Calling, O sinner, come home!”
--Will L. Thompson