King's Daughter's Kitchen

What holds my interest and has impacted my life most is the slave auction in the marriage of Hosea and Gomer in the Bible. Choosing the right mate is the second most important life choice a person can make after choosing faith in Jesus. The auction, is a historically documented public example of acting on unending love in spite of the worst odds ever.

God commanded the prophet Hosea to marry Gomer, who was chaste. She became bored with the marriage and left Hosea for another man. That didn’t work out, so she became a prostitute. Then, she became penniless and ended up on the auction block to be sold as a slave. All the while, Hosea continued to love her.

During the slave auction, Gomer has to be sold to pay her debts. She owed people who she could not pay. Hosea stood in the back of the crowd. Finally, he stepped up and bought Gomer for 15 pieces of silver and a homer and 1/2 of barley. All together, that’s 30 pieces of silver, or about six month’s wages, the same 30 piece price paid for Jesus. This marriage story in many ways portrays and parallels Jesus’ love for us.

When Hosea buys Gomer, he shows her and us a perfect picture of grace. He pays her debts. He says to her, “Love only me. Quit running around. Don’t have any other man. I will be faithful to you and love you forever.” She is not a slave. She is free, free of work and debt and bondage to her old ways. She is free to love Hosea, who loves her with true, real, abiding, cherishing, marriage vow love. He takes her back. He gives her a wonderful life after everything she has done and everything she has done to herself. He loves her as she is in the moment. She doesn’t have to clean up or change to earn his love. He loved her always. He wanted her for himself always.

Hosea asked Gomer to step out of the world, to be his, so she could experience feelings of being loved and wanted and clean inside. Gomer needed to see that she could be content in the gaze of the one who loved her most, and that the eyes and ideas of the world were unnecessary for her happiness. She needed to learn to say, “He thinks I am beautiful. Inside of myself, I believe I am beautiful. I am loved. I love myself.” She needed most to accept her perfect marriage.