Reading between the Lines: Gomer

This entire book uses the marriage between Hosea and Gomer as an extended metaphor for God’s relationship with God’s people. This doesn’t mean that we strive for infidelity in our relationships or that we force ourselves to stay in relationships where infidelity is happening.

 

This is a book that draws out the reality that God’s people, even today, continue to be unfaithful in how we tend our side of our relationship with God, how we worship, how we live with one another, and how we care for and serve our neighbors. Absolutely none of us get it right all of the time.

 

Using this as a metaphor I think does point to the persistent and relentless love of God, that seeks us out no matter how far we move away from or try to move away from God.

 

Gomer is a reminder that there is no place we can go where God’s love will not find us and call us back; that there is no amount we can mess up that will fully sever God’s love and relationship with us. It is never ending and irrevocable.

 

CW: infidelity in marriage, sexual shaming