3:1
This verse shows how far the Lord is prepared to go in revealing His heart to Hosea, and the extent of His love for Israel and the nature and cost involved. Hosea had to go and get Gomer and love her, despite the fact that she was “loved by another man and is an adulteress”. Ie she was actively in an adulterous relationship, it wasn’t even as though she had repented at the point that Hosea was to go and find her. Can you imagine the pain in Hosea’s heart? Yet this is representative of God’s love for us. He came to seek us while we were still sinners, Jesus died for us while we were still sinners (Rom 5:8). The mention of raisin cakes is a reference to things that were commonly offered in the worship of idols. We need to realise that our trusting in something other than God is like committing adultery. It is our duty, and should be our delight, to trust only in the Lord.
3:2
So Hosea went and bought Gomer for “fifteen shekels of silver and one and a half homers of barley”. He had to pay the price to get her back, his own wife. Likewise, God had to pay the price of His only Son in order to get us back. The amount paid is reckoned to be the amount required for compensation for the loss of a slave. Through her adultery Gomer had got herself enslaved or under some sort of legal obligation. In turning from God mankind has got himself enslaved, But God has paid the price to set us free.
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