You get the sense that to say, “She played the field” would have been an understatement. To say, “She was loose” would have been to state the obvious. But to say, “She was a prostitute?” Well, the CSB indicates that may have not quite been the case.

When the LORD first spoke to Hosea, He said this to him:

Go and marry a woman of promiscuity,
and have children of promiscuity,
for the land is committing blatant acts of promiscuity
by abandoning the LORD.

So he went and married Gomer daughter of Diblaim.

(Hosea 1:2-3a CSB)

Gomer, Hosea’s wife, was a woman of promiscuity. Free and single, she was free and fearlessly seeking love. A type of Israel, she lusted after whoever and whatever she thought might satisfy her sensual desires. Blatant acts of promiscuity. Abandoning the Lord. And yet, says the LORD to the Hosea, she was the one for him. “Go and marry.” And he does. Hosea goes.

After they are wed, Gomer’s first baby is clearly fathered by her husband, for the Scripture explicitly says that she “bore him a son.” After that, the Scripture is suspiciously silent, leaving things a little less clear as to who the father was for child 2 and child 3. Implication? You can take the girl out of the game but, while the old nature remains, you can’t necessarily keep her from continuing to play the field. And so, where at first the LORD asked Hosea to wed a promiscuous woman, the LORD then commands Hosea to take for himself an adulteress woman.

Then the LORD said to me, “Go again; show love to a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, just as the LORD loves the Israelites though they turn to other gods and love raisin cakes.”

(Hosea 3:1 CSB)

Go again. That’s what first arrests me. Wasn’t it enough that he went the first time? Wasn’t such grace sufficient grace? She had her chance to change her ways and settle down. She blew it. Let’s move on. Hadn’t he done enough already? I guess not.

Marvelous grace is persistent grace. Abounding grace is pursuing grace. If, at first, “Go” doesn’t win the wayward, then “Go again.” For the LORD had purposed concerning His fickle betrothed, Israel:

I will take you to be My wife forever.
I will take you to be My wife in righteousness,
justice, love, and compassion.
I will take you to be My wife in faithfulness,
and you will know the LORD.

(Hosea 2:19-20 CSB)

I will take you to be My wife. Thrice repeated, the LORD openly declares His intentions. And not just to take her as His wife, but to transform her as His bride. His grace sufficient for a complete makeover. To make a promiscuous wife a faithful wife. To take a treacherous adulteress and recast her as one who love would righteousness, justice, love, and compassion. But it would not be without cost.

So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and nine bushels of barley.

(Hosea 3:2 CSB)

Go and marry her, the LORD says at first, giving yourself to her, taking her to be yours forever. Then go again and buy her. Redeem her. Purchase her from the slavery she has sold herself into. And unless there was any doubt as to how far she had fallen, it seems she had so corrupted herself that she didn’t even command the going, fair-market value of a slave (Ex. 21:32).

And while it is go again which catches my attention at first, it’s I bought her that really gives me something to chew on, this morning.

You are not your own, for you were bought at a price. So glorify God with your body.

(1Corinthians 6:19b-20 CSB)

I’m her. She’s me. I’m Gomer. Playing the field before the day He took me as His bride, still prone to wander after. But my Bridegroom, in His limitless grace, purposes always to go again because He has bought me. Having paid for me not the discounted price of a 50% off slave but having redeemed me with something far more lavish and unexpected.

For you know that you were redeemed from your empty way of life inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of an unblemished and spotless lamb.

(1Peter 1:18-19 CSB)

You were redeemed . . . with the precious blood of Christ. It cost Hosea 15 shekels and some barley to go again. It cost my LORD His life. And He has purposed to faithfully go again until that day I am presented to Him fully faithful.

Oh, what grace! To God be the glory!