A Marriage on the Rocks
December 30, 2024
Adapted from Dr. J. Vernon McGee’s teaching on Hosea
Often those in spiritual authority in any generation are hesitant to enter conflict; they avoid saying the hard things that could stir criticism. Sadly, if we want to grapple with the great issues of life that often include raw realities, we must confront difficult issues.
The Old Testament prophet, Hosea, doesn’t avoid dealing with hard stuff—mostly because he lived it. His backstory isn’t pretty, but knowing it is necessary to understand God’s message. You’d think a man of God would have a happy home, but that’s not true with Hosea. From a broken marriage and a troubled home, he speaks to the nation. Hosea knew exactly how God felt about His broken relationship with Israel because he felt the same way about his home. God invited Israel to return to Him (repeated 15x in the book), and to stop worshiping idols instead of Him. They were just as unfaithful to God as Hosea’s wife was to him. God’s family was suffering from a broken home.
The Home Was God’s Idea
In every generation, the home is the rock foundation, the building block of society. From the beginning, God gave it to mankind, universal, as the most important unit of how we live. No nation is any stronger today than its homes. Like links in a chain, the families of a nation hold it together throughout our streets and the boulevards. The home is where we live and move and have our being. It’s in the home where we are ourselves. We might put up quite a front, physically and psychologically, when we go out, but it’s within the walls of our home that we take off our masks and we are really ourselves.
Because of the strategic position of the home, God has put around it certain safeguards to protect it. He says a great deal about marriage, the strong foundation of the home. In fact, He gave more attention to the institution of marriage than to any other institution in this world. He invented it and gave it to mankind, and marriage rests upon His direct word: “So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate” (Matthew 19:6). God performed the first marriage ceremony. He gave the first bride away. He blessed the first couple. Marriage is more than just a legal contract or an economic arrangement. It’s even more than a union of a man and a woman who love each other. Marriage is an act of God and rests on His command. If you’re going to have a successful marriage, you have to have God; otherwise, your marriage will land on the rocks.
Marriage is a sacred relationship, a holy union. Hebrews 13:4 sums up God’s thoughts when it says, “Marriage is honorable among all.” It can’t be broken by just legal action or by self-will or a fit of temper. Only two acts can break a real marriage today. The first, of course, is death. That’s why we say in wedding vows, “as long as we both shall live.” The second act that rips the relationship apart is unfaithfulness to your spouse. In the Old Testament, the one who was guilty of adultery was dealt with in the harshest punishments—death. (See Leviticus 20:10 and Deuteronomy 22:20-22.)
It's with this backdrop that the prophecy of Hosea is the story of a broken home, contrasted with God’s ideal of marriage and of manhood and womanhood.
Let’s begin Hosea’s story.
Hosea was God’s man. Yet before he married his fiancée, Gomer, Hosea discovered she had turned to prostitution. Even as a fiancé, Hosea could have “divorced” Gomer then and there or even had her executed. But God told him to marry her.
He may have wanted to run but instead, Hosea obeyed God and gave Gomer his name, and she came into his home. But after the children were born, Gomer left him for her former life.
But God says, “Go get her!” So, Hosea went after her. He found her, paid her debts, and told her he loved her. But she wouldn’t come back to him ….
Get on the Bible Bus this month or visit TTB.org/Hosea to discover what happened next, and it will prove (once again) that God is faithful and merciful. The perfect husband to His Bride.
My Turn
- Personal question: Have you ever had to “return to the Lord”? How did it go?
- Agree or disagree: “If you’re going to have a successful marriage, you have to have God.” Explain why.
- If you know the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior, then you love to tell your personal story of how He redeemed you, how He bought you back. Ask the Lord for an opportunity to tell someone in your own way this week—and get your mind and heart ready.