In this message we will continue to consider the symbol of a wife of harlotries.
The harlotries of Gomer as the wife to the prophet Hosea symbolize the adulteries of Israel as the unchaste wife to Jehovah (2:2-13).
Verse 2a says, “Contend with your mother; contend.” This indicates that Jehovah wanted the returned Israelites (the daughters) to contend with the adulterous people of Israel (the mother).
In verse 2b Jehovah says, “She is not my wife, / And I am not her husband.” This implies a kind of divorce. The situation forced God to do something abnormal. However, God’s divorcing Israel was based upon His strong determination to receive her back again. In a sense, God divorced Israel, but He did this with the intention of receiving her back again. What God does concerning Israel is based upon what He is.
In verses 2c through 4 we have Jehovah’s warning to Israel. First He charged her to turn away her harlotries from her face, and her adulteries from between her breasts (v. 2c). If she failed to do this, He would strip her naked as in the day she was born and make her a wilderness and a dry land and slay her with thirst (v. 3). Moreover, on her children He would not have compassion, for they were the children of harlotries (v. 4).
Verse 5a tells us that Israel has gone about as a harlot and acted shamefully. She even went so far as to say, “I will go after my lovers, / Who gave me my bread and my water, / My wool and my flax, / My oil and my drink” (v. 5b). She said that her daily necessities were supplied by her lovers, that is, by her idols. That, of course, was a lie.
In verse 6 Jehovah says, “Therefore I will now hedge up / Her way with thorns; / And I will build up a wall against her, / So that she will not find her paths.” Quite often the great God would do many small things in order to frustrate us for the purpose of dealing with us. As Paul says in Romans 8:28, all things, great and small, work together for our good. As we will see, this was the situation with the prophet Jonah. The great fish, the castor oil tree, and the worm were all used by God to deal with Jonah.