“So (Hosea) went and married Gomer, the daughter of Divlayim.” (Hosea 1: 3)
In biblical times, names held special significance. Gomer means “completion,” and her name connects with Israel’s wickedness which had reached full ripeness (completion). It revealed the abandonment of Israel to wholesale adultery and idolatry. As “a wife of whoredoms,” this woman of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, regarded as an idolatress, became a symbol of her people.
The name is also mentioned in Ezekiel 38:6 as the ally of Gog, the chief of the land of Magog, who joins in an attack against Israel in the Last Days. In the Book of Hosea, Gomer was the daughter of Divlayim, (a type of rich date cake). In idolatrous worship, these were offered to the Queen of Heaven, (the sky goddess which the Roman Catholic Church connected with the Virgin Mary) and presented to her in the form of thin wafers. Here, was a thinly disguised counterfeit of the manna provided by God for the Israelites in the desert.
To Hosea and Gomer were born three children whose names are meaningless. This is because those who become spiritual children of the ungodly will invariably fade into obscurity.
Hosea was told to marry a whore as an extreme prophetic action, to describe the relationship of YHWH with Israel who went around whoring after false gods and everything they represented. Later in the fourth chapter, God laments the tragic state of events;
“My people are destroyed for want of knowledge because you rejected knowledge.” (CJB)
This is one of the most common mis-quotes in the Bible. Here we see the Israelites being ruined due to their rejection of their relationship with God, and exchanging it for a catalogue of sins listed in the beginning of the chapter. The Hebrew word for knowledge used here (‘Ya-dah’) refers to an intimate friendship borne out of close communion with God. It is the highest form of knowledge and is a play on words used in the text to contrast with the Hebrew for ‘destroyed,’ (‘da-at’).
The consequence of sin seeps into the very fabric of YHWH’s creation. Hosea lamented:
“Therefore the land mourns, and everyone living there languishes, wild animals too,and the birds in the air; even the fish in the sea are removed.” (Hosea 4:3)
As the demonic realm arrogantly flaunts its evil, enticing the masses into its dark web, we raise the banner of ‘Tikkun Ha’lev’ (repairers of the heart) through Jesus our Messiah, for He alone is our sure hope and salvation!
