I’m not quite sure why I’ve spotted soap opera in the Bible multiple times. I don’t even watch soap operas. But I must think it’s pretty interesting to find them in the Bible. (See Soap Opera in the Bible and More Soap Opera in the Bible)
This “episode” is in the book of Hosea. Hosea was a prophet, and God told him to marry an unfaithful, adulterous woman. Considering that Hosea was a prophet whose life was supposed to teach an object lesson, his relationship with his wife was probably a very public one. Through Hosea’s marriage and family life, God showed an allegory for the way the children of Israel had been treating Him, so we’re getting two dramas for the price of one. They’re so intertwined that it’s hard for me to tell which parts are Hosea speaking and which parts are God, but that seems to be the whole point.
Hosea gets married to Gomer, who soon bears children. There may be implications that not all the children are fathered by Hosea. Through the children’s names, God tells Israel how He feels about how they’ve treated Him.
The first child is a son named Jezreel, a name shared with a specific locality with the meaning “God will sow.” God tells Hosea that this name signifies that in a little while He will avenge blood on Jehu, Israel’s king at the time, for the bloodthirsty acts he’d committed at Jezreel.
The second child is a daughter named Loruhamah, a name which means “not pitied.” God tells Hosea that He will no longer pity or have mercy on Israel after what they’ve been doing.
The third child is a son named Loammi, which means “not my people.” God tells Hosea that He’s not calling Israel His people anymore, and He’s not going to be their God anymore after the way they’ve treated Him. But He does add later that in the place where it was said, “You are not my people,” it we be said, “You are the sons of the living God.”
Gomer ends up going back to adultery more than once. She actually ends up enslaved, and I wonder if that was comparable to having a pimp. There is pleading and anger from God and likely Hosea about their respective relationships. God has been providing for His love, but then His love goes after others thinking that the others are the ones providing. Eventually the provision must be taken away, and the wandering beloved must suffer the consequences of their actions.
But just because God and Hosea are letting their loves suffer, that doesn’t mean they don’t still love them. We see God talking about His plans to seek His beloved again, to allure them, speak kindly to them, and bring them back. God looks forward to a better relationship than before. Two of Hosea’s children’s names are harkened back to, but instead of “not pitied” we see, “I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy,” and to those who were “not my people” we see, “You are my people, and you will say, ‘You are my God’.”
God tells Hosea to go love his unfaithful wife just like He loves unfaithful Israel. So Hosea finds Gomer and ends up buying his own wife back from someone, showing how Israel had walked away from God and become enslaved to what they thought they wanted, and how God bought them back once again, even though they were already His. What love!