Hosea 1 – 14
Hosea may have had the worst assignment as a prophet of Most High God.  He was commanded to take a prostitute as his wife and love her unconditionally.  Not make an honest woman out of her, mind you.  She didn’t seem to be in on “the deal” – at least her actions made it seem that way.  A husband bought her from slavery and loved her, but she kept running off.  The whole thing is a metaphor – a living parable – for Yahweh and Israel.

And the LORD said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the LORD loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins.” So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley. And I said to her, “You must dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore, or belong to another man; so will I also be to you.” For the children of Israel shall dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or household gods. Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the LORD their God, and David their king, and they shall come in fear to the LORD and to his goodness in the latter days.
Hosea 3:1-5

To make matters worse, Hosea and Gomer had three children.  Yahweh chose the names for the children of Gomer, and in them we learn much about His struggles with the children of Israel.
The first son was named “Jezreel”, which means “cast away”.  King Jehu shed much blood in the Valley of Jezreel and Yahweh would avenge his slaughter and “cast away” Israel in judgment.
The daughter was named “Lo-ruhamah”, which means “no mercy”.  When it came, Yahweh’s judgment would be relentless and without compassion.  Gomer kept on playing the harlot as if she believed Hosea would simply accept it and do nothing.  Israel seemed to have the same belief about Yahweh.  Gomer may have been right since Hosea was doing as God commanded.  Israel, on the other hand, was mistaken.
The second son was named “Lo-ammi”, which means “not my people”.  Israel was God’s own possession because of the covenant relationship they shared.  Like Gomer, Israel kept running off after other lovers and broke the marriage covenant.  Israel had “abandoned the family” and irrevocably broke the covenant with Yahweh.  She would no longer be His.

Say to your brothers, “You are my people,” and to your sisters, “You have received mercy.” “Plead with your mother, plead— for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband— that she put away her whoring from her face, and her adultery from between her breasts; lest I strip her naked and make her as in the day she was born, and make her like a wilderness, and make her like a parched land, and kill her with thirst. Upon her children also I will have no mercy, because they are children of whoredom. For their mother has played the whore; she who conceived them has acted shamefully. For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’ Therefore I will hedge up her way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her, so that she cannot find her paths. She shall pursue her lovers but not overtake them, and she shall seek them but shall not find them. Then she shall say, ‘I will go and return to my first husband, for it was better for me then than now.’
Hosea 2:1-7

As we find with God and people, there is always a remnant.  Hosea teaches us that some would “be His people” and “receive mercy”.  The nation (Gomer, the mother) would perish, finding none of her suitors able to save her and, in fact, being used to destroy her.  Some of the children, however, would be saved.  Some would return to Yahweh.

Just as Hosea bought Gomer back from slavery, Yahweh will redeem His people.  In Christ Jesus, the compassion of Yahweh can overcome even the most blatant spiritual adultery.  In Christ Jesus, there is no one enslaved to sin who cannot be bought back.  In Christ Jesus, there is no wanderer who cannot be restored to covenant relationship.  Notice the fulfillment of the “children of Gomer” in Peter’s writing,

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
1 Peter 2:9-10

No longer cast away, we are called out of darkness into His light.  No longer orphans, we are now a people who belong to God.  All because where there was no mercy before, we have mercy in Christ.

So, the church today must each accurately assess one’s spiritual condition.  Are we breaking the covenant by running after “others”?  Do we live as if there will be no punishment or consequence?  Are we dabbling in sins that we think will offer comfort and solace, only to find later that these were the very things that cost us our soul?  The story of Gomer is truly a living parable.  It did not die, however, with Israel.  Hosea stands today looking to the church.  A faithful God loves His bride.  The question remains … “Is the bride of Christ faith to Him?”

Consider His nature.  Consider His ways.  Strive to love Him more!