Love and Giving – The Prophet and the Prostitute

The Prophet and the Prostitute

In the book of Hosea we find a curious account of an unlikely love affair involving a prophet and a prostitute. It’s not what one might traditionally think of when we are considering love on Valentine’s Day. Perhaps it’s more the ingredients for an outrageous scandal than an uplifting love story – or is it?

Hosea was prophet to Israel in the 8th century BC. A man called by God, respected and held in high regard. So, it may have come as a shock to many that the Lord called on him to marry a prostitute:

'When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, ‘Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the Lord.’ So he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.' Hosea 1:2–3 (NIV)

Some may feel it was an odd instruction from the Lord, but in those few verses we are given a hint that there might be more here, particularly when Israel is likened to an adulterous wife who is guilty of unfaithfulness. Hosea goes on to note that just like Adam, God’s unfaithful people broke his covenant of love (Hosea 6:7). We are being invited to step back and view this on a much wider canvas than initially apparent.

Love and Unfaithfulness

What we have here is a snapshot of the great redemption story. The story of humanity from the very beginning when God’s beloved people, Adam and Eve, were guilty of unfaithfulness in the Garden of Eden. They preferred to form an alliance with Satan than to enjoy the love and faithfulness of the Lord, a devastating development in what was to be the greatest love story of all time between Christ and his Church. Yet despite her unfaithfulness, the Lord did not completely forsake humanity. He would seek to woo his Church and bring her back to him, as lived out here by Hosea, attested to in Song of Solomon, demonstrated by Jesus the bridegroom on the cross, proclaimed by the apostle Paul in his letters (2 Cor. 11; Eph. 5) and confirmed when we imagine visions of the great wedding banquet of the Lamb in Revelation (Rev. 19:6–9).

This isn’t just another love story. This is the greatest love story of all time, written into the fabric of creation. Every love story that’s ever been written since has been a faint echo of that one great story.

Startling Generosity

What we see between the bride and the bridegroom – between Christ and his Church – is the most dazzling display of generosity the world has ever seen. Generosity that overflows from the life, love and goodness of God.

We have received that generosity. Just as the prostitute was taken on by Hosea, sharing in his life and his status, so we are plucked from the gutter, brought into the royal palace, lavished with all the riches of the kingdom and given a share in the family inheritance. When we are united with Jesus he says, ‘All I have is yours.’ We don’t deserve it; we did nothing to earn it; we are simply beneficiaries of the startling generosity of the Lord God.

Love and Giving

Financial giving to charities, churches or missionaries may or may not have been part of your life up to this point. But it is undeniable that when Valentine’s Day brings to mind the love of Jesus for his Church and the generosity his followers have experienced, it does nothing other than compel us to share that generous heart with others. The generous spirit of God overflows from his life to ours, filling us, and in turn overflowing to those around us in generosity of spirit (Matthew 10:8).

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