Tehillah Generation Chapel
Daily Manna | Friday, May 18, 2018 | Topic: Conscience 22
Scripture: My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. Hosea 4:6
Note: Whatever the past life of Gomer was, there’s an overwhelming evidence of a genuine repentance and faith in Yahweh on her part. The Hebrew definition for Gomer is complete. This woman, who became the wife of the young preacher and prophet, Hosea, would later on in life after the birth of their first son, become unfaithful, giving birth to wayward children. Her life’s trajectory would go on to symbolise God’s relationship with wayward Israel, retracing the deviant steps of Israel.
Gomer’s past life was expected to belong to her past, as her name suggests. All the inglorious sins of deviant behaviours and acts were supposed to have been buried in her past. That meant that there was a definitive point of departure between her past and the new era of her life. She was now married to a preacher, a prophet sent to the whole nation of Israel. To be complete means she had ceased from her dead works of past failure, whoredom, disgrace and humiliation. The old life had passed away, giving place to a new order in her life.
This plausible reason might have explained the reason for Hosea’s attraction to Gomer. A repentant Gomer might have ended up as one of the cheerleaders among the few repentant folks, who finally ended up as the remnant that God reserved for Himself after the eventual fall of Israel to the Assyrians, for failing to heed to the call of Yahweh to turn from their idolatry and adulterous lifestyle. What began with Hosea in his marriage to Gomer might have been a genuine love and exciting relationship where he was sincerely and deeply drawn in his heart towards her.
The direction of God to Hosea to take Gomer as a wife was therefore not a grim one as the opening Scriptures might have portrayed. Hosea was genuinely in love with Gomer, and he was clear about that in his conscience. The past life of Gomer that might have been a source of worry, nagging him in his conscience, was put to sleep when he had confirmation from Yahweh to go ahead and marry her. Repentance is the key. Anyone who genuinely turns to God in repentance will never have his past being held against him by God.
Food for thought: God’s grace has the power to wipe away our past life clean as if it never occurred, if only we would repent.
Declaration: Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 2Cor 5:17
©Author: Rev Fred Aboe
