Hosea and Gomer

September 2, 2026 | Camden Nephew presents a gospel teaching focusing on Hosea chapters 1 and 3, highlighting Hosea's marriage to Gomer, her unfaithfulness, and Hosea's act of redemption by buying her back. He draws a parallel to God's redeeming love for Israel and ultimately for humanity through Christ.

Show Notes

Camden Nephew does a Gospel presentation night where he goes through Hosea chapters one and three. He talks about Hosea and his relationship with Gomer; Camden notes how just like Hosea paid for Gomer, God paid the ultimate price for us.

What is Exit 15?

Bellevue Baptist Church High School Ministry

All right, ladies and gentlemen, how y'all doing tonight? Yeah, okay. Hey, if you have your Bible, I want you to open up to a peculiar passage that not a lot of people will ask you to open up to. It's the book of Hosea. Book of Hosea. Hey, thank you very much. There you go. Hey, I think y'all can do a little bit better. It feels like you forgot and then just kind of threw it in there at the end. I saw some people who didn't forget. If you would, open up your Bibles to the book of Hosea. That was somehow worse, but it's fine. Hey, we're going to be in chapter 1 as well as chapter 3 a little bit. And I was sitting in the back and I had an idea of where we were going to go for tonight's gospel presentation, tonight's lesson that we're going to walk through. And it was just very obvious that the Lord wanted me to go in a different direction. And the book of Hosea came to mind. And I want to just walk through this story with you. It's very simple, and it's a little peculiar. But first, I know some of you are still trying to figure out, hey, where even is Hosea? Try the book of Daniel. But I just want to introduce myself. My name is Camden. I'm the high school pastor here as of like four weeks ago. And if I haven't had a chance to meet you, I would love to meet you before the night is over. Even if I have had a chance to meet you and I'm still trying to learn names, so be patient with me as I'm trying to figure it all out. But, hey, listen, we're really thrilled that you're here tonight. If this is your first time, especially, stop by the spot back there where you see the neon sign. Fill out a card. This is not a way for us to pester you with phone calls and sell your information, okay? This is really just a way for us to be able to reach out to you and just say thank you. Say thank you for being here. It can be really easy to come to a church, especially a church like Bellevue, sit in a crowd, leave, and really have no connection. And, listen, that's not healthy. Like healthy community is not just slipping in, slipping out. Healthy community is actually being a part of the community, finding people who are like-minded, who are trying to grow in their faith just like you are from all different backgrounds, all different. We all look different. We all sound different. Hey, we all have the same goal, which is to reflect God's character and extend his kingdom. And we want you to be a part of a community like that. So the book of Hosea, I want to start in chapter 1, just the first few verses, because I wanna give you an idea of what's happening here. It says this in verse 2. When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, go take yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom. If you're like, what does that mean? He's saying, hey, I want you to go marry a prostitute. Go marry. And he says, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord. So he went and took Gomer. That's okay. I thought it was a funny name. He went and took Gomer, the daughter of Dibliam, and she conceived and bore him a son. Now, the rest of chapter 1, you see where Hosea and Gomer had a pretty good life. Like, imagine this. Hosea is a prophet. Hosea is a man of God. And he goes and the Lord tells him, hey, I want you to go marry this prostitute. So he goes and he finds Gomer and he brings her out of that lifestyle. He gives her a home. He gives her food. They have a family together. They have several kids and things are going great. And then I want you to turn and look at chapter 3. And it says this. And the Lord said to me, this is Hosea speaking, 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 raisin. Now you say, what does that mean, cakes of raisin, love other gods? Like, what are you talking about here? What happens in this case is that Hosea has brought Gomer out of this lifestyle. So she was a prostitute. She was on the streets. She was doing things that were viewed as despicable. And he brings her out of that lifestyle. He gives her a home. He gives her a place to say they have a family together. And imagine this. Hosea wakes up one day, turns over in his bed, and Gomer's gone. And what does the Lord say to him? He says, Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress. So here's what he's saying. Hey, go get her. The Lord says to Hosea, Go get Gomer back. And he even points out, Hey, she's back to her old ways again, right? She's back on the streets. She's out selling herself. He literally says, Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man. Hey, she's probably with someone else, but go get her. And listen to this part. So I bought her for 15 shekels of silver and a homer and a letchiff of barley. Now, I don't know how much that would be worth today, but here's the deal. He says, So I bought her back for myself. Now, here's the imagery that I want you to understand. There's a lot of detail that he didn't get into in between verse 1 and verse 2. I'm going to fill in the gaps for you, okay? Here's the deal. The Lord says, Hey, I know that she's left you. I know that she's gone. I know that she's out doing the thing that you brought her out of in the very first place, and she's back doing it again. Go get her. So what does Hosea do? Hosea goes out. He goes into the streets, and he buys her. You know what this takes to have to go buy someone like this? That means that he showed up, and there's an auction taking place, and his wife is on the auction block. Can you imagine that? That you look up, and you're in the streets looking for this woman that you love, this woman that you have children with, and you see the auctioneer standing there, and he's taking bids, and you see right there your wife standing on the auction block being sold to the highest bidder. And the passage says, So I bought her for myself. I bought her for 15 shekels of silver and a homer and a letchiff of barley. Here's how I imagine that interaction going down. Hosea walks up, walks up to the auction, finds his wife. He's been looking all day. He didn't know where she was. He probably had some kind of idea. But really, he's a man of God, isn't he? He's a prophet. And he's in this area where they're selling prostitutes, where they're selling human beings, and he's in this area where, honestly, men of God should never be. Like, prophets aren't usually found in this area. And he shows up, and I imagine the conversation went like this. Like, hey, bro, listen. I know you're the auctioneer. I know you're doing your job. That's my wife, dude. Like, can I just take her with me? And you know what he says? I don't care who you think she is. She has a price. And if you want her, you're going to have to pay it. So he pays the price for something that was already his. He says, I'll pay it. And look at what it says. And then it says in verse 3, 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 I will also be to you. And again, a lot happens in between verse 3. I'm sorry, in between verse 2 and verse 3. I'm going to fill in the gaps for you again. Imagine she's on the auction block. She's gone back to her old ways. Now, put yourself in Gomer's shoes. Imagine you hear the gavel hit. Sold. And you walk off the auction block as you have done so many times before because this is not your first time here. You walk off the auction block, and you're going to the man who has just purchased you, and you look up, and who is it? It's the man that you left with your children that you left and said, Hey, I'm going to go back to doing my own thing. And you realize, man, this guy just purchased me back. Imagine the shame and the guilt that Gomer felt in that moment. And look at what it says in verse 4. This is when Hosea starts to prophesy. I'm going to read verse 3 again because it kind of all flows together, but then we're going to get into verse 4. He says, 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 I will also be to you. And then verse 4. Afterward, the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God and David their king, and they shall come in fear of the Lord and to his goodness in the latter days. Now, I know that sounds like a lot of, like,