We’ve heard their names; Adam, Eve. We know about the snake, the fruit. We’ve heard the accusations, heard how deceit cloaked once innocents with foreign shame they’d never be fit to shake off. Familiarity breeds contempt, and we forget to honor our father and mother. Many eyes are so busy throwing daggers and stones at the guilty they fail to see how Adam sought the “bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh”[1] into the depths of the grave, or how excruciatingly the weight of treason bore upon the both of them, now six feet deep and too weak to climb out.
They heard footsteps; the King against whom they’d rebelled, the Father who formed and fashioned them from dust and blood. They heard His indictments as they hid behind shrubbery far too small to deflect the sight of the Eyes which search the earth.[2] Allegations and verdicts followed; expulsion for their crimes. Their frames would begin to rot as they toiled the rest of their days. Perverted desire would torment their marriage, but they would bear children; One of them would come and do what they could not do.[3] The family didn’t make it far without disaster, and not much farther before they realized they couldn’t save themselves, couldn’t bear the exile any longer.[4]
The prophet heard two words: “Go again.”[5] Seek again the wife who scorned him; pursue again the whore who betrayed him. “Going again” forced him to walk through the exploitation, past the manipulation, and raise other men’s children. “Going again” made him vulnerable to stoning. “Going again” cost him his name, his life and every item bearing weight in his pocket. Fifteen silver coins and enough barley to brew for a wedding, worth another fifteen silver shekels alone.[6] Nothing about the covenant was cheap, but everything about Gomer would be redeemed.
Another man—another Hosea—received a change of name.[7] Joshua, “Yeshua,” would lead the wandering exiles onto the soil promised to another sojourner; the name and faith of Abraham had followed his family line though a son borne of promise and a conniving grandson who wrestled with God Himself.[8] A Babylonian man left his father for a life spent in tents became the “father of the faith” in the Mighty One who could raise the dead; vindicated for his willingness to take the life of his promised heir, his blade once nearly tore the skin of his son until something else was offered. Moriah witnessed a son spared.[9] A later day would see the same Moriah uphold a different Son, a different blade, and the death of the One not spared. His blood soaked the soil outside the gates of the “faithful city,” the bride who’d become a “harlot.”[10] The Hosea sold for thirty silver coins tasted death for the fallen Eve.[11]
The red-tinged flood at the foot of a splintered cross, the “blood of the everlasting covenant”,[12] vindicated the promise made to the man of dust and woman of rib and blood. The second Adam would jump six feet deep to retrieve His bride, successful in every way the first Adam could never be. “Zealous for Zion with great zeal,”[13] the death of the Bridegroom, ordained since before light was allowed to shine,[14] bought her with holy blood more precious than all the silver of the earth combined. His resurrection sealed and secured the “everlasting covenant” uttered first to man in Eden’s garden among traitors and reaffirmed to a wandering Iraqi and a sinful shepherd.[15] His return will publicly exonerate her name, absolve her stains and humiliate every accusing scoffer who told Gomer her crimes were too severe, that Hosea valued thirty coins more than her life; told Eve she’d fallen too far, and no Adam would follow her into the grave; told Jerusalem no “ransom”[16] would be paid, no Joshua would stand to lead her children into glory.
Indeed, “jealousy is a husband’s fury,”[17] and He isn’t finished yet.
Stephanie Quick (@quicklikesand) is a writer/producer serving with FAI. She lives in the Golan Heights and cohosts The Better Beautiful podcast with Jeff Henderson. Browse her free music, films, and books in the FAI App and at stephaniequick.org.
[1] Genesis 2:23
[2] See Genesis 3; II Chronicles 16:9
[3] See Genesis 3:15
[4] See Genesis 4:26
[5] Hosea 3:1
[6] See Hosea 3:2
[7] See Numbers 13:16
[8] See Genesis 12:1-3; 32:22-32
[9] See Genesis 22:1-19
[10] See Isaiah 1:21
[11] See Genesis 2:24; Matthew 26:14; Ephesians 5:31-32
[12] Hebrews 13:20
[13] Zechariah 8:2; See also Isaiah 62:1-5
[14] See I Peter 1:20; Revelation 13:8; Genesis 1:1-3
[15] See Genesis 15; 17:7; the promised Seed of Genesis 3:15 would deliver the “blood of the everlasting covenant,” the same “everlasting covenant” committed to the line of Abraham (from Babylon, in modern-day Iraq), specified through the descendants of David (a shepherd who became king with one of the messiest track records), and prophesied by Jeremiah (see chapter 31).
[16] See Jeremiah 31:11; Hosea 13:14 (see also I Corinthians 15:54-55); Matthew 20:28; Mark 10:45; I Timothy 2:6; I Peter 1:18; Revelation 5:9
[17] See Proverbs 6:34
