Gomer was the wife of the Old Testament prophet Hosea. She was a harlot, and God told Hosea to marry her. God wanted to use the marriage of Hosea as a model of His love for His unfaithful people, Israel.

After giving birth to three children, Gomer left Hosea and went back to being a harlot. She thought that her former life, with men giving her nice things and wanting to be with her, was better than her present life as a wife and mother. She didn’t realize how wonderful her life with Hosea was.

At this time, the children of Israel were also playing the harlot, putting other gods before the One True God. God left them to their sin, to follow their own desires, for a while.

After about three years of living in sin, Gomer hit rock bottom. (This is comparable to the situation the Prodigal Son in Luke 15 found himself in before he decided to go back to his father.) God asked Hosea if he loved Gomer still. Hosea said that he really did. God told Hosea to go get Gomer and bring her back home. He told Hosea to forgive her, clean her up, and make her as his own again. This was to show Israel how God loved them enough to do the same for them. Don’t forget, this was during a time in which men didn’t forgive women they found in adultery; they stoned them!

Hosea is a model of God. Just as Hosea had to literally buy his own wife from the slave trader, God had to buy His own children back with the blood of His Son.

We are God's children, We are "Gomers"