What Hosea's Daughter Lo-Ruhamah Teaches Us about God's Love and Mercy
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An unfaithful wife, a prophet of God, and a spiritually bankrupt nation seem an unlikely backdrop for a revelation of God’s stunning loyal love. Yet, through what Hosea's daughter Lo-Ruhamah teaches us about God's love and mercy, this attribute of God’s character shines.
God’s requirements of the Old Testament prophets may seem to us eccentric and difficult to understand. At times He used the prophets themselves as graphics. God told the prophet Jeremiah to “Make a yoke out of straps and crossbars and put it on your neck” (Jer. 27:2 NIV). Ezekiel laid on his left side 390 days with his face to a griddle. (Ezek. 4) Isaiah went stripped and barefoot for three years (Isaiah 20). And Hosea was asked to marry an unfaithful woman.
“When the Lord began to speak by Hosea, the Lord said: ‘Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry And children of harlotry, For the land has committed great harlotry By departing from the Lord’” Hosea 1:2 NKJV.
Who Was Lo-Ruhamah in the Bible?
Lo-Ruhamah was the second child of the prophet Hosea and his wife Gomer. Their marriage symbolized God’s covenant with Israel. Gomer represents the nation of Israel. Hosea’s love and forgiveness pictures God’s passionate desire for his chosen but wayward people. Hosea and Gomer’s marriage provides a powerful representation of the disparity between God’s loyal love and Israel’s disloyal response to Him.
Hosea, the first of 12 Old Testament Minor Prophets, pulls the curtain back on Israel’s moral corruption and idolatry. Israel’s drift from God’s covenantal relationship, calls for judgment.
Hosea ministered during a difficult and unstable time in Israel’s history, especially in the Northern Kingdom. Hosea’s imagery both of family and nature portrays a nation desperately needing to return to God. Baal worship with ritual prostitution and the nation’s impending conquest tainted the land. Israel exchanged intimacy with God for pagan counterfeits thereby committing spiritual adultery.
If ever a marriage began fraught with trouble, this was the case for Hosea and Gomer. God’s blunt description of Gomer’s harlotry laid the ground for a despicable union.
What Does Lo-Ruhamah's Name Mean?
The name Lo-Ruhamah means No Mercy.
“Call her name Lo-Ruhamah, For I will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel, but I will utterly take them away”Hosea 1:6 NKJV.
Her name symbolizes God’s coming judgment on Israel. “Ruhamah,” the root of Hosea’s daughter’s name means “having obtained mercy” and refers to God’s tender mercy and compassion. The addition of a negative prefix, “Lo” reverses its meaning to, “she has not received mercy.” The baby’s name predicts the withdrawal of God’s compassionate mercy from Israel.
Lo-Ruhamah’s birth is sandwiched between two siblings who were also given prophetical names. The first child born to them, a son, was named Jezreel. His name, a prediction of judgment meant, “God Sows” or “God Will Scatter.”
Their third child Lo-Ammi meaning, “Not My People,” represented God’s rejection of Israel. It referred to breaking covenant with God likened to a marital divorce.
Lo-Ruhamah seems like a sad label for a child. However, Hosea 1:7, immediately following the announcement of her name, points to a merciful and loving Savior.
“But I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the Lord their God. I will not save them by bow or by sword or by war or by horses or by horsemen” Hosea 1:7 ESV.
Jesus would be born from the line of Judah and the house of David (Hosea 3:5).
God’s faithful and perfect remedy eventually came through Jesus, reaching out not only to the Jews but also to the Gentiles. Lo-Ruhamah’s no mercy offers the promise of a Redeemer who would not only reverse sin’s curse but also provide complete mercy to remove its penalty.
In one of the tenderest verses of Hosea, God reassures Israel of his steadfast love.
“When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son” Hosea 11:1 ESV.
The story of Mary and Joseph’s flight into Egypt with Baby Jesus, God’s Son cites this verse in Hosea’s prophecy.
“And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, ‘Out of Egypt I called my son’” Matthew 2:14-15 ESV.
God demonstrated by His faithfulness throughout history and brought to pass His promised mercy in His plan for our redemption through the Messiah. Despite warnings, God gave a message of hope.
What Does Her Name Teach Us about God's Mercy?
Lo-Ruhamah helps us glimpse the unfathomable richness of God’s steadfast love and mercy despite our own faithlessness.
Israel looks forward to future restoration in the book of Hosea. Blessings ahead include “numbers as the sand of the sea” reaffirmed from the Abrahamic Covenant (1:10), a remnant in both Judah and Israel (1:11), and a prophecy of the Messiah, “one head” (1:11).
The book of Hosea pleads a return to God and with it, a subsequent name change, “Say to your brothers, ‘You are my people,’ and to your sisters, ‘You have received mercy’” Hosea 2:1 ESV.
The prophet Hosea with persistent and unmerited love pursued Gomer, even as God pursued Israel, and as He pursues us. Hosea’s obedience illustrates God’s compassion and steadfast love when he is asked to take back his wife from whom he had been separated.
“Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel…” Hosea 3:1 ESV.
Without Christ, we are as Gomer was, unfaithful slaves to the sinful nature within us. We were not yet submitted to the steadfast mercy and love of Christ. But God through the sacrifice of His perfect Son demonstrated mercy. His unfailing love reached down to us and drew us into His arms of forgiveness and grace.
Paul draws this parallel from Hosea: “As indeed he says in Hosea, ‘Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’ And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘sons of the living God’” Romans 9:25-26 ESV.
Lo-Ruhamah, a daughter of somewhat uncertain parentage, with a name that depicted no mercy points ahead to where mercy will be offered freely. Her story reminds us that God remains steadfast in mercy and love despite underserving and wandering hearts. This offers hope.
5 Important Facts about Lo-Ruhamah and Hosea
Hosea’s obedient life illustrates how God’s love and mercy are foundational and inseparable from Who He is.
Lo-Ruhamah’s story ultimately reaffirms God’s faithful mercy to His people.
Hosea and Lo-Ruhamah confirm God’s purposes are bigger than what we can see.
God’s steadfast loyal love and mercy was greater than the hopeless sinful state which surrounded Hosea and Lo-Ruhamah and it is greater than our sins as well.
God always offers hope.
The book of Hosea is not an easy one to understand, its characters complicated and unseemly. Yet in a story where sin’s darkness is evident, God’s mercy beckons. “Ruhamah,” having obtained mercy is our blessed reality through Jesus Christ as Savior.
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Her love for pasta and all things Italian stems from years of ministry abroad. She’d love to tell you about it over a steaming cup of cappuccino. Connect with Sylvia on her blog, When the House is Quiet, her Facebook page, or Twitter.
This article is part of our People from the Bible Series featuring the most well-known historical names and figures from Scripture. We have compiled these articles to help you study those whom God chose to set before us as examples in His Word. May their lives and walks with God strengthen your faith and encourage your soul.
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