It has been called the oldest of
professions…prostitution. In the ancient
world some practiced it as a trade, independently. While others were forced into through
slavery. In Mesopotamia it was possible
to adopt a girl and then hire her out as a prostitute.
There is also Biblical and historical evidence of temple
prostitution. The practice is associated
with pagan worship of the Baal priestess to the Greco-Roman temples of
Aphrodite. This scared prostitution was
part of the pagan worship and religious rites.
It was also a source of income for the temples.
The worship of Baal was widespread thought the entire history
of the Israelites. Numbers 25 talks
about the Baal worship and scared prostitution.
1 Kings 18 tells about the contest involving Elijah and the prophets of
Baal. And in Hosea 2 it indicates that
people associated Baal with prosperity and many people identified Baal and
Jehovah as the same. Baal was the storm
god and associated with the birth of healthy offspring, food and water.
The Israelites many times fell into this sexual temptation
of the Baal worship even though God has forbidden it.
No Israelite man or woman is to become a shrine prostitute. You must not bring the earnings of a female prostitute or of
a male prostitute into the house of the LORD your God to pay any vow, because
the LORD your God detests them both.
God also used prostitution as a metaphor for idolatry.
Exodus 34:15-16
Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the
land; for when they prostitute themselves to their gods and sacrifice to them,
they will invite you and you will eat their sacrifices. And when you choose some of their daughters as wives for
your sons and those daughters prostitute themselves to their gods, they will
lead your sons to do the same.
Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies…“Go, look
over the land,” he said, “especially
Jericho. ” So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and
stayed there.
Jos 2:2 The king of Jericho was told, “Look! Some of the
Israelites have come here tonight to spy out the land.” Jos 2:3 So the king of Jericho sent this message to Rahab: “Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, because they have come to spy out the whole land.”
Jos 2:4 But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them.
She said, “Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they had come
from.
Jos 2:5 At dusk, when it was time to close the city gate,
the men left. I don’t know which way they went. Go after them quickly. You may
catch up with them.”
Jos 2:6 (But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden
them under the stalks of flax she had laid out on the roof.)
4. Prostitute from
the City
Luke 7:36-48
Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with
him, so he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table.
Lk 7:37 When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that
town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, she brought an
alabaster jar of perfume,
Lk 7:38 and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she
began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed
them and poured perfume on them.
Lk 7:39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he
said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him
and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.”
Lk 7:40 Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell
you.” “Tell me, teacher,” he said.
Lk 7:41 “Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One
owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty.
Lk 7:42 Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he
canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”
Lk 7:43 Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger
debt canceled.” “You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.
Lk 7:44 Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon,
“Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water
for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her
hair.
Lk 7:45 You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the
time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet.
Lk 7:46 You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured
perfume on my feet.
Lk 7:47 Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been
forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.”
Lk 7:48 Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
She showed her love for Christ and she hoped she would not
be turned away. He didn’t turn her away
but also showed her love and forgiveness.
5. An Adulteress
Woman
John 8:3-11
The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman
caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group
Jn 8:4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in
the act of adultery.
Jn 8:5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women.
Now what do you say?”
Jn 8:6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to
have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the
ground with his finger.
Jn 8:7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up
and said to them, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to
throw a stone at her.” Jn 8:8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
Jn 8:9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a
time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still
standing there.
Jn 8:10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where
are they? Has no one condemned you?”
Jn 8:11 “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn
you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
Most scholars believe this woman was a prostitute. Christ again showed love and reminded us that
we should first show love and not hatred.
He didn’t condemned her, but did tell her to leave her life of sin.
6. Story of Hosea,
Part 1
Hosea 1:1-11
When the LORD began to speak through Hosea, the LORD said to
him, “Go, take to yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness,
because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the
LORD.”
Hos 1:3 So he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she
conceived and bore him a son.
Hos 1:4 Then the LORD said to Hosea, “Call him Jezreel,
because I will soon punish the house of Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel, and I
will put an end to the kingdom of Israel.
Hos 1:5 In that day I will break Israel’s bow in the Valley
of Jezreel. ”
Hos 1:6 Gomer conceived again and gave birth to a daughter.
Then the LORD said to Hosea, “Call her Lo-Ruhamah, for I will no longer show
love to the house of Israel, that I should at all forgive them.
Hos 1:7 Yet I will show love to the house of Judah; and I
will save them—not by bow, sword or battle, or by horses and horsemen, but by
the LORD their God. ”
Hos 1:8 After she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, Gomer had another
son.
Hos 1:9 Then the LORD said, “Call him Lo-Ammi, for you are
not my people, and I am not your God.
God told Hosea to take Gomer as his wife. Gomer was a prostitute, possibly a Baal
priestess. Hosea and Gomer had three
children. The first was Jezreel which
means “God sows destruction.” The second
was Lo-Ruhamah which means “not love.”
The third was Lo-Ammi which means “not my people.” This is how God felt about his people,
because they had been so disobedient to Him.
They had turn from Him and would not love Him.
7. Story of Hosea,
Part 2
The LORD said to me, “Go, show your love to your wife again,
though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the LORD loves the Israelites,
though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.”
Hos 3:2 So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and
about a homer and a lethek of barley.
Hos 3:3 Then I told her, “You are to live with me many days;
you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will live with
you.”
Hos 3:4 For the Israelites will live many days without king
or prince, without sacrifice or sacred stones, without ephod or idol.
Hos 3:5 Afterward the Israelites will return and seek the
LORD their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the LORD and
to his blessings in the last days.
After Gomer had her sons she left Hosea and went back to
being a prostitute. God told Hosea to
find her and to love her again. Hosea
finds her at a slave trade. She was
naked, beaten, and crippled. He bought
her for 6 ounces of Gold, and 10 bushels of Barley. Then God told Hosea to rename his
children. Jezreel would now mean “I
planted her for myself.” Lo-Ruhamah
became just Ruhamah which means “love.”
Lo-Ammi became just Ammi which means “my people.” Hosea means salvation.
God is Hosea, Gomer is mankind, and Christ is the Silver and
Barley.
9. “He loved us not
because we were lovable but because He is love.” C.S. Lewis
10. 1 John 4:7-8
Dear friends, let us love one another, love comes from God.
Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is
love.
