…and he fell to
the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you
persecuting Me?” And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” And He
said, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, but get up and enter the city,
and it will be told you what you must do.” Acts 9:4-6
Yesterday we considered
how Hosea’s love for Gomer is a great example of God’s love for us. God told Hosea to take a wife that is a
Harlot – someone who would surely be unfaithful to him. Why would God actually
tell someone to do that? He did it to
make an example for Israel and for all to see of His love and mercy for His
children. At the time, Israel had turned
their backs on God and were engaging in all kinds of sin. God wanted to get their attention. Hosea would literally show Israel her sin by
taking a prostitute for a wife, whom he would consistently show grace and mercy
to, exactly as God showed Israel and as He shows us.
Basic Truths about God’s Love
God’s Love is
Unreasonable. Who can explain love? If love always made sense it would not be
love. It does not always respond to logic. The question of Hosea may not be why God would
ask Hosea to marry Gomer, but why would God commit himself to a group of people
he knew would not be faithful to him? It doesn’t make sense.
Following God involves having a faith in Him
such that you believe in
advance what will only make sense in reverse. Philip Yancey
advance what will only make sense in reverse. Philip Yancey
If God was going to
make a commitment to a nation, why wouldn’t He choose a nation He knew would be
faithful? Why wouldn’t He select those
who would be inclined to follow His laws and appreciate the wisdom of His ways?
According to our
way of thinking, God is unreasonable. We
would choose to love someone who loved us. We would look for someone we thought would be
faithful to us. In our humanness, we
have no room for someone who does not love us back, and especially no room for
someone who is not loyal to us. But God chooses
whom He will choose. Listen to this
outrageous verse from the Bible that sounds unreasonable…If we are faithless, he will
remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself.
2 Timothy 2:13
When God enters
into a covenant of love with us, the covenant does not depend on our
faithfulness, but on the faithfulness of God. We keep thinking that God only loves good
people, but God loves sinners. He
pursues them like He asked Hosea to pursue Gomer. He is betrayed but He longs for them. When they become enslaved by their sins, He
buys them back.
The Bible describes
our predicament: There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who
understands, there is none who seeks for god; all have turned aside, together
they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one. Romans 3:10-12. But in spite of that, God did something
completely irrational — He loved us and sought for a way to buy us out of our
slavery to sin:… knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things
like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your
forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless,
the blood of Christ. 1 Peter 1:18-19
Ian Pitt-Watson
writes, "There is a natural, logical
kind of loving that loves lovely things and lovely people. That’s logical. But
there is another kind of loving that doesn’t look for value in what it loves,
but that creates value in what it loves.”
Scripture to Claim: But you, O Lord, are a God
merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and
faithfulness. Psalm 86:15
