1. Today we talk about something that is very hard for us to understand. Something that is not natural to our way of thinking. But it is something that we need to consider. For without some understanding of this, we fail to know God and we fail to comprehend our relationship with us.
2. Today we consider Godís love for us. For you and for me.
3. Do you know how much He loves you? We see His love in the birth, life and death of Jesus.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
4. Paul tells us that God loved us when we were still His enemies through our sin. We know that God is love. In the cross we see the depth, breadth and height of His love.
5. I have always considered the book of Hosea a book which gives us deeper and rare insight into the heart of God. And that is what we are going to do this morning. We are going to look into the heart of God. And if we really look, what we see will enable us to understand and appreciate His love more and also see how His love affect how He deals with us.
6. Throughout Hosea God tells the people that He loves them. That He has loved them as a faithful husband and a perfect Father.
7. They should see His love for them by how He looked after them.
Hosea 11:1 When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.
Hosea 11:3 It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by the arms;
Hosea 11:4 I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love; I lifted the yoke from their neck and bent down to feed them.
Hosea 13:4 But I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt.
Hosea 13:5 I cared for you in the desert, in the land of burning heat.
8. God describes His relationship with us in terms that reveal his love for us. Is there greater human love toward another human than a man or woman has for his or her spouse or a parent has for a child? There is not, although for us that love is tainted by sin, by selfishness. But such love is intimate, very intimate, very personal. A love that comes from our very core. And so by using these images of human love, God opens up His heart and reveals the depth of love He has for us. For these words to Israel are also words to you and me.
9. He has patiently cared for us, and taught us to walk and fed us. He has led us out of the Egypt of our sin into the promised land of our salvation. And if your journey has been like mine, He has repeatedly set me back on the right course and been very gracious and merciful. So often I find myself asking God how He can love me as much as He does.
10. But how did Israel respond to the love of God? How did they react to being chosen by God as His beloved?. Hosea 2:4-5 tells us that she was unfaithful. She chased after other lovers. Israel worshipped, Baal, the god of the Canaanites. And she believed that Baal would provided food and water and all her needs and wants.
11. As a parent who faithfully provides for our children, it hurts when our children run to others to get that which we have faithfully provide and still want to give.
12. Vs. 8 say that Israel did not even acknowledge that God was the one who had provided for her. Again we can see how this would hurt God. When a parent gives so much to a child, and that child says "youíve never done anything for me", it hurts.
13. And the same verses tells us that the very things God gave her, she used to for Baal. For making idols out of the silver and gold God had give them. Again, we can see the hurt we would feel. When that which we give is used to show love or dependence on another. Taking the family inheritance or the blessings of God and losing them at the Casino?
14. Chapter 4:1 shows how much they had rejected God:
Hosea 4:1 Hear the word of the LORD, you Israelites, because the LORD has a charge to bring against you who live in the land: "There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land.
15. Oh, there were times when they did call out to God. When they were in trouble.
Hosea 6:1-4 Come, let us return to the LORD. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence. Let us acknowledge the LORD; let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth." "What can I do with you, Ephraim? What can I do with you, Judah? Your love is like the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears.
They told God they loved Him, they did acknowledge Him. But only so He would help them. As soon as they were out of there need they forgot about Him. Their love was not real. It was a love that was for themselves. To get rather than give. And as soon as they got their love disappeared. Just like the morning mist or the early dew that soon disappears as the darkness is over and the sun brightly shines dissipates it.
16. Have you ever loved someone who only seemed to love you for what they could get from you. That is very painful. I knew a wealthy man. He was giver but deep inside he was afraid. Afraid he would lose his wealth. Because if he did, people would not love him anymore.
17. Do we sometimes love God, not for who He is but because of what He gives us?
18. The people also sinned against each other:
Hosea 4:2 There is only cursing, lying and murder, stealing and adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed.
19. The indictment or charges against them pile up:
7:9 - they mix or make alliances with other nations, seeking them to be their strength
8:2-4 says they do sometimes acknowledge God but they do not consult him or seek to know His will
20. Do we respond like Israel to the love of God? I must admit that I see myself in some of these responses. A love for Him that comes and goes, a lack of trusting in Him, a failure to acknowledge Him in all things. How about you? What we are doing, like Israel, that rejects His love?
21. Has your love ever been rejected? How did you feel? How did you react? Did you feel great pain, great hurt? Think of someone you loved or still love. And who has hurt you very much. The way you probably react is to want to hurt that person back. You want them to hurt more than you hurt. You may even hate them. You may want not to ever have anything to do with that person again. And usually you do not love that person anymore.
22. Think of how you react and then you get some idea of how God felt when the people of Israel rejected His love. How He feels when we reject His love.
23. God was hurt. He tells us elsewhere that He is grieved over sin.
24. He was angry. In Hosea He says that His anger makes Him want to destroy the people/
Hosea 8:5 My anger burns against them.
Hosea 12:14 But Ephraim has bitterly provoked him to anger; his Lord will leave upon him the guilt of his bloodshed and will repay him for his contempt.
25. In fact He shows He has rejected them by naming Gomerís children "not loved" and "not my people". And we can understand why God would say this and react this way?
26. But Godís love will not let the people of Israel go. See what He does
Hosea 2:6-7 Therefore I will block her path with thornbushes; I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way. She will chase after her lovers but not catch them; she will look for them but not find them. Then she will say, ’I will go back to my husband as at first, for then I was better off than now.’
27. Ron Hutchcraft talks about a strange site he saw one day:
At first I thought I was looking at a cow from Mars. We were driving through an area of large dairy and cattle farms when I glanced over and there just inside this barbed wire fence was a cow with a big metal ring around her neck. There was a rod of metal sticking up from the top of the ring and a rod sticking down from the bottom. Well, my wife grew up on a farm with cows so she was able to help me realize that this is what she called a fence crawler. See this cow was wearing this welded yoke because she had been a bad girl. A fence crawler is a cow who keeps seeing interesting things outside the fence, and so she keeps crawling out which could lead to all kinds of problems including injury and even being killed by a vehicle. So the farmer discourages going outside the fence with barbed wire and even a contraption to make it impossible to do it.
28. God says He will put a fence of barb-wire around us. "I will block her path with thornbushes." "I will not wall her in so she cannot find her way. She will chase after her lovers, but not find them. In other words, God will not let us get what we are looking for from anyone but Him. We may be looking for love, for fulfillment and meaning, for joy and pleasure from things not of God. He will not let us find what we are looking for. He will frustrate us so we will turn to Him.
29. Me - success was not fulfilling - so I said "I will go back to my husband, to God."
30. If you are frustrated, empty - perhaps God is telling you to return to Him, or turn even more to Him.
31. Vs. 14ff tell us that God will again lead them through a desert. Through a time when they again will see how He saved them and see the promised land before them. He will change their hearts so they will again call Him "their husband." God will change their hearts - through caring for them, through loving them, through Christ dying for them, through the Holy Spirit changing their hearts. And so He does for us.
32. He will not let us go even when we want to. He will look for us and bring us back.
Hosea 2:23 I will plant her for myself in the land; I will show my love to the one I called ’Not my loved one. ’ I will say to those called ’Not my people, ’ ’You are my people’; and they will say, ’You are my God.’"
33. Friends, we are loved by God. With an everlasting love. Even though we may reject His love, he will not let us go. His love stills His anger.
34. But remember the great pain we cause Him. May His love for us, may His pain over our sin, may these things make us love Him more. May we know how great His love is and may we seek to show more love to Him. Thank you God, for loving me.
