OUR LORD’S LOVE LASTS FOREVER
HOSEA 11: 1- 4,7-9 -- October 1, 2004 -- PENTECOST 20
1 "When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. 2But the more I called Israel, the further they went from me. They sacrificed to the Baals and they burned incense to images. 3It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by the arms; but they did not realize it was I who healed them. 4I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love; I lifted the yoke from their neck and bent down to feed them.
7My people are determined to turn from me. Even if they call to the Most High, he will by no means exalt them.
8"How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I treat you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboiim? My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused.
9I will not carry out my fierce anger, nor will I turn and devastate Ephraim. For I am God, and not man--the Holy One among you. I will not come in wrath
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Dearest Fellow Redeemed and Saints in the Lord:
What is love? You can think about that for a bit and what that word love means to you. The word love in our society today, is so over used, misused, that it is often abused. People say it without even thinking. They say to one another I love you -- and yet divorce reigns rampant in our society. People say to one another I love you -- and yet children are abandoned, forsaken, and at times, even worse. Instead of love being something that comes from the heart and having a valuable meaning love has become just a sloppy sentimentality. Love is hastily added to cards, letters and conversations, just to seem sociable. Today we are going to look at the Lord’s love and understand that love is more than just words. The Lord’s love is an everlasting love. Only by understanding and knowing the Lord’s love for us can you and I begin to appreciate the deeper meaning of that word love. Scripture tells us: This is love: not that we loved God, but he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins (1 JOHN 4:10). NOW that is love. God sacrificed his son on our behalf, so that we might love him.
Today Hosea the prophet tells us: OUR LORD’S LOVE LASTS FOREVER. Hosea reminds us that: I. even though you and I might turn away from God’s love II. it is God’s love that turns us around time and again.
I. WE OFTEN TURN AWAY FROM GOD’S LOVE
Hosea was a prophet sent to warn God’s people about their unfaithfulness and how they had turned away from God. Now they needed to turn back now. God was concerned about them. He was concerned about them from the very beginning. Verse 1 says: “When Israel was a child I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.” The Lord pictures himself as a father of this nation of believers. The Lord reminded Israel that when they were slaves in Egypt he heard their cries. And God called them, and he delivered them from the hands of Pharaoh. He protected them, God did, in the wilderness for 40 years. God delivered them to the Promised Land. But what was their reaction? Our text states, “But the more I called Israel, the further they went from me.” They forgot about God . They went away from him further and further and further. Why was that? Well, you know when Moses, he didn’t get to enter the Promised Land, but before he sent the children of Israel there had said to them he was concerned about them. Moses was concerned that when they got into the Land of milk and honey, a land of prosperity and wealth, they might forget about God. They would say to themselves, well we’ve got enough. We don’t need God anymore. You may recall that is what happened they lived in the Promised Land. They didn’t have to go out day after day and collect manna off the ground. And they forgot about God. Worse than that the Israelites followed after the gods of the land the people that were there worshipped. Hosea writes, “They sacrificed to the Baals and they burnt incense to images.” It got so bad at one time that Scripture implies that maybe even the children of Israel offered human sacrifices to these false gods. How does such a thing happen? Well they were sinners. They wanted to do things their way.
And how soon they forgot. It wasn’t just in the Promised Land, but you remember when the Lord called them out of Egypt. One time they thought they were trapped. They were trapped with the Red Sea on one side and the army of Pharaoh on the other. But what happened? The Lord delivered them on dry ground. Then the Red Sea and the waters came crashing down and destroyed that vast powerful army of the Egyptians. And on the other side they praised God for what had happened. In a few more days Moses goes on to Mt Sinai to get the Ten Commandments. Before Moses comes back the children of Israel have formed the Golden Calf to worship. They worshipped the Golden Calf instead of God. They sacrificed to the Baals, they burned incense to images. Baal was a foreign god, and became just a general term for false gods. Hosea writes in verse 7: “My people are determined to turn from me”. Their sinful nature did not want to do what God wanted them to do.
Now it seems as if God has to struggle, if we can say that God has to struggle. Listen to Verse 8: “How can I give you up, Ephraim. How can I hand you over, Israel? God is asking how can I turn you over to destruction? How can I forget you? And then he adds “How can I treat you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboiim?” These are two cities we don’t hear much about. The other two cities we do -Sodom and Gomorrah-. Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed along with the cities of the plains-Admah and Zeboiim, the two cities next to Sodom and Gomorrah. The people were as wicked as Sodom and Gomorrah and removed from the face of the earth. The Lord struggles and he says now how can I do that to you, my children? You turn away from me. Should I destroy you?
When we look at the sinfulness of Israel, we are reminded of our own sinfulness. We are reminded that mankind, we are reminded that especially believers, are not exempt from turning away from God. And we consider the example of Israel for the simple reason that day after day for forty years the glory of the Lord was there. A cloud during the day, a pillar of fire at night led them and reminded them of God’s great glory. Still Israel worshipped false gods. Now you and I walk in our pilgrimage in this life and we do not have the glory of God every day as visible with a cloud or a pillar of fire at night to lead us. So what do you think? Are we going to turn away from God as much? Yes, and at times maybe even more so. The Lord says: that is our sinful nature. (ISAIAH 59:2) says: But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. You and I know God’s will. You and I have seen God’s will. But on this side of heaven we do not know God’s will perfectly. We do not see it perfectly, and therefore we do not carry God’s will perfectly. Our sins separate us from that perfect understanding of God’s holy will.
None of us dare to think: Well, you know those Israelites were worse than us. Or we dare not look at others and say well I’m glad I’m not as bad as that sinner. Or I’m not as bad as the rest of the world. The Lord reminds us very clearly that we are all guilty. Our sins condemn us whether we commit them with our actions or speak them with our words, or think them with our thoughts. The Psalm writer tells us: Everyone has turned away, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one (PSALM 53:3).
Sadly we realize that we do, indeed, turn away from God. We often turn away to our own purposes. We turn away to follow our own plans. Or we turn away to worship the things of this world. Now again we might say well, we don’t have false gods that we worship. We don’t have altars that we set up in place of God like the children of Israel. We don’t put things out in the fields for us to worship. They had groves of trees that they worshipped, carved into graven images. But we do have all sorts of things that we worship don’t we? The Lord reminds us that sometimes our family are things that we worship. The Lord tells us to look around and look at the graven images, the golden idols that the world dangles before us, and that we worship. We have to admit that we take pretty good care of ourselves, beyond Gods blessings. We make sure that we have plenty to eat, good things to wear, nice vehicles to drive. And we worship those things. When we honestly look at our lives and we compare what we do for God’s kingdom and what we do for ourselves we know that taking care of ourselves far outweighs God’s kingdom work. Then when we look honestly at ourselves and what we give for God’s work or for ourselves we have to admit we fall short. We probably pay more for insuring one or two of our vehicles than we contribute to God’s kingdom. Is that our graven image? So we have to agree we, too, turn away and worship the things of this world. We have graven images and golden earthly idols because we live in this world and the world says that is what we need to do. The warning of course is the familiar one. Jesus warns in the New Testament as he says: No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money(MATTHEW 6:24)
Jesus says you cannot serve both God and Money. Jesus also says we need to look, look at how much the Lord has loved us that we might show our love to him.
Our Lords love lasts forever. Now the Lord could say to us just like he said here concerning the believers. Shall I destroy them? No, instead the Lord shows us his love that turns us around time and again.
II. GOD’S LOVE TURNS US AROUND
We listen and we look at the words of the Prophet Hosea, and we are going to learn a little bit more about Hosea here in a bit. The Lord remember started with this in verse 1 concerning the believers in Israel, that he was like a father, they were his children. Hosea further describes that relationship, as he writes: “It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by the arms, but they did not realize it was I who healed them.” You can easily picture God the heavenly father lifting up his nation by the arms and teaching them the basic elements of faith: covenants of his love that he was going to show them. God’s prophets taught them how to walk in the way of the Lord. But at times they didn’t recognize him. Hosea says “I lead them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love.” It talks about a chain, but he says it is not a chain of steel or heavy metal. God’s chain is a cord of kindness and ties of love. Thus the Lord led them for the next forty years. “I lifted the yoke from their neck and bent down to feed them.” Every day for forty years except on the Sabbath days, they could go out and pick up food from the ground to eat. The Lord bent down to feed them.
God’s divine love turned them around. When they sinned he forgave them. When they complained about the manna God gave them quail until they became sick. They repented, God forgave. When they rejected him the snakes came, and many of them died. But also the Lord showed them his love with the snake lifted up that they might be reminded of the Savior who was to come. The Lord doesn’t destroy them. Our text says: “I will not carry out my fierce anger, nor will I turn and devastate Ephraim..” They aren’t going to be forgotten nor forsaken. But God’s love would turn them around. His love endures forever. Verse 8, the end he says: “My heart is changed within me. All my compassion is aroused.” What an interesting phrase that is, isn’t it? All my compassion is aroused. Usually when we hear that phrase we think of someone’s anger being aroused. But the Lord says all my compassion is aroused.
Now more about Hosea the prophet. We begin at the beginning, Hosea is after the Book of Daniel, towards the end of the Old Testament. The Lord told Hosea that he was to go and take for himself a wife who was an adulteress wife. She was an unfaithful wife. Hosea did what the Lord said. He married an unfaithful, adulteress wife, Gomer was her name. They had children. During that marriage she left him. Then she was to be sold as a slave. And you know Hosea probably thought well, well, I’m finally out of that mess. That was a bad thing, a bad marriage. But he did it because God had told him to. But then God tells him: and now you have to go, go and buy back your wife. And so he did. NO matter the price he paid for her, Hosea bought her back and brought her back into his house.
As Hosea bought back his unfaithful, adulteress wife the children of Israel were to see how unfaithful they had been, how adulteress they had been concerning the Lord. So also the Lord God would go and buy his people back. His compassion was aroused for them. What a thing the Lord asked Hosea to do. What great love the Lord reveals to his children! Our text concludes by saying: “For I am God, and not man--the Holy One among you. I will not come in wrath.” Instead of anger God comes with compassion.
Today you and I rejoice. You and I rejoice and celebrate. Not in our sinfulness, but in the fact that our sins are forgiven. The Lord is always faithful to all his promises because his love lasts forever. Paul wrote to Timothy saying: If we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself (2 TIMOTHY 2:13). God says his promise is that he wants all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth. He wants his Gospel to be preached to the ends of the earth. That is how the Lord remains faithful to his promise, even when we are unfaithful. God shows us his love. He displays it time and again.
No matter how often we are privileged to hear God’s word on Sunday. No matter how often we are privileged to study it in Bible study. No matter how often we are privileged and blessed to read it day after day, after day on our own. We still only begin to scratch the surface of beginning to understand God’s great love. Paul writes in Romans: But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (ROMANS 5:8). Christ died for us even before we were born. Christ died for us even before we came here and committed our first sin. Christ died for us because of God’s great love.
So, yes, our society may misuse, overuse and even abuse that word love. But for you and I as believers, when we hear love we ought to think of God’s great love for us. God’s divine love is the love that cannot be destroyed. It is a love that cannot be taken away from us. The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness” (JEREMIAH 31:3). Again you get that picture like Hosea says: I draw you; I take you along with loving-kindness. Not with metal chains that weigh you down, not with a yoke that burdens you. But the Lord draws us with ties of love. We are yoked together with our Savior so that our sins are forgiven.
God’s love – it is almost beyond understanding isn’t it? But God love is so great that his only begotten Son would die for us. Not only that -- Jesus would also die for sins of the world. Jesus even died for the sins of his enemies. That is love. This is God’s eternal love for us because we turn away from that love in our sinfulness: whether in actions, in words or in thoughts. God in his love says your sins are forgiven! This great love of God for sinners turns us around and brings us back. God’s love and forgiveness comes not because of anything we have done. God’s love and forgiveness comes not because of anything we deserve. God’s love and forgiveness comes not because of any price we could pay. God’s love and forgiveness comes purely, simply by God’s grace. God’s grace is beautifully defined and described in EPHESIANS 2. It would do us well to read that chapter often. For our purposes today we have verses 4 and 5: But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved (EPHESIANS 2:4,5). NOW that is love. That is our Lord’s love – a love that lasts forever for every sinner who is turned by God’s love. AMEN.
Pastor Timm O. Meyer
