Even While the World Watches—God Chases After Us!
“Then the LORD said to me,
(Hosea 3: 1 NASB)
“Go again, love a woman who is loved by her husband, yet an adulteress, even as the LORD loves the sons of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love raisin cakes.”
Walk with me into Kroger and go with me down the cookie aisle. Pause to pick up Chips Ahoy chocolate cookies—Family Size. Then walk further down the aisle, and there at the very end of the long shelf—RAISIN CAKES!
My Favorite!
Now they even come in bite size, so small that a person can reach into the bag and pull out five or six raisin cakes at one time—instead of the large one that fills the full hand.
Now they are available in multiple flavors that seems to draw us toward them even more.
- Then God, the One who created every living soul &
- Then the LORD, who breathed life into Adam, who placed us inside our mother’s womb & numbered our days even before the first one &
- Then the Creator who spoke into existence—everything &
- Then the Father who created the heavens and the earth and all that inhabits the entire universe—sent His Son Jesus—His ONLY Son—to earth to die on the cross!
Even While the World Watches—God Chases After Us—the lost, the destitute, the adulterous sinners!
Even While the World Watches—God Chases After Us—His creation!
Even While the World Watches!
“So I bought her for myself for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a half of barley.”
(Hosea 3: 2 NASB)
Every book, chapter, and verse within the Bible shouts GOD’S LOVE!
The prophet Hosea was a man, just a regular man, and God told him to take a wife, but not any wife. Hosea, God’s servant was to take a woman of the night as his wife. Hosea knew before he sought after her, before he married Gomer—that she had loved other men, many men. Nevertheless, because God said so, Hosea loved her & married her anyway.
- God sent Jesus to earth to seek & to save those who are lost.
- God sent His Only Son to earth to chase after us—
those who loved other gods &
those who bowed down to worship idols &
yes, those who ran away from His Love & not toward Him.
God blessed the marriage of Hosea and Gomer with children, but even though the prophet (Hosea) was obedient to God’s will when he took a harlot as his wife, still Gomer was not content in her union of marriage to Hosea.
- Gomer went back into her “old way” of life.
- Gomer returned to harlotry.
- God’s servant Hosea married a woman of the night as his wife.
Hosea knew before he sought after her (before he married Gomer & before they had children together)—WHAT SHE WAS—that she had loved others.
Nonetheless, because God said so, Hosea loved her, married her—started a new life—with Gomer anyway.
- Even as the world watched—JESUS OBEYED THE FATHER!
- Even while the world laughed—JESUS OBEDIENTLY DIED UPON THE CROSS OF CALVARY!
- Even while the world chose to not see God—JESUS DID HIS FATHER’S WILL!
- Even while the world turned their backs—GOD GAVE ALL—HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON—SO WE MIGHT COME TO KNOW HIM!
God is love! We say that so often, and because we do, it might be possible that we have forgotten just how jealous God really is for us. God’s love is a jealous love!
HE SAID SO IN HIS COMMANDMENTS!
“Then God spoke all these words, saying,
(Exodus 20: 1-6 NASB)
“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
You shall have no other gods before Me.
You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.
You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children,
on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,
but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.”
- THEN THE CHILDREN OF GOD FORGOT FROM HOW FAR GOD HAD BROUGHT THEM.
- THEN THE CHILDREN OF GOD TOOK THEIR EYES OFF HIM!
- THEN THE CHILDREN OF GOD CHASED AFTER & WORSHIPED OTHER IDOLS.
- THEN GOD COMMANDED THE TABLETS REWRITTEN—
“At that time the LORD said to me, ‘Cut out for yourself two tablets of stone like the former ones, and come up to Me on the mountain, and make an ark of wood for yourself.’
(Deuteronomy 10: 1-2 & 12-14 NASB)
‘I will write on the tablets the words that were on the former tablets which you shattered, and you shall put them in the ark.’
. . .
Now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require from you,
but to fear the LORD your God,
to walk in all His ways and love Him,
and to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,
and to keep the LORD’s commandments and His statutes
which I am commanding you today for your good?
Behold, to the LORD your God belong heaven and the highest heavens,
the earth and all that is in it.”
Even While the World Watches—God Chases After Us—the lost, the destitute, the adulterous sinners!
Even While the World Watches—God Chases After Us—His creation!
Even While the World Watches—God Chases After His Children—when they stray & return to their sins.
Even While the World Watches!
“But God demonstrates His own love toward us,
(Romans 5: 8 NASB)
in that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us.”