{"id":1538,"date":"2021-11-07T20:33:44","date_gmt":"2021-11-07T19:33:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/?p=1538"},"modified":"2021-11-07T20:33:45","modified_gmt":"2021-11-07T19:33:45","slug":"gods-love-which-will-not-let-us-go-hosea-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/?p=1538","title":{"rendered":"God’s love which will not let us go Hosea 11"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is a wonderful old hymn by George Matheson<\/p>\n

O LOVE THAT WILT NOT LET ME GO,
\nI rest my weary soul in thee:
\nI give thee back the life I owe,
\nThat in thine ocean depths its flow
\nMay richer, fuller be.
\nThe story of God\u2019s chosen people of Israel is the story of God\u2019s love which will not let them go. Generation after generation of the Israelites rebelled against God. So much that in Hosea\u2019s time God would bring judgment on the Northern Kingdom of Israel and they would be invaded by the Assyrians. But all the time, God never stopped loving them. So this evening we will look at God\u2019s unfailing love towards his people from Hosea chapter 11, but jumping around other bits of Hosea as well.<\/p>\n

God\u2019s Saving Love<\/p>\n

Hosea 11:1 \u2018When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.<\/p>\n

It was God\u2019s love which had rescued the Israelites from slavery in Egypt in the first place. God called the Israelites \u201cmy first born son\u201d when he met with Moses in Midian, long before he brought them out of Egypt with the miracle of passing through the Red Sea on dry land. Just as God knows us and loves us and calls us and saves us long before we first come to love him. That is the miracle of grace.<\/p>\n

It was the calling and the destiny of the Israelites to be God\u2019s firstborn son, his children. But it wasn\u2019t because of anything in the Israelites themselves which caused God to save them. Rather it was because of God\u2019s love.<\/p>\n

Deuteronomy 7 7 The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. 8 But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9 Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.<\/p>\n

God did not save the Israelites because of their own merits, but because of his steadfast love and mercy, the undeserved grace of God. But that rescue was only the beginning of the blessings God would pour down on Israel.<\/p>\n

Hosea 11 3 It was I who taught Ephraim to walk,
\ntaking them by the arms;
\nbut they did not realise
\nit was I who healed them.
\n4 I led them with cords of human kindness,
\nwith ties of love.
\nTo them I was like one who lifts
\na little child to the cheek,
\nand I bent down to feed them.<\/p>\n

What a beautiful picture of the way God brought Israel through forty years in the wilderness and gave them the victory to take possession of the Promised Land. Cords of human kindness \u2013 ties of love \u2013 like a mother feeding her child. Like all children, Israel\u2019s life started off with so much promise. But then as the years went by they fell short, as we saw two weeks ago,<\/p>\n

Hosea 6 4 \u2018What can I do with you, Ephraim?
\nWhat can I do with you, Judah?
\nYour love is like the morning mist,
\nlike the early dew that disappears.<\/p>\n

The problem of evaporating love.
\nHosea 9 10 \u2018When I found Israel,
\nit was like finding grapes in the desert;
\nwhen I saw your ancestors,
\nit was like seeing the early fruit on the fig-tree.
\nBut when they came to Baal Peor,
\nthey consecrated themselves to that shameful idol
\nand became as vile as the thing they loved.
\nThe problem was spiritual adultery, worshipping idols and false gods.<\/p>\n

God has done even so much more for us as Christians than he did for Israel. He forgives all our sins, he makes us his children, he gives us new birth and new life and he even dwells in us by His Holy Spirit. May God preserve and protect us from ever repaying his saving love in the terrible ways Israel did. The Old Testament is the story not only of God\u2019s steadfast love but also of Israel\u2019s waywardness.<\/p>\n

Hosea 11 2 But the more they were called,
\nthe more they went away from me.
\nThey sacrificed to the Baals
\nand they burned incense to images.
\n3 It was I who taught Ephraim to walk,
\ntaking them by the arms;
\nbut they did not realise
\nit was I who healed them.<\/p>\n

Despite all the blessings God poured out on his chosen people, they wandered further and further away from him. We saw this earlier in God\u2019s judgments on the priests who failed to ensure that Israel kept the law of Moses.<\/p>\n

Hosea 4 6 my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.
\n\u2018Because you have rejected knowledge,
\nI also reject you as my priests;
\nbecause you have ignored the law of your God,
\nI also will ignore your children.
\n7 The more priests there were,
\nthe more they sinned against me;
\nthey exchanged their glorious God for something disgraceful.<\/p>\n

Destroyed from lack of knowledge. Rejecting knowledge and ignoring the law of God. Familiarity breeds contempt, success breeds pride. Exchanging their glorious God for disgraceful idols and false gods. Time and again the sins of Israel are attributed to their rejection of God and his Law. Failing to acknowledge that the blessings they received had come from God.<\/p>\n

Hosea 2 8 She has not acknowledged that I was the one
\nwho gave her the grain, the new wine and oil,
\nwho lavished on her the silver and gold\u2014
\nwhich they used for Baal.<\/p>\n

Hosea 4 Hear the word of the LORD, you Israelites,
\nbecause the LORD has a charge to bring
\nagainst you who live in the land:
\n\u2018There is no faithfulness, no love,
\nno acknowledgment of God in the land.<\/p>\n

No acknowledgement of God! The people don\u2019t know their God so they don\u2019t give their worship to Him. The priests and prophets had failed in their calling. Like the Pharisees in Jesus\u2019s time, they were blind guides, making their followers twice as fit for hell as they were themselves. All the people of Israel had followed them into sin. There\u2019s a reminder here for us to pray for Christian leaders, ministers and Christians who are in the public eye. The devil loves to tempt Christian leaders into sin, to discredit them or to use them to lead Christians astray through false teaching. And there\u2019s a challenge for every one of us to be growing closer to God, reading and studying the Bible for ourselves, so that we are not led astray by false teaching.<\/p>\n

Having said all that, the sins of Israel were not only due to ignorance but often due to wilful disobedience.<\/p>\n

Hosea 11 5 \u2018Will they not return to Egypt
\nand will not Assyria rule over them
\nbecause they refuse to repent?
\n6 A sword will flash in their cities;
\nit will devour their false prophets
\nand put an end to their plans.
\n7 My people are determined to turn from me.
\nEven though they call me God Most High,
\nI will by no means exalt them.<\/p>\n

They refuse to repent \u2013 \u201cmy people are determined to turn away from me\u201d. Deliberate sin.
\nEvery Christian faces this daily battle to say no to sin and yes to God.<\/p>\n

Romans 7 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do\u2014this I keep on doing.<\/p>\n

But now the Israelites are going to reap the consequences of their continued rebellion.<\/p>\n

Hosea 8 7 \u2018They sow the wind
\nand reap the whirlwind.
\nThe stalk has no head;
\nit will produce no flour.
\nWere it to yield grain,
\nforeigners would swallow it up.
\n8 Israel is swallowed up;
\nnow she is among the nations
\nlike something no one wants.
\n9 For they have gone up to Assyria
\nlike a wild donkey wandering alone.
\nEphraim has sold herself to lovers.<\/p>\n

Hosea 9 3 They will not remain in the LORD\u2019s land;
\nEphraim will return to Egypt
\nand eat unclean food in Assyria.<\/p>\n

Israel will get their just desserts \u2013 they will find themselves metaphorically back in Egypt again! In poverty and slavery.<\/p>\n

Hosea 8 12 I wrote for them the many things of my law,
\nbut they regarded them as something foreign.
\n13 Though they offer sacrifices as gifts to me,
\nand though they eat the meat,
\nthe LORD is not pleased with them.
\nNow he will remember their wickedness
\nand punish their sins:
\nthey will return to Egypt.
\n14 Israel has forgotten his Maker
\nand built palaces;
\nJudah has fortified many towns.
\nBut I will send fire on their cities
\nthat will consume their fortresses.\u2019<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s sins were grievous. Idol worship. Spiritual and physical adultery and immorality. Putting their trust in foreign gods and foreign armies instead of putting their trust in the God who had saved and created them. We must make sure that we do not fall into the sins of our generation. Materialism. Pride. Indifference. Worshipping the false gods of Money, Sex and Power, Entertainment and Celebrity. Or we would richly deserve the same punishment as the Israelites. But by the grace of God, we are held, like they were, by God\u2019s steadfast loving-kindness. Because the whole Bible is the story of<\/p>\n

God\u2019s love which will not let us go<\/p>\n

Hosea 11 8 \u2018How can I give you up, Ephraim?
\nHow can I hand you over, Israel?
\nHow can I treat you like Admah?
\nHow can I make you like Zeboyim?
\nMy heart is changed within me;
\nall my compassion is aroused.
\n9 I will not carry out my fierce anger,
\nnor will I devastate Ephraim again.
\nFor I am God, and not a man\u2014
\nthe Holy One among you.
\nI will not come against their cities.<\/p>\n

Here we see the tension which every parent knows and experiences between justice and love, punishment and mercy. The only thing the Israelites deserve is judgment, but instead God is going to show them mercy.<\/p>\n

You may not remember Admah and Zeboyim. They were two cities on the plains which were destroyed alongside Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis chapter 14. Moses had warned Israel beforehand that they would be destroyed in that way if they rebelled against God and worshipped foreign gods when they were established in the Promised Land.<\/p>\n

Deuteronomy 29 23 The whole land will be a burning waste of salt and sulphur\u2014nothing planted, nothing sprouting, no vegetation growing on it. It will be like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboyim, which the LORD overthrew in fierce anger. 24 All the nations will ask: \u2018Why has the LORD done this to this land? Why this fierce, burning anger?\u2019
\n25 And the answer will be: \u2018It is because this people abandoned the covenant of the LORD, the God of their ancestors, the covenant he made with them when he brought them out of Egypt. 26 They went off and worshipped other gods and bowed down to them, gods they did not know, gods he had not given them. 27 Therefore the LORD\u2019s anger burned against this land, so that he brought on it all the curses written in this book.<\/p>\n

So God had warned the Israelites centuries before that a terrible judgment would fall if they worshipped idols and false gods, but the nation had sinned anyway. They deserved the complete destruction which God had threatened, but instead God decided to reduce the sentence. The righteous and holy God always has the right to punish sin. But God\u2019s love for his chosen people outweighed his anger.<\/p>\n

Hosea 11 8 \u2018How can I give you up, Ephraim?
\nHow can I hand you over, Israel?
\nHow can I treat you like Admah?
\nHow can I make you like Zeboyim?
\nMy heart is changed within me;
\nall my compassion is aroused.
\n9 I will not carry out my fierce anger,
\nnor will I devastate Ephraim again.
\nFor I am God, and not a man\u2014
\nthe Holy One among you.
\nI will not come against their cities.<\/p>\n

Instead of judgment God will bring mercy. He would spare a remnant of his chosen people. Centuries later Ezra would look back on the events of invasion of Israel by the Assyrians and then the invasion of Judah and the destruction of Jerusalem and of the Temple by the Babylonians.<\/p>\n

Ezra 9 13 \u2018What has happened to us is a result of our evil deeds and our great guilt, and yet, our God, you have punished us less than our sins have deserved and have given us a remnant like this.<\/p>\n

Because of God\u2019s divine character, his steadfast loving kindness and his covenant loyalty, he will not bring total destruction. In his mercy, God will preserve the faithful remnant of his chosen people.<\/p>\n

For I am God, and not a man\u2014 the Holy One among you. I will not come against their cities.<\/p>\n

Some people nowadays misunderstand this to mean that \u201cGod is too loving ever to punish sin.\u201d That is not what the Bible teaches. There is no hint of universalism or the idea that \u201ceverybody will be alright in the end\u201d in Hosea or anywhere else. What this does show that those on whom God has already set his grace will always be safe in his love. Grace is getting another opportunity when you haven\u2019t earned it or deserved it, and even if at the time you don\u2019t actually want it. However much we may wander from God, his love will never let us go, however much it may cost him. The way Hosea accepted his unfaithful wife Gomer back is a visual aid for the way God will win his people back<\/p>\n

Hosea 3:1 The LORD said to me, \u2018Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress. Love her as the LORD loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.\u2019
\nSo God was embarking on a second rescue mission, to win his chosen people back to himself. This was the heart of the message of Hosea, summed up as we saw back in chapter 2.<\/p>\n

Hosea 2 14 \u2018Therefore I am now going to allure her;
\nI will lead her into the wilderness
\nand speak tenderly to her.
\n15 There I will give her back her vineyards,
\nand will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.
\nThere she will respond as in the days of her youth,
\nas in the day she came up out of Egypt.
\n16 \u2018In that day,\u2019 declares the LORD,
\n\u2018you will call me \u201cmy husband\u201d;
\nyou will no longer call me \u201cmy master\u201d. \u2026.
\n19 I will betroth you to me for ever;
\nI will betroth you in righteousness and justice,
\nin love and compassion.
\n20 I will betroth you in faithfulness,
\nand you will acknowledge the LORD. \u2026
\n23 I will plant her for myself in the land;
\nI will show my love to the one I called \u201cNot my loved one\u201d.
\nI will say to those called \u201cNot my people\u201d, \u201cYou are my people\u201d;
\nand they will say, \u201cYou are my God.\u201d \u2019<\/p>\n

This is the love of God which will not let Israel go. This is the love of God which will never let us go if we belong to him. However far they have wandered away from him, God will bring his chosen people back to himself, the body of Christ, the new temple built out of living stones, the church. Because his love is unchanging. God\u2019s love never fails. God\u2019s love will never let us go. Praise God for loving us so much!<\/p>\n

O LOVE THAT WILT NOT LET ME GO,
\nI rest my weary soul in thee:
\nI give thee back the life I owe,
\nThat in thine ocean depths its flow
\nMay richer, fuller be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is a wonderful old hymn by George Matheson O LOVE THAT WILT NOT LET ME GO, I rest my weary soul in thee:…<\/span><\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1538"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1538"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1538\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1539,"href":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1538\/revisions\/1539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}