LOVE THAT WON’T GIVE UP
One day C. H. Spurgeon was walking through the English countryside with a friend. As they strolled along, the evangelist noticed a barn with a weather vane on its roof. At the top of the vane were these words: GOD IS LOVE. Spurgeon remarked to his companion that he thought this was a rather inappropriate place for such a message. "Weather vanes are changeable," he said, "but God’s love is constant."
"I don’t agree with you about those words, Charles," replied his friend. "You misunderstood the meaning. That sign is indicating a truth: Regardless of which way the wind blows, God is love."
I/ THE NATURE OF PERSEVERING LOVE - Hosea 11:1-4
1. Verse 1a: "When Israel was a child, then I loved him" - God loved Israel while Israel was an enslaved people.
Matthew 18:2-3: And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, {3} And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Why does God love children ?
Israel was enslaved when God loved them, so also men today are enslaved by sin, yet God loves them.
2. Verse 1b "Called my son out of Egypt" - called, is covenant terminology and implies relationship. Through Israel’s seed was to come God’s "son". All of God’s dealings with Israel were based upon the love that He would show in calling His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, back from the comparative safety of Egypt in order that He might suffer and die to accomplish His great redemptive work
Matthew 2:13-15
And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. {14} When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt: {15} And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son.
3. Verse 2a - "As they called them, so they went from them."- ASV translates this as "The more the prophets called them, the more they went from them" The Berkeley version reads "But the more I called them, the more they deserted Me" In a sense both versions are correct, God called Israel to honor the covenant made with Him at Sinai. He did so through the prophets.
4.Verse 2b - "they sacrificed unto Baalim and they burned incense to graven images." - Instead of returning to the Lord, Israel went farther into Baal worship. Baalim is the plural of Baal. Each community had its image of Baal, hence the plural. Baal was the Canaanite god of fertility and of harvest. Israel attributed to Baal the blessings that came from God.
5. Verse 3a - "I taught Ephraim also to go--taking them by their arms" - Returning to the father and son motif in verse 3, God said that He taught Israel to "go", like a father teaches his little children how to walk by "taking them by their arms" This suggests God’s giving of the Mosaic law at Mount Sinai.
6. Verse 3b - "but they knew not that I healed them" - God said that He "healed them" even if they didn’t realize that it was He who did so.
7. Verse 4a "I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love" - Now the metaphor changes to that of leading an ox. The Lord said that instead of leading Israel with strong, rough ropes, He did so with tender "cords" that were really "bands of love".
8. "I laid food before them" - At the end of the day He removed the yoke and "laid meat unto them", or fed them.
II/ PERSISTENT REBELLION VERSUS PERSEVERING LOVE - Hosea 11:5-7
1. verse 5 - He shall not return into the land of Egypt, but the Assyrian shall be his king, because they refused to return.
If they want Egypt, then Egypt they shall have. But it shall not be the old, literal Egypt but rather another bondage in which Assyria whall be their king.
2. verse 6 - And the sword shall abide on his cities, and shall consume his branches, and devour
This verse describes the suffering leading upt to the fall of Israel in 722 B.C. The nation was thoroughly determined to exalt Baal rather than Jehovah. This brought on the inevitable "Sword".
Swords would "abide" on Israel’s cities. Swords would "consume Israel’s branches. The word "branches" may refer to Israel’s mighty men.
3. verse 7 - is chilling; "my people are bent to backsliding from me". Though God had sent prophets to Israel to call them back to Himself, "none at all would exalt him"
III/ THE SECRET OF PERSEVERING LOVE - Hosea 11:8-9
1. verse 8 - How shall I give thee up, Ephraim?
This verse should be understood as a wail that shows us the depths of the heart of a loving, merciful God. Israel had done to God what Gomer did to Hosea, only infinitely more. God had every reason to cast them out. But faced with the prospect, He cried out against it. Four times over God is pictured as crying out. GOD SAYS HOW SHALL I FOUR TIMES:
a. How shall I give thee up?
b. How shall I deliver thee?
c. How shall I make thee as Admah?
d. How shall I set thee as Zeboim?
2. verse 9 - I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I
Why did not God perpetrate Israel’s destruction? It is because He is the infinite God and not a finite human being. If human parents would not strike the blow that would destroy their child, how much more would God not do it to His child Israel! He vowed not to enter the capital city of Samaria to destroy it.
Yet judgment and destruction did come. But it was not by some heavenly display of divine wrath such as destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.
During World War II the question was often heard, "Why doesn’t God destroy Hitler?" He did not do it with a bolt of lightning. Instead, He allowed the evil of Hitler and his Nazi party to destroy them both. It was by God’s permissive will that He allowed the allied armies to crush the Nazi power.
IV/ THE GOAL OF PERSEVERING LOVE - Hosea 11:10-11
1. Verse 10 - They shall walk after the LORD: he shall roar like a lion: when he shall roar, then the children shall tremble from the west.
Jehovah is pictured as roaring "like a lion" as He called His people home. They are pictured as coming from the south(Egypt),
west and east(Assyria).
2. Verse 11 - They shall tremble as a bird out of Egypt, and as a dove out of the land of Assyria: and I will place them in their houses, saith the LORD.
Those coming over land from the west would enter Palestine from the north. So it is implied that they would come from all four directions. "Placing them in their houses" suggests a settled life. So despite Israel’s failure to return to the Lord, Jehovah continued to plead. He did so in terms of promises as to what could be if only they would return to the Lord. God perseveres in loving His people even when they are unfaithful to Him!
In a testimony an evangelist one time described his mother as being love personified. As a boy he found her sitting at the table with an old tramp one day. Apparently she had gone shopping, met the tramp along the way, and invited him home for a warm meal. During the conversation the tramp said, "I wish there
were more people like you in the world." Whereupon his mother replied, "Oh, there are. But you must look for them." The old man simply shook his head, saying. "But, lady, I didn’t need to look for you. You looked for me." When that mother reflected her Christian kindness toward the tramp she did something more than simply offer him welfare. It was a compassion that went out of its way to love the unlovely. And that’s the story of our Savior’s live, death and resurrection. He came looking for us in the sick, the maimed, the lame, the bruised, the broken hearted, the wretched wanderer, the poor and forgotten, the prisoner, and the lonely rich. Has he found you?
