18. Hosea: God’s Amazing Love

Prayer

Introduction

Someone shared their story with me: “I tried to run away from God, but God ran faster. He never stopped pursuing me.”

Watch this video that summarizes the story.

Big Idea

From the video: We have a loving God who loves an unlovely people.

My tweak on that: We have a loving God whose love makes an unlovely people lovely again.

Implications (from Hos 11:1-11)

We have a loving God (Hos 11:1-4).

Explanation

In fact, God is love (1 John 4:16).

God’s love is not like our love.

We tend to have a childish view of love—shallow, circumstantial, self-centered, shortsighted: “You’re not telling me what I want to hear, therefore you don’t love me.”

But God’s love is higher. God’s love is deeper. God’s love transcends our understanding. God’s love is beyond all that we could ask or imagine.

God’s love is God giving himself for our highest good.

God’s love is a consuming fire that burns hotter than we can comprehend.

We were made for God’s love.

“The love that made the world is the furnace in which you were forged. It was in the consuming fire, the eternal and infinite fire of God’s love, that you were made. And because you were created in that kind of fire, there is no other kind of love that can warm your heart.” ~ Tim Keller

No other love can satisfy.

Application: God loves you.

We are unlovely people.

Explanation

Hosea 11:2… My niece stuck her fingers through the fence after my brother told her to stay away from the fence.

Hosea 11:7… Yeah, I’m a Christian. I mean, Jesus has virtually no impact in my life whatsoever—I live my own life. But, yeah, I believe in Jesus, so I’m a Christian.

Look at Hosea 11:1-7 in The Message…

Hosea 11:1–7 MSG

1 “When Israel was only a child, I loved him. I called out, ‘My son!’—called him out of Egypt. 2 But when others called him, he ran off and left me. He worshiped the popular sex gods, he played at religion with toy gods. 3 Still, I stuck with him. I led Ephraim. I rescued him from human bondage, But he never acknowledged my help, 4 never admitted that I was the one pulling his wagon, That I lifted him, like a baby, to my cheek, then I bent down to feed him. 5 Now he wants to go back to Egypt or go over to Assyria— anything but return to me! 6 That’s why his cities are unsafe—the murder rate skyrockets and every plan to improve things falls to pieces. 7 My people are hell-bent on leaving me. They pray to god Baal for help. He doesn’t lift a finger to help them.

Application: Can we just be honest? We are unlovely people!

Prideful, self-centered, arrogant, narcissistic, petty, jealous, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, self-serving, self-promoting, materialistic, gluttonous, self-indulgent, selfish, spiteful, gossips, slanderers, dishonest…

The longer you’re a Christian, the more subtle, sneaky, and dangerous your sin becomes.

But God still loves us.

Explanation

Hear God’s heart in Hosea 11:8-9, again in The Message.

Hosea 11:8–9 MSG

8 But how can I give up on you, Ephraim? How can I turn you loose, Israel? How can I leave you to be ruined like Admah, devastated like luckless Zeboim? I can’t bear to even think such thoughts. My insides churn in protest. 9 And so I’m not going to act on my anger. I’m not going to destroy Ephraim. And why? Because I am God and not a human. I’m The Holy One and I’m here—in your very midst.

And here we see, again, that God’s love is not like our love (v. 9).

God in our midst… foreshadows Jesus, “God with us,” who paid the penalty of our sin.

God’s love makes us lovely again (Hos 11:10-11).

Application: We have a loving God whose love makes an unlovely people lovely again.

Applications

Hosea 11:11b… If you’re in Gomer’s shoes: Come home to Jesus.

To be a Christian does not mean to become a better person. It means to give yourself—your heart—completely to Jesus Christ in love.

No matter far from God you are, it’s only one step back.

If you’re in Hosea’s shoes: Love them like Jesus.

God’s love is not childish. And God’s love doesn’t have strings attached—it’s unconditional.

Don’t sever ties with them, and don’t avoid the truth. Love them unconditionally and follow 1 Peter 3:15-16.

For all of us: Worship our God who loves and saves.