10.15.24
This week we are looking at God’s attribute of love. If there’s anything that we know and appreciate about God, it’s that he’s loving. And yet, as we’ve seen, we really don’t understand the depth of that love - nor do we get the nature of that love. The love of God is a concept that we filter through our earthly experiences of it. And therefore we assume that God’s love is merely a sentimental feeling that can be enhanced or lost depending on how we treat him. We see his love like other people’s - fragile and something that can be lost.
But the fierce love of God is much deeper than those shallow representations of earthly love. It is based in who God is - and what he designed us to be as his image bearers. It has to do with relationship - not performance. And as a result, we are his treasured possession that has to be bought back from its rebellion into the family relationship he designed it to be.
And God is showing us in this living parable of Hosea’s life, that unless we understand that God is a husband whose wife has rejected him…unless we understand that he is a Father whose children have rejected him, we won’t understand the depth of his love and the nature of how his heart works.
There are several implications of this kind of loving relationship that we need to hear in order to understand the nature of God’s love. The first is the sophistication of it. By using the illustration of children here, God is reminding us that we are kids before a Father. And children rarely understand the love that their parents have for them. And that’s because kids are too one-dimensional - too simplistic. All a kid can see is what is directly in front of them. They have no concept of future implications. No bigger picture of where this could lead. No context of developing character. They only see the thing directly in front of them: ice cream - staying up late - candy -a video game.
A child has too little self-knowledge to be able to make wise decisions. They don’t understand how the freedoms they want will make them even more miserable, and not happier. Kids inherently don’t understand timing, values, priorities. Simply put, they don’t understand the depth of their need.
Fortunately, most of us grow up. And we can look back and laugh at how immature our thoughts and actions really were. And the Bible is telling us here that we will never outgrow our spiritual childishness until the Spirit comes and reveals to us just how childish and narrow-minded that we really are. And God has to move our hearts from the bitter complaining of, “If God truly loved me, how could he let this happen to me?”…to the loving trust of a son/daughter who sees a wise and loving Father.
God is telling us here that we will always be looking at him the way a dysfunctional child looks at the only sane member of their family. That is our natural disposition. And when he calls his children (11.5) to repent, he’s basically calling us to grow up! Repent and see just how much of a child you really are. The only way to get over our natural childishness is when we come to grips with just how childish we really are. And until we begin to see how selfish and petty and demanding we have been with God, we will never understand the depth of his love for us. And we will be a bitter, brooding child.
The Fatherly love of God reminds us of what Paul tells us in Romans 8. That he is working all things together for out good. Submit your longings and desires to his wise loving hands today. Repent over your grumpy brooding when things don’t go your way. And ask that his Spirit would grow your heart in trust that he is bringing exactly what you need today to make you more like Jesus.