The Love of God

Today is the first day of Advent. The Advent season is our anticipation for the incarnation of the son. The coming of the son, Jesus. Immanuel God with us.

Hosea 11

Let’s talk about how some in the world view love. There is this movement that puts love of self at the top of the love chart. This idea is tainted love, it puts our desires ahead of everyone else’s. There is nothing wrong with loving yourself but because of sin it has turned into Narcissism. A desire to gratify one’s self. If it doesn’t benefit me then I am not doing it. And when our desires aren’t met we end up hurting others around us, we end up destroying relationships and in the end our true selves. This goal to make one self happy ends up making us unhappy. Not only does Narcissism destroy lives, it can take lives. Always thought motherly love was the closes thing to the love of God. Now we see the abortion rate sky rocket, children being drowned or left in cars by their parents. Parents giving their children illegal drugs. Abandoning them in trash cans. The divorce rate has sky rocketed. Half of marriages end up in divorce. The world is a mess and has been. Our sin is destroying families. Love has become so superficial in today’s world. We see it on the surface, but it is not embedded deep in our hearts. 1 John 4:8 “Whoever does not love does not know God because God is love.” Love is a very important aspect for us to truly know God. Agape love, unconditional love.There is an understanding that there is a problem in society, but there is no movement towards God who is love.

Hosea 11 True Love

Hosea was an 8th century minor prophet of the tribe of Israel. The first few chapters of Hosea describe the unconditional love of God through Hosea’s relationship with his wife Gomer. Hosea 11 is a metaphor of loving parent towards his rebellious child.

Verses 1-4 Wounded love! Hosea is opening the mind of God to us. God is talking to himself about how he has done these loving things for his children, yet they continued to go their own way. He taught them to walk, he fed them, yet they grew weary and worshipped other Gods. God felt pain, it grieved him.Verses 5-7 Angry love! God’s first reaction to Israel’s rebellion was fury. God is angry with Israel and is going to punish them. He does not seek vengeance but only repentance. He wants them to turn back to him. God eventual punishment of the northern tribe of Israel, Ephraim occurred around 722BC. Verses 8-9 Passionate love! God’s fury is to destroy Israel, but his love will not allow it. There is tension between his anger and love, but his love is who he is and because of it Israel is restored. Love can be hurtful as we seen in the relationship between God and Israel Hosea 11, but that does not mean it should be abandoned. God does not turn his back on Israel. He does not destroy them and look for a new people. His love is unconditional, it is agape love. People feel cheated when they are hurt in loving relationships. They run away from it, they turn their backs on love and loving relationships. Always thinking the grass is better on the other side like Israel when they turned to Baal. Christian love is sacrificial, it is suffering love which we seen by the cross. God came to restore relationships. He came to reveal the love of the Father. He came to conquer sin and death. He came to bring us life eternal. He came to bring us hope. God loves us in our darkest times of our lives.