The Entreaties Of God

by I M Lithgow | Category: General | Jan 1994

God's love for the sinner is an aspect that is usually emphasized when the gospel is proclaimed. No matter how deep the sin, God's conquering love in the Lord Jesus is ready to forgive ail and He Is willing to receive any who come to Him through faith in the finished work of Christ.

As believers we must never lose sight of the love God has for us, especially when He deals with us in those periods of our experience when we have drifted from Him. Consider for a moment the way God speaks of Israel in both Jeremiah and Hosea. He describes them as backsliders. There are thirteen references in Jeremiah and three in Hosea. The root of the word is to turn back or away, to retreat. It's one of those words with a very unattractive meaning as it is descriptive of a condition not in harmony with the will of God. There can be few believers who have not felt the chill of such an experience at some time.

What a cheer then, as we read the words of Hosea 11:8,9. They are appealingly directed towards God's backsliding people; a people that deserved His judgement because of their errant ways, but God comes out to them in His compassionate entreaty: "How shall I give thee up? ... Mine heart is turned within Me, My compassions are kindled together". God does not condone or excuse wrongdoing, but it is His prerogative to seek and recover the life that has known the blight of sin.

In Hosea 11:1 God remembered the former days when the nation was in its infancy and lived in the sweetness of His love. From those early days right through to Hosea's time, that love had not changed, but they had. They proved unfaithful regarding God's will and purpose for them. What an indictment is placed before them in chapter 4 as God charges them with moral and social evil; there was no truth, mercy nor knowledge of God, but unbecoming conduct was rife: swearing and breaking faith, killing and stealing and committing adultery. They were in the words of Jeremiah, "Not at all ashamed, neither could they blush" (6:15). Because of their conduct a proper knowledge of God and His ways was all but non-existent. "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee" (Hos. 4:6). They had given their hearts to the worship of idols and all that was associated with them in their lewd practices, with the result that God had to leave them to their own devices:

My people ask counsel at their stock... Ephraim is joined to idols; let him alone (Hos. 4:12,17).

There had been half-hearted attempts at repentance, but God saw in them no real conviction:

Your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the dew that goeth early away (Hos. 6:4).

Yet in spite of their backsliding, God's entreaty of love still goes out to them as we read:

0 ISRAEL, return unto the LORD thy God ... I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely (Hos.14:1,4).

The day is yet to be when the nation from sincere repentant hearts will respond to their Sovereign's entreaty and say:

What have I to do any more with idols? I have answered, and will regard Him ... from me is Thy fruit found (Hos. 14:8).

What then of us? May it not be that the conditions seen in Hosea's day should ever characterize the child of God today. Should we ever feel the slightest chill of backsliding let us forsake that which is drawing us away from God and His will and respond to the entreaty of God as He seeks for us, "How shall I give thee up?"

I M Lithgow | Jan 1994
General