Hosea 11:1-4

A rich display of God's mercy, love, and long-suffering.

One chief design of Scripture is to recommend to sinners the goodness and grace of God "The whole Scripture," says Luther, "aims especially at this, that we doubt not, but certainly hope, trust, and believe that God is gracious, merciful, and long-suffering."

I. GOD 'S LOVE IS UNMERITED . This is evident from the condition of Israel when he became the object of this love. That condition was one of childhood, and so of childish ignorance, of childish impotence, of childish folly; for folly is bound up in the heart of a child. Nay, if we compare Ezekiel 16:4-8 , we find the natural state of the nation to have been still worse; that wretched state is there vividly exhibited under the similitude of a poor perishing infant in the most pitiable condition. So with persons individually as well as nationally. When, to use the figure of the prophet, we were polluted, literally trodden down, and perishing in our own blood, he passed by us end looked upon us, and his tone was a tone of love.

II. GOD 'S LOVE IS A LOVE OF BENEVOLENCE . He calls Israel his son. The relation of a son to a father is a very near and dear one. The privilege of sonship is very great. David esteemed it no light thing to be a king's son-in-law. How unspeakably greater it is to be a son of God by adoption as well as by creation, and thus to be an heir of glory I "Is Ephraim my dear son?" God inquires; and again he says, "I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him." But though the privilege of being a son of God is great and the dignity high, it does not necessarily exempt us from sore trials and severe sufferings; it rather secures for us such paternal chastening as for the present is not joyous but grievous, nevertheless afterward productive of the peaceable fruits of righteousness. Though Israel was God's son, yet Israel was for years in Egypt.

III. GOD 'S LOVE IS A LOVE OF BENEFICENCE . God not only wishes well but does well to every son whom he receiveth into his family. Though Israel had been long in Egypt, he was not allowed to remain there. God in due time called his son out of Egypt. It was a night much to be remembered when that call reached them. God speaks the word and it is done; his call is effectual for the purpose intended. However great our distress, it only requires a word from God to relieve us; and that word is as easily spoken as the call which one man addresses to another when he would invite him from some distance to his side. Strange indeed it may appear to us that God's people Israel had been so long left in Egypt, and equally strange it is that the dearly beloved of his soul are often delivered into the hand of their enemies. "It is a strange sight indeed to see a child of God, an heir of heaven, a co-heir with Jesus Christ, one dearer to God than heaven and earth, subject to the power, the caprice, and lusts of wicked, base, ungodly men; yea, it may be, for a time slaves to Satan."

IV. GOD 'S LOVE IS FREQUENTLY UNREQUITED LOVE . As God by his messengers called Israel, Israel turned his back upon those messengers and a deaf ear to their call. Nay, like disobedient children or stubborn servants, they actually turned in the opposite direction. As God's mercy was manifested in delivering them out of the furnace of affliction and then calling to obedience; so their stubbornness appeared in, and their sin was aggravated by, their refusal to hearken to that call, and still more by their running in a direction the right opposed. Thus we read in Jeremiah, "They turned unto me the back, and not the face."

V. GOD 'S LOVE IS TENDER LOVE .

1. It combines the tenderness of a parent with the carefulness of a nurse. When the way was dark and obscure, he guided them as by the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. Thus he pointed out the way and showed them the direction in which they were to walk. Thus he taught them to go. When obstacles lay in the way and difficulties blocked it, he lifted them up by the arms and carried them over all hindrances. Similarly we read in Deuteronomy, "In the wilderness, where thou hast seen how that the Lord thy God bare thee, as a man doth bear his son, in all the way that ye went." Now he took them by the hand and led them again; he lifted them up and carried them in the arms, ever conducting them in the right way.

2. So with us all more or less the path in life is untrod upon; frequently we are at a standstill; often we are sorely perplexed to know which way we should go; often and often we go astray and wander from the way. Again, there are stumbling-blocks in the way, and we stumble and fall over them. What need we have to depend on Divine love all the way, ever praying, "Lord, take us by the hand and lead us; Lord, hold up our goings in thy paths that our footsteps slip not; Lord, keep our feet from falling, our eyes from tears, and our soul from death"!

3. The way may be strait, as when Israel was hemmed in between mountains, the sea before them and Pharaoh's host behind; or it may be difficult, and so steep as well as steep, it; or it may be dangerous, for in the way through the wilderness there is the place of lions' dens and the mountains of the leopards; but, notwithstanding all such drawbacks, we have reason to bless God for leading us forth by the right way. And when we are in greatest straits and the way is hardest, we have only to cry to God in our trouble; and as he led Israel of old, so will he lead us also forth by the right way. "They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble: for I am a Father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn." Thus God not only bears his people, but bears with his people; and commissions his ministering servants to do likewise, as he commanded Moses, "Carry them in thy bosom, as a nursing father beareth the sucking child."

VI. GOD 'S LOVE IS RESTORATIVE . In spite of all God's love and care, we run into the way of danger through our own frowardness or folly. We stumble and fall, getting many a sore bruise and severe knock. Yet God in his love restores us; he heals us. As the child, when hurt, runs to the parent for sympathy—to the mother kiss the wound and make it well; so, when unhappily we have strayed from the way, and got bruised and hurt and painfully wounded through our own willfulness, we are encouraged to return to God, and he will heal us. God might, indeed, if he dealt with us in strict justice, leave us to ourselves and to the sad consequences of our own sinful waywardness, and refuse to lead us any more. Not so, however. As he says by the Prophet Isaiah, "I have seen his ways, and will heal him: I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him, and to his mourners."

VII. GOD 'S LOVE IS PERSUASIVE MORALLY , NOT MECHANICALLY . He deals with us as a rational being, treating us neither as machines nor yet as "dumb driven cattle." The lower animal must sometimes be drawn, or forced with a degree of violence; but God does not draw men in this way. In drawing them he uses neither hard cords nor iron bands. He draws us by rational means, addressing himself to our intelligence and appealing to our affections. Thus Paul says, "I speak as to wise men; judge ye what I say." He draws us by persuasion and argument. He draws us with gentleness, and not by force. He employs the mildest means and the tenderest motives. He draws us in a manner suitable to the dignity of our nature. Made in the image of God, originally created in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, and still possessed of great susceptibilities, strong affections, warm emotions, and tender sensibilities, we are treated by God with a considerate regard to the high qualities with which he has endowed us. Accordingly he draws us with human cords and Divine love. The instrumentality employed is human, and the love that employs it is Divine.

VIII. GOD 'S LOVE IS ALLEVIATING LOVE . As the humane husbandman lightens the labor of the weary beasts, and lifts up the yoke on its jaws in order to ease it and give it some respite, so God lifts up the weight that presses on the back of poor humanity. He sustains us under our burdens, or even shares with us the load. Sometimes he removes the yoke entirely; oftener he gives respite and refreshment; always he sanctifies the load of labor, or care, or trouble, or suffering, or sorrow of whatever kind which his own hand has laid on the back of his people, and never does he lay more on them than he enables them by his grace and strength to bear.

IX. GOD 'S LOVE IS SATISFYING LOVE . The figure is continued in the words, "And laid meat unto them." The same kind hand that lifts up the yoke, by way of respite and relief, supplies provender for the purpose of refreshment. God laid meat before his people in the desert, when he rained down manna and sent them quails. The same bountiful Benefactor spreads a table before us daily, and makes our cup run over. Better still, and surer token of his love, is the abundant spiritual provision he has made for the souls of his people, in giving them the bread that cometh down from heaven. "We are satisfied with the goodness of his house, even of his holy temple."