June 19

The WOW of God’s Love

Hosea 11:8 "How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel?
How can I treat you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboiim?
My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused.

This is one of the most astonishing verses found in the entire Bible. Why? It deals with a huge philosophical issue. How is it possible for an infinite being to be hurt by finite beings? How can God, the uncaused cause, the necessary being, creator of heaven and earth so identify with us that his heart breaks?
In this verse we see God crying. The word “changed” is a word that was used to describe a city that was overthrown or destroyed by an enemy. God’s heart is thrown into chaos, torn to pieces; broken, crushed when we reject his love and go after other lovers on earth. His heart is so changed that his compassion then is displayed in tears of sorrow.

I speaking with an unbeliever who said, “I don’t think God cares about me.” Her idea is that God is sitting in a lazy boy chair in heaven, sipping iced tea, and watching TV while we suffer on this planet. That is not what the Bible says about God. The Bible says that God so identified with us that his heart is broken even when ours isn’t.

Why did God have Hosea marry Gomer? Couldn’t God have said, Hosea, go give Gomer counseling and perform an intervention in her life. The reason Hosea had to marry her is “involvement.” If he was just her counselor he would have remained at arms length and not connected with her brokenness. Hosea had to marry her to have his heart united to hers, just as God’s heart is united to ours. God was saying, unless you are married to a completely broken person you will never understand my heartache for you.

This is a WOW moment. Just think about it. The creator of heaven and earth, the one who spun the galaxies out into space, the one who worked on quantum physics and black hole development in kindergarten, this vast, awesome God is married to us. He ties himself to us and united himself to our brokenness.

If that doesn’t produce a WOW moment nothing will.

What is an appropriate response to a God who unites himself to us this way? Unite ourselves back to him, to make him King and Lord, to marry him, to have his kingdom and his agenda as our prime directive in life.
Nothing less than a total surrender to him is demanded.

We are planning a dinner on Monday, June 21st 7:00 at my house. We are almost half way through our journey.