(Part 3/3 – A summary of the Sunday morning teaching on 16-Aug-15, in AFT Church, English service. From the series The Foundation For Victorious Living)
2) THE PEOPLE’S DISREGARD FOR GOD’S LOVE
Hosea 11:2 says, ‘As they called them, so they went from them; they sacrificed to the Baals, and burned incense to carved images’. The people forgot the wonderful miracles that God had done for them when He delivered them out of Egypt. They backslid and went astray.
3) GOD’S COMPASSION IN THE MIDST OF THEIR DISREGARD
God’s heart aches to see His people disregard His love for them. In fact, Jesus wept over Jerusalem in the New Testament crying out, ‘Oh Jerusalem! You who killed her prophets and stoned God’s men! How many times I have tried to gather you like a hen would gather its chicks under her wings. But you would not.’ We see this broken heart in Hosea 11:8, 9 where God says, ‘“How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel?
How can I make you like Admah? How can I set you like Zeboiim? My heart churns within Me; My sympathy is stirred.9 I will not execute the fierceness of My anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim. For I am God, and not man, The Holy One in your midst; And I will not come with terror’. God says that His heart stirs with sympathy for His people. So even though they deserved punishment, He was gracious to them.
4) RESOLUTION
The name ‘Hosea’ means ‘Salvation’. Variations of the name Hosea were given to two other men too. Joshua and Jesus. They were all called to be saviors of a people lost to slavery. Hosea paid money and bought his wife back from slavery. Jesus gave His life and bought us from the slavery of sin. Today He loves us as if we have done no wrong and treats us with dignity and honor.
CONCLUSION
Mercy and truth have met together;
Righteousness and peace have kissed.
11 Truth shall spring out of the earth,
And righteousness shall look down from heaven.
Psalm 85:10-11
On the Cross of Calvary God poured out His wrath on our sin.
That was the truth.
But He sent his Son Jesus to take our place.
That was mercy.
Mercy and truth met at the Cross. Righteousness and peace kissed. Man and God were reconciled. This is the amazing love of God!
