What kind of God loves like this?
This will be short because I have to make dinner, obviously.
You guys.
Every day the Word of the LORD just amazes me!
Oh, his LOVE is unfathomable!
The focus of a lot of my Old Test. study has been Exodus 34:5-9, when YHWH declares his eternal characteristics to Moses on Mt. Sinai. This happens right after the people had made that stupid stinkin' golden calf! Yet he graciously pronounces that he is compassionate and merciful, full of steadfast love and faithfulness! He remakes a covenant with the people who just broke the first one.
Then there are years and years of those same people running after false gods and not keeping his commandments. He warns them over and over (so much like a parent) that if they do not return to him the curses of breaking the covenant would befall them. Spoiler alert- they didn't listen.
They are exiled under foreign rule and persecuted. But even then, YHWH promises that again he will draw them back to him. He will make a new covenant that he will write on their hearts and deal with their sin problems once and for all. He still chases after them even in their exile.
These beautiful words from the prophet Hosea had me on the floor today. The LORD says to the people who continue to break his heart-
"And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness, and you will know the LORD.”
As soon as I read these words today, something jumped out at me that has never before. The words the LORD uses here in “betrothing”- in righteousness, justice, steadfast love, mercy, and faithfulness are the very words He used in Exodus 34. His eternal attributes are what makes him who he is! Even though we are unrighteous, full of injustice, not great at steadfast love, unmerciful, and unfaithful- he betroths himself to us IN all of those things! What kind of a God loves like that?
Mine. Yours. Ours.