“When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt. As they called them, so they went from them; they sacrificed unto Baalim, and burned incense to graven images. I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms; but they knew not that I healed them. I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love; and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them.”―Hosea 11:1-41When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt. 2As they called them, so they went from them: they sacrificed unto Baalim, and burned incense to graven images. 3I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms; but they knew not that I healed them. 4I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love: and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them. (Hosea 11:1‑4).
“WHEN Israel was a child, then I loved him.”
These verses, part of the record of the insensibility of Israel, in Hosea’s day, to the mercy, the goodness, and the grace of our God, written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages are conic, may be considered as illustrating and exemplifying God’s dealings with us in our day. I loved. I called. I taught. I healed. I drew. I liberated. I fed. God’s love is like Himself, eternal. When did He begin to love? He says, “I am the Low!), I change not” (Mal. 3:66For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. (Malachi 3:6)). Well may the believer sing―
“Thy name we love, Lord Jesus;
It tells God’s love unbounded
To ruined man, ere time began,
Or heaven and earth were founded.
Thine is a love eternal,
That found in us its pleasure,
That brought Thee low to bear our woe,
And make us Thine own treasure.”
Many years ago, a teacher asked his class, “Boys, who began to love, God or the sinner?” All, save one, answered promptly, “God.” The teacher said, “Yes, right, boys.” Turning to the least boy in the class, he said, “Why don’t you speak, John?” He replied, “Please, teacher, God never began.” Divinely taught child! “Out of the mouth of babes and suckling’s thou hast perfected praise” (Matt. 21:1616And said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise? (Matthew 21:16)). True, God never began. He cannot change. With Him is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. He says to His own, “Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee” (Jer. 31:33The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. (Jeremiah 31:3)). But there was a time when the poor sinner, through grace, believed God, believed in His love, and he began to love Him whom he never loved before. There was a change in him, a wondrous change: once a child of wrath, and now a child of God; once far off, and now, in Christ Jesus, made nigh by the blood of Christ. “For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:2626For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:26)). “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God” (1 John 5:11Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. (1 John 5:1)). And now he can say, I love Him, because He first loved me; not because He first began to love. No, His love is like Himself, eternal, unchangeable, the same yesterday and today and forever.
“As they called them, so they went from them they sacrificed unto Baalim, and burned incense to graven images,” one preferring a yoke of oxen, a piece of land, or a wife, to God; another preferring forbidden fruit, a mess of pottage, or thirty pieces of silver, to Him. Alas, alas! we may ask, What have we not preferred to Jesus? There has been nothing too foolish, vain, contemptible, or wicked for us to indulge in, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind.
“I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms.” Yes, God has gone on, watching over us, preserving from dangers, seen and unseen, supplying our need, and doing us good in His abounding mercy; every pulse that beat we owed to Him, and every breath we drew; but we went on, thoughtless, careless, indifferent, rushing ignorantly toward destruction.
“But they knew not that I healed them.” But, above all, He manifested His love toward us by sending His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him. “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:9,109In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. 10Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1 John 4:9‑10)). The eternal Son of God, the Word, became incarnate, saying, “A body host thou prepared me.” “Lo, I come to do thy will, O God” (Heb. 10:5, 95Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: (Hebrews 10:5)
9Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. (Hebrews 10:9)). He came into our circumstances, tempted in all points as we are, apart from sin, telling out the heart of God in every step of His path: and then on the cross, that Holy One and True, who knew no sin, was made of God to be sin for us, in order that we might become the righteousness of God in Him; and there the Son of man was glorified, and God was glorified in Him, so that God raised Him from among the dead, and set Him down at His right hand upon the throne of God. And consequent upon this, God has now sent down the Holy Ghost to tell us of the perfection and value of Christ’s work upon the cross; that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim. 1:1515This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. (1 Timothy 1:15)); that God our Saviour desires that “all men should be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:3, 43For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; 4Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. (1 Timothy 2:3‑4)); that “through this man [Christ Jesus, raised, and now glorified at God’s right hand] is preached the forgiveness of sins, and by him all that believe are justified from all things” (Acts 13:38, 3938Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: 39And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. (Acts 13:38‑39)); and that “if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Rom. 10:99That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. (Romans 10:9)).
“I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love; and I was to them as they that take of the yoke on their jaws.” God, giving us, by His grace, to believe this good news, and by His goodness leading us to repentance, has drawn us to Himself with broken, contrite spirits, forgiven us our sins, justified us freely, delivering us from the power of indwelling sin, and creating us anew in Christ Jesus, unto good works which He Hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Thus He gives us joy and peace in believing.
“And I laid meat unto them.” And now He feeds and nourishes the divine life in our souls. He tells us of that blessed One who fills His heart, the One whom He delights to honor, who is the center of all His purposes, who fills all heaven with His glory and His praise, the One who is the object, the expression, and the channel of His love; and He gives us also to find our all in Him. And this blessed Person, our adorable Redeemer, is He alone who satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness. He is everything for us, and becomes everything to us, our all and in all. We feed upon the very food of God, and find, increasingly, beauty, perfection, and satisfaction in Him, who is altogether lovely, our Beloved and our Friend.
“His beauty shineth far above
A seraph’s power of praise,
And I shall live and learn His love,
Through everlasting days.
The knowing that He loveth me
Hath made my cup run o’er,
Yes, Jesus all my song shall be,
Today and evermore.”
J. G.