The Love of God (Part 2) – The Greatest Love Story Ever Told

I’m going to read several passages of scripture. The first is in Genesis 3:6: When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was a delight to the eye, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit. She ate, and she gave also to her husband, and he ate. And the eyes of both of them were open, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made them aprons called covering. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the wind of the day. I don’t think that means that He was walking in the cool of the day; I think that they heard him in the wind.

And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Then the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I have heard the sound of thee in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid myself.” And He said, “Who told you that you were naked?” Okay, that’s Genesis 3; we’ll come back and talk about it a little later.

Deuteronomy 6: 5-6. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, and these words which I am commanding you today shall be on your heart. And you shall teach them diligently to your sons, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way. Do you ever do things like this? And when you lie down and when you rise up, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as the frontals on your forehead, and you shall write them on the doorpost of your house and on your gate. I believe most of us do these things without even being conscious of that verse of scripture.

Verse 15 – For the Lord your God in the midst of you is a jealous God. I wish that were in commas. For the Lord your God in the midst of you, is a jealous God.

Deuteronomy 7 is really fascinating. Verse 7 – The Lord did not set his love on you, nor choose you, because you were in number more than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But because He loved you and kept the oath which he swore to your forefathers, the Lord brought you out by a mighty hand. Say amen.

And redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the land of King Pharaoh of Egypt. Know therefore that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps his commandment, his covenant, his loving kindness to a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep his commandments.

Verse 13, the first sentence. And He will love you and bless you and multiply you. I’m going to read this just because I like to. Same chapter, verses 20 and 22. Deuteronomy 7: 20-22. Moreover, the Lord your God will send their hornets against them until those who are left and hide themselves from you perish. You shall not dread them, for the Lord your God is in the midst of you, a great and awesome God. The Lord your God will clear away these nations before you, little by little. You will not be able to put an end to them quickly, lest the wild beasts grow too numerous for you, or the beasts of the field.

Okay, in chapter 11 of the same book. And it shall come about, if you listen obediently to my commandments, which I am commanding you today…this is Deuteronomy 11.13. I’ll read it to you again. And it shall come about, if you listen obediently to my commandments, which I am commanding you today, to love the Lord your God and to serve Him with all your heart and all your soul, that I will give the rain for your land in its season, the early and the late rain. That’s the autumn and the spring. That you may get her in your grain and your new wine, and your oil. Verses 22 and 23. For if you are careful to keep all this commandment which I am commanding you to do, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and hold fast in Him, then the Lord will drive out all those nations before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than you. And every place from which the sole of your foot shall tread shall be yours.

There are quite a few verses to read. I want to go on to Hosea now. We’ll start with chapter 1. The word of the Lord, which came to Hosea, the son of Beeri, during the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and during the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel. The word of the Lord which came to Hosea when the Lord first spoke through Hosea. The Lord said to Hosea, Hosea, take to yourself a wife of harlotry, and have children of harlotry. For the land commits flagrant harlotry, forsaking the Lord.

Verse 10 – Yet the number of the sons of Israel shall be like the sands of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. And it shall come about that in the place where it is said to them, you are not my people, it will be said to them, “The sons of the living God.” The sons of Judah and the sons of Israel will be gathered together, and they will appoint for themselves one leader, and they will go up from the land, for great will be the day of Jezreel. Praise the Lord.

Hosea 2: 7 – And she will pursue her lovers, but she will not overtake them. She will seek them, but will not find them. Then she will say, “I will go back to my first husband, for it is better for me. It was better for me then than now.  For she does not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the new wine, and the oil, and lavished on her silver and gold. Verse 14 – Therefore, behold, I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness and speak kindly to her. Then I will give her her vineyards from there, in the valley of Achor as the door of hope. She will sing there as in the days of her youth, as in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt. “It will come about in that day,” declares the Lord. That you will call me ‘Ishi’ (a married man), and you will no longer call me ‘Baali’ (Lord). So it will come about in that day, said the Lord, that you, Israel the woman, shall call me, ‘my married man’, and you will no longer call me ‘My Lord’. Praise the Lord.