By A. Schwarz
Does it ever break your heart to think of God’s all consuming
perfection and love in comparison with our sin? Not in a depressing way, but in
an overwhelming sense of awe that is almost crippling? While we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us to redeem us and renew His covenant with us. Can
you imagine, that measure of love for us who constantly fall away and stumble.
To have a lovesick heart that, beyond all things, desires to be with us.
The prophet Hosea serves as an example for God’s love, not just
as our Creator or Father, but as our Beloved. God tells Hosea to marry the
prostitute Gomer and have children. Later, when she leaves him, God says to
him, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress,
even as the LORD loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods”
Hosea 3:1. God’s heart breaks when we turn away from Him just as Hosea’s did
when his wife left him, but we have been redeemed by Him who loves us
unconditionally. The Lord has said, “How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can
I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart recoils
within me; my compassion grows warm and tender” Hosea 11:8. And as we await His
return from our engagement for the wedding ceremony, we should be consumed with
the same kind of love and expectation for Him in return.
“Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude,
like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder,
crying out, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us
rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has
come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe
herself with fine linen, bright and pure” - for the fine linen is the righteous
deeds of the saints” Revelation 19:6-8.
Isn’t that one of the most exciting things, marriage? And with
that, as only a mirror of our heavenly betrothal, how much greater and more
amazing will this wedding be?
“Set me as a seal upon your heart,
as a seal upon your arm,
for love is strong as death,
jealousy is fierce as the grave.
Its flashes are flashes of fire,
the very flame of the LORD.
Many waters cannot quench love,
neither can floods drown it.”
Song of Solomon 8:6-7
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