THE INESTIMABLE LOVE OF GOD
By THE VENERABLE STEPHEN WOLEMONWU
Rector, Ibru Ecumenical Centre, Agbarha-Otor
“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.” Hosea 11:8 NKJV
“How can I give you up, Israel? How can I abandon you? Could I ever destroy you as I did Admah, or treat you as I did Zeboiim? My heart will not let me do it! My love for you is too strong.” Good News
Bible text: Hosea 11:8-9
Hosea unlike many bible prophets lived out his ministry; while others spoke their prophecy; Hosea from his marriage to a harlot, to the bearing of children and naming them, up to his prophetic ministerial life was actioned with messages and meanings.
The name ‘Hosea’ means: “salvation”. The first verse of the first chapter noted that he prophesied during the reign of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah kings of Judah and in the days of Jeroboam II, son of Joash, King of Israel. (Hosea 1:1); Bible Scholars believed that he must have been a contemporary of prophets Isaiah and Micah.
Hosea prophesied to call the depraved people of God back to His loving arm and to depict God’s inestimable, unquantifiable, and immeasurable love which may not be explained in human terms and thoughts.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)
In the eleventh chapter of the prophecy of Hosea we can see God’s journey with His people- Israel. Mathew Henry a bible commentator in writing on this eleventh chapter summarized it thus: “In this chapter we have,
I. The great goodness of God towards his people Israel, and the great things he had done for them (v. 1, 3, 4).
II. Their ungrateful conduct towards him, notwithstanding his favours towards them (v. 2-4, 7, 12).
III. Threatening of wrath against them for their ingratitude and treachery (v. 5, 6).
IV. Mercy remembered in the midst of wrath (v. 8, 9).
V. Promises of what God would yet do for them (v. 10, 11).
VI. An honourable character given of Judah (v. 12)”
Our anchor text reads:
“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.” Hosea 11:8
In this text we discover four personalities: Ephraim, Israel, Admah and Zeboiim. Who were these nations and why are they relevant to what God is saying and will say to us now!
The LORD said: “I will not give up Ephraim and I will not hand over Israel; I cannot make you like Admah and how can I set you like Zeboiim”?
Who were the people of Admah and Zeboiim?
In Genesis 10:19 they were mentioned as one of the cities of the plain; Deuteronomy 29:23 warns Israel that, if they do not follow the Lord, the land may suffer the same punishment as Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, “which the Lord overthrew in fierce anger.” This verse implies that Admah and Zeboiim were destroyed in the same manner, if not the same time, as Sodom and Gomorrah.
Genesis 19:27-28:
“Early the next morning Abraham got up and returned to the place where he had stood before the LORD. He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, toward all the land of the plain, and he saw dense smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a furnace.”
To Ephraim and Israel in Hosea 11:8 it seems like there was a persuasion, an accusation and pressure to give up Ephraim and hand over Israel because they were guilty as the cities of the plain- Admah and Zeboiim but the LORD asked: “how can I give up Ephraim and hand over Israel”.
Ephraim and Israel like the Church of today; and like most people here today:
- Had seen the great goodness of God towards them, and how great things he had done for them: Can you recall how much of God’s favour you have enjoyed? Whatever you are enjoying now is not because you are the best, but you are: based on God’s benevolence.
- Despite all of God’s favours man through his behavior and actions exhibits ungrateful conduct towards HIM, notwithstanding.
- When you see yourself as a ‘god’ to yourself even though you did not know how you were formed you are ungrateful
- When you rebel against God’s written word with impudence you are ungrateful
- When you say there in no God you are ungrateful to your creator
- When you are created a male or a female but you ‘feel’ nature was wrong for making you a male; you should have been made a female instead or a male instead of a female you are ungrateful
- When you are unthankful, a truce breaker, when you do not have natural affection, when you are a covenant breaker, you are ungrateful.
- Their ingratitude and treachery opened them up God’s wrath. In Romans 1:18-32. The apostle Paul acknowledged that when people suppress the truth with unrighteousness the wrath of God is revealed.
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,
19 because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them.
20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse,
21 because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
22 Professing to be wise, they became fools,
23 and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man–and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.
24 Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves,
25 who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
26 For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature.
27 Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.
28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting;
29 being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers,
30 backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
31 undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful;
32 who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.
Irrespective of this fact we discover that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us; God’s love stretch from shore to shore in Psalm 103:8-14:
“8 The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.
9 He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever;
10 he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him;
12 as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
13 As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;
14 for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.”
On the bases of this truth the LORD said: Oh! How can I give up Ephraim, and how can I hand over Israel?
Dearly beloved, there must have been an accuser of the brethren-
Revelation 12:10: “And I heard a loud voice saying in Heaven, “Now have come salvation and strength, and the Kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ; for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, who accused them before our God day and night”. There are powers carrying you to judgment day and night before God; but God’s love over your life in inestimable; too strong to give you up.
The Bible says that the devil is shrewd and subtle. First Peter 5:8 says he is our adversary. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. (KJV)
Despite this activity of the devil; behold what manner of love the father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God 1John 3:1
The love of God is so because God is not man. Hosea 11:9b; The LORD said: “for I am God, and not man….” God is God and not man- men can discard you, forget you, give up on you, hand you over to the enemy, rubbish you, abandon you BUT God cannot.
The Lord is asking on what bases should I give up Ephraim, on what ground should I hand over Israel? God’s love over your life is with an everlasting covenant; men can give up on you but God cannot; the system of the world and its government can hand you over but God cannot.
This love is not a license to sin but “my little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. 1John 2:1-2.
No power can bring you to judgment if you belong to God: Romans 14:4 “Who are you to judge another’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand”.
If you are in Christ you become Christ’s own; there is no more condemnation, no more condemnation! Romans 8:1: “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
