Day 21: The Beloved One

Dear friend,

Today, I want to show you a picture of how God allures us by His love; He entices us. He brings us into a valley of trouble, but then as we’re in the midst of the trouble, He opens the door of hope to a revelation of Himself in His love to bring about an everlasting union with those He loves.

So, let’s turn to the Old Testament for a passage which speaks about a marriage relationship and uses it as a picture of the love of God. It pictures first of all Israel’s backsliding and unfaithfulness, and then God declares how He intends to win Israel back to Himself with His love.

God says of Israel:

“Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her. There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. There she will sing as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt. In that day, [declares the LORD,] you will call me ‘my husband’; you will no longer call me ‘my master.’”

And then a little further on the Lord says:

“I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion. I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge [or you will know] the LORD.”

(Hosea 2:14-16, 19-20 NIV)

A little earlier the Lord said:

"I will speak tenderly to her." The literal wording is "I will speak to her heart."

I just want to take some principles out of that, that illustrate God’s love and the way He deals.

First of all, God allures us through His love; He draws us. He has a plan and He doesn’t always tell us in advance what His plan is. And He may permit us to come into circumstances that seem very hard and very difficult, but it’s all part of God’s plan. He makes "the Valley of Achor", which is 'trouble', "a door of hope". God allures; He entices us into a situation where we are going to have to turn to Him because everything else has been cut off. And just as we see ourselves without any hope, God opens that door of hope and reveals Himself.

And then God desires direct communion. He wants to speak to our heart, not just to our understanding. He says, "You are going to call me 'my husband'; no longer just 'my master.'" It’s too difficult to explain in detail the exact significance of the Hebrew words used, but the Lord says, "I want this marriage relationship with you, I want to be your husband, I want you as my wife."

God doesn’t want just to reason with us, He wants to commune with us. That’s His plan for us, too.

For reflection and prayer

Is the Lord your master or your Beloved One?