Hosea 2-3, "What Kind of Lover Is God?"

Hosea chapter 2 and 3 beginning both chapters hear the word of the Lord Say to your brothers you are my people and to your sisters you have received mercy

Plead with your mother plead for she is not my wife and I'm not her husband Did she put away her whoring from her face and her adultery from between her breasts?

Let's I strip her naked and make her as in the day She was born and make her like a wilderness and make her like a parched land and kill her with thirst

Upon her children. Also, I will have no mercy because they are children of whoredom for their mother has played the whore she who conceived them has acted shamefully where she said

I will go after my lovers who Give me my bread and my water my wool and my flax my oil and my drink

Therefore I will hedge her way with thorns and I will build a wall against her so that she cannot find her paths

She shall pursue her lovers, but shall not overtake them She shall seek them but shall not find them then she shall say

I will go and return to my first husband for it was better for me then than now and She did not know that it was

I who gave her the grain the wine and the oil And who lavished on her silver and gold

Which they used for bail Therefore I will take back my grain in his time and my wine in his season and I will take away my wool and my flax

Which were to cover her nakedness and I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers and no one shall rescue her out of my hand and I will put an end to all her mirth her feast her new moons her

Sabbath's and All her appointed feast and I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees

Which she said these are my wages which my lovers have given to me I will make them a forest and the beasts of the field shall devour them and I will punish her for the feast days of the balls when she burned offerings to them and Adorned herself with her ring and jewelry and went after her lovers and forgot me declares the

Lord Therefore behold I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her and there

I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Acre a door of hope and there she shall answer as in the days of her youth as in the time when she came out of the land of Egypt and In that day declares the

Lord you will call me my husband and no longer. Will you call me? my bail

For I will remove the names of the bales from her mouth and they shall be remembered by name no more

And I will make for them a covenant on that day With the beasts of the field the birds of the heavens and the creeping things of the ground and I will abolish

The bow the sword the war from the land and I will make you lie down in safety And I will betroth you to me forever

I will betroth you to me in righteousness and injustice and steadfast love and in mercy I will betroth you to me in faithfulness and you shall know the

Lord And in that day, I will answer declares the Lord I will answer the heavens and they shall answer the earth and the earth shall answer the grain the wine and the oil and they shall answer

Jezreel and I will sow her for myself in the land and I will have mercy on no mercy and I will say to Not my people

You are my people and he shall say You are my God and The Lord said to me 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 and love cakes of raisins

So I bought her for 15 shekels of silver and a Homer and a lethwich of barley and I said to her

You must dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore or belong to another man So will

I also be to you for the children of Israel Shall dwell many days without King or Prince without sacrifice or pillar without ephod or household gods afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the

Lord their God and David their King and they shall come in fear to the Lord and to his goodness in the latter days

May the Lord add his blessings to the reading of his Holy Word What kind of lover is

God? a Continually favorite subject is about kinds of love and what kind of Lover you are now when

I was young that discussion was dominated by C .s. Lewis who wrote the popular book the four loves very good book.

He said that there was first affection Greek word Storge affection he wrote lives quote lives with humble undress private things soft slippers old clothes

Old jokes the thump of a sleepy dog's tail on the kitchen floor the sound of a sewing machine

It's the love we might have for a pet or a favorite song or the familiar people that we've been thrown together with Then there was friendship the

Greek word philia Lewis said that Ancient people thought that it was the greatest of loves

The commitment to some Real friends you almost have to define friends these days.

You can you know, I don't mean like the fake Facebook kind of friends But someone you're really in a in a relationship with there were real you're committed to them

They know you they can be committed to you a covenant that we share with those who are covenanted To something greater than ourselves like a band of brothers

Lewis said that it was the love that was closest to heaven and the one that modern people have lost

They've dismissed Dismissed it almost entirely effect. Some modern people have always no conception of Philia a real friendship because it's not productive.

It doesn't cater to the consumer It makes you stay loyal to people

Who aren't currently doing anything practical for you? You know like To someone in a nursing home who can't do anything for you

It's the kind of love that we here call members to have for each other

When we ask you to commit to walk together in Christian love

Well, then there's romantic love the Greek word eros Lewis said different from French friendship erotic lovers quote are always talking to one another about their love and are

Normally face -to -face absorbed in each other. It's celebrated in the Bible in the Song of Solomon But besides that is oddly from our point of view not dwelt on much if at all

Elsewhere in Scripture. It's the love that our culture today says is Everything is the meaning of life.

It's the key to happiness and fulfillment. We're told as a gift from God It's a good thing

But it's an idol in our culture Then there's what Lewis called following the

King James Version charity Agape the unconditional love the father has for us to the son

The love exemplified by the cross by God giving himself for us not because of us

Not because we first loved him or we did something for him. We impressed him

Well anything that we could do but that he loved us and gave himself to make us right with himself.

That's Agape the unconditional love. This is what is so disastrous About describing the cross as some modern preachers do as a display of how much we're worth

They say some do now that the cross shows how valuable we are that we are worth dying for To redeem to buy back if that's the case

Then the cross isn't motivated by love by agape at all. It's just a good investment you know, it's no more loving the cross is no more loving or sacrificial than if say you could go back in time to the early 90s knowing what you know now and You invested all your money in Google stock.

Would that be a sacrifice? Would that be love? Of course not It's just a good investment.

It's pure self -interest But the cross is love It's the buying at great cost to oneself

What is no longer valuable what has been devalued and cheapened and emptied

Prostituted it's the love that makes the loved one valuable again

Well, that was Lewis's treatment of four kinds of love published in 1960 in 1992

Gary Chapman published a popular book called the five love languages. Probably you've heard of it It wasn't so much about different kinds of love

But about different ways of showing love like almost all treatments of quote love in our times.

It's all about eros romantic love About how to express love to your mate in a way that is interpreted as love

Does your mate need words of affirmation or acts of service or gifts or quality time or physical touch?

in order to feel love What kind of lover someone is is shown by which of those ways he or she naturally expresses love

More recently in fact revised just last April a man named Neil Burton MD Probably a psychiatrist publish an article in psychology today magazine entitled.

These are the seven types of love the first one Obvious sir, not surprisingly in this environment is eros and then he repeats

Lewis's kinds of love Without giving him any credit which seems to be you know on the verge of plagiarism

And then he adds three more of his own The first of which these adding on his own that he calls let us l -u -d -u -s

Which he describes as quote a playful or uncommitted love Which which of course is a contradiction in terms?

Uncommitted love what in the world is that a quote the focus is on fun It's the

Madonna love I guess, you know girls just want to have fun. It might involve seducing even quote conquest sex

Quote with no strings attached that of course is not love at all It's just pure selfish consuming of another person because we live in a day that wants to endorse all kinds of sexual indulgence as Love we're now supposed to call lust

Love and just in case you weren't sure that that man wasn't totally confused

He then says that there's a kind of love that he calls feel Autia literally Love of self self love and that's just okay.

You just That's just an emptying of the word love of any real meaning at all

Because love is always supposed you can debate about kinds of love but love is always supposed to be about valuing caring about doing something for someone outside of yourself

Now What kind of lover is? God Is he always affectionate, you know words of affirmation?

You see that kind of lover or is he our friend with philia sticks closer than a brother or eros?

We're the bride of Christ Even though some modern Americans think that's kind of creepy or does he have an unconditional love?

That means like a lot of people today assume that he just loves everybody in the same way Maybe with a few rare exceptions

That maybe they can be so evil that they lose his unconditional love which means it's not unconditional is it? Never mind, but that's so confused some people but there's some rare exceptions like like Hitler Okay, is that my kind of lover

God is well here we see differently. God is here in Hosea Like a jilted lover he's suffering.

He's angry. He's passionate and yes he has unconditional love for his people redeeming love

We see that here in the story of Hosea and Gober in six parts first. There's the depravity second.

There's the thorns third There's severity fourth. There's kindness fifth.

There's the day and then finally The redeeming love What kind of lover is

God? First he's the betrayed kind and we're the betrayers

We're the adulterers in this story the problem with the cheap modern idea of unconditional love

We just kind of deserve his love because we're not that horrible. The problem with that is is it it doesn't see

Who we are in this picture it thinks well, you know, come on we have our problems, but We're kind of cute.

I mean, we're well -meaning We're kind of like puppies, you know Oh, we sure we might occasionally make some disgusting little messes and chew up things.

We're not supposed to chew up. But come on We're adorable. How could anyone not love people like us?

We're just so cute. We're good boys and girls We're affection inspiring People think so naturally we think a god of affection

Storge is going to just he just naturally can't he can't help himself He may get angry from time to time if we chew up something

We're not supposed to but how come on we just say he'll just say eventually our shots. How can I stay angry?

You're so cute We don't see our depravity The first five verses are

Hosea the husband and the Lord the betrayed lover displaying the depravity of The betrayer and he's speaking to the three children

Remember the three children the first Jezreel God sows literally no mercy and not my people

Say to each other Children, you are brothers and sisters You have received mercy have friendship philia

Covenant love with each other but in verse 2 Plead with your mother

That's us Okay, plea beg her to be reasonable

You plead with people? To get them to see something that should be obvious and it's in their best interest

You you have to plead with sinners to stop sinning because their sin makes them so depraved

They can't see that they are destroying themselves with their sin They're in unable to see how sinful they are here plead that she put away her

Immorality plead with us That we forsake our sin It should be obvious That our sin whatever it is is bad for us, but we so often go back to it time and again

Because we're depraved What kind of lover is God? But he's one who pleads with those he loves

Sometimes you have to plead with people to get them to see what will happen if they don't change They continue the way they are, you know, stop eating so much or you'll get overweight.

You'll get heart disease or diabetes Should be obvious sometimes you have to plead with people here in verse 3 stop being so immoral

Stop stripping naked for other men or or God says he will strip you naked in front of everyone.

He'll put you to shame He threatens in his pleading. He says

I'll strip her like the day she was born I'll make her with nothing to offer Make it nothing attractive

Like it like a desert desert had nothing to offer. There's no springs of water. There's nothing refreshing. There's no fruit.

There's no food There's nothing there and God says I'm gonna make her like that So that anyone who sees her will not be attracted to her.

No one will want her No one will want what she has to offer and so that that that love that eros that she craves

No one will give her And so her children will get no mercy in verse 4.

They're the product of immorality Because in verse 5 their mother has been immoral every everything coming from her is is shameful

She she resolved in the second half of verse 5 to pursue her lovers. She made that decision

Thinking that from them she would be fed and clothed and housed and comfort not from her husband

It was from the lovers the idols the things other things besides the Lord for us

Maybe the mammon or the eros or the ego, whatever it is We think supplies our needs here.

She thought the other lovers will do that. They'll supply her needs but that's immorality It's a shame to be exposed

God exposes the depravity the the emptiness that of those that he is pursuing that he is pleading with that He loves that's is why part of being genuinely converted is coming to a sense of our own filthiness

Because he's pleading with us through the spirit and when he finally when he when he finally speaks to us We have a sense of shame

So we cry out Wretched man that I am who will save me from this body of death

This is why the gospel of self -esteem You know that you need to you need so -called self -love

Your problem is you don't love yourself enough some people tell tell us you need Phil Altea Self -love constant words of affirmation.

You need to you need to see the cross at the display of how much you were worth It's so self -defeating

That's not what we need to see We need to see our depravity That nothing in our hands we bring

But only to the cross We can cling what kind of lover is

God We see in three therefores Three consequences that are issuing first five verses about our depravity the consequence of that depravity three therefores in verses 6 9 and 14 therefore

Because they are depraved because we are depraved God says I'm doing this

What kind of lover is God Well, he's not a a deistic one kind of a passive one who just lets us go our way

Living however, we want to live unpursued. You might send a few nice words our way, but he just lets us be

He's not like a passive man who lets the immoral wife go merrily on her way because you know, but we're told today

It's just it's too possessive People think now it's too possessive to put up a fight

I've seen over the last few years and admittedly only glimpses of it through Facebook But I it's what

I know superficially around here married couple that had a child Just turned six just a few days ago then for unknown reasons because Facebook is so perversely superficial that that relationship broke up and soon the the ex -wife had a new boyfriend and They got married and had another child about three months after the wedding and I saw that they had a birthday party for the first child the older child who just turned six a few days ago

At the YMCA pool I'll be this last year about this time and the father of the first child was there

Happily swimming along with his ex -wife and her new husband like everything is just cool We're just one big happy family.

And now I don't know what happened behind the scenes but biblically someone betrayed someone

There's no such thing as a no -fault divorce in the Bible So either one or both of them was at fault, but the attitude was, you know, we're just too mature.

We're too cool or to be to be troubled by Whatever the sin was the betrayal or two were two were beyond being upset by it

That's not maturity. That's just calling evil good. That's just I Don't anyway, but God is not like that at all.

God doesn't get along amicably with his exes therefore in verse 6 because of their depravity

Because of their betrayal. He says I will hedge her way with thorns

As I will put up thorns as hedges full of thorns along her path

To force her to go the way I want her to go Because it will be too painful to try to veer off the path that she's being directed on Have you ever tried to walk through thorns?

I have it's not pleasant So you just you don't want to go through the thorns. In other words.

God is saying that he will make her life so hard That there'll be there'll be things happening

That will force her to go where she doesn't want to go and we'll just but she'll that should be her path

And this path looks so good at first There's this life of immorality with lovers lavishing her with gifts

When she thought yeah, this is the way this is nice. I'll go this way But God will make it as make it so that she's forced to make decisions

Like it's as if she's walled in there's walls on every side that are there's no other way to go than the way

That is open She can't find that comfortable path that she thought she started on She'll go looking for more lovers, but the thorns the painful events the wall

Whatever it is the debt the health problems The impact of her lifestyle on her appearance the addiction

Maybe maybe a surly kind of bitter attitude Will keep them from her The Lord makes life hard for those he's pursuing

Until they decide at the end of verse 7 notice that I will go back she will see it This is her speaking to herself.

I will go back to my first husband For it was better for me then then now

Like the prodigal son had to get so hungry You know, they wanted the pigs food

Yet he get he had to get to that level before he realized that well Hey, man, life was better with dad.

And so the Lord will make will make Gomer hit bottom Here though is clear in this story.

The Lord is in control of the thorns of the hard life He's actually growing them to To move her along in the direction

He wants her to go the thorns are meant to keep you from getting comfortable in yours in your sin and to wake you up to come back to him before the thorns in verse 5 we betrayers think

You know our life our stuff our food everything that that we have that we enjoy that it all comes from Not the

Lord. It comes from our idols It comes from that mammon or that eros or whatever it is.

We serve but then the thorns The thorns separate us from that easy life That with it we thought serving money or pleasure or eros or self -love would provide

Now all we get is a hard path of a desert land with thorns keeping us from Going back where we thought we were going.

Maybe it'd be a pandemic or a fear one comes Takes it all away That's that's so we'll know

That while God may provide through money or through a

Relationship or through a family through a career that money or those other things

Shouldn't be our God We did not know at verse 8 until the thorns

That it was the Lord who gave us all the things that we need the grain the wine the oil That it was the

Lord who lavished on us his gifts. He was supplying our needs. We thought we earned it

We thought we earned it by our service to our God other gods. We serve mammon and he gave us back prosperity

We did not know but we should have known That the Lord provides so it took thorns to get us to see that that life is better Serving him

Think about the fact that it took crucifixion talk about a thorn To crucifixion to get the thief on the cross to see that Jesus was

King the dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day and There may

I though vile as he wash all my sins away What kind of lover is

God Therefore In verse 9, this is the second consequence of our betrayal the second second display of what kind of lover

God is we see his severity Because the Lord was lavishing us with great gifts

While we were betraying him We were serving mammon or we were serving eros or sports or self -love or whatever other idol we had

While God was providing us with his gifts therefore God will take back those lavish gifts here

He'll take back the grain the wine the clothes take back the vineyard which produces the wine the

Refreshing juice he could take back today our prosperity He can take it back very easily.

Can he haven't we've seen how easily he can unleash a virus that stops us from Working or shuts down our sports or our movies.

He can take it all away We said that we'll follow the word but he'll expose how

How worldly we are in verse 10. He says he'll expose the lewdness the the depravity

He'll expose the betrayal of our sins if we may cover it up make it look respectable, but he will expose it we cover it up with our

Professions that we believe his word but in our actual life. He'll expose how maybe how individualistic we are

We don't really say to our brothers and sisters. You are my people is in verse 1. We don't have philia

Friendship for them. He exposes our worldliness The Lord exposed the lewdness of churches that didn't speak up Against racism because they were so full of people who were part of the problem in his severity.

He exposes the shame of His people that he's pursuing.

So those people other people around them. Well, they don't want They don't want their religion or here they don't want

Gomer anymore Notice God is not always speaking the love language of words of affirmation

In verse 11 got verse 11. God says I will stop all her mirth Always heard her good times gonna put an end to it.

Oh girls just want to have fun, huh? Well, he'll make sure they can't have fun anymore Maybe trap them inside in a virtual house arrest for months on end because of a virus the feast the movies the fairs the concerts

The games the March Madness the meets the races the plays the bowling alleys, whatever. It's all Banned all closed if you wouldn't enjoy

God, he'll take away everything else that you enjoyed instead And so he lays waste the vines here the fig trees

Maybe for us the ice cream parlors the movie theaters everything that was pleasant that we thought that this world had given us

Because we paid them And so he will punish us his betrayers in verse 13 for everything.

We enjoyed Not as a way of enjoying the Lord Not as a way to glorify him, but we enjoyed it for ourselves because of our own self -love our field

Autia For the way we gave ourselves What makes us look good for the body the money the car that the house the jewelry the achievement and We'll enjoy ourselves most of all that's what we live for to enjoy ourselves and glorify ourselves forever and we forgot in all of that we forgot

The Lord, oh, we may have used him from time to time in our religion, but we forgot

The Lord and so he says that he'll take all those things away then We think we can insulate ourselves

From his judgment from him taking away all those things we can you know

If we have enough money, we have a good insurance policy enough guns big walls a security system

I'll protect a family the right government. Oh, we could we can insulate him ourselves from his judgment

But he assures us in verse 10 No one shall rescue her out of my hand he is indeed a possessive lover

What kind of lover is God? in Romans chapter 11 verse 22 Paul says notice the kindness and Severity of God.

Well, we see the severity now Notice the kindness Therefore in verse 14, this is the third

Consequence of the depravity of those who betray him behold notice this

I Will God speaking I will allure her Suddenly the tone has changed.

I will speak tenderly to her He'll restore her vineyards

It produces the thing what he said earlier that he will dry them up and turn into a forest So it's productive for nothing now.

He will restore them. So it produces juice It produces wine refreshment and and he says he will make the valley of a core literally it means the valley of the word a core means trouble this valley of trouble the experience of afflictions of problems that she went through because of the thorns

Because the Lord took everything else away the time of trouble he says becomes a door of hope the affliction

The the thorns the walls the desert emptiness the parching thirst All those things that that God surrounded us with because he would not let us go our way to destroy ourselves

That affliction becomes he says a threshold into hope

It's an entrance to a new life There in a time of trouble that valley of a core valley of trouble

Turned into a doorway of hope there there will be a rebirth of That first love in verse 15.

She shall in that in that valley when she goes to that threshold of hope She shall answer as in the days of her youth

It's a restoration of a first love in his kindness to us his gifts he will inspire our words of affirmation of Adoration for him

What kind of lover is God? He's kind he speaks tenderly words of affirmation and affection and This will happen that the kindness of God He says in that day

The day is at the fifth part The the times from verses 16 to 23 that the

Lord says that he will show his kindness to his bride is in That day that day is is now in 1st

Corinthians chapter 10 verses verse 11 Says that the Old Testament was written for us on whom the us on whom the end of the age

That is the that day that the day of the Lord has Come it's come already.

I was this is that day in that date now Hosea says the relationship of love

Will be restored So we'll speak to God as tenderly as he speaks to us

We won't call him by some some pagan title for God like my bail or ball literally means master the old gods that attracted people with promises of fertility and Prosperity like bail will be forgotten in verse 17 serving mammon

Thinking that the secret to life is just getting rich. That's how you take care of yourself That will be forgotten then in verse 18.

The Lord says I will make a covenant He'll make it for us with nature for our benefit nature will be at peace so that the animals

Yes that includes the viruses Won't hurt us anymore There will be no more invasions or terrorist attacks we will have perfect Safety, he says then in verse 19.

I will betroth you to me forever Will be married to the

Lord is the Bride of Christ unshakably held by him and Because the relationship depends on his

Agape His steadfast love righteousness justice steadfast love

Chesed and mercy three times God says I Will betroth you other words.

I will engage myself. I will commit covenant To you it will be in faithfulness.

Otherwise, it's it's totally reliable not dependent on moods Different feelings on whether you're convenient to him anymore.

There's no love without faithfulness without commitment None of that silly self -serving.

Let us there's there's faithful committed steadfast loyal Unconditional love

In that day, which is now from verses 21 to 23 notice what kind of lover God is he's an active one

Works of service is one of his love languages. He's not a remote kind of deistic

God. He's at work He's entering he's responding He's giving us what we need just like the weather that the skies gives the earth what it needs to grow that the rain and the sunshine that the grain the wine the oil the food the things

We need with the things we depend on will then enter back to God It says

Jezreel remember what that means means God sows God plants that means the things that people pursue

Often pursue instead of God those things will in that day, which is now

Give glory to God. They will point us back to God It's kind of ironic that aren't today our money which many people pursue says right on it in God We trust

It's telling us the money itself is telling us Jezreel God sows he's the source of everything you need

Well, they'll say to us all the things That people around us often pursue as their idols. They'll say to us

God provided us God provided us dollars

Food as cars as houses. He provided us for you. God did it wasn't your idols

It was a bail or mammon or eros or the government God sows he plants

What you need God says I will sow So that you will be provided for he says

I Will have mercy I will have affection friendship unconditional love on no mercy and I will say to Not my people

He will speak tenderly tenderly to them words of affirmation to us you are my people and We shall say we former betrayers.

We X X's will say You are my

God Abba father Where chapter 2 is the prophecy?

Chapter 3 is the story It's the story of redeeming love Redeeming love has been my theme and shall be till I die

Well at first in chapter 1 the Lord had told him to to marry an immoral woman now in chapter 3 The Lord says go again.

Love a woman's the same woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress Do that because that's just how the

Lord loves his people redeeming love well, they turn to other gods with a

Bale then with his cakes of raisins or mammon now with his big big bank accounts

Big houses of cars or eros with its honeymoons or ego with its trophies We chase other gods and the result is that we end up as their slaves.

We chase other gods But then the Lord chases after us The Lord said that he would hedge her in with thorns

That all the pleasures of the life of immorality that she pursued that they would dry up and be like a desert land

For Gomer that meant somehow we don't know all the details, but somehow she went from being the party girl to a prostitute owned by some pimp and The Lord said that he would strip her naked

Now if she was sold at the slave market She would have been stripped literally naked as the men bid on her

So imagine Hosea showing up at them showing up at the auction. There's Gomer on the stand naked bidding starts auctioneer says bidding starts at five shekels

Hosea starts someone bid six Hosea bid seven Someone else raises it to eight

Hosea counters with nine Another guy takes it to ten auctioneer Here 11 11 some man raises his hand before Hosea can get to it

Hosea goes to 12. Is there a 13? Yes, the auctioneer sees there's a hand back there 13

Hosea raises it 14 one last man bids 15 Hosea says

I'll see that 15 and add a Homer and a lethwich of barley worth about another 15 shekels so he's doubled the price and Sealed the deal

Gomer's taken off the stand her head bowed in shame and handed over to her new owner and she looks up and sees

It's Hosea her husband Whom she had forsaken He paid for what he should never have had to pay for Redeeming love has been my theme and shall be till I die

If she's redeemed then the response to being redeemed in verse 3 you must dwell as mine for many days

You shall not play the whore In other words, don't give yourself to other gods That's a money or the eros or the ego or to feel all to yourself love.

I will be to you God says your husband Then God's people

The Israel that he has mercy on that he loves unconditionally with that steadfast

Covenant love that he has that he has sown and he's scattered He's planted around the earth.

Well, he will gather them from all nations. They will have their idols in their temple destroyed They will live in the world under its

Kings and then when the Lord speaks tenderly to them When he allures them with the gospel

When he draws them with cords of kindness then They return to the

Lord who made a covenant with them from eternity past They seek the

Lord to be their God Not mammon or eros or self -love or whatever else is offered

They they seek the one who fulfills that covenant with David who's the king of the kingdom of God.

They will seek Jesus their king and they shall come at the end of chapter 3. They are coming.

We are coming in fear and reverence trembling at his word

They are coming we are coming To his goodness his kindness.

We are coming Because he's shown his love for us and that while we were still sinners

When we were depraved we were cheap and we were empty we were prostituted then in that condition

Not as an investment because we're worth it. But because of his love then

Christ died for us. He had the love that makes the loved one valuable again

So they are returning we are returning You are returning to him now in these latter days

Because he has pursued you and loved you Hedged you in spoken tenderly to you redeemed you redeeming love

Has been my theme and shall be till I die what kind of lover is