Revelation Day 44 - God's Delight

DAY 44
God’s Delight
Hosea 11:1-9

God’s anger shows God’s delight.

In fact, Revelation’s talk about God’s wrath shows us is God’s delight for us. Modern people love to quote “God is love” but squirm to say “God hates.” Some of that is understandable because some people have used “God hates” like a club to hurt people. That’s not what it means.

But I’m convinced that you can’t have love without anger. Real love hates evil and it hates evil most in the thing it loves most. God loves us, God loves creation, so God hates sin, evil, and suffering. In fact, no one hates evil more than God. God’s anger against evil actually shows how much God delights in us. 

Let’s be clear: if we say, “God hates sin,” that doesn’t mean God hates us - or anyone else. Scripture is absolutely clear that God loves us. Some Christians try to balance these two truths with a pithy proverb: “God loves the sinner but hates the sin.” That’s true, but we’ve spoiled that phrase by quoting it most to people we love the least. 

Rev. 15-16 makes another connection between God’s wrath against evil and God’s delight in sinners. Just as the plagues of Egypt were supposed to soften Pharaoh’s hard heart, so these plague-judgments are supposed to spur people to repent. We see that in 16:9 and 16:11. We heard God’s call to repent in Rev. 2, Rev. 3, and Rev. 9. 

Why does God want people to turn from evil? Because God delights in us. 

Please hear this clearly: God is not out to get us. God is out to get evil. God is out to get evil out of us. God ordered the prophet Hosea to marry an unfaithful woman. His life powerfully illustrated Israel’s unfaithfulness to God. But in Hosea 11, God passionately speaks about his love and commitment to this unfaithful people. His love has stirred up his anger at their evil, but his anger will not “devastate” them (Hos. 11:9). God loves us so much that he aims his anger at everything evil, even the evil in us.

REFLECT
Reread Hosea 11 but imagine God is speaking this about you.

PRAY
In spite of all my unfaithfulness, you love me, Lord. Thank you. Kindle in me a passion for you to match yours for me. Amen.