GOD’S PURSUIT OF MAN I

In this series, we have been looking at the concept of a chase. In our last post, we established the characteristics of a chase; a chase must have an object of pursuit, the element of focus, determination, strength and endurance. We also expressed how the God of creation has been on a chase for the hearts of humans for centuries and so today, using the people of Israel as a case study, we will be looking at how God has come to chase after man.

The People of Israel
Israel was a people close to God’s heart. A people personally picked by God to be his. The history between God and Israel is a perfect representation of the chase between God and man. In God’s pursuit of Israel, we see the characteristics of a real chase.

• The Object of Pursuit
We established in our previous post that one cannot chase nothing. A chase is always after something. There is an object of pursuit. In this case, the object of pursuit was a people that will be set apart unto God. A people that will be God’s very own.

• Focus
God was so focused on achieving this that he actually began long before Israel was even in existence. He began with Abram the son of Terah.

“Now the Lord said to Abram, Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you, and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing.” Genesis 12: 1-2 NKJV.

God called Abram out of his land and household with a promise to make him a great nation. And so Abram became Abraham who was to be the Father of many nations. God walked faithfully with Abraham all his life and after Abraham, God walked faithfully with his son Isaac, through to his descendant Jacob. In his consistency, He became referred to as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Eventually, the descendants of Abram ended up in the land of Egypt and settled in a place called Goshen. In this foreign land the people who had previously walked faithfully with God started to serve other gods. Eventually, they became severely oppressed in Egypt and cried unto God. At this point, God could have turned his eye from their suffering. They had betrayed his covenant, forsaken their God and pledged allegiance to the lesser gods of Egypt. But God kept his focus of having Israel as his inheritance and so in spite of all, did not give up on the people but heard their cry and sent them a deliverer; Moses to lead them out of captivity.

As Moses led them to the Promised Land however, the people complained bitterly and sought to return to the land of Egypt. They denied God again and again and even built a golden calf to worship while their leader Moses had gone to seek the face of God. Many other times, in their walk with God, the people of Israel turned their backs to God.

All through this, God could have just simply chosen another people to be his own. Many times, the people gave God a reason to end his chase but as a result of his faithfulness, he kept his focus on the promise he made to their ancestor Abraham and was determined to see it through to fruition.

• Determination
Israel persisted in its rebellion against God, doing only as they saw fit but in determination God raised for them Judge after Judge, Leader after Leader, prophet after prophet, one deliverer after another, trying to win their hearts and turn them back towards him although they murdered some, rendered the words of others obsolete and even went as far as trying to get for themselves prophets that would tell them what they wanted to hear. They so abused God’s faithfulness to them that they actually believed they could live as they wanted and not face consequences because they were God’s nation. In it all however, God did not give up on them.
Having to sternly discipline them and then lovingly comfort them over and over again. Watch them walk out of relationship with Him, first with the golden calf and then throughout history with several other foreign gods. But again and again, God picked them out of miry clay, cleaned them up, set their feet on solid rock and steadied them as they walked along. Determined to have these people as his own, God eventually sent us Christ Jesus who was God, in all his majesty, taking human form and becoming servant to man so as to restore man back to himself. Jesus was the ultimate show of God’s desire to restore man back to Himself.

The pursuit of God was described by Jesus in his parable of the prodigal son. The parable tells a story of a son who demanded his share of an inheritance and walked out of relationship with his father as a result. He roamed far and wide, using up all his inheritance until he was so hungry he had to eat the same food the pigs ate in a sty he happened to find work at. But like the story of the prodigal son, despite the fact that Israel had disobeyed God, complained and walked off, mingled with swine and dirtied themselves, God was so bent on having relationship with them that he was already on His way with a ring and a robe before they had made half of the journey back to Him. God had given them quite a chase and God wasn’t giving up on his pursuit.

• Strength & Endurance
It takes strength and endurance to see a chase fulfilled. Jesus was the very epitome of strength and endurance
Jesus had to endure rejection, even from his own hometown. He had to endure anguish, which led to his blood capillaries bursting, causing his blood to seep out with his sweat. He was pierced skin-deep with thorns, dragged through sand carrying heavy wood, spat on and jeered at by his creation. Every whip that landed on his body left with a piece of his flesh. He was nailed and hang to a cross by only his wrists and ankle. What insufferable, unthinkable pain it must have been, to have the weight of his whole body hanging off nails in only his ankle and wrists?
And yet He endured it all. He drank of that bitter cup. And all in pursuit of man.

Conclusion
Now here’s the twist in the tale. The pursuit still goes on. It continues with us going out to make disciples. Even today God is still saying, come and let us reason together but it is still at the option of man to accept this gift of God. In continuation of the pursuit, we must bring this gift to the world.

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