Grab God’s Rescue Line

Grab God’s Rescue Line

I just finished studying the book of Hosea.  At first glance, it’s a difficult and perplexing story. For instance, God shockingly tells Hosea to marry a prostitute named Gomer.  Unfortunately, Gomer has a pattern of wandering from God and leaving her husband.

As I examine the book of Hosea closer, I see how God relentlessly pursues Gomer. God loves Gomer unconditionally; yet Gomer can’t love and forgive herself. Gomer is encouraged to Grab God’s Rescue Line. God’s Rescue Line leads Gomer to safety and God’s loving embrace.

Perhaps Hosea isn’t such a strange book after all. Don’t we all wander and need rescue?

The Garden Eden, God’s Original Design

The Garden of Eden is a place of perfection.  Man and woman were complete.  We were one with God because sin hadn’t yet entered the world.  In Eden, man and his wife walked naked and were not ashamed.  Genesis 2:25.  

But unfortunately, sin arrived.  Perfection vanished.  Shame ruled. 

Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked.  And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.  Genesis 3:7

Because of sin, we find ourselves continually wandering from God.  We are blind and lost.  It’s like trying to find our way home during a blizzard. 

Grab God’s Rescue Line

In the early 1900s, homesteads on the open prairie were susceptible to unpredictable winter storms.  Ranchers would tie a rope from their house to the barn to guide them back home during whiteout blizzard conditions.  This became their tethering line which led them to safety when they were lost.  

In like manner, we need to Grab Hold of God’s Rescue Line.  The rope is tethered to Him, because He knows we will wander.

Going Back to the Beginning

God’s rescue line includes words that lead us back to him.  When I read the Book of Hosea, these words confront me:

revive, release, restore, renew, repay,  repurpose, repent, remove, remind, receive, respond, remember, redeem, reveal, rebuild, rejoice, return     

These words begin with the prefix re.  Re means back to the beginning, or to the original.  God wants to lead us back to Eden, where life was perfect and relationships untarnished.  God welcomes us back to perfect fellowship with Him.

Chain or Rescue Line?

You may be tempted to think God’s tethering line is a chain causing bondage and holding us back.  But quite the contrary.  God’s Rope of Rescue is for our safety, protection, and ultimate good.  We need to grab it, practice the re words, and find our way back to God.  

God is waiting for us, because we are all prone to wander.  Just like Gomer in the Book of Hosea, we need to see ourselves through God’s eyes.  We are chosen, loved, and accepted, by Him.  No matter what we have done or where we have wandered; we are His.

Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God.  They shall return and dwell beneath my shadow. Hosea 14:1a, 14:7a  

Prayer:

Dear Father, Son, and Spirit, thank you for claiming me as your beloved child.  Even when I stray from your presence, you provide a way back.  Thank you for your rescue line which leads me to safety.  Amen.

Questions to Consider:

1. Share a time when you Grabbed Hold of God’s Rescue Line and returned to Him.
2. Which of the re words hold the most significance for you?  Why?