The Bible says;
“I have loved you,” says the LORD. But you say, “How have you loved us?” “Is not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the LORD. “Yet I have loved Jacob but Esau I have hated. I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert.” If Edom says, “We are shattered but we will rebuild the ruins,” the LORD of hosts says, “They may build, but I will tear down, and they will be called ‘the wicked country,’ and ‘the people with whom the LORD is angry forever.'” Your own eyes shall see this, and you shall say, “Great is the LORD beyond the border of Israel!” (Malachi 1:1-5 ESV)
It seems like every day we hear of a tragedy that is happening in our world. We see it more and more through the digital news services we have access to. When these tragedies strike, I often hear people speak of God’s love. What we do not hear is anyone ask the question; “HOW have you loved us?”(v2) In our modern world the only time we hear of God’s love is when we are in the midst of tragedy. We seek comfort. Outside of this, we are bombarded everyday by the voice of doubt–the voice of the world that continually gives us good excuses to disbelieve supernatural events.
The voices ask us; “How has He loved us?” Yet, we have no answer.
We have become a people that have no answer to this question. We have forgotten the God who declares “They may build, but I will tear down.” We depend on ourselves to find the answers to life’s problems. We try to build, but our unfaithfulness will only bring despair.
The simple answer to this question is Christ. God sent Jesus to die on a cross for our sin and we can have eternal life when we commit our lives to him. This would be enough to know of God’s love, but there is more. He has created us, he has created the world, he has blessed our country.
But, we should look around because we have begun to go our own way. We will try to rebuild by our own power, but he will tear down unless we repent.
And as we see this we will hear the words of Malachi; “Your own eyes shall see this, and you shall say, “Great is the LORD beyond the border of Israel!”
It is time we as a country repent of our sin and return to Him.
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Photo from Unspash.com
This post is a fresh rewrite of a post written on December 5, 2007 titled “How has He loved us?”