The pursuit of man by God has been nothing short of legendary. It pre-dates man’s pursuit of God. From what may perhaps have been the next day after creating man – on God’s first Sabbath – the pursuit of man began. Even without a body, God found ways to commune with man. His voice walked every day in the cool of His garden to fellowship with man. Man did not seek Him, God sought him until that fateful day, when man broke His heart and left home. Reluctantly, God accepted man’s proposition to leave home and be a wanderer.
But God’s pursuit continued. He would not give up on man. His heart just could not.
Man had set God’s just nature against His heart. For many years man put God’s heart to the sword. He fraternized with evil spirits and was continually full of wickedness. He was unrelenting in breaking God’s heart. God’s just nature demanded recompense, but His heart stood in the way. God searched for an Abel, an Enoch, or a Noah – still in His pursuit of man. There is something about man that disables Him from letting go.
But man crossed God’s tolerance threshold and the verdict in heaven was this: COMPLETE EXTINCTION. But His heart still found a man. He put the sentence on hold for many years until Noah had completed the ark that will make God satisfy His just nature as well as keep His pursuit of man. Man had a fresh start.
God’s pursuit continued. He made a vow, “I will never destroy the earth again with flood”, in a heartfelt response to man’s biggest ever sacrifice – Noah’s sacrifice. The cleanest of every animal on earth was sacrificed to God and His heart melted. Finally, man was beginning to respond to His pursuit.
Not long afterwards, man went back to his ways. He found other lovers to make God jealous. Yet God’s pursuit continued. He searched for another Noah but found none. In His unrelenting pursuit, He settled for an idol worshipper, Abram. This so confounded David. He considered all the other great things God had made and how beautifully they were arranged and how graciously they obeyed Him day and night without fail and he wondered aloud, “what is man that you are mindful of him”. Why does He even bother about man?
Momentarily God’s pursuit seemed to have paid off. He had hit a jackpot with Abram. His heart clung to him and would not let him go. He tested him with a promise, and he believed Him. For the second time, God’s heart melted. He has found a man who had not received anything yet believed and obeyed. It was too good to be true. He made years pass yet Abram still believed. This obedience was better than Noah’s sacrifice, so God went all out again. He pursued Abram. He changed His name and put His indelible mark on him. He circumcised him and gave him a new identity, a Jew. He had now called a man out of men. The love story began again.
But Abraham was a man, he had to die. But God’s pursuit of man was too strong and eternal to die with Abraham. He began to raise men out of this man with the hope that they will be like him. What followed however, were a series of heartbreaks. A few bright spots along the way but mostly heartbreaks. As Abraham’s children multiplied, so did their iniquity. God’s just nature continued to press for recompense, but His heart continued to plead for more time. God still believed in man and was willing to wait for the perfect man – the real deal. So, God’s pursuit continued.
He continued to search and in one of the least of the households of Jacob, He found a shepherd boy worshiping in the bush whilst slinging at bears and lions. Worship? Who taught this boy? Again, for the third time, God’s heart melted. God was in love. He quickly anointed him but left him in silence. But David continued to worship. God looked on whilst his enemies sought his life, yet the boy’s response was to praise and write psalms to God. His heart warmed affectionately to this boy. Then He made him King, yet he danced in praise to Him naked before his subjects. He blessed him with mighty men of war, yet he never went to war without inquiring of Him. “Who is this man? Who taught him how to move My heart,” God inquired of Himself. Any time he broke God’s heart, he cried, he sang hymns and wrote psalms, he repented profusely, he begged for God to keep His pursuit of him. Even if it meant taking his throne away from him. He refused to eat until God forgave him. So God went all out with David. He played His last card with David. He was now ready to answer David’s question, “what is man that you are so mindful of?”
God so perfectly made man that He became one Himself. God called that Man, The Son of David. David saw Him and called Him, ‘’MY LORD’’ – such was the love affair.
God’s pursuit of man continued. He narrowed His search to the house of David and waited till He found a virgin who had found favour in His sight. He no longer looked for a man born of the seed of another man. God Himself gave birth to a man of a seed of a woman. He called Him, Jesus, Son of David. God had become a man so He could live among men. Enough with the distant pursuit. He came down to live as a man in order to pursue men. After 30 years on earth with men, He revealed to them that He was the Son of the God who had been pursuing them since He created them. He was immediately rejected by his fellow men. Yet, every day He pursued man to love him, to heal him, to deliver him from oppression and to teach him but man’s hatred for Him only deepened. When He still would not give up on them, they betrayed Him and chanted, “away with Him.” Willingly He gave up Himself to be crucified. They disfigured Him so badly that He no longer looked like a man. They stripped Him naked and killed Him. God was right, “the heart of man is desperately wicked, who can know it”.
But He rose up again with another glorified body like a man and continued to pursue man. Such love, such unrelenting pursuit.
Man can doubt anything and everything about God but must never doubt the heart of God for him. Any reservation about that love is harshly insulting. Never doubt His love for you; never doubt His need of you. There is something about man than man himself does not know. Nothing negates His love for you – not even your mistakes. Never allow any problem to be so magnified in your eyes that you even slightly doubt His love for you. That still breaks his heart. You mean more to Him than you can ever understand. He earnestly pursues you and He carries you on eagle’s wings to Himself. You do not have to always feel it but like Abraham, just believe. God deeply loves every human He has made – ALL without exception. Believe it or not, it does not change this Divine Truth. There is something about you, that commits Him to you and makes Him care about you deeply. Some, in response to God’s pursuit of them, have also sought after Him fervently. These have been brought into deeper intimacy with Him because there is no limit to the depth of knowing Him. Through such, God continues to pursue more men. He makes them ‘Fishers of Men’. In working through them powerfully, men have misinterpreted that as favouritism and have accused God as loving some and not others. That is not factual. Abraham was a Gentile and made a Jew and through his offspring, both Jews and Gentiles can come to God. The fact is that God allows Himself to be vulnerable to all men and pursues every man and woman relentlessly. Will you also respond?
“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,” 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 ESV.
I pray you will also respond to God’s pursuit of you by receiving Jesus, His Son as your Saviour and Lord.
