''Noah walked with God'' (Genesis 6:9)
Noah responded to God's desire for fellowship and drew near. As he drew near, God drew near to him and warned of things to come. The judgment that took the world unaware was first a secret between Noah and God. Noah's close relationship with God was born out of a confidence that God would respond to those who pursue Him, to those who dare to believe and draw close to experience intimacy with Him.
We witness this again with Abraham when God invites him to ''walk before me'' (Genesis 17:1). This invitation is extended again and again with Isaac and Jacob; even before Jacob was born God said, ''Jacob I have loved'' (Romans 9:13). The Lord pursued him, as He does with us all, even when Jacob was not pursuing God. As Jacob ran from his brother he found God waiting to capture him. When Jacob slept on a pillow of stone, God awoke him to a dream, a ladder with angels coming up and down. A divine connection revealed between God and man.
After four hundred years of bondage the children of Israel, the descendants of Jacob, were confused by His primary purpose for delivering them from bondage. They thought it was all about inheriting a promised land, but it was about something so much more. God's ultimate desire was for intimacy, and He clearly stated His intentions when He addressed the entire nation with passionate and poetic words: ''you have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to Myself''(Exodus 19:4).
However, His desires were not mirrored in the words of the children of Israel; their dialoguebetrays a very different motive: ''You have not brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey, nor given us inheritance of fields and vineyards'' (Numbers 16:14). Their hearts were set on the what, rather than the Who they were to inherit.
Moses repeatedly clarified God's desire to the descendants of Abraham; one such comment was recorded: ''for He is a God who is passionate about His relationship with you''. (Exodus 34:14).
God declared to all of Israel, ''I have loved you''. Yet, in ignorance and hardness of heart they answered back, ''in what way have you loved us? Malachi 1:2). Blind to the fact His heart was yearning for them, they mistook His attempts to reach out as acts of judgment.
Even through repeated disobedience His desire remained steadfast. In the days of Jeremiah He cried out, ''I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you did not hear, and I called you, but you did not answer'' (Jeremiah 7:13). He made it known He'd pursued them in this manner from the day He'd brought them out of Egypt until this very moment (see Jeremiah 7:25).
In all this His love never wavered, but the greatest evidence of His ultimate desire for us is found in Jesus. Jesus Himself explains with, ''I, the Son of Man, have come to seek and save those .....who are lost'' (Luke 19:10). He didn't just come to save; He came to seek as well, even when we were His enemies!
May you say to Him ''I love you Lord because you first loved me''. Amen.
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