The God Who Pleads

The God Who Pleads

Read: Luke 15:11-32

“The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him.”

Luke 15:28

“God had one Son and He made Him a missionary.”

—Leighton Ford

IN WORD Many people think God is obscure, so shrouded in mystery that we may never figure Him out. Jesus’ parable gives an entirely different picture. Our God is the God who pleads. He explains Himself and His ways. He seeks out those who don’t understand Him or who don’t agree with Him. Throughout history He has been revealing Himself, even coming in the form of a man to demonstrate His nature and to reconcile us to Himself.

The Bible is clear: God has manifested Himself in the majesty and intricacies of creation; in the moral impulse of all humanity; in His loving and miraculous dealings with His covenant people; in the authority of revealed Scripture; and clearest of all, in the incarnation of Jesus Christ. No one on the planet has missed out on the pleading of God in all of these areas. Two or three, perhaps, but not all.

Many of those who still find God obscure are the older brother in this story. They find Him obscure because they do not accept what He has already said. They either do not want to know Him at all, or they have learned of Him and do not like His policies. They expect Him to be made in their image. But God hasn’t cut them off; the Father still goes out to explain His purposes.

IN DEED We may sometimes think that in our relationship with God, we were the pursuers and He was the recluse. Jesus, by His existence and His words, indicates that this is not so. Jesus is the pursuer incarnate. The Father goes to the older brothers of the world and pleads.

That’s a model we should follow. We live in a world of many recluses, those who have not understood God and, in fact, refuse to understand Him. Still, the Father goes and pleads. He sent His Son for this purpose. And His Son sends us.