Does God pursue us?
God's pursuit of people is not a side theme in the Bible — it is the shape of the whole story, from a voice calling through the trees of Eden to a Shepherd walking into the wilderness after one animal. The question is not whether we can find God, but why He should want to find us, and how far He is willing to go.
The First Search
The pattern is set in the opening chapters of Genesis. Adam and his wife had sinned and hidden themselves, and God came looking:
J T MawsonThe shadow of sin and death lay darkly over that fair garden, and hidden behind the trees of it, guilty and afraid, crouched the sinner and his wife, when God came forth to seek them. Not as an avenger came He, not as a Judge, but with tender love in His heart, crying after His lost creature, "Adam, where are you?"
Another writer draws out what that search proves about God's intentions at that moment:
F. B. HoleThe Lord God might instantly have discarded the guilty pair and consigned them to their doom. Instead of that He sought them out; a sure indication that He had designs for their ultimate blessing.
Who Moves Toward Whom
In the story of the shepherd who leaves ninety-nine sheep to go after one, the direction of the search is the whole point. Religion usually pictures a person climbing toward God; this picture runs the other way.
William KellyWith us, indeed, it is not a question here of our going in quest of Christ, but of the man Christ Jesus, the good Shepherd, going after us — that which was lost… No doubt the sheep does reap the benefit; yet certainly it was not the sheep that sought the Shepherd, but the Shepherd the sheep. It was not the sheep that clambered on His shoulders, but He that laid it there.
The searching is also His right, not merely His kindness. When religious critics objected that Jesus welcomed disreputable people, the parable was His answer:
J. N. DarbyHave I not a right to seek lost sinners? Is it not a right thing for God to come among tax collectors and sinners? This may not suit a moral man, but it suits God; it is His privilege to come amid sin — to come near to ruined sinners — because He can deliver out of it.
The Distance He Travelled
A pursuit is measured by what it costs the pursuer. One writer sets that distance beside our own reluctance to cross a street:
Hamilton SmithHe thought of them from all eternity, but, sadly, we can only give them the odd moments of our lives. He left His home of glory to seek His sheep, and can we not leave our poor homes to seek them? He went to the uttermost distance of the cross to find His sheep, but we can hardly go into the next street to seek them.
Three Searchers, One Search
Luke tells three stories in a row — a shepherd, a woman with a lamp, a father watching a road. Commentators read them as one act of God with three faces:
Ernst-August BremickerThe shepherd speaks of the Lord Jesus who came to find and save His lost sheep. The woman speaks of the activity of the Holy Spirit who uses God's word in order to bring man into His light. In the father who was looking for his son we identify God the Father who is waiting for those who come back to Him. The shepherd speaks of divine perseverance in seeking, the woman speaks of divine patience and diligence, while the Father displays divine love and forgiveness.
Even Your Search Was His Idea
Zacchaeus climbed a tree to get a look at Jesus. He thought he was the one doing the searching.
H H SnellHe little thought, while he was occupied in seeking the Lord, that the Lord was seeking him. Many a seeker says, "I am trying to find the Saviour;" but the truth…
The most extreme case is a man who was not seeking God at all, but hunting down His followers:
The Christian's FriendFirst, it was Christ who sought him, not he who sought Christ. When on his way to Damascus he was filled with hostility to Jesus of Nazareth, and all the energy of his resolute will was directed to the end of destroying the name of Christ from off the earth. Christ went out from the glory itself to meet His persecutor, and by His grace subdued him at His feet.
He Keeps Coming After His Own
The pursuit does not stop once someone belongs to Him. Believers wander too, and the recovery is His work again, not theirs:
Hamilton SmithAll restoration commences with the Lord. The wandering sheep would never return if the Lord in His grace did not go after His sheep. David says, "He restores my soul". Naomi says, "The Lord has brought me home again". Blessed be His Name, He will bring us all home at last.
What He Is Pursuing You Toward
There is an end in view. Jesus told a woman at a well that the Father is seeking worshippers, and one writer traces the two searches into one:
W. T. P. WolstonHe sought not even worship, or anything else from us as sinners; He sought us till He had found us, and saved us. Then, become sons and children of the Father, by love that gave us all that love could give, and so true worshippers, the Father — wonderful thought — seeks our worship, and we can give Him what He seeks.
Summary
- Sought first. Before anyone looked for God, God was already calling — "Where are you?" was spoken to people hiding from Him, and it came with designs for their blessing, not their doom.
- Sought at cost. He did not search from a safe distance; He left the glory of heaven and went to the uttermost distance of the cross to reach His sheep.
- Sought by all Three. The Son perseveres, the Spirit patiently sweeps with the light of God's word, the Father waits with forgiveness — one search, three faces.
- Sought even when hostile. Zacchaeus thought he was the seeker; Paul was actively destroying the name of Christ. Both were found because Christ went after them.
- Sought all the way home. He restores the wanderer as surely as He saved the lost, and He is still seeking — now for worshippers who will give Him back what love has produced.