From the very beginning, God has pursued us. After Adam and Eve sinned, they did not run toward God; they ran away from Him, hiding among the trees of the garden. Genesis 3:8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. God was walking through the garden pursuing Adam and Eve, but instead of running to Him they hid from Him. Not much has changed today. God pursues us and we try to hide. But God kept pursuing them, Genesis 3:9 says, “But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
One could argue that God pursued Moses, God certainly pursued Jonah when he attempted to flee from the Lord. Psalm 139 is one of the most powerful psalms in the Bible. This psalm shows us that before we ever began to pursue God, God pursued us. Before you even thought about God, he was pursuing you (Psalm 139:16-17). But you also must give up from running and submit to Him. You cannot hide from the Lord, but you can choose to not let Him catch you. Of course, in the end He will catch you anyway, so better to bow to Him as Lord now instead of at judgment.
The story of ancient Israel is all about God’s pursuit of His people. Of all the people who existed back then, God chose Abraham to make a covenant with. He called Abraham out of his country and brought him to a land which He promised to give to Abraham’s descendants (Genesis 12:1-3).
As we read through Genesis, we see evidence that Abraham tried to live honorably. He treated his neighbors with respect and tried to do the right thing (Genesis 14:14-16). But Abraham wasn’t perfect. He lied to protect himself and he didn’t protect the rights of those in his household as well as he could have (Genesis 12:10-15,16:1-6).
As we follow Abraham’s family through the Bible, we see them do bad things. They deceived, cheated, and lied to each other (Genesis 30:37-43, 31:20-21, 34:13-29). When the descendants of Abraham became known as the Israelites, they continued their descent into sin. They mistreated their brethren, they profaned the Lord’s Sabbath, they chose idols over God (Nehemiah 5:1-9, 13:15-22, Ezekiel 8:1-16). But God still pursued them. He sent prophet after prophet to implore them to change their ways. He sent people to warn them of what would happen if they didn’t repent and turn away from their evil deeds and back to Him. He sent messages of hope to remind them that even though they had not obeyed Him and would be punished as a result, He had not forsaken them. He still loved them and chose them as His.