Charles Spurgeon (1834–1892) on God Begging

Perhaps if there is one passage in Scripture in which the entreaties of God are set in a more tender light than in any other, it is to be found in the book of Hosea, 11:8, where the Lord cries, “How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee, Israel? how shall I make thee as Admah? how shall I set thee as Zeboim? mine heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together.” Oh, how God beseeches men, and he means his ministers to beseech them in the same way, with weeping tenderness and melting pathos, if perhaps the stony heart may be softened, and the iron sinew be bowed.

Do I hear some strong doctrine brother say, “I do not like this”? My dear brother, I am not careful to answer thee in this matter. If the Lord appoints it, you ought to approve it, and if you do not, you are wrong, but the Scripture is not. If God beseeches and bids me beseech as he does, I will do it; and, though I be counted vile for it by you, then so must it be. Besides, it is no derogation for God to beseech his creatures. You say we make God beg to his creatures. Assuredly that is how the Lord represents himself,—“All day long have I stretched out my hands to a disobedient and gainsaying generation.” It is in the Scripture that he represents himself as crying like a chapman at a fair, “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters,” and bids the passers by to buy his wine and milk. It is wonderful condescension—if he had not so represented it, we dare not have done so; but as he has said it, we do but follow his footsteps and quote his words. Besides, remember these entreaties of God, in which he stoops to our littleness, even when they do not prevail with man, do affect the divine purpose mysteriously; they are a savour of death unto death wherever they are not a savour of life unto life; but then, blessed be God, in thousands of cases they are the means by which his power works on men’s hearts; they do bring men to be reconciled to him.

C. H. Spurgeon, “God Beseeching Sinners by His Ministers (No. 1,124),” in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, 63 vols. (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1873), 19:429–30; 2 Cor 5:18–21.

This quote is not as explicit, but Spurgeon is still saying here that “The Lord begs” some to give Him their hearts:

Remember, wherever we speak about the power of grace we do not mean a physical force, but only such force as may be applied to free agents, and to responsible beings. The Lord begs you not to want to be crushed and pounded into repentance, nor whipped and spurred to holy living. But “My son, give me thine heart.” I have heard that the richest juice of the grape is that which comes with the slightest pressure at the first touch. Oh, to give God our freest love! You know the old proverb that one volunteer is worth two pressed men. We shall all be pressed men in a certain sense; but yet it is written, “Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power.” May you be willing at once!

C. H. Spurgeon, “The Heart: A Gift for God (No. 1,995),” in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, 63 vols. (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1887), 33:666; Proverbs 23:26.

VIII. Men would not importune an offender if he refused the pardon. When a man has done all that lies in his power to make peace, when he has even suffered what he ought not to have suffered in order to produce peace with one who has offended him, suppose that after that he comes to the offender, and he says, “Let us be friends,” and the person turns on his heel, and says, “I have too much to do to attend to you,” or suppose that he says, “I do not want any of your peace; it is nothing to me, I have other things to think of;” and suppose that this generous-hearted one should say, “But incline your ear, and come to me; hear what I have to say; come now, and let us reason together;” and suppose that the man says, “I want none of your reasoning, I care nothing about all this talk, I do not believe it; it is all an idle tale, and I want to hear nothing of it;” and suppose that this generous person should follow him, and entreat him, persuade him, implore him, plead with him, and still use a thousand arguments of lovingkindness with him. “Ah!” say you, “that is not like man.” No, it is not; but he who deals in mercy with you is “God, and not man,” and therefore he importunes you who have long resisted him, and begs you even now to listen to him, and even now to turn unto him. Listen to his own words, “Turn ye, turn ye, from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?” These are the pleadings of God himself with men who have sinned against him. If you pleaded for mercy at God’s feet, and were importunate with him, that would seem natural enough; but for God to plead with you, and to beseech you to accept his mercy, is supernatural and divine.

C. H. Spurgeon, “‘God, and Not Man,’—What Does It Mean? (No. 2,447),” in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, 63 vols. (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1896), 42:19–20; Hosea 11:9.

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Other men within the Augustinian tradition who use the metaphor of God begging are the following:

Augustine (Early Church Father), Hugh Latimer (Early English Reformer), Isaac Ambrose (Puritan), Thomas Brooks (Puritan), Daniel Burgess (Puritan), Jeremiah Burroughs (Westminster divine), Richard Baxter (Puritan), Joseph Caryl (Westminster divine), Thomas Case (Puritan), Stephen Charnock (Puritan), John Collinges (Puritan), John Flavel (Puritan), Theophilus Gale (Puritan), William Gearing (Puritan), Andrew Gray (Puritan), William Gurnall (Puritan), Robert Harris (Westminster divine), Nathaniel Heywoood (Puritan), Thomas Larkham (Puritan), Thomas Lye (Puritan), Thomas Manton (Puritan), John Murcot (Puritan), George Newton (Puritan), John Oldfield (Puritan), Anthony Palmer (Puritan), Edward Reynolds (Westminster divine), John Richardson (Puritan), Samuel Rutherford (Westminster divine), John Shower (Puritan), Richard Sibbes (Puritan), Sydrach Simpson (Westminster divine), William Strong (Westminster divine), George Swinnock (Puritan), John Trapp (Puritan), Ralph Venning (Puritan), Nathaniel Vincent (Puritan), Thomas Watson (Puritan), Daniel Williams (Puritan), Samuel Willard, Benjamin Wadsworth, George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, Solomon Stoddard, Samuel Davies, Ralph Erskine, Charles Spurgeon, Thomas Chalmers, Walter Chantry, Erroll Hulse, John MacArthur, Steve Lawson, Paul Washer, and Fred Zaspel.