Title: How Much Do You Love God?
Contents
In His high and superior providence, God chose Abraham to be the recipient of the covenant.
Abraham was a man of passionate emotions and courageous actions.
He obeyed God's call with hope and steadfast faith in God.
But he often had to wait for the word of God to be fulfilled.
Because the covenant of salvation was based on faith in God's promises, special faith was required.
One day God spoke to Abraham.
“Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on a mountain that I have told you about,” said the LORD (Genesis 22:2).
He got up early in the morning to carry out the commands God had given him to carry out.
No one has ever obeyed God so quickly and completely.
What was the purpose of this test to offer up Isaac?
This test was used to further refine his faith and make him more useful for God's purposes. Underlying this story is, "How much did Abraham love God?" 's question.
At that time, Gentiles sacrificed their children to their gods.
Could Abraham have this kind of dedication?
Then he has to prove it.
God said to Abraham, "If you love me, do what I want you to do."
The words in that command were very intense.
“Dedicate your son, your only son, the son you love.”
No greater violence is imaginable than a man kills his own son.
Moreover, the fact that he is the son Abraham had been waiting for for decades is imagined as even more difficult.
His hopes on earth depended on the child.
But God asked Abraham to give his best.
Sometimes God wants the best for us too.
1. The best love
Old Testament laws teach people to love their neighbors as they love themselves.
The intrinsic motive of this law is to love God.
Jesus also confirmed the importance of the law when he implied two commands: "Love God and love your neighbor."
Moreover, the question he asked Peter after the resurrection was, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” (John 21:17).
How we love our Lord can tell the depth of our faith.
When we think of all that our Savior did for us at Calvary, we must love the Lord with all our might.
We must examine our faith today to see if we can give our most precious thing for the Lord.
How could Abraham have had the faith to offer his son as a sacrifice, able to make any sacrifice to God?
2. Best effort
Abraham worked many days to raise his cattle.
The property will be Isaac's.
But if Isaac were not there, to whom would the property be passed on?
Abraham asked that question many years ago.
In Genesis 15:2-3, Abram said, "Lord GOD, what will you give me? I have no children, and my heir is Eliezer the Damascus. Those raised in Esau will be my heirs."
In verse 4, “The word of the Lord came to him, saying, ‘This man will not be your heir, but one who is born of your own body will be your heir.
God wanted Abraham to know that the wealth he had accumulated through his hard work would be inherited by his descendants.
He wanted to know that just as gold and silver belong to God, so many livestock on the hill belong to God.
In other words, God wanted him to realize who was the real owner of Abraham's property.
Only then can the son of Abraham be the true son of his covenant.
This is my testimony. I made a vow to God to go the Lord's way and moved to Cheongpyeong in 1987.
They went there to make products and sell them. However, as the planned product was returned, I was in a lot of debt. I had to study theology, and I needed tuition, but raising my family was also a big problem. At that time, a person I met there asked me to try wholesale dog food, so I started doing it. Then I started running a dog center in Cheongpyeong for two years. The dog business has been going well. Then one day, while praying at dawn, I realized, “What if I came here to study theology and kept making money? So I went to the prayer center, prayed for a week, and organized the dog center to go to the seminary.
After paying off the debt, I have 3 million won left. But at that time, the church I was attending was under construction. My family had decided to donate 4 million won, but they donated 1 million won and couldn't get 3 million won.
There was enough money left for the amount of the pledged offering. For me, it was all my property at the time. I had to go to seminary, but I decided to give it to God first.
And we donated 3 million won as a building donation.
That was the spring of 1991.
God was testing me to see if I had the best effort.
After that, for the next 10 years, I attended the seminary for 5 years, and until the year 2000, when I graduated from the 3-year seminary course, God had prepared my tuition expenses, and I was able to finish 10 years of school safely.
God wants us to give Him first the fruits of our labor.
Naturally, God must receive it before he can deeply bless us.
Because he wants to know that God owns all of them.
3. Best Loyalty
The intention behind God's command is why God wants to confirm Abraham's loyalty.
Obedience to God itself is "the holiest good in the human heart," Seneca said. There is also a saying, “Obedience is better than sacrifice” (1 Samuel 15:22). Obedience is what pleases God the most.
Although we value the fact that God intervened and rescued Isaac from the brink of death, we must remember that Abraham had already sacrificed Isaac in his heart.
In any action, there is a time gap between making a decision and executing it.
Abraham, too, had emotional turmoil in the process of obedience, but he had the utmost loyalty.
The writer of Hebrews says this in Hebrews 11:17-19:
“Abraham, when he was being tested, offered Isaac by faith, who received the promises, but he gave his only son. For he had already said to him, ‘Your offspring will be through Isaac. He thought that he would raise him to life.” The writer of Hebrews explains that Abraham believed that God could raise Isaac from the dead.
Is there anyone as loyal as Abraham?
However, martyrdom paralleled Abraham's devotion occurred in A.D. 155.
It's a polycarp case. There is a famous saying he said. "I have served the Lord for 85 years and he has not let me down. But why would I let him down now?"
Oil was poured on the wood surrounding the polycarp that had been burned at the stake, and a fire began to burn him.
At that time, another surprising fact was that among the letters sent by the Apostle John to the seven churches of Revelation, he did not forget the words to the church in Smyrna, which Polycarp served. The dying Polycarp remembered those words as the fire hovered around him. “Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Revelation 2:8-10).
Through the story of Abraham's faith, we learned three truths.
First, what is dedicated to the altar is never lost.
Second, when we serve God faithfully, God takes care of our needs.
Third, what we give to God returns to us with interest.
This third truth was realized through the life of Isaac.
God not only returned him to Abraham, but also gave him many descendants through Jacob and his descendants.
No matter what our journey in life may be, we are called to a life of faith that loves God.
For this life, God wants to confirm the close relationship with me.
What will you do when God tests us to see if we love you as much as you love us?
To show God our best love, we must do our best and give our utmost allegiance.
If you have this kind of faith, like Abraham, who received more blessings from God, you will be a channel of amazing blessings.
Let's do our best to become good saints who love God.