Abounding Love

Human Love

Another week has gone by and excitement is in the air. Your little village has become a hive of activity. Everyone is working to prepare. There has been a new Roman governor appointed. He arrived at Cesarea Maritima, the Roman headquarters, just a couple of weeks ago. Not that you are looking forward to this. Up until this point you and your people were only a client kingdom, with Herod the Great as a figure head king. But now your people have come under the direct rule of the Romans and this new governor was the sign of this.

The new Governor’s name is Quirinus. He is some new layer of Roman control and he has come with a decree. The emperor Augustus has ordered that a census be taken of the entire Romans world. Your fear is that a new governor and this new census could only mean one thing; new taxes. You and your people were already being taxed to death and now you knew they were going to add new taxes to you and your neighbors.

Even with all of this stress, new governor, a census, and the prospect of new taxes there was still excitement in the your town. You all were excited because in order to complete this census every man has been instructed, with his family, to travel back to the town of their birth. This meant that a lot of people would be coming home to Bethlehem so they could register for the census. You will soon be seeing friends and relatives that you have not seen in a long time. Between the difficulty of travel and the Roman restrictions it is not often that you get to spend time with people who live so far away. You are extremely excited.

It is always an amazing time when you get to spend time with your loved ones. You feel refreshed and rejuvenated when you get to share your love and when you get to experience the love that your friends and relatives have to share with you. It will be a time filled festivities, with feasting, with storytelling, and with with revelry. But first preparations need to be made.

You and your family have spent the last week preparing for the arrivals which you believe will begin sometime after the sabbath. You have spent the last week getting your guest room ready. Your wife and children have cleaned. They have prepared fresh linens for your guests so they will have somewhere to sleep. You have made sure all of the necessary repairs have been made. You fixed that little hole in your roof. You would hate for your guests to get wet if a quick spring storm pops us. You made sure the ladder to get up to the guest room on the roof is in good repair, you would don’t want any one falling on their way up to the guest room. You and your children also make sure there is plenty of flower and oil ready to bake all of the loaves of bread you will need to share with your guests. You do all of this because before you know it the entire town will be filled with visitors and you are very excited.

Hospitality was one of the most important aspects of God’s commandments to first century Hebrew people. They were told in the Torah, the holy book of the Hebrew people, also the first five books of our Christian Bible; (Leviticus 19:34)

Leviticus 19:34 NIV

The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.

If they were to treat a foreigner this well how much more should they give to a relative. Also, they were constantly reminded of their time in Egypt where their nation was desperately in need of hospitality. Exodus 23:9

Exodus 23:9 NIV

“Do not oppress a foreigner; you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners, because you were foreigners in Egypt.

The father of their nation, Abraham, showed hospitality and it turned out to be none other than God he had shown hospitality too, Genesis 18:10

Genesis 18:10 NIV

Then one of them said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.” Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him.

and if Abraham had not shown that hospitality the nation of Israel would never have been created. To the Hebrew people hospitality was at the core of their faith.

Because of their focus on hospitality every Hebrew house was had a guest room. This was either at the back of the house or on the roof. It was separated from the family living space. It was a part of the house specifically designated for guests to stay.

This focus on hospitality was more than just being nice to each other because of a common lineage or a common faith tradition. This focus on hospitality was an extremely significant way the Hebrew people could show love. The people showed their love of God through their love of each other. Through hosting each other, through caring for each other.

Hospitality was also a significant way of showing love to God because the people never knew when that stranger at their door was actually God. God came to Abraham as three strangers. Notice the significant number three. God sent angels to Sodom and Lot and his family were saved because of their radical hospitality Genesis 19:1

Genesis 19:1 NIV

The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When he saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground.

Hospitality was one of the most radical ways first century Hebrew people showed love.

Where is God’s Love

It is true you showed love to God by showing love to each other. That connection with other Hebrews way how you knew you loved each other. It wasn’t through what you were given or what possessions you shared. You showed your love by being with your loved ones. You embraced the opportunity to share this love. You knew they loved you and you loved them, but where was God in all of this?

If God told us in the past to show how much we loved each other by being together, by sharing our houses, by sharing our food, and by sharing our celebrations. We were doing that, but where was God? If God really loved you, why was He no longer in you midst?

You remember learning in all things you are to come together as a nation three times a year for festivals. Showing your love for one another and for God, but God is never in your midst. Sure remember the promise from the prophet Isaiah that one day God will walk with you again Isaiah 7:14

Isaiah 7:14 NIV

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.

God will one day walk with you and your people again, but when. Isaiah gives some vague clues but you really don’t know when. So you and your people wait and you wonder.

God had not walked among the Hebrew people in a very long time. The last time any Hebrew had walked with God was the great prophet Moses. Moses spent a total of eighty days and nights on Mount Sinai. That was the last time in the history of your people that anyone had physically been with God.

Sure the priests in the temple make preparations in case God enters the holy of holies while the high priest is giving his annual sacrifice and this causes him to die. But in reality no one has seen this. Of course God spoke through the prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the other minor prophets. But in all of this God had never really walked among the people. He had never fully shown his love to the people.

This was the Hebrew people had longed for. They desired God to walk with them, to be among them. They desired the complete love of God. For the people of Israel God’s love was a distant concept. It was something they learned about from infancy, something they had read about, something they had been taught, something that had been ingrained in their existence. But the love of God was something they had never experienced.

God’s Love Will Come

As you work, as you prepare you long for God’s love. This love that has been promised to you, this love that has been promised to your children. You have taught your children about God’s love, you have told them the stories about the Garden where God had placed man when he created them. How God had walked with them, how they knew what it felt like to experience God’s total love.

This is the love you were promised by the prophets. They promised over and over again that God would enter the world. That he would once again walk with you. Isaiah says he will be called Immanuel, meaning “God with us.” One day God will walk with his people again. Isaiah also tells us that when God walks with us we we receive peace and love. He says “there will be no more gloom” (Isaiah 8:22).

You remember the words of the great king David that God will lead us like sheep (Psalm 80:1). And having worked as a shepherd in the past you know just how a shepherd cares for his flock. How they pay loving attention to them protecting them from danger and leading them to food. When you were a child and lead your flock you never knew how much you could love. This love for your flock was only superceded when you were married and had kids of your own. This is the love you are longing for.

For the Hebrew people their only desire was for God to walk with them. For them God’s love could only be manifested in relationship. For them true love only comes from a relationship with God.

The Old Testament prophets spoke of a restored relationship. The relationship between humanity and God. This is how love is experienced through relationship. The people did not want things. They did not want better possessions or more land. They were happy with their own nation, they were not like other empires that longed for conquest. The Hebrew people only wanted to a relationship with their God. They only desired to walk with Him again as their ancestors once had in the Garden.

Final Love

As you finish your preparations and settle for the night you are joyful. Tomorrow is the sabbath. You will spend the day with your family, the people you love most on this world. You will get to hear about how God loves us and how we will one day experience that love, not just learn about it. And you are ready, because beginning next week you will get to show God’s love to everyone who comes for the census. You will get to show your love through your hospitality, a love that never ends. Let us pray.