The Incredible Love of God

Before and After Pictures

I am always memorized by historic pictures of places compared to current ones. Check these out:

NYC in 1870 and Now

Los Angeles in 1900 and Now

Beaver Dam 1950’s to now (some things don’t change much)

If you would have saw the first picture without the second, it likely would’t have stood out.

The building that we see today, the history, the events that shaped those cities and even out country.

Here’s one more place:

Mt Moriah in Genesis 22 and Jerusalem in the 1st Century (not actual images)

The first is what Mt Moriah might have looked like back in Genesis, long before a city was built.

The second picture is an illustration of what that same mountain looked like 2000 years later.

How would anyone have know the significance of this place and how much history would be transformed by the events that happened on this mountain?

Today begins Easter/Holy Week in the Church.

This day 2000 years ago is the day we believe Jesus came into Jerusalem on His way to His death, the Triumphal entry.

But 2000 years before, a father and his son made a similar journey up this mountain, and, unbeknownst to them, there story was a foreshadow of a much greater story.

Genesis 22:1–14 CSB

1 After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he answered. 2 “Take your son,” he said, “your only son Isaac, whom you love, go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.” 3 So Abraham got up early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took with him two of his young men and his son Isaac. He split wood for a burnt offering and set out to go to the place God had told him about. 4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. 5 Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I will go over there to worship; then we’ll come back to you.” 6 Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac. In his hand he took the fire and the knife, and the two of them walked on together. 7 Then Isaac spoke to his father Abraham and said, “My father.” And he replied, “Here I am, my son.” Isaac said, “The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” 8 Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” Then the two of them walked on together. 9 When they arrived at the place that God had told him about, Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood. He bound his son Isaac and placed him on the altar on top of the wood. 10 Then Abraham reached out and took the knife to slaughter his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” He replied, “Here I am.” 12 Then he said, “Do not lay a hand on the boy or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your only son from me.” 13 Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught in the thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram and offered it as a burnt offering in place of his son. 14 And Abraham named that place The Lord Will Provide, so today it is said, “It will be provided on the Lord’s mountain.”

Abraham’s Story

This is one of the most wellknown and one of the most controversial passages in the Bible.

Most of you have likely heard this story before in some degree.

It has been used by many over the years to make the case of why the God of the Bible isn’t worth believing in, and one can understand why.

But one thing you will learn about the Bible is that taking ANY story or passage by itself usually doesn’t lead to an accurate understanding.

We have to understand first all that was happening within the story, and then how this story fits in the big story God is telling throughout the bible.

So let’s do that.

We first meet Abraham in Genesis 12.

He is the son of Terah from the land of Ur and God tells Abraham, who is Abram at the time, to pack up his family and his stuff and leave his homeland for a place God will show him when he gets there.

God makes a promise to Abraham, that He will bless him and make his family into a great nation.

That sounds good, but one thing we learn later that is a bit of a hurdle for Abraham is that his wife, Sarah, hasn’t been able to have kids and they aren’t all that young by this point, Abraham is 75 and Sarah is around 65.

Nonetheless, Abraham trusts God and heads out of Ur with his family.

Some years pass, Abraham and Sarah get older and she still hasn’t had a son.

In Genesis 15, God comes to Abraham again and He again makes a promise to Abraham, telling him that his children will out number the stars in the sky or the grains of sand on the seashore.

And though we are told that “Abram believed the Lord, and his faith was credited to him as righteousness” (Meaning Abraham was saved by faith from his sin), Abraham and Sarah were struggle to see how God was going to bring this promise to fruition.

So Sarah told Abraham to sleep with her slave, Hagar, so that he could have a son to accomplish what God was promising.

So Hagar has a son for Abraham and names him Ishmael.

At 86 years old, Abraham thinks things are set in place for God’s promises to start coming to life, but he is sadly mistaken.

Another 13 years pass and at the age of 99, God comes to Abraham again and tells him that in 1 year his 90 year old wife Sarah, whom we are told, is no longer physically able to conceive a child, will become pregnant with the son God promised them some 25 years before.

Abraham and Sarah both have the same response, laughter. Probably mostly out of a sense of sadness and frustration.

Fast-forward 1 year and what God said would happen, that which made Abraham and Sarah laugh, came to fruition, Sarah miraculously God pregnant and had a son.

And they named that son Isaac, which translates to “one who laughs”.

Imagine the joy Abraham and Sarah must have felt for this long awaited son.

Not long after Issac’s birth, tensions rise between he and Ishmael, so with God’s blessing, Abraham sends Hagar and Ishmael away. I can imagine it was a heart wrenching things for him to do.

But he has his promised son, the miraculous gift from God.

Some 12-15 years pass between chapter 21 and 22.

Issac is likely well into his teenage years when God comes to Abraham with a command that seems absolutely absurd.

What is God doing here? Why would He test Abraham in such a horrible way? He is supposed to be good? He is supposed to be loving?

But is it possible that God’s desire in this passage is to put His Love on display in a vivid and incredible way?

In a way we can’t really understand until we know the rest of the story?

The First Time Love is Used

Do you know when the first time the word “love” is used in the bible?

You might think it was pretty early on.

God LOVED Adam and Eve.

Noah LOVED God or his family.

God chose Abraham because He LOVED him.

No, the first time the word “love” is used is right here in Genesis 22:2, when God says “Take your one and only son, WHOM YOU LOVE...”

It is used to describe the love a father has for his son, his one and only son.

And it is used when God is calling Abraham to do something absolutely unfathomable.

But if you haven’t caught the connect yet, let me make it for you.

There is another Son, a “one and only Son” “begotten of His Father” (meaning coming from His Father) that is spoken about in what is likely the most wellknown passage in the Bible

John 3:16 CSB

16 For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

These are Jesus words to a man named Nicodemus, a super religious guy who had came to Jesus as night.

He came to ask Jesus, whom he thought to be a teacher, some questions, one being how someone can get to heaven.

You remember His response? He tells Nicodemus “You must be born again.” Which, of course, doesn’t mean you have to get back into your mother’s womb, but rather that you must die to your old life and be born into a new life through faith in Jesus.

Knowing Nicodemus is confused, Jesus shares a couple of illustrations that Nicodemus will remember from the OT.

One is about Moses raising a bronze serpent in the wilderness to save the people from the snakes that were attacking them.

Telling Nicodemus that He was the one who will be lifted up to save people from their sin.

And then there is John 3:16, and that word “love”.

Nicodemus would have immediately made the connection, a loving father sacrificing His one and only son.

After Jesus’s death, Nicodemus is one of the ones who takes Jesus’s body off the cross to place Him the tomb.

He likely watched as Jesus was put on trial, beaten and mocked, and ultimately hung on a cross.

And those words “For God so loved…that He offered up His one and only Son...” would have ringed in His ears.

God’s desire in Genesis 22 is for us to see His incredible love for us that was ultimately and wonderfully fulfilled in His Son Jesus.

This Easter week we have the opportunity to dwell on this love and I want to give you 3 points to think about throughout this week as we approach Easter Sunday.

Maybe these points will be a reminder and a refresher for you to draw you to a deeper appreciation for the love God has for you.

Or maybe these points will open your eyes for the first time to see just how incredible God’s love is for you and maybe today, or this week, you will give your life to Him because of that love.

This Easter week, dwell on:

The incredible COST of God’s love.

When God comes to Abraham in Genesis 22:2 He knows the cost He is calling Abraham to pay.

Abraham had waited a long time for this son.

He had already had to go through the excruciating experience of sending off his other son.

And everything he hoped for and longed for in life was wrapped up in Isaac.

This was a test in which God wanted Abraham to trust Him, to trust that the promises He has made to Him were worth the cost of obedience.

But this was also a lesson on how deep and how costly our sin is against a Holy God.

We are tempted to believe that God could just say “I think I am going to forgive all the sins people have commited.” And just like that the slate is wiped clean.

But that isn’t just or good.

I have gotten on a kick of watching “The First 48” on Hulu.

It is a real life detective show where you follow detectives as they try to solve a murder case in the first 48 hours.

At the end of every episode, if they are able to find the killer, they give an outcome and then usually an interview with loved ones of the victim.

It is a real life detective show where you follow detectives as they try to solve a murder case in the first 48 hours. punished for the crime he committed. We ought to just look it all over and let him be free.”

There is a God-given intuition in all of us to desire justice and to pursue it.

Our entire legal system is based off of this reality.

We know justice is good, right, and necessary.

God’s love for the world is what sent Jesus to the cross.

2 Corinthians 5:21 CSB

21 He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Romans 5:6–8 CSB

6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For rarely will someone die for a just person—though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die. 8 But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Do you understand the cost of God love for you and for me?

“For God so loved ME that he gave his only Son, so that believing in Him I would not perish but have everlasting life.”

The incredible GOODNESS of God’s love.

The next verse in Jesus’s words to Nicodemus are not nearly as wellknown, but are so profoundly helpful in further understanding God’s love for us.

John 3:17 CSB

17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Remember what Abraham said as he parts ways with his servants in Genesis 22 5

Genesis 22:5 CSB

5 Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I will go over there to worship; then we’ll come back to you.”

“Then WE will come back.”

Then Isaac asks Abraham, “Dad we have everything for the burnt offering accept the lamb. What are we going to do about the lamb?”

Did you see Abraham’s response in Genesis 22 8

Genesis 22:8 CSB

8 Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” Then the two of them walked on together.

Abraham knew God.

He knew His character, he knew His promises, and he knew His faithfulness.

He believed that God would do something to save his son. Whether it was bringing him back from the dead or providing a sacrifice to take his place.

Abraham trusted God.

What Jesus told Nicodemus is something we all need to hear and let sink deep into our hearts.

God did not send His son into the world to condemn the world, He send Him to provide the way to salvation, freedom from the condemnation we are already under.

Nicodemus, like the other Pharisees, believed that God’s love for us was in proportion to our obedience toward Him.

If we were good, checked all the religious boxes, then God wouldn’t condemn us.

It was a works-based righteousness, much like many of us live under as well.

Here is what we need to dwell on this week.

If God’s love for us is dependent on us being super religious and checking a list of boxes to make Him happy, then Jesus dying on the cross was unnecessary. He died in vain.

Jesus lived a perfect life to show us what a life pleasing to God looked like, but He died on the cross because He knew we could never live that life ourselves.

The goodness of God’s love was on display in the life of Jesus and in the faith of Abraham.

The incredible INVITATION of God’s love.

Can you imagine the feeling Abraham had as he walked up that mountain?

Every step closer to the most unfathomable task he could ever imagine.

And yet he stack the wood on his son’s back, took the knife in one hand, and the ember he would use to start the fire in the other hand.

And then when they arrive at the place, he built the alter, arranged the wood, and then he tied Issac to the the alter.

Now Isaac was not a child here, he was likely in his mid to late teens.

But it doesn’t say Abraham fought to get him on the alter, meaning Isaac likely surrendered himself to lay on the alter and let his 100 and something year old dad tie him up.

And with that, Abraham raised the knife to kill his son.

And at the right time, God stepped in.

And in that moment God provided for Abraham a ram to take Isaac’s place on the alter.

I am not much of a hunter, but what I do know is that stuff like this never happens, animals don’t usually get caught in a bush right next to where your sitting.

God was inviting Abraham to know Him in a new way and Abraham uses God’s name “Jehovah-Jireh” to celebrate the occasion (God will provide).

John 3:18 CSB

18 Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.

This is the invitation Jesus offers Nicodemus and us.

We are not born neutral.

We are born condemned and through trusting in Jesus we can be made right with God.

This is the invitation He is offer us today and everyday.

The first sacrifice on mt Moriah was supposed to be a son, but God provided a ram.

But the last sacrifice was the one and only Son of God

1 Peter 2:24 CSB

24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree; so that, having died to sins, we might live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.