Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Remember why last week that I mentioned to you that Satan is most concerned with assaulting the love of God.

Here were my reasons.

Love is the greatest commandment.

Love is the essence of the nature of God.

Love is the foundation of the church.

Love is the foundation of evangelism.

v.34

For today, we will begin with the first reason why Satan hates the love of God:

It is the greatest commandment:

OT =

Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (29 אָהֵב)

ʾāhēb frequently describes love between human beings.

The love of father for son is exemplified by Abraham and Isaac (Gen 22:2) and Israel and Joseph (Gen 37:3).

A slave might “love” his master and wish to identure himself to him for the rest of his life (Ex 21:8).

This is the word used in the rule “love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev 19:18).

“Love” of the stranger is incumbent on the faithful (Deut 10:19).

Samson had apparently told Delilah that he “loved” her (Jud 14:16; 16:15).

Ruth “loved” Naomi her mother-in-law (4:15), Elkanah “loved” his wife Hannah (I Sam 1:5), and Rebekah “loved” her son Jacob (Gen 25:28).

Hiram’s “love” for David illustrates international friendship or irenic politics between the two (I Kgs 3:1).

Notice that nowhere is the love of children toward parents mentioned.

Rather, they are to honor, revere, and obey.

(This is interesting).

People may love things concrete or abstract.

Isaac “loved” savory meat (Gen 27:4); others are said to “love” oil (Prov 21:17), silver (Eccl 5:9), and gifts (Isa 1:23).

The Psalmist “loved” God’s commandments (Ps 119:47).

law (v.

97), testimonies (v.

119), and precepts (v.

159).

Men can “love” evil (Ps 32:3 [H 5]), or death (Prov 8:36), vanity (Ps 4:2 [H 3]), cursing (Ps 109:17), or a false oath (Zech 8:17).

Or they can “love” good (Amos 5:15), truth and peace (Zech 8:19), salvation (Ps 40:16 [H 17]), and wisdom (Prov 29:3).God has commanded man to “love” him (Deut 6:5).

and the Psalms contain testimonies of obedience to that commandment (116:1; 145:20).

Conversely, God “loves” men, especially his people Israel (Deut 4:37; Isa 43:4; Mal 1:2).

The Lord also “loves” other things, such as the gates of Zion (Ps 87:2), righteousness and judgment (Ps 33:5).

and the holy temple (Mal 2:11).

In a few places the verb introduces an infinitive.

Jeremiah (14:10) accused the people of loving to wander, while Isaiah charged them with loving to sleep (56:10).

The verb itself is sometimes an infinitive, as in Josh 22:5 and Isa 56:6.

At least once it is a gerund, “a time to love” (Eccl 3:8).

(Emphasis mine).

Consider the context of this verse:

Leviticus

In the book of Leviticus, a view of the world is presented that is centered on God’s holiness.

God in his holiness is set apart, which is one of the core meanings of “holy.”

He cannot come into contact with anything that is not holy.

This includes human beings, who, at their creation, were in God’s image (Gen 1:27) and had an intimate and personal relationship with him (Gen 2).

Through disobedience, humanity lost this relationship with the holy God (Gen 3

The sense of Leviticus is the holiness of the God who rescued Israel (from Egypt) in order to keep His covenantal promise to them.

However, the people were to, because of the nature of God, view their relationship with Him, and with each other, to be as holy as He is holy.

An awareness of God’s special relationship with Israel also permeates this chapter in the expression, “I am the LORD your God,” which occurs seven times (19:3, 4, 10, 25, 31, 34, 36), in addition to the shorter divine self-identification “I am Yahweh,” which occurs eight times (19:12, 14, 16, 18, 28, 30, 32, 37).

The longer form of this expression opens the Ten Commandments (Exod 20:2; Deut 5:6).

This is not only a statement of relationship, but also of exclusivity: “I and I alone am your God.”

It is the positive statement of what the first of the Ten Commandments states in negative form (“You must not have any other god but me”), implying a statement like “Because I, Yahweh, am your God, you need no other god” (Exod 20:2–3).

Because of the exclusive relationship Israel had with God, the people are reminded of their primary covenant commitment a total of 16 times throughout the chapter, from beginning to end.

Therefore, the whole book gives instructions to Israel about how to be holy under penalty of death or punishment.

Without this book, the commonwealth of Israel would end up like all the other nations even more rapidly than they did.

“You shall not avenge yourself, nor maintain a grudge towards the sons of your people.

You will love (show affection for) your neighbor/comrade/friend like you(r self).

I am YHWH.

It can be rightly said that all the Laws of the OT could be summed up with love for God and love for your Neighbor.

Example:

If la man loved his wife, he would not take another wife.

If a man loved his neighbor, he would easily make restitution if his ox gored his neighbor‘s ox.

If a man loved his neighbor, he would never move the fence line.

And…

If a man loved God, he would worship willingly, often.

If a man loved God, he would obey His Word.

If a man loved God, he would not sin.

However, since man is corrupt and sin in in his heart, he fails to love and therefore, God grave Israel the Law to prove their hatred for man and God.

But, Jesus said ”a new commandment.”

Why?

New Commandment:

A New People:

A New Priest:

A New Power:

A New Book:

A New Nation:

This new commandment indicates that we are under obligation to obey it.

1 John