part 3 of “Jireh”
Over the last couple of posts, we have looked at part of Abraham’s story in Genesis 22. In looking at this part of Abraham’s story, we see God provide for him in a big way. God doesn’t just provide the material thing (a lamb for the sacrifice) that he needed; God provided him with the strength that he needed as well to do what God asked him to do. In this post, I want to look at how God shows us love better than anyone. Let’s start at the beginning [1].
God created the heavens and the Earth. He created “all you see and all you don’t see” [2]. He spoke all of it into existence. But then God changed His approach. He changed from speaking to forming. God started creating man “in His image” and formed man “from the dust of the ground” [3]. God took His human creation, named Adam, and placed him in the Garden of Eden. Adam was instructed to take care of the garden and the animals. God also instructed Adam not to eat from the tree in the middle of the garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, or he would die. God saw that Adam was alone and that it was good for him to do life alone. So God put Adam to sleep and created Eve using one of Adam’s ribs [1]. But life in the garden took a turn when a deceiver talked with Adam and Eve.
Satan, in the form of a serpent, asked Eve if God said she couldn’t eat from the trees in the garden. Eve told him that God said they could eat from the trees of the garden just not from this one tree or they would die. Satan told her that she wouldn’t die and that God was keeping the true power of the tree a secret. Satan told her that God knows when you eat the fruit of the tree you will be just like God - knowing good and evil. Eve was convinced and she ate from the tree. She also gave some to Adam and he ate the fruit as well. As soon as they ate it, they suddenly felt shame because they were naked and they made coverings for themselves [1]. The next part of the story has a lot of good stuff in it. But there is too much to cover here now.
God came to the garden for a walk. Adam and Eve heard Him in the garden and hid from Him because of what they had done. God calls out to them and they come out of their hiding. God asks them if they had eaten from the tree He had told them not to eat from. In their response, Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed Satan. God then hands out the consequences of their actions starting with the serpent (Satan), then Eve, and then Adam. God makes clothes for Adam and Eve from animal skins and then kicks Adam and Eve out of the garden and He put angels and flaming swords to guard the path to the tree of life [1].
Now I know what you might be thinking right now: “That’s it? That’s the story of how God shows love better than anyone? Kinda sounds like God is mad.” You are right. God is upset with them. God is disappointed in their choice. But there is love in the story. Let’s look and see.
“And the Lord God made clothing from animal skins for Adam and his wife.” - Genesis 3:21 NLT
This verse shows the love of God. God gave them the punishment for what they did and then He still cared for them. He still showed them, love, by making clothes for them. God did and counties to do the same for us.
Throughout the Old Testament, God tried many different things to help His people overcome the punishment for their sins. He set up a sacrifice system that was done one day a year. This day was called the Day of Atonement [4]. But God realized that this system was not going to be a long-term fix. There needed to be a once and for all sacrifice that would pay the sins of the world - past, present, and future.
This is all because God loved the word so much. John 3:16 says:
“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” - John 3:16 NLT
God sent Jesus to be that perfect once and for all sacrifice for us. God sent Jesus out of His love for us. The next verse is often not as well known and most times we stop at verse 16 and don’t go on to verse 17. But verse 17 shows us the love that Jesus had for us.
“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” - John 3:17 NIV
Jesus didn’t come to shame us or guilt trip us. He didn’t come to hold our sins against us, even though they nailed Him to the cross. Jesus came to love us. Jesus came to go to the cross as a sacrifice for us out of His great love for us. In 1 Corinthians 13, we find a list of what love is and what love isn’t.
“Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. Love never fails. - 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 NLT; 13:8 NIV
The verses above describe Jesus so well. They are a perfect picture of Jesus and how He showed love. I was recently told about an exercise to do with those verses and it was cool. What you do is replace the word love or reference of the word love with Jesus or even God. For this post, I will be using Jesus. So the verse will read like this:
JESUS is patient and kind. We can see this throughout His time on Earth. Jesus was always patient and kind to people.
JESUS is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. This describes Jesus as well. He never tooted His own horn at His accomplishments. Jesus was also never rude to people, even if they were to Him and people were rude and mean to Jesus.
JESUS does not demand HIS own way. We see this as Jesus was going to the cross. He could have given up at any time. He could have called it quits and said that we weren’t worth it. Jesus even asked God if there could be some other way. But still wanted God’s will to be done [5].
JESUS is not irritable and JESUS keeps no record of being wronged. Jesus doesn’t keep a list. We keep lists. We keep track of all of the wrong things that have been done to us. How this person treated us. What this person said to us. And so on and so on. But what about all of the times that we have wronged Jesus. Think about that for a second. There is no condemnation in Jesus [6].
JESUS does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Jesus isn’t happy when those He loves go through rough times. It breaks His heart when we hurt. Jesus is closer than ever when we hurt [7]. Jesus loves us too much to be distant when we are hurting. If Jesus is distant during times of hurting, it is because we have put Him at a distance.
JESUS never gives up, never loses faith,
JESUS always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. Jesus doesn’t give up on us. He loves us too much to give up and leave us behind. Jesus lets us have our space and make out choices. But He is right there waiting for us when we turn around. He doesn’t give up.
JESUS never fails. People will fail us. People will break our hearts. People will turn on us. People will leave us. But not Jesus. Jesus never fails us. [8]
God provides us with love better than anyone ever could. But it takes trust and faith to believe that God loves this much. We are all a mess. We are all broken in some way. But that’s who God used to do some of His best work.
You are loved by Almighty God.
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[1] This post references Genesis 1-3 in a paraphrased form. Specific quoted Scripture will be noted.
[2] Genesis 1:1, MSG
[3] Genesis 1:27 + Genesis 2:7
[4] Read about the Day of Atonement in Leviticus 16
[5] Luke 22:42
[6] Romans 8:1
[7] Psalm 34:18
[8] reference 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 NLT; 13:8 NIV
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