How Much Do You Love Me?

Love...it's a deep emotion. Sometimes we say it in jest to appease someone. We say it to friends when we feel more than just a casual liking for them, but would we die for them? Spouses say it to eachother out of habit sometimes, parents tell their children, "I love you". Being a parent, I feel this is probably the truest form of love as we know it. Can people really know what it means to have perfect love? God showed us what this kind of love is, He calls it agape' love. There are no boundaries to this love, there are no exceptions and no excuses. Our love tends to wax and wane when someone either pleases us or disappoints us. It's a good thing God doesn't measure His degree of love for us that way. His love never changes even for the child who is disobedient and turns his back on God. Let's look at a man who loved God so much he would do anything.

I want to talk about two parallel loves between two special fathers for their own sons. There was nothing they wouldn't do out of a greater love. What can be greater than the love of a child you might ask? The first love was for God, the second was a love for you and me.

The first father of faith was Abraham. God promised him an inheritance that would out number the stars in the sky. God promised him and his wife Sarah a son to carry on even after they were barren in child bearing years. The promise came true when Sarah was 100, no wonder she laughed at the thought, (Gen 21:6). This was one special kid in history.

"That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply they seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies." Gen.22:17 (KJV)

Even though Isaac was not Abraham's firstborn, he did however represent the heavenly stars that God spoke of. His was the birth of prophecy. The son Abraham had with his slave Hagar was born out of impatience and disobedience to God when Sarah acted out before God's will. This son represents the fleshly inheritance of the sands of the earth. God still honored this son and blessed him with inheritance of a nation. It was Isaac who God had His eyes on. His inheritance was the stars in the heavens that God spoke of. When God speaks of something it always comes to pass. As a result of disobedience to God, Sarah soon learned that if she had just been patient, she would not have created a situation between Abraham and Hagar.

But as time passed, Isaac grew and was considered his father's only son. God came to Abraham and tempted him (Gen. 22:1) and told him to take his "only" son whom he loved and offer him as a burnt offering.

Honestly, how could we even fathom such a request? Do you think you would've responded a bit differently to this commandment? How could God ask such a thing of anyone in the first place? Our response to that would most likely be "No, I won't do it". That's because we are of little faith.

But, Abraham was so faithful to God that he obeyed this command and saddled up his donkey, two other companions and his son Isaac and set out for a three day journey. On the third day Abraham saw the place where he was to sacrifice Isaac. (Have you ever noticed how God does things in sets of three's?) As he saw it, he told the two young men to wait there because he and Isaac were going to worship and would return. (Gen.22:5) I wonder if he knew he would return with Isaac unharmed at this point.

We all know how the story ends. Abraham was ready to sacrifice Isaac and Isaac asked where the lamb was. Abraham told him that God would supply the sacrificial lamb. True to His Word, God gave Abraham His lamb to sacrifice and spare Isaac's life. But because Abraham was faithful, God kept His promise of making Abraham the father of nations, both in heaven and on earth.

The next time we see this kind of sacrificial love is when God's only son Jesus comes to the cross. God already knew the pain that Abraham would have endured had he killed his only son, therefore He rewarded him with the foreshadowing of His own sacrificial lamb, Christ.

We know that Christ was the apple of God's eye. He was His Father's precious and only Son. Just as Abraham loved God, God loves and still loves us enough to sacrifice His only begotten Son in order that we would have eternal life with Him in heaven.

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever should believe in Him should not perish, but have everlasting