Sons of God (Eph.4:1&5; Rom. 8:29; Heb.2:10-13)
I would like to speak a little about Genesis 22 where Abraham is called on by the Lord to take Isaac and offer him. You know, a fine diamond ring doesn't just have one facet. If you look at it one way you see something. If you turn it just a little bit you see something else. That is the way it is with the Word of God. All of God's word is infinite and eternal. I'd like to turn the ring just a little and see another facet of this story of Abraham and Isaac.
To my realization, two things in the Bible are the worst horror stories: The story of Abraham and Isaac and the story of the Lord Jesus on the cross. To my realization, in human literature, and in human experience, there is nothing like these two stories. Very often you can begin to read this Word, with even a small amount of understanding, and the Spirit of God, enlivening and enlightening what happens, and your human heart melts.
I'd like, for the people who might not be very familiar with Abraham, to recount, briefly, a little of the history of Abraham. Abraham lived, originally, in a place called Ur of the Chaldees. At a time when Babylon was an ancient empire; probably very much like New York City today. Every one in that country was an idol worshipper, and Abraham was one who worshipped idols.
It's funny. What God said to him was, "Abraham, get up and leave your country; leave your comfort; leave your home. Leave the life that you have known. Go to a land that I will show you." Imagine that. This is where your family is. This is where everything that you've known is. And to go where? I don’t know. Imagine trying to tell your friends about what you are doing. The most amazing part of all was, that he did it.
This Bible is so spare, sometimes, in things you’d like to know. Why? Abraham, how could you do this? God appears to you and says "go". You're not even a worshipper of this God. But Abraham goes and for the next few chapters of the Bible the whole of God's Word focuses on this man, Abraham.
He was probably in the middle part of his life at that time. There were no trains or planes or buses. You just had to walk. When he walked, he left the well-watered plain and he ended up in the wilderness. He left civilization behind.
I don't want to dwell too long here but I want to give you the realization that Abraham was a man that God just kept coming back to. Do you realize that the first time He talked to him He not only said "Go" but He said "I am going to make you a great nation." And Abraham said, "Great". "I'm happy." And God comes back, and if I counted right. He came back five more times and every time He came to this man He not only said something about the situation, He also said I'm going to make your offspring as the dust of the ground. I'm going to make your offspring like the stars of the sky; like the sands of the seashore.
There is an old philosophical exercise where you begin to count the sands on the seashore: one.. two.. three.. and you start doing that in your mind and you realize: Oh-Oh, I'm in trouble here. And we begin to have some realization of eternity; and even that doesn't really show us eternity. Today we know that, of the stars, what Abraham could see was nothing. What Abraham thought was a star was really another galaxy of stars. God says, “Abraham, your offspring are going to be just like that.” Did you ever think of Abraham saying “Well, swell, but who needs that many kids?” I don’t know, but would you doubt God about something like this? That's a lot of children.
Not only that, but while God was promising this, until Abraham was 100 years old, he didn't have any. And there was that episode where when God told him his offspring were going to be like the dust, Abraham guffawed and said "Right." God said "What are you laughing for? It's true." But, Abraham said "Take a look here, I am 99 and my wife is about the same. Either you don't know how things work down here or you know something I don't." God was very patient with Abraham, wasn't He?
And then later on, when God showed up in human form at Abraham's camp on the plain of Mamre. He came with two angels, to discuss with His friend, Abraham, what He was about to do. Abraham makes a little feast and as they're sitting there, before the feast is served. God brings up this subject again. He says, "You know, Abraham, about a year from now you're going to have a son." And this time it's not Abraham, it's Sarah who laughs. She was in the tent preparing the food and she laughed. God says, "Why did you laugh?" She says "I really didn't laugh." God says, "Yes you did." This is an interesting conversation with God, right? What I want you to gain from this is the realization that everytime God showed up with Abraham, He mentioned these offspring. This is the history of the promise.
Finally, one day, the promise becomes reality. Abraham is about 100 years old. Sarah's about the same, and Isaac is born. Now, at least he's got one son. Forget the millions. At least he's got the one. I don’t know if you know anyone who couldn't have children for a long time and then one day they have a child. It's very precious to them. They appreciate that child. This is why, in that passage, we read in Gen 22: God, three times, says to Abraham, "Your only son; the son you love”. God knows. He made this man wait longer than anyone in human history. He knew Abraham loved this child. And that brings us to this strange passage in Gen. 22. Abraham finally has a son. God gave him a miracle child. And he has this child and by now he's grown up and Abraham loves him with all his heart.
One night he goes to bed and this same God comes to Abraham and says "Abraham." You know, Abraham did not hear the voice of the Lord all the time. He went thirteen years at one point and never heard a thing. He days "Yes Lord?" Then this God, whom he had come to appreciate and love, says something that he couldn't believe. He says "Take your son, your only son, whom you love, and go to a hill in the land of Moriah and offer him as a sacrifice to me." Can you imagine anything worse? Anybody that's a parent can imagine this horror. To go 99 years before having a child and then to have God tell you to offer him as a burnt offering... You've got to be kidding!
This passage doesn't seem to fit in with the rest of the Bible. This passage fits more in with the history of the gods of the Babylonians and the Canaanites. You know, a little later God says to the people "There are some evil things that the followers of Baal do. They take their children and offer them as burnt offerings." Devils are the ones who have you go and offer your children like that. Not the glorious God; the God that loves men. So this passage really doesn't seem to fit in so well.
Why would God put Abraham in such a hard place? Why would He do such a thing? Well, in my realization, the reason for this is that God wanted to show something about Himself. You know, God is not man. God says "My ways are not your ways. My thoughts are not your thoughts, but I want you to know me." And so He does it in a picture form with Abraham. In his mind, Abraham, knows God is saying "Though you feel like you're in jeopardy in this thing and though you suffer, you have to know that I'll never require that. I do this so that men can know me."
So I'd like to look at this from the view of what this shows us about our Father. You know there was another One who made a trip like this. Abraham was not on the true trip to Mt. Moriah. This Mt. Moriah, by the way, was the same area that the cross of Calvary was in. Some people think it was the same mountain.
God did this so that you could come to know Him. You know, the focus of this passage is not on Isaac. The focus is on Abraham. Abraham is the father. Isaac is the son. I'd like to center in on Abraham and see what we can learn from this about our Father.
You have to realize that not only Abraham had a history but God has a history. God is not a braggart. In fact in the Old Testament one of the old writers says "Thou art a God that hides himself. God is not pushy. He's meek. He just hasn't said much about Himself. But we know that before there was anything; before there was Earth; before God uttered "Let there be..." there was God. And before there was a heaven to contain the heavens, and all the spiritual beings in it, there was God. And this God was triune. In the Godhead itself there were persons: a Father and a Son.
You only get a few passages of scripture where God lets you kind of take a look, even dimly, back into that. One of them is in John 17. The Lord Jesus is praying. He says "Father I want them to be with me where I am. I want them to see the glory that I had with you before there was anything." Before there was a heaven; before there was an Earth. God was there and there was fellowship; the Father and the Son. There was something going on between these persons. There was a love. There was a glory beaming back and forth. And in God’s mind, that was the very best thing that ever was. Scripture begins to tell us that sometime before there was anything God had a counsel. The most clear place is in Acts 2. "Whom He delivered according the predeterminate counsel and foreknowledge of God."
What He's saying is that there was a time during which a lot of things got decided. I'd like to anthropomorphize that for you just to give you a little feeling for that. One day the Father was fellowshipping with the Son and there was such an enjoyment. And the Father says to the Son, "Son, isn't this good? Don't we have the best? Can you imagine anything better?" And the Son says, "Oh, Father! This is wonderful! I enjoy you. I love you. You are supplying and you are everything to me." And He says "Son, I'd like to fellowship a little something with you." "What's that?" (This is like you and your son, right?) "I have a desire.... I'd like to have sons as the stars!" There weren't even stars yet. I don't even know how He said it. "I'd like to have millions of sons just like you. I'd like to fellowship this kind of fellowship with many sons." And the Lord said "Huh! can it be?" And The Father says "Let's have a little council here." And they began to discuss this: "Yes, it can be." "How can it be?" "Well I've thought this thing through. It can be done." "Oh! Well! Let's do it!" "Well, let me tell you," the Father said, "the price is pretty high." "Price? What's a 'price'?" And they began to fellowship and as the Father poured out what He saw in Himself, I think the Son was saying, "Amen. Oh, that's good! Yes!" And part of this plan we know, another scripture says, was a "Lamb slain before the foundation of the world."
Part of what was included in this was "Son, you have to die. Not only die physically. What happens is you've got to take on their form in order to do this. You've got to leave Heaven. You’ve got to permanently leave the being that you've ever been. You're going to become something. And then you're going to have to suffer and you're going to have to die. It can be done, but Son, the price is really high for you. Because you'll have blood you'll be able to atone for all the sin and mistakes they make. And because you'll have the divine life you'll be able to transfer it to them. And the Son says "Father, Amen!" And the Lamb was slain in eternity before there was anything.
Then, after all this, in another place where it talks about this, it says that you were there. It says that you were known according to the foreknowledge of God. Before there was an Earth. Before there was a Heavens, God thought out the ways you are going to be that we don't know yet. Just like His Son. As a Godly architect, right down to the number of hairs on your head, God thought it all through. Every last detail. And, finally, when the plan was all done the counsel was over. We don't know how long a time elapsed between the counsel and the beginning of construction.
At first, when He began to create, there wasn't anything. There was not time, or space or heavens. God reached into Himself and demarked ... something. It's hard for us to know, right? Forgive me if I offend your theology. But within God a space was marked. This was eternity. Eternity is not bigger than God. It's smaller than God, and God stepped into eternity. And there's hardly anything revealed about this, but He began to make the heavens and He made all the heavenly creatures: all the cherubim and the serafim. We don't know how long that went on, but evidently they had quite a history. Long enough for one of them to go bad!
Then, one day God called all those heavenly beings together and He said “Come with me”. And He says, “Let’s go out to the backyard.” He went out to the backyard of the heavens and He began to speak there. And in the backyard He created a material universe. And He made stars and He made all kinds of stuff! And the angels are saying "Wow look at this! What's He doing this for? What's going on? Do you know? No. I don't know." But there's a verse in Job that says God did it to music. Did you know that? It says, when He was creating the earth, "the morning stars sang together". He said, '"Morning Stars Quartet', start singing." And the wonder in that heavenly realm! "What is He doing?. Look at that!" And then the greatest wonder happened on the sixth day. God reached down, took some dust and some dirt, and they said "Look! He made an image of Himself! It looks just like Him, only it's made of dust and dirt!" And then he breathed into it and it became alive and they said "Can you believe it? What's He doing? I don't know!" God knew. He wasn't acting willy-nilly. It was all in the counsel.
And then the people God had made had an encounter with God's enemy and they became unlike Him (except for their form). They became the opposite. Then, throughout history they all went astray. They all became idol-worshippers. Until one day God, that same God said.......
"Hey, Abraham!"
He did that so that you would know Him because He was going to take the same trip that Abraham did. One day the Son He loved became a man. Just like Abraham, the time came when it was no longer a plan. The plan had to come into action. And God, in Christ, one day stepped through the backyard of Heaven and into the reality of Earth. Into this reality. And He said goodbye to home and He started that trip and the Son walked on Earth and the Father walked with Him. I don't need to remind you of the times that He says "My Father is here. My father is speaking. The two of us are here." But in the Father's mind there was the realization: “Goodbye, my Son.”
The Father knew what was coming. He walked with Him. (With Abraham and Isaac there came a certain point where they could see the hill and they took the wood off the donkey and they put it on Isaac. Imagine this. Do you make a man carry the wood on which he is to be burnt as a sacrifice? Abraham took the wood and put it on his son.) And the Father walked on with Him and one day they came to the point where they nailed Him to the cross. And this is the point at which the story of God and the story of Abraham differ. Abraham didn't have to go through with it, but our Father had to. He actually let those poor creatures nail His only Son, the Son He loved, to the cross. God heard the hammer blows. He knew what was going on and He allowed it. But the worst was yet to come. There came a certain point where the Son says "My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me?!" And what did the Father do? Nothing.
You know, you have to think about this. What kind of a father is this who does nothing? You have to wonder, did He not love him? We know that's not true. Maybe He was unable to do anything. Believe me, He could have done many things. He could have spoken a word and there wouldn't have been anything again! Maybe He was indifferent. No. The Father was a million times more sensitive than you or I could ever be. We all know this. Maybe the Son had done something wrong. No! He was the only one who had ever done everything right.
This reaction really shows us something of God. Every time most of us pray, we begin: "Our Father"... You have to realize: in God's heart He felt this. He understood. He was bearing it. When your kids are in trouble, who suffers more? The parents or the kids? This Father was suffering. There's that verse "Who spared not His own Son but delivered Him up….” This was an active, willful choice on the part of the Father to turn a deaf ear. And it reveals that God, at that moment, had a desire that was greater than His desire to stop His Son's suffering. And what was that desire? It was the desire to bring many sons into glory.
We, as humans, can have somewhat of a realization of that. One time we, as a family, went for a walk in a gorge. We were a family with a couple of neighborhood kids walking along and the boys climbed up higher on the ridges and we were walking along about fifty feet below. Suddenly, I looked up and one of the boys kicked loose a boulder about the size of an egg. It came bounding down and before I could even say anything it hit my daughter right in the head. She just collapsed and I came running up to her and I didn't know whether to pick her up or whether to leave her lay. I didn't know if she was dead or alive. I saw this huge wealt, and blood's running out of her ear. I thought, "Oh God!" I began to pray and weep and picked her up and started to walk the way along the gorge to get back. I'm carrying her and they're saying "Run!" and my wife is all upset and gradually she begins to come out of it. And she begins to scream and says "What happened! What did I do?!" She's not acting right and we finally get back and take her to an emergency center.
The doctor says "It's not too bad. She might have a little concussion and she split her ear. That's where the blood is coming from. It's not coming from inside the ear. That's the good news. The bad news is that Novacaine won't deaden it. There is not enough flesh to allow it to work, so we'll just have to sew her up without it. You'll have to hold her head."
So, she’s lying there and he begins to stitch and I’m holding her head and she begins to scream "Take me home! ... Why are you keeping me here?! Why are you doing this to me!?"That was one of the worst things that ever happened to me. I, as the father who loved his daughter, had to participate in her pain. I had to be the instrument to hold her there to add more pain. That's somewhat like it was with God.
This really reveals to us what the Father was willing to suffer. Why? To gain you as a son. The Son was willing. The Father was willing. The Father was willing to suffer greatly. You know, if you just look at it theologically, it makes everything quite cold. But let me tell you, when you read "God so loved," you have to have some feeling for what God went through. Not only the Son on the cross but also the Father that had to endure. You have to have a new kind of appreciation. For you, in any kind of reality, to call God your Father it cost God a lot.
At the core of His character; at the center of His being is the desire to have sons.
You know, Abraham didn't need to have that many kids. He didn't. I'm sure he would have been satisfied with less. Do you need a million? Do you need kids as the stars of the sky? No. God was speaking something out of His own being. "I'm the one who wants sons as stars and sand more than you know. Because why? Because at the core of my being at the very essence of who I am, I am Father." He's not just all-knowing; wise; powerful; Superman. No. If you know the Father you know He is FATHER. And we need to thank and appreciate the Father for the suffering He endured to make you a son. His enjoyment with His Son was eternal; unbroken. His love for His Son was immeasurable and His sensitivity toward that Son was limitless, but He was willing to endure what we will never know in order to make you a son of God.
Verne Waldow
To my realization, two things in the Bible are the worst horror stories: The story of Abraham and Isaac and the story of the Lord Jesus on the cross. To my realization, in human literature, and in human experience, there is nothing like these two stories. Very often you can begin to read this Word, with even a small amount of understanding, and the Spirit of God, enlivening and enlightening what happens, and your human heart melts.
I'd like, for the people who might not be very familiar with Abraham, to recount, briefly, a little of the history of Abraham. Abraham lived, originally, in a place called Ur of the Chaldees. At a time when Babylon was an ancient empire; probably very much like New York City today. Every one in that country was an idol worshipper, and Abraham was one who worshipped idols.
It's funny. What God said to him was, "Abraham, get up and leave your country; leave your comfort; leave your home. Leave the life that you have known. Go to a land that I will show you." Imagine that. This is where your family is. This is where everything that you've known is. And to go where? I don’t know. Imagine trying to tell your friends about what you are doing. The most amazing part of all was, that he did it.
This Bible is so spare, sometimes, in things you’d like to know. Why? Abraham, how could you do this? God appears to you and says "go". You're not even a worshipper of this God. But Abraham goes and for the next few chapters of the Bible the whole of God's Word focuses on this man, Abraham.
He was probably in the middle part of his life at that time. There were no trains or planes or buses. You just had to walk. When he walked, he left the well-watered plain and he ended up in the wilderness. He left civilization behind.
I don't want to dwell too long here but I want to give you the realization that Abraham was a man that God just kept coming back to. Do you realize that the first time He talked to him He not only said "Go" but He said "I am going to make you a great nation." And Abraham said, "Great". "I'm happy." And God comes back, and if I counted right. He came back five more times and every time He came to this man He not only said something about the situation, He also said I'm going to make your offspring as the dust of the ground. I'm going to make your offspring like the stars of the sky; like the sands of the seashore.
There is an old philosophical exercise where you begin to count the sands on the seashore: one.. two.. three.. and you start doing that in your mind and you realize: Oh-Oh, I'm in trouble here. And we begin to have some realization of eternity; and even that doesn't really show us eternity. Today we know that, of the stars, what Abraham could see was nothing. What Abraham thought was a star was really another galaxy of stars. God says, “Abraham, your offspring are going to be just like that.” Did you ever think of Abraham saying “Well, swell, but who needs that many kids?” I don’t know, but would you doubt God about something like this? That's a lot of children.
Not only that, but while God was promising this, until Abraham was 100 years old, he didn't have any. And there was that episode where when God told him his offspring were going to be like the dust, Abraham guffawed and said "Right." God said "What are you laughing for? It's true." But, Abraham said "Take a look here, I am 99 and my wife is about the same. Either you don't know how things work down here or you know something I don't." God was very patient with Abraham, wasn't He?
And then later on, when God showed up in human form at Abraham's camp on the plain of Mamre. He came with two angels, to discuss with His friend, Abraham, what He was about to do. Abraham makes a little feast and as they're sitting there, before the feast is served. God brings up this subject again. He says, "You know, Abraham, about a year from now you're going to have a son." And this time it's not Abraham, it's Sarah who laughs. She was in the tent preparing the food and she laughed. God says, "Why did you laugh?" She says "I really didn't laugh." God says, "Yes you did." This is an interesting conversation with God, right? What I want you to gain from this is the realization that everytime God showed up with Abraham, He mentioned these offspring. This is the history of the promise.
Finally, one day, the promise becomes reality. Abraham is about 100 years old. Sarah's about the same, and Isaac is born. Now, at least he's got one son. Forget the millions. At least he's got the one. I don’t know if you know anyone who couldn't have children for a long time and then one day they have a child. It's very precious to them. They appreciate that child. This is why, in that passage, we read in Gen 22: God, three times, says to Abraham, "Your only son; the son you love”. God knows. He made this man wait longer than anyone in human history. He knew Abraham loved this child. And that brings us to this strange passage in Gen. 22. Abraham finally has a son. God gave him a miracle child. And he has this child and by now he's grown up and Abraham loves him with all his heart.
One night he goes to bed and this same God comes to Abraham and says "Abraham." You know, Abraham did not hear the voice of the Lord all the time. He went thirteen years at one point and never heard a thing. He days "Yes Lord?" Then this God, whom he had come to appreciate and love, says something that he couldn't believe. He says "Take your son, your only son, whom you love, and go to a hill in the land of Moriah and offer him as a sacrifice to me." Can you imagine anything worse? Anybody that's a parent can imagine this horror. To go 99 years before having a child and then to have God tell you to offer him as a burnt offering... You've got to be kidding!
This passage doesn't seem to fit in with the rest of the Bible. This passage fits more in with the history of the gods of the Babylonians and the Canaanites. You know, a little later God says to the people "There are some evil things that the followers of Baal do. They take their children and offer them as burnt offerings." Devils are the ones who have you go and offer your children like that. Not the glorious God; the God that loves men. So this passage really doesn't seem to fit in so well.
Why would God put Abraham in such a hard place? Why would He do such a thing? Well, in my realization, the reason for this is that God wanted to show something about Himself. You know, God is not man. God says "My ways are not your ways. My thoughts are not your thoughts, but I want you to know me." And so He does it in a picture form with Abraham. In his mind, Abraham, knows God is saying "Though you feel like you're in jeopardy in this thing and though you suffer, you have to know that I'll never require that. I do this so that men can know me."
So I'd like to look at this from the view of what this shows us about our Father. You know there was another One who made a trip like this. Abraham was not on the true trip to Mt. Moriah. This Mt. Moriah, by the way, was the same area that the cross of Calvary was in. Some people think it was the same mountain.
God did this so that you could come to know Him. You know, the focus of this passage is not on Isaac. The focus is on Abraham. Abraham is the father. Isaac is the son. I'd like to center in on Abraham and see what we can learn from this about our Father.
You have to realize that not only Abraham had a history but God has a history. God is not a braggart. In fact in the Old Testament one of the old writers says "Thou art a God that hides himself. God is not pushy. He's meek. He just hasn't said much about Himself. But we know that before there was anything; before there was Earth; before God uttered "Let there be..." there was God. And before there was a heaven to contain the heavens, and all the spiritual beings in it, there was God. And this God was triune. In the Godhead itself there were persons: a Father and a Son.
You only get a few passages of scripture where God lets you kind of take a look, even dimly, back into that. One of them is in John 17. The Lord Jesus is praying. He says "Father I want them to be with me where I am. I want them to see the glory that I had with you before there was anything." Before there was a heaven; before there was an Earth. God was there and there was fellowship; the Father and the Son. There was something going on between these persons. There was a love. There was a glory beaming back and forth. And in God’s mind, that was the very best thing that ever was. Scripture begins to tell us that sometime before there was anything God had a counsel. The most clear place is in Acts 2. "Whom He delivered according the predeterminate counsel and foreknowledge of God."
What He's saying is that there was a time during which a lot of things got decided. I'd like to anthropomorphize that for you just to give you a little feeling for that. One day the Father was fellowshipping with the Son and there was such an enjoyment. And the Father says to the Son, "Son, isn't this good? Don't we have the best? Can you imagine anything better?" And the Son says, "Oh, Father! This is wonderful! I enjoy you. I love you. You are supplying and you are everything to me." And He says "Son, I'd like to fellowship a little something with you." "What's that?" (This is like you and your son, right?) "I have a desire.... I'd like to have sons as the stars!" There weren't even stars yet. I don't even know how He said it. "I'd like to have millions of sons just like you. I'd like to fellowship this kind of fellowship with many sons." And the Lord said "Huh! can it be?" And The Father says "Let's have a little council here." And they began to discuss this: "Yes, it can be." "How can it be?" "Well I've thought this thing through. It can be done." "Oh! Well! Let's do it!" "Well, let me tell you," the Father said, "the price is pretty high." "Price? What's a 'price'?" And they began to fellowship and as the Father poured out what He saw in Himself, I think the Son was saying, "Amen. Oh, that's good! Yes!" And part of this plan we know, another scripture says, was a "Lamb slain before the foundation of the world."
Part of what was included in this was "Son, you have to die. Not only die physically. What happens is you've got to take on their form in order to do this. You've got to leave Heaven. You’ve got to permanently leave the being that you've ever been. You're going to become something. And then you're going to have to suffer and you're going to have to die. It can be done, but Son, the price is really high for you. Because you'll have blood you'll be able to atone for all the sin and mistakes they make. And because you'll have the divine life you'll be able to transfer it to them. And the Son says "Father, Amen!" And the Lamb was slain in eternity before there was anything.
Then, after all this, in another place where it talks about this, it says that you were there. It says that you were known according to the foreknowledge of God. Before there was an Earth. Before there was a Heavens, God thought out the ways you are going to be that we don't know yet. Just like His Son. As a Godly architect, right down to the number of hairs on your head, God thought it all through. Every last detail. And, finally, when the plan was all done the counsel was over. We don't know how long a time elapsed between the counsel and the beginning of construction.
At first, when He began to create, there wasn't anything. There was not time, or space or heavens. God reached into Himself and demarked ... something. It's hard for us to know, right? Forgive me if I offend your theology. But within God a space was marked. This was eternity. Eternity is not bigger than God. It's smaller than God, and God stepped into eternity. And there's hardly anything revealed about this, but He began to make the heavens and He made all the heavenly creatures: all the cherubim and the serafim. We don't know how long that went on, but evidently they had quite a history. Long enough for one of them to go bad!
Then, one day God called all those heavenly beings together and He said “Come with me”. And He says, “Let’s go out to the backyard.” He went out to the backyard of the heavens and He began to speak there. And in the backyard He created a material universe. And He made stars and He made all kinds of stuff! And the angels are saying "Wow look at this! What's He doing this for? What's going on? Do you know? No. I don't know." But there's a verse in Job that says God did it to music. Did you know that? It says, when He was creating the earth, "the morning stars sang together". He said, '"Morning Stars Quartet', start singing." And the wonder in that heavenly realm! "What is He doing?. Look at that!" And then the greatest wonder happened on the sixth day. God reached down, took some dust and some dirt, and they said "Look! He made an image of Himself! It looks just like Him, only it's made of dust and dirt!" And then he breathed into it and it became alive and they said "Can you believe it? What's He doing? I don't know!" God knew. He wasn't acting willy-nilly. It was all in the counsel.
And then the people God had made had an encounter with God's enemy and they became unlike Him (except for their form). They became the opposite. Then, throughout history they all went astray. They all became idol-worshippers. Until one day God, that same God said.......
"Hey, Abraham!"
He did that so that you would know Him because He was going to take the same trip that Abraham did. One day the Son He loved became a man. Just like Abraham, the time came when it was no longer a plan. The plan had to come into action. And God, in Christ, one day stepped through the backyard of Heaven and into the reality of Earth. Into this reality. And He said goodbye to home and He started that trip and the Son walked on Earth and the Father walked with Him. I don't need to remind you of the times that He says "My Father is here. My father is speaking. The two of us are here." But in the Father's mind there was the realization: “Goodbye, my Son.”
The Father knew what was coming. He walked with Him. (With Abraham and Isaac there came a certain point where they could see the hill and they took the wood off the donkey and they put it on Isaac. Imagine this. Do you make a man carry the wood on which he is to be burnt as a sacrifice? Abraham took the wood and put it on his son.) And the Father walked on with Him and one day they came to the point where they nailed Him to the cross. And this is the point at which the story of God and the story of Abraham differ. Abraham didn't have to go through with it, but our Father had to. He actually let those poor creatures nail His only Son, the Son He loved, to the cross. God heard the hammer blows. He knew what was going on and He allowed it. But the worst was yet to come. There came a certain point where the Son says "My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me?!" And what did the Father do? Nothing.
You know, you have to think about this. What kind of a father is this who does nothing? You have to wonder, did He not love him? We know that's not true. Maybe He was unable to do anything. Believe me, He could have done many things. He could have spoken a word and there wouldn't have been anything again! Maybe He was indifferent. No. The Father was a million times more sensitive than you or I could ever be. We all know this. Maybe the Son had done something wrong. No! He was the only one who had ever done everything right.
This reaction really shows us something of God. Every time most of us pray, we begin: "Our Father"... You have to realize: in God's heart He felt this. He understood. He was bearing it. When your kids are in trouble, who suffers more? The parents or the kids? This Father was suffering. There's that verse "Who spared not His own Son but delivered Him up….” This was an active, willful choice on the part of the Father to turn a deaf ear. And it reveals that God, at that moment, had a desire that was greater than His desire to stop His Son's suffering. And what was that desire? It was the desire to bring many sons into glory.
We, as humans, can have somewhat of a realization of that. One time we, as a family, went for a walk in a gorge. We were a family with a couple of neighborhood kids walking along and the boys climbed up higher on the ridges and we were walking along about fifty feet below. Suddenly, I looked up and one of the boys kicked loose a boulder about the size of an egg. It came bounding down and before I could even say anything it hit my daughter right in the head. She just collapsed and I came running up to her and I didn't know whether to pick her up or whether to leave her lay. I didn't know if she was dead or alive. I saw this huge wealt, and blood's running out of her ear. I thought, "Oh God!" I began to pray and weep and picked her up and started to walk the way along the gorge to get back. I'm carrying her and they're saying "Run!" and my wife is all upset and gradually she begins to come out of it. And she begins to scream and says "What happened! What did I do?!" She's not acting right and we finally get back and take her to an emergency center.
The doctor says "It's not too bad. She might have a little concussion and she split her ear. That's where the blood is coming from. It's not coming from inside the ear. That's the good news. The bad news is that Novacaine won't deaden it. There is not enough flesh to allow it to work, so we'll just have to sew her up without it. You'll have to hold her head."
So, she’s lying there and he begins to stitch and I’m holding her head and she begins to scream "Take me home! ... Why are you keeping me here?! Why are you doing this to me!?"That was one of the worst things that ever happened to me. I, as the father who loved his daughter, had to participate in her pain. I had to be the instrument to hold her there to add more pain. That's somewhat like it was with God.
This really reveals to us what the Father was willing to suffer. Why? To gain you as a son. The Son was willing. The Father was willing. The Father was willing to suffer greatly. You know, if you just look at it theologically, it makes everything quite cold. But let me tell you, when you read "God so loved," you have to have some feeling for what God went through. Not only the Son on the cross but also the Father that had to endure. You have to have a new kind of appreciation. For you, in any kind of reality, to call God your Father it cost God a lot.
At the core of His character; at the center of His being is the desire to have sons.
You know, Abraham didn't need to have that many kids. He didn't. I'm sure he would have been satisfied with less. Do you need a million? Do you need kids as the stars of the sky? No. God was speaking something out of His own being. "I'm the one who wants sons as stars and sand more than you know. Because why? Because at the core of my being at the very essence of who I am, I am Father." He's not just all-knowing; wise; powerful; Superman. No. If you know the Father you know He is FATHER. And we need to thank and appreciate the Father for the suffering He endured to make you a son. His enjoyment with His Son was eternal; unbroken. His love for His Son was immeasurable and His sensitivity toward that Son was limitless, but He was willing to endure what we will never know in order to make you a son of God.
Verne Waldow
posted by Biblical Christianity at 2:30 AM
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