Concerning loving
family -- Excerpt from Spiritual Man- by
Watchman Nee -
'Let it be observed
that, humanly speaking, this expression of the soul is quite legitimate, for it
is most natural and is not defiled as is sin. Is not the love we have mentioned
shared by all men? What illegitimacy can there be in loving those of one’s
family?'
Passage under
discussion-
Luk 14:25 And
there went great multitudes with him: and he turned, and said unto them,
Luk 14:26 If
any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and
children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be
my disciple.
Luk 14:27 And
whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my
disciple.
Excerpt continued-
'Hence we know that our Lord is summoning us to overcome the natural, even to
denying man’s legal right . . . for the sake of God. God wants us to love Him
more than our Isaac.'
Isaac-
Gen 15:1 After
these things the word of the LORD came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear
not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.
Gen 15:2 And
Abram said, Lord GOD, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the
steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?
Gen 15:3 And
Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my
house is mine heir.
Gen 15:4 And,
behold, the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine
heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine
heir.
Gen 15:5 And
he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the
stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed
be.
Gen 15:6 And
he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.
Gen 16:1 Now
Sarai Abram's wife bare him no children: and she had an handmaid, an Egyptian,
whose name was Hagar.
Gen 16:2 And
Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the LORD hath restrained me from bearing: I
pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And
Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai.
Gen 16:15 And
Hagar bare Abram a son: and Abram called his son's name, which Hagar bare,
Ishmael.
Gen 16:16 And
Abram was fourscore and six years old, when Hagar bare Ishmael to Abram.
Gen 17:1 And
when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said
unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.
Gen 17:2 And I
will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee
exceedingly.
Gen 18:1 And
the LORD appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door
in the heat of the day;
Gen 18:2 And
he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he
saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the
ground,
Gen 18:9 And
they said unto him, Where is Sarah thy wife? And he said, Behold, in the
tent.
Gen 18:10 And
he said, I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life; and,
lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son. And Sarah heard it in the tent door, which
was behind him.
Gen 18:11 Now
Abraham and Sarah were old and well stricken in age; and it ceased to be with
Sarah after the manner of women.
Gen 18:12
Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed old shall I
have pleasure, my lord being old also?
Gen 18:13 And
the LORD said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of a
surety bear a child, which am old?
Gen 18:14 Is
any thing too hard for the LORD? At the time appointed I will return unto thee,
according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.
Gen 18:15 Then
Sarah denied, saying, I laughed not; for she was afraid. And he said, Nay; but
thou didst laugh.
Gen 21:1 And
the LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did unto Sarah as he had
spoken.
Gen 21:2 For
Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of
which God had spoken to him.
Gen 21:3 And
Abraham called the name of his son that was born unto him, whom Sarah bare to
him, Isaac.
Gen 21:4 And
Abraham circumcised his son Isaac being eight days old, as God had commanded
him.
Gen 21:5 And
Abraham was an hundred years old, when his son Isaac was born unto him.
Gen 21:6 And
Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with
me.
Gen 21:8 And
the child grew, and was weaned: and Abraham made a great feast the same day
that Isaac was weaned.
Gen 21:34 And
Abraham sojourned in the Philistines' land many days.
Gen 22:1 And
it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto
him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am.
Gen 22:2 And
he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee
into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of
the mountains which I will tell thee of.
Gen 22:3 And
Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his
young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt
offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him.
Gen 22:4 Then
on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off.
Gen 22:5 And
Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad
will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.
Gen 22:6 And
Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son;
and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them
together.
Gen 22:7 And
Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am
I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for
a burnt offering?
Gen 22:8 And
Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so
they went both of them together.
Gen 22:9 And
they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar
there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the
altar upon the wood.
Gen 22:10 And
Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.
Gen 22:11 And
the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham,
Abraham: and he said, Here am I.
Gen 22:12 And
he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him:
for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son,
thine only son from me.
Gen 22:13 And
Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a
thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for
a burnt offering in the stead of his son.
Gen 22:14 And
Abraham called the name of that place Jehovahjireh: as it is said to this day,
In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen.
Gen 22:15 And
the angel of the LORD called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time,
Gen 22:16 And
said, By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because thou hast done this
thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son:
Gen 22:17 That
in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy 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 22:18 And
in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast
obeyed my voice.
Excerpt continued-
'Hence we know that our Lord is summoning us to overcome the natural, even to
denying man’s legal right . . . for the sake of God. God wants us to love Him
more than our Isaac.'
Abraham longed for
God to fulfil His promise to him and give him an heir. He wanted this promise to be fulfilled so
much that he and his wife tried to work it out by using his wife's handmaid.
The handmaid did NOT fulfil the promise that God made though. Abraham continued
to grow older and older and both he and Sarah were passed the time of being
able to bear children.
Heb 11:11
Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was
delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who
had promised.
Heb 11:12
Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the
stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore
innumerable.
Sarah was past the
age and Abraham as good as dead- yet God performed the miracle He'd promised
and brought to life the dead womb and seed- allowing it to bring new life-
Isaac- the promised son.
We can imagine just
how attached Abraham was to Isaac can't we?
None of us have ever been promised children. Those who are barren and
desiring children aren't promised them. The barren go to great lengths today to
conceive children and they are overwhelmed with joy when they finally have the
longed for child. Abraham and Sarah both went PAST the age of being able to
conceive and father children and we have to realize by that point both of them
were convinced that it was never going to happen- or if not convinced at least
super hesitant to believe. By faith it
did happen so there was some belief, but even so the length of time involved
that Abraham and Sarah were desiring a child was extremely long. Their
attachment to Isaac once he was born had to be beyond normal. The miracle of
Isaac was something they probably never forgot for a moment. They had to
cherish his existence. The promise was that this son would go on and be used of
God to father an uncountable number of offspring throughout time- generation
after generation so many would spring from Abraham's seed- furthered by Isaac,
then by Jacob and on down the long, long line. The hope for this to occur was
heartfelt and assured as Isaac grew older and older. Then, out of nowhere, God
tells Abraham to sacrifice Isaac simply because it was something God desired.
IMAGINE the thoughts
that had to go on in Abraham's mind.
So connected to God
was Abraham that he didn't hesitate to obey, but we KNOW it couldn't have been
easy at all.
To
read this excerpt-- 'Hence we know that
our Lord is summoning us to overcome the natural, even to denying man’s legal
right . . . for the sake of God. God wants us to love Him more than our Isaac.'
-- is to realize
that we are ALL called to this experience in our own individual ways.
God wants us to love
Him more than our Isaac, our legitimate love towards fathers, mothers, sons,
daughters and so on. Why does God want
this? Because truly if we are loving others
MORE than God, we are NOT loving with God's love, and God's love is the only
true love that exists. We tend to forget that so easily. We marvel at our own
idea of love and we say things like- love doesn't make you choose, love doesn't
condemn, love doesn't hate anything.
We've conceptualized our own brand of love and hold fast to it so that
when we are confronted with true love we deny it is really love. I have often heard it said that if God really
existed He would never allow suffering in any form, that suffering alone proves
God doesn't exist. Or if He does exist and allows suffering than He is cruel
and unloving and not someone to follow.
These people can say and believe those things because they've formed
their own brand of love and anything outside of that idea of love they have is
not love at all in their minds. God's love goes beyond our full comprehension. We often limit our life to here and now, God
has NEVER limited out lives to here and now but has weighed all of them in the
light of eternity! God has taken eternity into consideration - not the very, very,
incredibly short amount of time we live here on earth right now, or sleep in
the grave until the last trump sounds. God's love is so overwhelming in its
scope we can only catch glimpses of it through the sacrifice of His only
begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Still, people will insist upon focusing their
belief on love in the here and now. They are right that God would be a very
cruel, unloving God if this life was all there was to take into consideration.
The love of God is
all love, it is pure and undefiled by any sort of selfishness. The love of God
looks beyond now, way beyond the here and now, far into eternity where it will
live in a sinless existence. The love of
God could sacrifice the sinless, sacrifice the innocent, sacrifice a God that
existed from everlasting to everlasting, putting Him into a death of
non-existence, and BROUGHT back that God from death! We were given an example of pure love in that
unfathomable act. God will bring all who choose to have faith in Him and His
love back from a sure, inescapable death except for HIM and HIS intervention.
Rom_8:32 He
that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all…
The love we believe
we have towards our parents, our children, our husbands and wives, our friends
and relatives, a love we staunchly defend as being all important- without God-
is worthless.
A love the serves
ourselves and our own interests, not God's-
is worthless.
We may believe our
love is everything and more, but it's not.
If we love with
God's LOVE towards our parents, our children, our husbands, wives, friends and
relatives we are loving them with a love that is PRICELESS. If that love of God's calls us to a
FIGURATIVE Isaac experience, calling on us to give up that parent, child,
husband, wife, friend, or relative then whatever reason God has for us to
endure the pain and heartache it may cause us, is justified. We, by HIS grace, need to have FAITH, we need
to BELIEVE all is in His hands and it will all work out.
Rom_8:28 And
we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them
who are the called according to his purpose.
And we cry out with
the loudest voice we can, shedding many tears along with the father who was
desperate for his son to be healed-
Mar_9:24 And
straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I
believe; help thou mine unbelief.
LORD, I BELIEVE,
HELP THOU MINE UNBELIEF!
