Sermon Tone Analysis

I’m going to warn you up front tonight - this will be a bit long.

If you have ever wondered about how the OT narratives relate to one another, well tonight we’re going to take a high level “look behind the curtain” at one “thread” that runs through the OT - the one foundation for all other “threads” - God’s covenantal hesed love.

[ Discuss bulletin.

Let them know there is so much more]

Ultimately, the big idea is God has been lovingly faithful to us, and what He asks is for us to be lovingly faithful to Him.

We are going to be looking at some covenants and you are going to hear me say Edenic, Noahic, Abrahamic, Mosaic and Davidic.

Those are just fancy ways of saying Eden, Noah, Abraham, Moses and David in relation to the covenants God made with them at those times.

With that said,

Let me start by asking you a question, “Understanding we have rejected God, we have sinned and gone our own ways, and that God needs absolutely nothing from any one of us, Why would God save you, or me, or anyone else?” Why does God save you?

Why does God save me?

Why does He care?

It’s a good question, right?

If we aren’t needed, why bother with us - not just bother with us, but suffer on our behalf and die for us?

Why? Have you ever thought about that?

Why be faithful to us when we are so unfaithful to Him? Hold on to that thought for a bit...

Today we are continuing our brief study of God’s attributes and how they relate to the series we are in, Foundations for Evangelism (Go forth, confidently!)

Two weeks ago Don covered God’s graciousness, and last week Tad picked up where Don’s sermon about God’s grace left off and covered God’s justice and mercy using Exodus 34 as his foundational scripture.

The focus of Tad’s sermon was on how God can forgive, yet still be just and internally consistent in His nature.

This week I am going to attempt to pick up from where Tad left off.

Last week was about HOW God can forgive without violating the Law or His own nature, this week we are going to look at the question of WHY - why is forgiveness even an option - what is it in God’s nature that drives His incredible grace and mercy and forgiveness.

To start, lets go back and look at Exodus 34...

Exodus 34:6–7 (ESV)

“The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty...”

When I saw Tad use this scripture for his foundational text last week, I was sitting down here thinking to myself - “YES, This is perfect! - Thank you Lord for messing up Tad’s plans to preach from Romans!” :)

Can anyone guess why? (I knew I was going to be preaching on God’s love)

(maybe someone guesses steadfast love)

One word - HESED!

I can be a bit of a creature of habit - there are certain concepts from scripture that I will try to drive home on a regular basis - like when I say “works don’t work” or that “most roads in Scripture lead to, or are related to, Genesis or the Sermon on the Mount” - another one is this concept of God’s hesed love.

There are those who are smarter than me who tell us the average person has to hear something at least 3 times before it can be recalled easily.

This goes with the old teaching adage - tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you told them.

So, last December I preached an entire Christmas sermon about God’s hesed love, then on Father’s Day a month or so ago, the concept of hesed love was one of my main points about being a good father.

Today will be the third time - so I know you all are now going to remember “hesed”, right??

Hesed is one of the most frequent forms of the word love in the OT.

It is a Hebrew word that does not have a direct equivalent in English (or any other language).

It is a Hebrew-unique word.

It is difficult, if not impossible, to fully convey its meaning of Hesed in English.

So, throughout the OT you will find it translated many different ways.

Love · Unfailing Love · Steadfast Love · Covenant of Love · Lovingkindness · Kindness · Great Kindness · Marvelous Kindness · Loyalty · Mercy · Faithfully · Favor · Devotion · Fidelity · Goodness

When used in relation to God, Hesed is a loving, caring covenantal-relational concept.

It is emotional, but not based on emotion.

It is unconditional even when conditions are associated with it (as we will see with the Mosaic and Davidic covenants).

It is unwaivering, unyeilding, unequivocal - when it exists, it just is.

Just like God is the Great I Am, the Great I Am’s hesed nature just is.

It represents a type of loyalty or fidelity or devotion.

In our Exodus 34 passage, God Himself declares:

Exodus 34:6–7 (ESV)

The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love (hesed) and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love (hesed) for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin...

Malachi 3:6 (ESV)

For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.

1 John 4:8 (ESV)

...God is love.

God’s agape love is also, in principle and practice, a type of hesed love.

OK, so how does this relate to the question of “Why would God save us?” I’m glad you asked… Let’s take a look at the story of us...

God creates the universe and us.

The earth was “very good,” but God made a very special place, a place where we could walk and talk with God in person - Eden.

God faithfully provided everything for us, including Himself, in return all he asked is the we be faithful to Him.

This is at the heart of the Edenic Covenant - Be fruitful and multiply; with Eden as an example, go, follow my lead (I made Eden) and take Eden to the ends of the Earth.

Don’t eat the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil - as I have been lovingly faithful to you, be faithful to Me.

The idea is a covenant of faithfulness.

(Note - Jay, it doesn’t say covenant here.

Good question, hold that thought.)

We were not faithful, we consumed the forbidden fruit, decided to do things our own way, and evil, death and chaos followed.

God expells Adam and Eve from Eden - expelled them from his presence..

Yet God remains faithful; His patient, hesed - covenantal love - remains unchanging for His created image bearers - you and me.

God did not destroy Adam and Eve - or their descendants.

Instead, He faithfully waited for them to return to Him, to be faithful to Him, but that did not happen and things got bad, very bad.

(See Gen 6) Things were so bad that scripture says “And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.”

Yet, despite God’s grief and regret, He was unchangingly faithful - and Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

The flood cleansed the Earth of the rampant evil which followed our rebellion.

In comes the Noahic covenant:

God promises never to destroy the world by water again.

Think of the Noahic covenant as Edenic covenant 2.0.

Why do I say this? we are again supposed to take Eden to the ends of the Earth.

Two times in the opening verses of Genesis 9, God says, be fruitful and multiply; this is a direct reference back to His command in Eden.

The implication is that, just as in Eden, Noah and his children and their descendants are to, as God’s family - His image bearers - His ambassadors, be faithful to Him and go to the ends of the Earth representing Him.

There is another piece here, too - that is this concept of the ark - a shelter from God’s wrath when God cleanses the world from evil.

God says He will never do this again by water.

He does not say it won’t be done by fire...

In an expression of His hesed love, God patiently waited for us to be faithful...

And what did we do?

The exact opposite...

We rebelled, refused to go to the ends of the earth, gathered together and attempted to make our own "Eden" with the tower of Babel.

This was our third strike… God’s patience has run out; He introduces varied languages and expels us from Babel around the world.

God gave us what we wanted - not Him - and essentially divorces humanity.

God no longer expected faithfulness from humanity as a whole - we had already had a long track record of unfaithfulness.

Yet, God remains patient and unchanging; His hesed love remains.

God begins a new chapter...

God picks Abram and Sarai - an old, barren, couple, and promises to create a people for Himself out of them - a nations from which Kings will come forth, with numerous people, who will be God's ambassadors in the world - and through Abram’s descendants all people will be blessed.

Genesis 12:2–3 (ESV)

And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you, and him who curses you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Genesis 17:4–8 (ESV)

Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations...

I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you.

And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.

No longer does God tell them to be “fruitful and multiply,” no, God is taking this situation into His own hands - He says, “I will make you exceedingly fruitful and into nations.”

The idea being I will make you fruitful and put you out to the ends of the earth.

The overarching theme is that through faith, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

The sign of this covenant was circumcision.

If you were part of the family (and male) you were to be circumcised.