God's Devotion to Us

The speaker discusses the concept of devotion between God and humans. They emphasize that devotion is a two-way street, with humans being devoted to God and God being devoted to humans. The speaker references scripture from the book of Deuteronomy, Proverbs, and 2 Corinthians to explain how humans can show devotion to God by controlling their thoughts and following His commandments. They also discuss how God is devoted to humans and has a grand plan to create a universal ruling God family. The speaker mentions the beginning of the universe and the vastness of God's plan. They conclude by noting that God's devotion can be seen through His love and care for humanity throughout history. Well thank you very much and good evening everybody and always a pleasure to be with you on GoToMeeting. I entitled this God's Devotion to Us, but devotion is a two-way street. So, we are devoted to God and God is devoted to us. So to start with, we're going to see how God tells us that we should be devoted to Him and then we'll spend the bulk of the time on showing how God is devoted to us. So anyway, let's start out in the book of Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy chapter 6 and you'll have it in verse 5 and 6. Deuteronomy chapter 6 and here we find in verse 5, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your might. Now that is a tall order. It's a mouthful. To start with, we have love. Now as we know, Hebrew for love talks about loyalty. It's more loyalty, devotion, faithfulness. So therefore, we are to be devoted to God firstly with all the heart. Now in Hebrew, you think with the heart. In English, we think of mind and sometimes, you know, we have mind versus heart. Emotions from the heart, the logical thinking with the mind does not exist in the Hebrew. You think with the heart. How many times have you read where it says, his heart was right with God or his heart was not right with God? Many times. See, the heart is the processing center. It's where decisions are made. It's where you come to reason and make decisions. So we're to love God with all the heart. Now that's very similar. We have two other scriptures to help us out on that. One is Proverbs 4. So we'll turn to Proverbs 4. We'll see something very interesting. Proverbs 4 and verse 23. It says, above all, guard the door of your mind with diligence. For out of it are the issues of life. Now we translated this mind, but it's love. And so if you really want to have a literal translation, guard your heart. Keep your heart. But that doesn't seem to make much sense, you know. In English, we don't say guard your heart. We don't think with our heart, at least not in English. But in Hebrew, we do. So to make it more, what should I say, understandable, to have it make more sense, we translated this as mind. Guard the door of your thoughts. You know, it's like a hockey game. And there's the goalie and all the shots are coming his way. Guard that net. Keep out the wrong thoughts. This is how we're devoted to God. We get rid of all the bad thoughts and bring in the good ones. Now the apostle Paul, in essence, said the same thing in 2 Corinthians. So we'll take a very quick look there. In 2 Corinthians 10, and verse 5, he talks about casting down vain imaginations. Well, that's right. Control the mind. And every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing into captivity every thought unto the obedience of Christ. Well, there we are. We're loving God with the heart, which means control it. Control that mind. Discipline that mind. That's how we show devotion to God. We dispel wrong thoughts and bring in good thoughts through his spirit. Now back to Deuteronomy chapter 6. And we'll see the rest of it. So we're supposed to love God with all the heart and with all our soul. Now you remember, we won't turn there, but this word is nephesh. Remember in Genesis 2, chapter 7, the Lord God came down. He fashioned man and then he breathed into his nostrils a breath of life. And what? Man became a living nephesh. Life is what it really means. But it's also interesting, and in Hebrew you have to look at the root letters. The root letters of nephesh correspond to the Hebrew word nek, or throat. What's that got to do with anything? Well, when you offer an animal a sacrifice, you cut the throat, the neck, and it bleeds out. See, and there's the life. So when it says you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, it means with all your blood, with all your life force. Look at Leviticus chapter 17, very briefly. Leviticus chapter 17 and verse 11. For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for yourselves, for it is the blood that makes an atonement for life. God at this point gave animals for the sacrifice of sin, and later on the Logos would actually come down and offer himself as a supreme sacrifice. Well, what an incredible God we have. And then it says, back in Deuteronomy 6, we're back here again, with all your might, that is with all your strength. So first it's the heart, the thinking process, control that mind, and then it's the whole being, your life force, physically, your life force. And finally, with all your strength and all your might, which is complete totality, it's devotion to God. Of course, one could ask, well, how do you know if you're devoted to God? Because remember, devotion means loving God along with loyalty and faithfulness. Well, the Apostle John told us that in one of his epistles. Let's go to 1 John 5. 1 John 5, chapter 3. We've been there many times. By this standard, we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep his commandments. That's verse 2. That's verse 2. Verse 3. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome. So keeping the laws of God manifests devotion, his love. That's how you know. Sometimes you ask yourself, well, do I really love God? I don't know. I'm supposed to love God. Do I really have the love of God? Well, there's an objective standard. Tonight is the Sabbath. Are we keeping it? Have we put aside our regular work? That's loving God. What? We're obeying his voice. We're doing what he said to do. So you see, you know, you can understand and grasp how you love God. Do we keep the holy days? Do we keep the law of clean and unclean meats? God also said, well, your neighbor is yourself. So when you're driving down the highway or the freeway or wherever it is there and someone's trying to cut in front of you, you kind of shake your fist at him or do you say, hold it, hold it, cool it. He's a human being. He's made in the image of God. Okay, God may not be calling him now, but let me back off and come on in, sir. That's the love of God because you're loving your neighbor as yourself. So that is in general how we are devoted to God. But now we're going to kind of look at how God is devoted to us. A long some time ago, I always wondered how old this universe really is, and I read many books on the subject. Well, turns out it's an amazing thing, but they have, I think, calculated it fairly correctly. Look at, first of all, look at 1 John 4. 1 John 4, 16. And we have known and have believed the love of God that God has toward us. God is love, meaning he's a totality of faithfulness, of devotion, of loyalty. He exudes it. And this God had a dream a long, long time ago, and he dreams big. Now, when I think of dreaming big, I can't help it, but I think it's a cartoon I once saw where a kitty cat, you know, I've had cats, I've had dogs. But anyway, this cat was in a waste paper basket. And there it was. You know how cats like small enclosed places. They like squirreling into paper sacks and shoe boxes. Well, this cat was in a waste paper basket. And there were its front paws kind of, you know, just climbing over the top. And there was its head. And the caption below was, dream big. And then at the top, of course, where you see the fluffy clouds, this is going to show you what he's dreaming of, this type of thing. And there was the massive head of an African lion. That cat was dreaming big. Well, God dreams bigger than any cat. And he had an incredible plan. One day, he decided, along with another being his co-partner, that they were going to create a universal ruling God family. Nothing like this had ever been gotten. And nothing like this will come about in the future because it's his dream, his plan. And he's devoted to us. And we have a major part in this. And we will see how God is devoted to us. How he was devoted to various people in Scripture. How he worked with them. How he encouraged them. How he never forgot them. So let's turn to John 1. John 1. Now, this is really the beginning. We have Genesis 1, of course, in the beginning. God created the heaven and the earth. But when you understand the Hebrew, it's not really the beginning. It's a time after the beginning. It's a separate beginning. But John 1.1. In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. The Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. Now, I have a hard time conceptualizing this. But it's true. I know it's true. How do you visualize a universe? No time. No physical space. Nothing in it. Except two divine spirit beings. That's it. Well, what have they been doing for all eternity? I don't know. As I said, I can't grasp it. But I know that's true. And they hatched a scheme where they were going to create this massive universe with hundreds of billions of stars and galaxies. And they were going to have a family. A God family after their kind. And it was going to cover the universe. And he was going to love them. He was going to be with them. And it was going to be one grand happy family. Well, how far back does that go? I once saw a video which gave me a pretty good answer to it. Because I've heard many stretches of time from the creation of the universe. I'm told it was 10 billion years, 15 billion years, maybe 20 billion years. But then I began to hear more of a 13 or 13.8 billion years. How do you know? Well, take a look at Titus. The book of Titus. A fascinating book that actually it is. Although most of us don't spend a lot of time reading Titus. Well, we will see in Titus. Chapter 1. Paul was servant of God. Apostle of Jesus Christ according to the faith of God's elect. And the knowledge of the truth that is according to God's witness. In the hope of eternal life. Now, mind you, that's eternal life. He's talking about really human beings. And then he says, which God cannot lie. That's a characteristic of God. He's loyal. He says what he means, he means what he says. He never misleads you. Remember when Jesus told his disciples, I go to prepare a place for you? If it were so, I wouldn't say it. God never says something he doesn't mean. But then look at this. God who cannot lie promised before the ages of time. The ages of time. When did time begin? In the beginning that we saw in John 1.1, there was no time. There was no universe. Time is controlled and determined by the rotation of heavenly bodies. They didn't exist then. They did not exist. And we won't take the time, but you can go and read in Genesis 1, verse 14, 15, and so forth. When God said he set them there for seasons, for days, for years, months, and so forth. So, what this astronomer pointed out, at some point they were trying to figure out, is the universe expanding or is it contracting? And with the Hubble telescope, back in the 20th century, they determined it was expanding. And if there's anything scientists can do well, mathematicians, astronomers, physicists, they can observe. Oh, they observe well. And they can measure. Oh yes, they can measure speed, size, and so forth very well. And they determined that this universe started from a particular location that was expanding out in all directions. And so they thought, okay, if we can take a point here, measure the speed, and with that point reverse, and figure out how long it would take to get back to the point of origin, we would have a pretty good idea of when this universe began. And they did. And they calculated. 13.8242 billion years. This plan of God was 13, at least 13.8242 billion years in the making. Now you talk about long range planning, that takes the cake. Nobody thinks that big, but God does. And you notice back in Titus here, talking about eternal life. They were going to create human beings, give them the chance to become part of their family. But they knew that mistakes would be made. They knew that the people would fall short. In other words, sin. Now what do we do? And they knew that because we also find in Revelation chapter 13, if you'll turn there with me, Revelation 13, and we will have it here in verse 8. And all who dwell on the earth will worship him whose names have not been written in the book of life, of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. God planned for the sacrifice of the Christ. He knew it was going to happen. Had to happen. And they probably thought to themselves, do we really want to do that? Are we God committed to doing that? The answer was a resounding yes. They were devoted to the plan. And they knew that one of them would have to die for the sins of this world. Otherwise, no kingdom. You know, no family. And they were devoted to that family. And therefore, they were devoted to everybody that was going to be here. And that's us as human beings. So anyway, you notice back in Titus 2. Let's go back to Titus, chapter 1 I should say. Titus chapter 1. Because it says something very, very specific here. We saw where it talks about the space and time. But it says in verse 2 again, In the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot like, promised before the ages of time, but revealed in his own set time in the proclamation of his word, with which I was entrusted. So God dreamed of this. The Theos and the Logos had this all mapped out. But they did not declare it as such until man was on the earth. And actually, not until Paul's time. When Paul really began to understand it. God gave this to Paul. But God began in an organized way to begin this plan with one man, Abraham. So let's turn to Genesis 12. Now Abraham was not the first righteous man. No, we had Noah. We had Abel. No doubt Enoch was righteous. God took him. So there were some righteous people before Abraham. But this is the first organized attempt. His first move, shall we say. And in Genesis 12.1, we have, And the Lord said to Abram, get you out of your country. Now this isn't the first time God dealt with Abraham. You can go back to chapter 11. And see where Terah, the father of Abraham and the family, went from the south Ur of the Chaldees north to Haran. And he's in Haran when God calls him in chapter 12, verse 1. And he says, get out of your country. Now that's a fascinating phrase here. This phrase in Hebrew is used only two times in the entirety of the Old Testament. Both times in Genesis. And both times to the same man, Abraham. Why is that? God is establishing the foundation with Abraham. And this word is just not go. It is lech. Now lech, lech in Hebrew is the imperative, go, get out. But there's another word alongside it. Lech, lech. That's used only two times. And it doesn't mean just go. It means go with power. Go for yourself. Go with all your might. It's this force. And Abraham did. He went. Now let's look at the second time. Genesis 22. We call this the atidah, meaning the binding. Yes, God is going to tell Abraham that he is going to sacrifice Isaac. So let's look here. Chapter 22. And it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham. And he said, here I am. He says, take now your son, your only son whom you love. Go to the land of Moriah and offer him therefore bread offering. Abraham rose up. He went. And you will notice here in verse, if I can find it, yes, in verse 10. When Isaac was bound, oh, I passed it up here. He says, take now your son who you love. Go into the land. Okay. And go. Go. With power. Definitive. God did test Abraham. And Abraham stretched out his hand, verse 10, and took the knife. Now this is not just an ordinary knife. The Hebrew word for this knife is not a hunting knife. It's not a knife that you use to cut meat. It's a ritual knife used for sacrificial offerings. Let there be no doubt. Abraham was prepared to sacrifice his own son. But God didn't want that really. God was just testing Abraham. He was devoted to Abraham. And now in verse 15, well, first of all, verse 15. The angel of the Lord called to him out of heaven the second time and said, By myself have I sworn because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son. Now that's the son of promise. He did have another son. He had Ishmael. But this is the only son of promise. This was the one that was closest to Abraham. And you have not withheld him. That in blessing I will bless you. In multiplying I will multiply your seed. Think of what God is saying to Abraham. God is devoted to him. God is blessing him more than you can imagine. Your seed like the stars of heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore. And your seed shall possess the gate of his enemies. And in your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. That includes the Christ. Because you have obeyed my voice. Remember what was said of Abraham in Genesis chapter 26, verse 5. We won't turn there for time's sake. Where God said of Abraham when he was talking to Isaac, his son. Abraham kept my laws, my statutes, my commands. He obeyed my voice. Here it is. And therefore in doing this, God's promises, his devotion was now absolute. It was unconditional. It didn't matter that Israel would sin. Now God committed. He was going to do it all along. But he specifically mentions it with Abraham. That's how devoted God was to Abraham. Now let's take a look at how God expressed devotion to Jacob. Let's take a look at how God expressed it to Jacob. And where do I want to pick it up here? We're going to pick it up, yes, in Genesis chapter 28. Genesis chapter 28. Now, you know what happened? Jacob, Ishmael, or Esau's brother, tricked him. He tricked Esau. Esau was furious. Mother Rebekah, I don't know. Jacob, go, go, go. Go to my family in Padan Haram and get a wife there. She manages to convince Isaac to do this. And so Jacob goes. And along the way, verse 11, he came upon a certain place and stayed there all night because the sun had set. And he took one of the skulls of that place, placed it on his head, and lay down, went to sleep. And he dreamed, and behold, a ladder, some kind of staircase, with angels descending up and down from heaven. And behold, the Lord God stood above it and said, I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father, the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie, I will give to you and your seed. Period. No conditions. God says, I will do it. But he's got to say, can't get to do that. And your seed shall be like the dust of the earth. And you shall spread abroad to the west, to the east, to the north, the south. And in you and in your seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. There again, a subtle reference to the coming Christ. And look what he says specifically to Jacob. And behold, I am with you. Fear not. Don't worry. I'm with you. I will never forsake you. Devotion. And will keep you in every place where you go. And will bring you again into this land. For I will not leave you until I have done that which I have spoken of to you. Jacob awoke and said, surely the Lord is in this place. When God says, I will be with you, Jacob, he's saying the same thing to us today. In fact, Christ specifically said, we'll see that a little later on in the message. God was not going to leave Jacob. And he told Jacob, don't worry. I will get you back. And God did. We know what happened. He met Rachel, fell in love with her. And it was Leah and then Laban. And I kiddingly, but maybe not so kiddingly, turned Laban the biggest crook in the east. Oh, he was a slinger. He was worse than Jacob. He really was. And we know what happened. Finally got so bad, Jacob leaves. God said, it's time to go. Laban caught up with him. Laban was going to really, well, I don't know what he was going to do exactly. But we know that he says, but God talked to me. In other words, God read Laban the riot act. He said, Laban, Jacob is mine. Don't you touch him. Don't you lay a hand on him with the proverbial or else. Laban did not want to find out with you or else what he might do. So they blessed each other. Jacob went on his way. But God made another commitment like this to Jacob. Remember, Jacob came home. Of course, on the way coming home, Rachel died. And then he found his beloved son, Joseph, was killed by an animal. Reality, he was sold into Egypt. And it would be 22 years before he would see him. Joseph was 17 when he was taken away. He was 30 when he appeared before Pharaoh. So that's you got 20 years there. You've got 17 years. You've got 13 years. And then he was 7 years of the plenty. So 13 and 7, that's 20. And then 2 years of the famine, 22. Well, anyway, turns out Jacob's alive. Well, Jacob's alive, and he finds out that his son Joseph is alive. And with orders, come on down. Now, you remember, God had this planned out. He knew what he was going to do. Well, how are you going to get Jacob and the whole family down into Egypt? Well, you use jealousy. And you have the neighbors kidnap Joseph. And Joseph becomes the prime minister of all Egypt, or Grand Vizier, or whatever name you want to call. And he brings the family down with Pharaoh's blessing. And Jacob was a little hesitant. Let's take a look at this in chapter 46. We will see how tender, how truly tender God really was to him. And Jacob came, took his children, well, here we go. In chapter 45 to start with. Chapter 45, verse 27. And the brothers told him, Jacob, all the words of Joseph which he had said to them. And when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob revived. And Israel said, it is enough. Joseph, my son, is still alive. Mind you, he hadn't seen him for about 22 years. What must he have thought? What emotions were going through him? When he says, I will go and see him before I die. And Israel took his journey, verse 1, that he had and came to Beersheba and offered sacrifice. Now read this carefully. And see what we might call TLC, tender love and care. That God gives and shows to Jacob. God loves Jacob. God is devoted to Jacob. And God spoke to Israel in the visions of the night and said, Jacob, Jacob. And he said, here I am. And he said, I am God, the God of your fathers. Do not fear to go down to Egypt. Because Jacob remembered that God told Isaac, don't go down there. You don't go down there. You stay put in this land. And he knew how Abraham had problems in Egypt. So he was a little hesitant. But God tells to him, do not fear to go down. For I will make of you a great nation. And listen to verse 4. And I will go down with you into Egypt. And I will surely bring you up again. Just what he told Jacob years before. I will be with you and bring you back to the land. And now he tells him, I will bring you up again. This is the Logos speaking. This is El Shaddai speaking. I will be with you, Jacob. I will bring you back. And he did. Joseph carried his bones back. And in the resurrection, on the Sea of Glass, eventually all come down. Jacob is going to come back down to the land that God promised him. And Joseph himself shall put his hand to close your eyes. God didn't have to do that. He didn't have to say that. But he did. This is his touch. This is his tender touch. He said, and not only that, Jacob, when the time comes for you to die in the presence of your family, Joseph will be there. And with his fingers and his hand, he will gently close your eyes. God loved Jacob. God was devoted to him. Well, not only was God devoted to Jacob, let's see a couple of examples where God is devoted to the Israelites. Without repentance of any kind. This is an amazing thing here. Let's look at 2 Kings. We'll start out with 2 Kings 13, verse 22. 2 Kings 13. And starting out here in verse 32. 2 Kings 14. Slightly overshot it. 2 Kings 13. And here we go. We are going to go to verse... Yes. Okay. Verse 22. But Hazael, the king of Syria, oppressed Israel all the days of Jehoshaphat. And the Lord was gracious to them. But what a word to use. He was devoted to them. And had pity on them. And had respect to them. Why? Read. Because of his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and Jacob. By myself have I sworn, said the Lord God. Bless you. And you will be a father to a great nation. And he would not destroy them. Verse 23. Nor cast them out from his presence as yet. Now there would come a time when he would have to. But again, he wouldn't forget them. He's going to bring them back. Now remember. The northern kingdom of Israel. When Jeroboam I was crowned king at Solon. And he was made king of another tribe. It was a separation. Between Israel and God. Israel turned its back on God. There was no such thing as a righteous king in Israel. There was no such thing as the people turning to God. Or having repentance of any kind. There were some decent people in Israel, that's true. But they weren't the majority. Now let's look at 2 Kings 14. And we will see the same thing.