aw-hab and raw-khawb – Love and Rahab

Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah.

Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.

When we think of love, we normally think of happiness, benefits, caring, helping, but who in the world would ever think of love as sacrificing your own son? Abraham was tested with the most unexpected test that any human been can think; sacrifice your own son as a proof of his love for God. We must understand that God is love, and He will never ever, ask anything to anybody that will hurt and damage his integrity as man, and the reason is because we are created to His own image, and God asking something like that would be like damaging His own reflection.

So God was testing the faith of Abraham and the text I am meditating now, says “take your son, whom you love… and sacrifice him there as burnt offering…

I can’t imagine what was in the mind of Isaac at 13 years old, seeing his father putting him over an altar where normally it supposed to be a ram or a sheep, but this time, it was Isaac, and he asked his father, before this, “father where is the sacrifice?”, and Abraham answers was, God will provide for Himself. This is the kind of answers that only men or women can give to God, when they really know that God loves them, when God is asking something out of the normal.

Trusting in Him, knowing that even it seemed estrange, unthinkable, he was willing to go to the extreme, and lift up the knife, and then, an angel, stopped him, saying, you passed the test, there is your ram, trade your heart for His sacrifice. Now, the fact that it is calling my attention is that in Hebrew I found that the word for love sounds aw-hab, it really hits deep in my heart, because it sound to me like Rahab, the harlot.

That woman that was living in total opposition to God, living a lustful life, but when she saw the first and only sign of the love of God, she reacted in the perfect way repenting from her life, city, friends, and made a strong decision. She understood, that by the spies getting to her house, because they were looking for a place to hide to be able to get in and get out, reporting the status of Jericho, she was giving an opportunity before the judgment to come, to repent.

She didn’t hesitate, because she heard that God is God of all, and He took his people with mighty hand out of Egypt and no one would be able to be against God and scape, she made her move, and ask for a deal, she said; “if I hide you, you promise that you will save me, and she got for an answer, “make a “clear declaration of you faith”, so what she did, is that she she bound the scarlet line in the window, so the spies will know that she was expecting the promise to reach her and her house, so God saved her because she made her strong statement of faith and believe in His words. Amazing in Hebrew love sound is,

aw-hab, and this woman who was hungry of aw-hab, was called all the time Rachab and it sounded like raw-khawb, this woman had already something that belongs to God, just she didn’t know, but as soon as she perceived it, she fell in love with His savior. She was getting nothing but wounds out of men, but when she experienced the mercy of God, she was willing to let all her past die and start a new life under the covenant from God by His grace. Enjoy the love of God and make you clear statements that you love him too!!!

#bible #God #Jesus #love