Plan B.

It’s time for another blog post!

I said I wanted to put a little more of the Bible into my blog, and I am definitely going to follow through on my word both now and hopefully as time goes on!

To give you an idea of what was going on when I read this passage, I just finished wrapping presents for the nursing home (we take presents up there to people with no family every year) and the tornado warning just ended. I was goofing off on my computer, checking out facebook and my email, and I decided to go visit Acclimate, which is something Passion is doing- they are scrolling the Bible 4 times as a lead up to Passion. So, I come to the page and right then it happened to be on the testing of Abraham.

The story is one we all know, God gives Abraham a son in his old age and then God tells Abraham to go sacrifice his son, Abraham is obedient and takes Issac to the alter on top of a mountain to be sacrificed and at the last minute, God saves the day and says, “Don’t sacrifice your son, here is a ram instead.” It’s a great story to show obedience and fear of God. But when I read it a few minutes ago, it was like reading a new story.

The faith of Abraham is pretty incredible- yeah, at the beginning of the story of Abraham, he screwed up a few times. But in the end, he had a rock solid faith, and he showed a lot of humility to some degree as well.

“Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, ‘Father?’           

            ‘Yes, my son?’ Abraham replied.

            ‘The fire and wood are here,’ Isaac said, ‘but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?’

            Abraham answered, ‘God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.’ And the two of them went on together.

            When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an alter there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the alter, on top of the wood. Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, ‘Abraham, Abraham!’

            ‘Here I am,’ he replied.

            ‘Do not lay a hand on the boy,’ he said. ‘Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.’” (NIV).

I have to wonder what that walk up to that mountain must have been like for Abraham. To know that when you reached the top, you were going to have to personally sacrifice your only son, which in that time a son was a big deal. The son kept the family name going and got all of the inheritance, and without a son, your family name might have issues surviving. But yet, Abraham made the trek. One of his displays of humility is when he simply accepts what God instructed. We don’t have word of him fighting God on the topic. He didn’t say, “Look God, I deserve this son, and he’s the only one I have. God, it’s not fair. I DESERVE HIM; You OWE me Him.”

I wonder what was going through his mind as they made the journey to the top; I wonder if he was crying. I can’t imagine the painfulness of that conversation between Abraham and Isaac. I wonder if Isaac understood- did he understand that he was going to be the sacrifice? Overall, that conversation and that walk must have been agonizing if not for both parties, for sure for Abraham. And then right at the last minute, God goes “STOP!!!!!!!!! There’s a ram over there in those bushes, I was testing your obedience to know if you were the right person to be the father of many nations.”

            Now switch to the New Testament. When Jesus was about to be hung on the cross, there was no one to yell “STOP!” because He was the only way. There was no one to tell God, “Hey there is a substitute over in those bushes.” Father God had to watch his only begotten Son die an awful death, but more than that, He had to forsake His own Son, to pay the price for me. You know how we always say that God will never leave us or forsake us? That is only possibe because Jesus was forsaken in my place. Jesus had to be completely separated from God and go into the depths of Hell, all for me. There was no substitute that could do it for him, there was no plan C. Plan A was the Garden of Eden, but Adam and Eve ruined that when they ate the forbidden fruit (which was most likely not an apple- thank the Plants of the Bible class I took this semester!). Plan B was Jesus Christ. God paid the price for me; He ransomed me, and I had no right to be ransomed. There is nothing I can do for God to repay Him for saving me. Jesus got the pain that should have been mine. And this is truly why we celebrate Christmas- not necessarily that Jesus came into the world or that He hung on the cross, We celebrate Christmas for the same reason that we celebrate Easter, because He ROSE AGAIN. Jesus’ birth would mean nothing if He didn’t rise again, just like His death would mean nothing if there was no resurrection.  I, for one, am very thankful and blessed to be a child of God, and to celebrate Christmas! All because He ROSE AGAIN!