We all need backup sometime. On our computers. In parenting. At work. In the kitchen. All of us face tasks that are simply too overwhelming or too much on our own. Backup is defined as help or support.David met Goliath with five stones to sling. He only needed one, but he had backup.
God designed man for relationship with Him. Made in his image and placed in a garden to walk with him and talk with him. God's desire to be with us still boggles my mind, but humans were his creative masterpiece.We were granted the power to love him or reject him. A unique and special gift.
As we look at Easter, we know that God had a backup plan for after the fall. This is a not a place for theological debate, but it seems clear that he knew from the beginning he created us vulnerable. That vulnerability made us more special, broken at times but always beautiful in his eyes.
A couple of times, when only a few remained who walked with Him, he let his wrath and judgement. The great flood and Sodom and Gomorrah come to mind quickly. Then...God made a way. My mind cannot comprehend God's timeline. When he came up with the backup plan for us, I would not pretend to understand. Was it in the garden... or even before that? What I know for sure is that we see glimpses of it written many years before Jesus was born. Isaiah, Micah and the Psalms are a few places to find evidence.
The mathematical odds of Jesus fulfilling all the prophecies about him, I cannot begin to calculate, but someone else tried. Peter Stoner in a book called "Science Speaks". Dr. David R. Reagan sums up Stoner's work about the Messianic prophecies Jesus fulfilled:
"Multiplying all these probabilities together produces a number (rounded off) of 1×1028. Dividing this number by an estimate of the number of people who have lived since the time of these prophecies (88 billion) produces a probability of all 8 prophecies being fulfilled accidently in the life of one person. That probability is 1in 1017 or 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000. That’s one in one hundred quadrillion!"
Math and science glorify our God, too. Please note that my font doesn't recognize mathematical expressions (or I don't know how to raise the 28 and 17... which is possible). God can always act outside of nature's laws...and he does at time. Still, our Lord is glorified when nature, science and math point to him.
Jesus was and is our backup plan. From the beginning... however that works... God decided that he would, indeed have a loving relationship with His creation. One by choice, not forced. One in love and not out of fear or guilt. One where his sacrifice to leave heaven and become one of us would change the ending for all of eternity. Mind-boggling! Even after all of these years.
"The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command. When he had cleansed us from our sins, he sat down in the place of honor at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven." -Hebrews 1:3
Jesus... Immanuel... God with us... chose the nails. So we could be recovered and redeemed after the fall.
I am grateful for backup.
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