God's Family

Let's dive a little more into the plan of God, trying to unveil its purpose.

As I wrote in my last entry, we cannot derive the purpose of the plan asking "what if". What if we had never sinned. We have to, and are perfectly able to derive the purpose of the plan from within the plan, especially from the handbook given for this project - the bible. It shows the goal (Revelation 21/22), the kick-off (Genesis 1/2), and the way to get from here to there.

Paul wrote about marriage as a symbol for our relationship with God. And I do think that all of history is but a family story. 2 generations, 2 marriages, 2 covenants between 1 humanity and 1 God.

Back at Mount Sinai, God the Father married Israel. The whole ceremony of a Jewish wedding strongly resembles the happenings at Mount Sinai, from the canopy that covered the pair to the laying down of a marriage contract, much more than that, marriage covenant.

And out of Israel came the Saviour. Out of this marriage Jesus Christ was born. And still today we the Church draw from our parents - we learn from both our Father and our mother. We see how they treated each other, we see the good and the bad. And we can learn.

As it is in real life, parents are not perfect - in this case at least the mother is not. Still children can, with God's help, grow up to be wonderful, capable, and mature people. Later in life, daughters get to know their husband and learn from him - and vice versa here on earth. Jesus calls the Church His bride. There will be the wedding meal.

And as we marry into the Kings family, we are set to rule with Him, over all creation. What started in the earth (Gen 1:28), as our realm of influence as little children, our playground, our children's room, will be enlarged to all of creation in our maturity (Rev 22:5): And they will reign as kings forever and ever.

What if

I have been a project manager most of my professional life. I managed software projects with up to 100 people, but usually a group of about 5 programmers, lasting a few man years each. When I planned the project, I tried to foresee all eventualities and manage all risks. Worst case scenarios, critical path, plan B.

God a few thousand years ago planned a project of a totally other dimension - humanity. Take a look at the complexity - alone today there are some 7 billion people, and the project runs for almost 6000 years by now. But God had a competitive edge. He lives outside of time and sees the end from the beginning. Means: he knew everything ahead of time. No risk calculation, no worst case scenario, no surprises at all.

I'm talking about perfect foresight, not predestination. We all have our free will to decide about how to behave within this project, but God knew back then, before the foundation of the earth, how I would decide in every case I would make a decision, and when I would run from taking one, trying to avoid it. Still he decided to go ahead with the project, on purpose.

But what was the project all about? Salvation, as most of us would say? In that case it would be all over and the goal would have been reached. But how do we find out what the real purpose is?

Obviously we cannot ask questions like: would Jesus have come to earth if Adam and Eve would not have sinned? Nobody knows, if we take a historic view point, not even God, as he never planned for that case. He knew it was not an option. We could argue that Jesus would not have come to die, as there would have been no reason to do so. There was no sin, therefore no need for redemption. And could he have died anyway? Would there have been death or not? Death in Genesis means separation from God. We do not know whether people would have lived for a certain time and then have been changed in a moment into something we today call the resurrection body, or whether Adam and Eve already had this body before the fall. All speculation. Or as C.S. Lewis had it said by Aslan, the lion, in the chronicles of Narnia: "Never ask what if".

Is there a way to find out then what God planned for all along? I think, there is, taking into consideration the beginning and the end. How was man in the beginning, and what does the bible say about the last days.

I personally believe that Jesus already was on earth in paradise - every day in the cool of the evening. When we were formed after God's image, we were formed after Jesus. All through the old testament we see God appearing to people. In Aramaic, the phrase "God said" is more like "and the Word of God came to him", which John in the first chapter of his gospel links to the person of Jesus Christ.

At the end of the book we see the bride of God - us, the church - appear and being revealed on earth. And Jesus and God will live in their midst, and they will need no sun as God is their light.

Paul calls the Spirit of God the teacher, he calls the Word of God the "leader to God". I personally believe that the plan of God is to have a being that being very immature in the beginning, but having a free will, out of this free will will have a relationship with him. And Jesus was to lead man in full knowledge and revelation of God.

It is all about a maturing and growing relationship between God and man, based on free will and love.

Experience and Knowledge

Which is first - experience or knowledge?

I have to say that my experience usually does not match my knowledge. Let's take God's promiss to heal at any time, or to provide for us.

Even though my experience tells me otherwise (my son is in hospital with a severe pneumonia at the time of writing, our bank accounts are more than dry), I know that I know that God is no liar and that His promisses are true.

But maybe we have to take a step back. Let's look at these words a little more closely.

Experience is a sensual, soulish, or mind driven interaction with the fallen world or God's working in it that is processed by a fallen mind and soul and remembered with many flaws as we know from science. Not very trustworthy.

Knowledge is part of a trinity in Proverbs and the Torah: wisdom, knowledge, and understanding (Exo 31:3, Prov 9:10).

Wisdom in the Hebrew and middle east understanding of the word is "to do things the right way and to do the right things". No understanding necessary, sometimes even better not to understand to much.

Knowledge is a relational word (and Abraham knew Sarah, and out of it came Isaak). So Prov 9:10 says that only through a relationship with God (the Holy) we can gain understanding.

So knowledge comes out of wisdom and the fear of God (Prov 1:7). No experience involved whatsoever. Understanding comes out of a living relationship with the Lord.

Experience is only a helpfull or hindering thing on the way. We can take good experience to keep us on track, as David puts it: Be still, o my soul, and remember what God has done for you.

At any time, let your knowledge come from a living relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ, through prayer, reading and studying His Word, and see experience as secondary, and if contradictory to His Word, as a lying disception.