WHAT GOD NEEDED FOR HIS SON

God is omniscient.  He knows everything.

 

He’s aware of every event, every thought, every subatomic particle in every dimension and universe.     God even knows the all of the certainties and possibilities of every permutation of future events, actions, and thoughts.

After all, God created matter, energy, life, space, and time.  He composed the rules by which all things seen and unseen operate. 

God knows. 

But.

The Old Testament declares that  God is not a man, …, nor a son of man  (Numbers 23: 19)

Until the Incarnation, the Son of God, had never personally experienced life as a human male.  True the Old Testament refers to God taking on human form from time to time to communicate with His special servants, but those were singular events not day-in-day-out life.

When Jesus was born as a babe in Bethlehem,  the omniscient 2^nd person of the Trinity was encapsulated by the flesh of a human infant.    Jesus knew all of the biological processes at work in human labor and birth.  As the Word made flesh, Jesus knew what was occurring at the subcellular level when Mary pushed.  He understood the responses of His own neurons to the muscular contractions moving His fetal form through the birth canal. Better than any mother or any doctor who would ever live, Jesus knew what childbirth was.

But Jesus didn’t know what it was like to be born until He came as a baby.

Pause.  Take a breath.  No, I haven’t become a heretic.  I am not disputing the doctrine that God knows EVERYTHING.

I believe that God’s omniscience is superior to our experience. (Just look at how we continuously screw up situations even when we have experience dealing with them.)   Omniscience is superior to experience, but omniscience isn’t the same as experience.  God knows everything, but He did not know what it was like to personally go through the things He knows.   God has all knowledge, but He had not had every personal experience.

Just think about it.  God knows all about the human body and the process of hunger.  The Lord created the human body. He created food, and He created the human body to need food(Genesis 1: 29).  God knows all about it, but God had never actually been hungry.  Not until He came to us as Jesus and was ahungered.

Omniscient God knows everything about adolescence and relationships, but God had never been a 14 year old boy dealing with girls in the village who think (or don’t think) he’s cute; not until Jesus came and lived as a 14 year old boy.

That’s why with Jesus we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.  (Hebrews 4:15)

Now, if you’re past the point of wanting to burn me at the stake, let me explain why I’m thinking about this at CHRISTmas time.

Joseph.

Joseph, husband to Mary and stepfather to Jesus.

God chose Joseph to be Mary’s husband.  The Lord even sent an angel to overcome Joseph’s (reasonable) decision to call of the wedding after discovering Mary pregnant an not pregnant by him (Matthew 1: 20).    God selected Joseph over all of the other descendants of King David living at the time, and there were at least enough sons of David to fill up every motel in Bethlehem.(Luke 2: 3, 4, 7)

Why Joseph?  

Mary conceived as a virgin, so God didn’t need Joseph’s genetic material. 

So why Joseph?

Because though Jesus knew everything about men and manhood, He had never actually been a human male before.  He needed a model with experience.

Joseph was Jesus’ model for manhood.

Joseph was the kind of man that God wanted His Son to be like.

Ruminate on that for a minute.

Now, brothers, ask yourself:  Am I?

Could God trust you with His Son?

O.K., bring that down a notch.   Can God trust you with YOUR SON?

When your son is born he has never been a human male before.   Genetics and instinct will only take him so far.  He needs a physically present model of manhood to imitate.  He needs a model with experience.

If your son grew up modeling your moral, spiritual, and personal behavior would God look down on him when he is grown and say, “In him I am well pleased”?

There are (I guarantee you that there are) boys around you who do not share your genetic material but they do look to you as an example of manhood.

Can God trust you to be a good example to them?  

Not just from time to time when you feel like schooling the young boys, but day-in-day-out when you don’t even know they’re watching?  

Can God trust you with His sons?

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, Alabama, executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO) and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
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To hear sermons, read devotions, and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme.blogspot.com .

You can read more on Pastor Graves's personal blog at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com  .

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