Trying to understand God is humanly impossible!

Even attempting to describe Him and how He operates, I find my words weak and my expressions totally inadequate.  

There is one God.  He expresses Himself in three Persons.  Father and Holy Spirit we have mentioned in the past two Blog articles.  But there is a third Person whom God chose to send on a mission to Earth.

"Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed the heir of all things, through whom also He created the world."  Hebrews 1:1 & 2

God has spoken through creation, through nature that we all see around us.  This is a general revelation that points us to a Divine Being, a Creator and Master.  But God continued to speak in more specific ways through history.  He chose prophets to deliver specific messages to humanity.  Men like Moses were sent to deliver the Israelites from slavery in Egypt; men like Samuel were raised up to speak to Israel and to Israel's kings.  Through these prophets, God would speak warnings, and also instructions on how to live and how to relate to Him.  

Through both prophets and priests, God would speak to His people and also to the Gentiles (who were any people NOT of the Israelite or Jewish heritage).  When God brought in the system of sacrifices for forgiveness and the worship in a tabernacle or temple, the prophets and priests would speak for God and God would receive their prayers on behalf of the people.  

Do you notice the go-between of communication?  Instead of a direct line for communication, God would go through a third party.  This reminds me of my Grandma Sanders who was a switchboard operator for the telephone company back in the 1950's and 1960's.  A call would come through the phone system and Grandma would answer.  The caller would request the number they wished to reach, or name the person specifically.  It was Grandma's business to know everyone and their number.  She would connect the caller with the desired party and let them communicate.  (Sometimes, she would listen in for a minute or two just to make sure they had a good connection.  Or that's what she would say if she was caught listening in a bit too long!)

Many times these prophets would be unsuccessful in connecting the two parties - their prayers were received in heaven but God's messages were not always heeded on earth!  The books of Judges, Samuel, Kings and Chronicles record the cycles of life that the Israelites experienced in their relationship with God.  Over and over, God would reach out in love and with warnings, and sometimes they would repent and get back on track; other times they fell away and continued to worship other gods and practice evil.

Clearly general revelation through nature wasn't quite enough to convey God's messages to people.  The more specific words through the prophets were not always heeded.  God then found a way to reach more personally and directly to those He loves:  He sent His Son!

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things were made through Him..."  John 1:1-3a

This verse sounds a lot like Genesis 1:1 that in the beginning God created and here we see someone called "the Word" was present with God in the beginning.  This Person was there at creation and all things were made through Him!  It also said in Hebrews 1:2 that the world was made through Him, referring to the Son.  The Son, the Word, we know is Jesus Christ.  

Why would God send His Son to the Earth?  The world is a mess.  The people on the Earth are constantly in trouble and seem to do everything they can to offend this holy and patient God.  Somehow, God was moved by compassion and made a plan to rescue His beloved creation through an ultimate sacrifice, the Lamb of God that would take away the sin of the world (John 1:29).  

Jesus is called the Word - meaning He is the ultimate way God has chosen to reveal Himself and communicate His message to the world.  God made Himself through Christ Jesus to become a human, by making a virgin girl, Mary, pregnant by His Holy Spirit.  What a crazy and unfathomable plan?!  But the story of Luke 1 and 2 gives the account and records the historical facts that Mary was willing to go along with this plan.  Jesus was born into the messy world as a human baby and grew up in a human experience.  God was going to show up directly and share His heart!

Hebrews also explains that Jesus went through every temptation and hardship that we as men and women encounter in our lives.  He didn't get special treatment because He was the Son of God.  "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin."  Hebrews 4:15  Jesus is able to connect with us because He went through what we experience.  

Jesus is also called a "great high priest", like I mentioned that God used the role of priests to speak to and reach people.  The high priest would offer sacrifices to pay for sin and to cleanse the people.  Jesus was more than a normal high priest; He became the sacrifice that was offered on the cross!

There's a Gospel song I enjoy that expresses this truth:

"Wonderful, merciful Saviour, precious Redeemer and Friend; Who would have thought that a Lamb could rescue the souls of men, Oh, You rescue the souls of men." - (Dawn Rodgers & Eric Wyse)

God so desperately wanted to speak to us that He sent His own Son as a personal messenger; the Word  was willing to die as the sacrificial Lamb in our place.  He spoke His love and His plan of rescue through Jesus!