Some of you may know that I’m currently reading through the Bible in a year, and blogging about all the crazy stuff that I find inside. Well, the other day I was reading through Judges and came across a story that rocked me.
It’s the story of Jephthah. Know it? Don’t worry…I didn’t either. (I mean, who wants to even spend time trying to pronounce that guy’s name? It’s a two-syllable tongue twister, which I didn’t even think was possible.) But we should know this story. We all should.
Why? Well, before I answer that, I’d like to say that growing up in Sunday school and youth group, I often heard the story of Abraham having to sacrifice his son Isaac paralleled to God sacrificing Jesus for humanity. Ok, I can see that. There’s some similarities between the two. But when you think about it, Abraham didn’t actually sacrifice Isaac. He was willing to, sure, but God stopped it, and provided a ram as a substitute. So, something is definitely lost in that parallel.
I’d like to offer you a better one. Enter, Jephthah. The short version is that before going to war he makes a deal with God saying he vows to give to God whatever comes out of his house to meet him after battle as a sacrifice, in exchange for victory in war. God leads Jephthah into victory, and upon returning home, his daughter is the first one to greet him.
So, to keep his vow, he must now offer his daughter as a burnt offering to God. Oh, and his daughter is his only child by the way. So what happens?
“When he saw her, he tore his clothes in anguish. ‘Oh my daughter!’ he cried out. ‘You have completely destroyed me…for I have made a vow to the LORD, and I cannot take it back.’” (Judges 11:35)
Clearly the dude is wrecked at having to kill his daughter as a sacrifice in order to keep his word. The guy is human, with a loving heart, just like you and me. He’s not cold-hearted or mentally and emotionally checked-out. Realizing what he must now do has rocked him to the core.
My mind was blown, seriously blown, by a few thoughts that came to mind after reading this. Here is one of them. (A second post is soon to follow with more mind-blowingness.)
As a parallel to God giving up Jesus, this gave me a much better, much more intense and I believe, more accurate picture of the agony God endured in sacrificing Jesus than I’ve found in the Abraham/Isaac story.
Saying, “God gave His one and only son as a sacrifice for the sins of humanity” does not come close to conveying the weight, the depth, and the pain of this decision God had to make. Jephthah is in agony at losing his only child. He is destroyed, undone, devastated at the loss he is to experience. It’s not a calculated choice, but rather an intensely emotional event at the deepest level.
“God loves you so much he gave up His son for you” is true, but so trite compared to what is happening here. For God to endure this level of pain, to voluntarily choose to endure this level of hurt, He must be absolutely passionate about you. He must find vast, incredible worth in who you are, to be willing to go through such pain so that He could simply have a relationship with you. This is a parallel that takes me to new places in understanding his intense and deep LOVE as a father. My father.
As Christians, we are so quick to tell the world, “God loves you”. But do we even fully grasp that love? Do we truly see ourselves as something valued by The Creator of Everything? Do we understand the idea that God can have whatever He wants, and that out of INFINITE possibilities of anything to exist, WE were His choice? Do you grasp that? That out of having the ability to have anything He wants, He wanted to have a relationship with us. To BE with us. Do you grasp that?
Does that bring you to your knees in thankfulness? Does that lead you to sing and dance and shout and the vast goodness of that idea? Does it lead you to weep gratefully at how wonderful it all really is? Does it lead you to continually fall more and more in love with Him, knowing how He truly feels about us? Does it humble you in gratitude to the point that you would give Him anything He asked for in return because of How ridiculously fantastic His love is?
Or do you just live in the knowledge that “God loves us,” casually telling people in passing that it’s true and they should accept Jesus? Because those are two very different things.
Do you see what God endured to be united with you? Do you see how much He loved Jesus (if you missed it, look at how much Jephthah loved his daughter)? And yet, how He was willing to endure the pain of willfully handing Jesus over to death in order to be reunited with you? Do you see the sacrifice God made so that HE could be with YOU? How fantastic that God would go to such lengths to be with His own creation, who chose to reject Him? How fantastic indeed! THAT is why we give our lives to Him! Not because we should or because it’s right or because He demands it…but because when you discover that level of LOVE, what else could compare, and why would you not want to fully submit everything you have to One so incredibly wonderful?
Talk about Good News! Ha ha…good news? That is unbelievable news! That is mind-blowing news! That is the absolute best news.
God doesn’t love you.
God LOVES you, immensely.
