God's redemptive plan for the mankind

Jesus Christ's birth had not come about as a matter of chance. In Bible there is ample evidence to show that God already had a definite plan to save mankind from a state of sinfulness and its consequences. This plan was conceived almost 2000 year before the birth of Jesus.

The plan was first revealed to Abraham, the Hebrew patriarch, between 2000 and 1500 BC. He married his half-sister Sarai, who later came to be known as Sarah. They left Ur with his nephew Lot and Lot's family under a divine inspiration and went to Haran. Receiving a promise that God would make him a "great nation", Abraham moved on to Canaan. Once they reached Canaan Abraham and Lot separated. Lot went to live near Sodom and Abraham continued to live his nomadic life. Abraham had a son by the slave woman Hagar. They called his name Ishmael; traditionally he is considered to be the forebear of the Arabs. It is thus written at Gen. 16:12, "And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.

Then God promised Abraham a son by his wife Sarai. It is thus written at Genesis 17:19, "And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him."

More simply it means that God had chosen Isaac for propagation of human race. Ishmael was destined to be the stock; and Isaac was preordained to be the scion of the human race. Isaac’s wife Rebecca bore him two sons: Esau and Jacob. About Esau it is said that the hair on his body were like a hairy garment. At Gen. 25:23 it is thus written, "And the LORD said unto her, two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.

Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field; and Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents. Like Abraham’s first son Ishmael the sons of Isaac too were chosen to be the stock and scion of the human race. It wasn’t a process of natural selection at work; envisaged by Herbert Spencer and Charles Darwin. According to God’s plan it is not the stronger but the weaker that survive. Didn’t God mean to say, "one would be stronger than the other; and stronger would serve the weaker"?

Herbert Spencer had coined the phrase, "survival of the fittest"; Charles Darwin had later acknowledged the importance of Natural selection. In biology natural selection is the non-random survival of randomly varying hereditary units, which results in the evolution; and plays an important role in the maintenance of adaptive improvements.

In God’s plan that we consider fittest do not survive. Who would then survive in His promised kingdom of heaven? Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount see Mt. 5, 3-11) had invoked a divine favor for those who are poor, meek, and humble at heart. It simply means that those who are poor, meek and humble at heart would survive. To help them survive God would use those who are stronger as stock and those who are weak as scion.

What is stock and what is scion? Stock and scion are used in grafting. Grafting is the joining of two cut surfaces of plants and allowing them to grow under controlled circumstances that will allow their physiological union. The supporting plant is called the stock; the plant part that is grafted to it is called the scion. The scion can be a twig, stem, bud, or other part of a plant. Grafting in which the scion used is a bud is called budding. Grafting is done mainly to combine advantageous characteristics of scion and stock. For example, branches or buds of trees known to produce good fruit are grafted to stronger trees that produce fruit of different quality. Grafts are usually unsuccessful unless plants of the same kind, or of closely related kinds, are used. A seedling or cutting, usually chosen for hardiness and resistance to pests and diseases, or for special characteristics such as dwarfing, is commonly used as the stock in grafting. When a seedling is used as a stock, it is first allowed to establish its root system; a graft is then inserted at the base of the stem. As soon as the union of scion and stock has become established, any remaining portions of the shoot of the stock are cut away; all substances absorbed by the root system are thereafter available to the scion for its development. For bringing forth Jesus Christ into this world God too had employed the same process.

We have already seen the example of Ishmael and Isaac, Esau and Jacob. One amongst them was stronger and the other was weaker. Stronger did not beget stronger and weak did not beget weaker. First the stronger were allowed to establish a root system. The weaker then as graft were inserted at the base of the stem. As soon as the union of stronger and the weaker races were established, the descendents of stronger race were not allowed to grow and multiply. The book according to Matthew at chapter 1, verse 1 describes Jesus Christ as the son of David, the son of Abraham.

One of the ancestors of Christ described at Mt. 1:3 is Boaz. He was a descendent of Pharez who was the offspring of Judah and Tamar. (See Gen. 38, 1-30). Judah was the son of Jacob, who was a son of Isaac and great grandson of Abraham. Pharez was born out of an incestuous relationship between Judah and his daughter in law Tamar. Boaz was joined in union with Ruth, the descendent of Lot, Abraham’s brother see Ruth 4:13). Ruth was the grandmother of David. Ruth was a Moabitess. About Moabites it was written at Deuteronomy 23:3, "An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD; even to their tenth generation shall they not enter into the congregation of the LORD for ever." Ammonite and Moabite races too had descended out of incestuous relationship between Lot and His two daughters. For this reason descendents of Abraham were precluded to marry either Ammonites or Moabites. Due to marriage between Boaz and Ruth they were allowed to enter into the congregation of the LORD; and they became entitled to be the ancestors of Jesus Christ. Thus we see that the redemptive plan of God for the mankind was not a type of natural selection; but it was a kind of planned breeding due to which birth of Christ on this earth was made possible.