The Plan 12-18-23

Good morning. June 6, 1944, is recorded in history as the day the allied forces landed on French beaches to begin the process of taking back Europe from Hitler and the Nazis. The operation was given the codename OVERLORD and required five naval assault divisions. This included over 7,000 ships, landing craft, and about 200,000 naval personnel. The ground forces who attacked the beaches and pushed inland over the next several weeks numbered over 850,000 men, 148,000 vehicles, and 600,000 tons of ammunition and supplies. Over 11,000 planes and 50,000 airmen were in the sky.

Such an endeavor required some serious planning. U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower was in command, with 7 other high-ranking officers deeply involved with the planning. I couldn’t find a figure for the total number of men and women involved in the planning process, but I am sure it would have been several thousand.

Things didn’t go altogether according to plan, but then when we are talking about a plan as complex as this one, they never do. The D-Day plan was in a constant state of adjustment and invention, but we know that it ultimately succeeded.

God has a plan. Before the creation of time, God was prepared for the need we all share, and God has always had a plan to meet that need.

As you and I read the history of God’s people, of how they functioned after God’s covenant was made with Abraham, we might think that God’s plan, like the plan for D-Day, was in a constant state of adjustment and invention. I do not believe that to be the case. God, who is and has always been complete in the knowledge of all that happens within His creation, foreknew the wrinkles, problems, failures, rebellions, mishaps, and nuances that would seemingly interfere with His plan. He knew about human failure before it happened and none of it changed His intention to keep to his plan.

His plan was a costly one. We read this about God’s plan in Acts 2:22-23 “Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man Jesus was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.”

I think that it is easy to read those words and miss a very important point:  This man Jesus was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge…

Their actions were wicked. Even after God had clearly demonstrated that Jesus was the Anointed One, our Messiah, by way of incredible and miraculous works of power, they chose to crucify Him. Satan would have rejoiced over his victory, but he did not understand that all that happened was by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge.

God’s answer to the enemy’s schemes to defeat His great plan was this: But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. Acts 2:24

For God so loved you that He gave His one and only Son…to save you. That was and is His plan, and nothing throughout all time and eternity will prevent its successful conclusion.

Vern