The sacrifice

     I believe the sacrifice made was by God himself. In scripture it is recorded that the Isrealites called the Father their savior, their salvation, etc. No messiah or christ was attributed to a human being before the man named Jesus was attributed with such titles by his disciples. Before that those titles referred to God Almighty only. Jesus himself gave all glory to the Father and directed men to Him. Prayer was to be directed to Our Father in Heaven according to this man. Again and again in scripture we see God sacrifice His will for man in exchange for man's will for himself: Adam and eve were never commanded to make sacrifices, that idea originated with their children. God gave simply 10 commandments with no sacrificial requirements(no blood) for worship nor the covenant.  By their actions while Moses was on the mountain, men demonstrated they prefered a sacrificial based worship and covenant. Against His own will, God gave Moses a law and the freedom to work out the intricate details according to the responses of the people. Later, through one of the prophets God tells us the people were supposed to be repulsed by the law. It was burdensome on purpose so they would say "hey, the 10 commandments would be an easier burden, we'll run with your idea and will for us.". The people begged for a human king like the nations around them against God's will which was individual freedom with Him as their King. God warned them a human king would take their children for his army and their assests to serve his own interests. Instead of being appalled and saying "wow, that stinks, your idea/will for us is better than that!", they persisted in their desire for a human king.
     Somehow man is attached to the idea of sacrifice and a loving father would never sacrifice one child for another. He would sacrifice himself first. Again and again God sacrificed His presence in accordance with man's will. "The time of the nations" is just such an example. "Fine, did all I can do to try to satisfy you, you want to be like everyone else, go ahead and be one of everyone else". Isreal was dispersed among the nations, "became one of them". Her temple was destroyed and she was sent away to be just like the nations.
     The man named Jesus could very well have been just one such attempt to apease the insane belief of men in a need for a sacrifice. When Abraham proved willing to sacrifice Isaac, God told him it hd not even entered His heart to ever sacrifice a child. That says alot about God's view of sacrifice, especially human. It never entered His heart or mind to require sacrifices. While he consented to animal sacrifices for the Isrealites and the law, it was mankind who demonstrated their preferences to go against God's will by turning to worshiping gods that required human sacrifices like molech. The Father raged at that abomination! Why would he rage at the idea of sacrificing children if he wasn't against it? And yet, sacrificing His own heart and soul, His very will, God created the man called Jesus who He knew would be killed for choosing God his king while perfectly fulfilling the law created against God's will. Man got their human sacrifice. For me, it is the equivilent to spiritual, emotional, and psychological rape of God Himself. God subjected Himself to it as a woman trapped in an abusive relationship consents to sex though she feels forced and underr duress, apeasing a man who threatens to take away her children. No wonder God is disgusted with us. Is anything He does ever good enough?! God gives us love, freedom and companionship, we give him grief about a lack of rules and regulations, an inability to oppress others with them. He apeases the whiney children against His better judgement just to save a few, the few who would never ask for any of it. He sacrifices for the few who only want to love, see freedom lived in all things, and joyfully enter into companionship. Now it strikes me how those desires for laws and sacrifices are a desire to limit God's freedom, to limit God's love/make it conditional, and control His ability to be a companion to us (the Isrealites asked to have Moses speak to them insted of God speaking to them Himself. Moses even had to wear a veil because they wanted to control whether or not they saw even the glow lingering from God's presence/companionship). Man's attempts to rule God like those of a spoiled child to control a parent.
     OK, enough drabbness.

Love, freedom, and companionship: God given sweetness and all that he wants for us

Another aspect of this concept of God providing the sacrifice himself could have to do with an understanding I received concerning the revealing to me of the reason for creation's ignition: In the beggining was the dance. It was all desire and flow, feeling resulting from each creating new desire and the flowing into it. From that dance was born the desire to be observer of the dance. That's when all hell broke loose. God had to observe from within self. That began a struggle between what was created for the purpose of observing from and the creator because that which was created was independent of creator. Understanding of the situation had to come on both ends. The creation of man as a vessel within which spirit beings could observe creation from within it, sorta backfired on God as man chose to act independently. God had to sacrifice His desire to use man as a vessel. The one called Jesus could have been the new, improved vessel which God willingly sacrificed.

That the one called Jesus is not what people assume from the beggining of the book of John is this: through the prophets of old, we are told by God: "My word is my will". So, in the beggining was the word(God's will, God's desire) that will became flesh and walked among us. Then John speaks of John the Baptist, not Jesus. God's will to be observer created a fleshly vessel for His presence that would accpet His presence within it's self. That human being was sacrificed.


adding: as a side note, I had always wondered what made Abel's sacrifice more righteous than Cain's. They both gave the best of their crops, right? I believe I was finally given understanding this year to that question. It had nothing to do with one containing blood and the other not. This happened before the flood and man began to eat meat. In tribal cultures, livestock is wealth and prestige. Vegetables are for eating and pooing out. Abel sacrificed his wealth and image before men while Cain sacrificed fodder. Abel thus made himself more humble before God, more lowly in the world, demonstrting a greater value  of God's opinion than man's while Cain did not.