DECEMBER 02 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#33-06 >>> Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus <<< JQ#33 “Eli, Eli lama sabachthani? that is, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46)

LIVING FOR JESUS --- Daily Devotional

DECEMBER 02  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#33-06  >>> Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus <<< JQ#33  “Eli, Eli lama sabachthani? that is, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”  (Matthew 27:46)

Daily Prayer to JESUS    

Jesus You are the LORD of ALL and Your Words are the only words of Eternal Life and as my heart walks daily in Your Word my soul feels the spiritual warmth of the Light of the Son as as my body feels the physical warmth of the bright sunshine coming down from the heavens. Lord it is at these precious moments that I know Your Joy and my complete desire is to be “one with You and the Father”!  Forgive me where I fail in my daily walk through this world as I let my selfish soul slip and once again I am “of the world” and not just “in the world” — I know this world is not my home so protect me from myself and from the evil one, both of which want to keep me living in the flesh instead of living in Spirit and in Truth. Your Kingdom come, Your Will be done!     AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

DECEMBER 02  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#33-06  >>> Lessons, Lifestyle, and Parables of Jesus <<< JQ#33  “Eli, Eli lama sabachthani? that is, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”  (Matthew 27:46)    Jesus has shared His Last Passover Supper with His disciples and Judas has betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver just as foretold in Scriptures. When Jesus was led away to the courtyard of the high priest for a mock trial all His disciples “forsook Him and fled” and even Peter who had sworn to be with Him even unto death had denied Him thrice, again just as Jesus said it would happen. Jesus even though He was innocent, was wrongfully declared guilty and the words of Isaiah the prophet about the Suffering Servant were being fulfilled with each blow that Jesus received in that dark and evil courtyard. The physical pain Jesus had to endure was horrendous but we cannot imagine the spiritual pain that Jesus was experiencing as He knew that this “Burden” was His to bear and that He must bear it alone! In the 3rd grade class that I have the privilege to teach, a bright 3rd grader asked me during the lesson of Abraham being instructed by God to sacrifice Isaac on the mountaintop, “Why would the father kill the son?” And at that point the Holy Spirit took over the class and I have never been “spiritually” the same since then. The immediate answer took us all the way back to Genesis when God Himself spoke His first command to Adam, “And the LORD GOD commanded the man saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:16-17) These two verses establish some core principles that give us an insight into how God has planned for the world and mankind to progress: (1) God gives us instructions that set forth the moral standard we are to live by (2) God makes it very clear that our actions carry with it a consequence (3) God establishes the doctrine of “Freewill” which in today’s modern vernacular is called “Choice”! What we fail to recognize however is that God is establishing His Character with which He will be faithful to display His character fairly and equally to all mankind, forever! Another nuance which is always passed over is what A. W. Tozer in his spiritual gem of a book “The Knowledge of the Holy” writes that even though we are free to choose our actions that God has reserved the sovereign right to determine the consequence of our choice! The answer to “Why the father would kill the son?” can be found in God’s faithfulness — God established in Genesis that “sin” is when we “disobey God” and the “penalty” for sin is “death”! God demonstrated when Adam and Eve disobeyed God that God “sacrificed” an animal (I would bet it was a lamb, i.e. the forerunner of the Passover lamb) and “covered” Adam and Eve’s shame (guilt) thereby establishing the precedent of “Substitutionary Sacrifice” and the “covering of sin” with the “shedding of innocent blood” — the TRUTH OF GOD is that God had a Plan of Salvation before the foundations of the earth, and the Plan of Salvation would be a “Substitutionary Sacrifice” of His Only Begotten Son who would “shed His Innocent Blood” for the “remission of [ALL] sin” thus fulfilling the requirement established by God Himself with the first act of disobedience that sin must be punished by death and the shedding of innocent blood. The entire Bible is God demonstrating His Faithfulness and His Justice regarding this Initial Principal of God and is summed up by Jesus His Son as the Son explains the “motive” of the Father and “Why the Father would kill the Son” — “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. “ (John 3:16) and … “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.”  (John 15:13-14) Jesus the Son is laying down His life for the same reason the Father has allowed it to happen, and in the last words of Jesus to His disciples Jesus told us why He and the Father “love” the world — “O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me. And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You love Me may be in them, and I in them.”  (John 17:25-26) and lastly: “Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin.” (Hebrews 9:22)