… so He’ll never turn away from you!
Isn’t this so comforting?!
As we come up to Easter, the verse from Matthew 27:46 is usually quoted. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” and we’re told that God turned away from Jesus. Have you heard this before?
Through the years, I have heard and read that God turned His back on Jesus because He couldn’t look at the sin that was upon Him. To be honest, that never made any sense to me. If that was true, then God would not be able to go into the most sin infested places in the earth and for that matter, He would not have been able to look at you or me before we came to know Him, simply because we were ‘born into sin’ (Psalm 51:5).
Psalm 139:7-12 says that we can’t go anywhere in all of creation to escape God. How then could God turn away from Jesus on the cross?
Jesus also tells the disciples that He is never alone because His Father is with Him (John 8:29 & John 16:32).
So, what does it mean?
The issue with this verse is that we live almost 2000 years after Jesus’ death. The people in the first century had their own culture, their own idioms, their own traditions – just as every civilisation does. These are things that we know a little about and practically none of these things are practised today.
Let me throw something out there – the Bible was not written TO us, it was written FOR us. It is a living history book with only a small portion that is still yet to come. It really is the most thrilling and exciting book on the planet!
Jewish boys of Jesus’ time, and centuries previous to that, memorised entire books in what we now call the Bible. By the time the boys had reached 12 years of age, they had memorised completely: The Pentateuch – Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy; Psalms and Proverbs; and the three major Prophets – Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Wow! That is huge.
If I was to sing to you, “Twinkle, twinkle, little star,” you would automatically know the rest of the song. The same would be for, “A, B, C, D, E, F, G.” You would know what comes next.
It is just the same in Biblical times. Instead of quoting whole Psalms and Proverbs at a time, they would say the first line and the people that they were addressing would know exactly what came next.
What was Jesus talking about then?
The Psalm that Jesus is actually quoting is Psalm 22. I won’t put the whole verse here for sake of space but I would like to highlight a few verses.
The first line in verse 1 is: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
But as you read down the chapter, verses 3-5 declare:
“Yet you are holy,
enthroned on the praises of Israel.
In you our fathers trusted;
they trusted, and you delivered them.
To you they cried and were rescued;
in you they trusted and were not put to shame.“
Jesus is recognising that God is holy and that He can most certainly be trusted. Those who went before Him cried out to God and they were rescued. Jesus trusted His Father.
Verses 16-19 should sound really familiar:
“For dogs encompass me;
a company of evildoers encircles me;
they have pierced my hands and feet —
I can count all my bones —
they stare and gloat over me;
they divide my garments among them,
and for my clothing they cast lots.”
Jesus was quoting this Psalm of David! Jesus was saying,
“This is ME. I AM whom King David was prophesying about.
I AM the Messiah!”
At this time, the Pharisees knew beyond all shadow of a doubt that Jesus was the long awaited Messiah. The problem was, Jesus didn’t come to do what the Pharisees expected. Jesus was prophesying that their beloved temple would be destroyed along with all of the Levitical Priesthood and the traditions and laws of the Old Covenant (Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21). This was to make way for the New Covenant of Love and relationship which would then replace the Old Covenant of the Law and performance.
They didn’t like this at all!
That would mean that all control was taken away from them and they would have to submit to another. Hence why they devised plots to kill Jesus. If they could kill the Messiah, then these things wouldn’t happen – or so they thought. This all still came to pass in 70AD when the temple was completely destroyed and Jerusalem was utterly decimated. (For those who love history, this is a horrific but extremely important part of Christianity. You can download and read one amazing book here on the subject for free.)
Back to the cross.
Jesus wasn’t crying out to God, “Why has your face turned from me? Why have you left me?” He was quoting Psalm 22 in its entirety. He was letting those around Him know that He is the Messiah. It was looking really bad right then but He was the One that King David and many other Old Testament Prophets had foretold about. It’s OK. God knows what He is doing.
God didn’t turn away from Jesus.
The cross was God’s ‘Plan A’ from the beginning. Jesus’ death and resurrection was not a ‘Plan B’.
Jesus saw YOU as His awaiting joy on the way to His earthly death. Wow!
I will leave you with the last part of Psalm 22.
Psalm 22:27-31
All the ends of the earth shall remember
and turn to the Lord,
and all the families of the nations
shall worship before you.
For kingship belongs to the Lord,
and he rules over the nations.
All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship;
before him shall bow all who go down to the dust,
even the one who could not keep himself alive.
Posterity shall serve him;
it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation;
they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn,
that HE HAS DONE IT.
May you know the freedom that Jesus died and rose again to give YOU! Receive it for free today.
Jesus will NEVER leave you!
What is the greatest thing that you are thankful to God for today? Where have you seen Him at work in your life lately?
Please share in the comments below.
As you remember that Jesus died and suffered FOR you, celebrate that He is risen and seated at the right hand of Father God. He made a way for you to be seated in Heavenly places along with Him. (Eph 1:20 & Eph 2:6)
There is so much more to have and experience in your relationship with Jesus.
Dive in … you’ll be so glad you did!
Abundant blessings to you,
(Photo Credit: www.pexels.com)
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