Daily Archives: November 27, 2013

Glimpses Of The Great God: Day Sixteen

Devotion, , ,

DAY SIXTEEN

 “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Why are you so far from saving me,

so far from the words of my groaning?

…..All who see me mock me;

they hurl insults, shaking their heads:

‘He trusts in the Lord;

let the Lord rescue Him,

since He delights in Him.’

….Many bulls surround me;

strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.

Roaring lions tearing their prey

open their mouths wide against me.

I am poured out like water,

and all my bones are out of joint.

My heart is turned to wax;

it has melted away within me.

My strength is dried up like a potsherd,

and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;

you lay me in the dust of death.”

Psalm 22:1; 7-8; 12-15

 

One hardly needs to comment on these verses.  Where the New Testament gives hardly any detail of the physical suffering of Jesus, this psalm bears His heart.  With gut-wrenching vividness, He tells what it feels like to be nailed to a stake and left abandoned by God and men.  He felt like a piece of stinking garbage that had been discarded as worthless and disgusting.

 

 

 

 

 

Glimpses Of The Great God: Day Fifteen

Devotion, , ,

DAY FIFTEEN

 Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer,

and though the Lord makes His life a guilt offering,

He will see His offspring and prolong His days,

and the will of the Lord will prosper in His hand.

After the suffering of His soul,

He will see the light of life and be satisfied;

by His knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,

and He will bear their iniquities.

Therefore I will give Him a portion among the great,

and He will divide the spoils with the strong,

because He poured out His life unto death,

and was numbered with the transgressors.

For He bore the sin of many,

and made intercession for the transgressors.

Isaiah 53:10-12

 The first words of this passage come as a shock.  All this pain, all this agony, all this humiliation — God not only allowed it but actually initiated it.  How can this be?  How could God be happy to inflict such a terrible experience on His own Son?   But that is only half of the story. This magnificent story has a glorious ending.  Injustice, torture, torment and suffering did not end with death. On the other side of the grave there was life, and not only for Jesus but for us as well.  God’s pleasure was not in the suffering His Son had to endure but in the outcome of that suffering.  God knew that through the travail of His Son’s soul, there would be many who would be brought into His eternal kingdom.  Gaze long on the bloodied Son of God, hanging on a cross.  That is the measure of God’s love for you.