Monday, August 26, 2024

PT-1 "Sovereign Departure" (Matt. 27:46-49)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/26/2024 7:56 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  PT-1 “Sovereign Departure”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 27:46-49

 

            Message of the verses:  46 About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "ELI, ELI, LAMA SABACHTHANI?" that is, "MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?" 47 And some of those who were standing there, when they heard it, began saying, "This man is calling for Elijah." 48 Immediately one of them ran, and taking a sponge, he filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed, and gave Him a drink. 49 But the rest of them said, "Let us see whether Elijah will come to save Him.’”

 

            I will begin with a quote from John MacArthur as he sets up this section for us.  “A second miracle occurred at about the ninth hour, or three o’clock in the afternoon, through an inexplicable event that might be called sovereign departure, as somehow God was separated from God.”  Now think for a moment about this highlighted portion of what MacArthur wrote, that somehow God was separated from God.  Now I have mentioned that I thought one of the reasons that Jesus had sweat great drops of blood was that He was very troubled about two things, first that He would be separated from the Father, and second that He would become sin in order to save sinners.  Throughout eternal history which is forever I can say that I don’t think that God was separated from God, so for this to happen was monumental.

 

            In these verse we see that when God was separated from God that Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "ELI, ELI, LAMA SABACHTHANI?"  Notice the question mark at the end of this partial sentence, and if Matthew had not gone on to write it so we could understand it then one may not know this was a question.  MacArthur writes “As Matthew explains, the Hebrew Eli (Mark uses the Aramaic form ‘Eloi,’ 15:34) means, My God, and lama sabachthani means, Why hast Thou forsaken me?”   

 

            Here we see that Jesus was quoting the well-known 22nd Psalm, there could have been little doubt in the minds of those who were standing there as to what Jesus was saying.  Many people had been taunting Him with His claim that He was the Son of God (43), and an appeal for divine help would have been expected.  MacArthur writes “Their saying, ‘This man is calling for Elijah,’ was not conjecture about what He said but was simply an extension of their cruel, cynical mockery.”

 

            MacArthur goes on to explain “In this unique and strange miracle, Jesus was crying out in anguish because of the separation He now experienced from His heavenly Father, for the first and only time in all of eternity.” (I like it when MacArthur agrees with me.)  “It is the only time of which we have record that Jesus did not address God as Father.  Because the Son had taken sin upon Himself, the Father turned His back.  That mystery is so great and imponderable that it is not surprising that Martin Luther is said to have gone into seclusion for a long time trying to understand it and came away as confused as when he began.  In some way and by some means, in the secrets of divine sovereignty and omnipotence, the God-Man was separated from God for a brief time ast Cavalry, as the furious wrath of the Father was poured out on the sinless Son, who in matchless grace became sin for those who believe in Him.”

 

            I have to say that since I have been studying the crucifixion of Jesus Christ that it has had a profound effect on me, more than any other time when I had studied this subject.  I suppose that what effects me the most is that Jesus did this for me, and my thoughts are that if I was the only person on earth that He still would have done this for me, and that is what is effecting me the most, and what it is all about is how much that He loves me.  Living in this sinful body all of my life, especially the first almost 27 years before the Lord saved me is frustrating to me trying to understand the great love that God has for me.  I know that He loves me more than I can understand, but because I feel unworthy of His love for me makes it even more difficult to understand this great love He has for me. 

 

8/26/2024 8:26 AM

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