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?” Matthew 27:46.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
On the day My Son was crucified, after He had spoken three times, at the sixth hour, which is noon, something happened that made the jeering cease and silence come on Golgotha. The sun was obscured, and deep darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour (3:00 p.m.). It was complete darkness. And if the light in you is darkness, how deep will the darkness be.
But, like everything in the life of My Son, this was fulfillment of prophecy.
“It will come about in that day,” declares the Lord (Adonai) LORD (Yahweh), “That I will make the sun go out at noon and make the earth dark in broad daylight. Then I will turn your festivals into mourning and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring sackcloth on everyone’s loins and baldness on every head. And I will make it like a time of mourning for an only Son, and the end of it will be like a bitter day.” Amos 8:9-10.
Yes, that day I made the earth dark in broad daylight and, yes, that day ended “like” a bitter day with My Son being buried in the tomb. It looked like defeat. But by the Cross, as in the bitter water at Marah, He had turned your bitter into sweet. And He would rise on the third day and I would raise you up with Him. For I am the LORD your healer, your deliverer, your helper, your salvation, and your victory. And Jesus told you that He is the Resurrection and the Life.
“Come, let us return to the LORD. For He has torn Him, but He will heal us; He has wounded Him, but He will bandage us. He will revive us after two days; He will raise us up on the third day, that we may live before Him. So let us know, let us press on to know the LORD. His going forth is as certain as the dawn; and He will come to us like the rain, like the latter and the early rain watering the earth.” Hosea 6:1-3.
In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus had accepted all your sins from the first man and woman to the last created into His flesh, for He was the substance of the shadow of the unblemished lamb of the burnt offering. He fulfilled prophecy for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Revelation 19:10.
When Judas came with the crowd to arrest Him, Jesus said to the crowd, “Do you think that I cannot appeal to My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels? How then will the Scriptures be fulfilled, which say that it must happen this way? All this has taken place to fulfill the Scriptures of the prophets.” Then all the disciples left Him and fled. And even this fulfilled the prophecy of Zechariah.
Then Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away because of Me this night, for it is written, ‘I will strike down the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered.’” Matthew 26:31; Zechariah 13:7.
But then He stated, “While I was with you daily in the temple, you did not lay hands on Me; but this hour and the power of darkness are yours.” Luke 23:53. Judas went out in the night, he brought the crowd to arrest Jesus in the night, the chief priests, elders and scribes examined Jesus in the night, and for three hours as My Son hung on the Cross I turned the day into night, the darkest night. But in Jesus I have rescued you from the power of darkness and brought you into My own marvelous light. Deep darkness has covered the earth but My glory is shining on you who have the Light of the world in you.
My Son was determined to fulfill My Words spoken by the prophets under inspiration of the Spirit. I do nothing without first revealing it to My prophets.
Surely the Lord (Adonai) LORD (Yahweh) does nothing unless He reveals His secret counsel to His servants the prophets. A lion has roared! Who will not fear? The Lord (Adonai) LORD (Yahweh) has spoken! Who can but prophesy? Amos 3:7-8.
But this should not surprise you, once the prophets release My Words into the earth, I can perform them at the appointed time. They authorize and set it in motion. Nothing can stop the vision even if it seems to tarry. It is for an appointed time.
And My Son is the Word become flesh and dwelling among you. My Word came off the page and actively performed the prophecies. The Word is living and active, working. My Son told you that I am at work, and He is at work as well. My Word is always working. And My Word heals you and delivers you from your destructions. And that is what Jesus came to do.
As it was getting towards the ninth hour, when the darkness would be lifted, My Son spoke again. It was difficult for Him to speak as He could not get the air in His lungs without pushing up from the nail pounded into His feet and He was physically weak, crushed by the weight of your sins. But He had to speak My Words. And He cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
There are layers of meaning here for you. There is much treasure here. Hidden Manna to gather.
Let us start with the obvious that was not at all obvious, though it should have been to the chief priests, elders, and scribes. Jesus is quoting Psalm 22, a psalm of My prophet David that we have been sharing in these Life Lessons. My Son is not only quoting it, He is fulfilling it. He is not only fulfilling it, He is living it with all its pain. And just like Him bearing your sins, your ills, your pains, and your poverty, He is bearing your abandonment and hopelessness. He took on depression, fear, and the pain of separation and rejection so that no one who believes in Him will ever be forsaken by Me. No one who believes in Him will ever walk in darkness, no never, for he will have the Light of life.
You will always find Me right there with you. I will never leave you nor forsake you. Jesus was forsaken in your place so that you will never be. Why? Because sin separates you from Me, and Jesus broke your division by taking it on Himself on that dark day.
The three hours of darkness shows you the state of His soul during that time. Not His spirit, but His soul. I had turned My face away from Him. And He had always been in constant and continual fellowship with Me. We are One. At the moment He did not call Me “Abba” but “El,” which means God in all My magnificence, the divine creator and judge. He had been substituted in the sinner’s shoes, the place of rejection.
He will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you are from; depart from Me, all you evildoers.’ Luke 13:27.
First, note that Jesus’ speaking this Psalm should have revealed to the chief priests, scribes, elders, and Jews what was taking place before their eyes. Read Psalm 22. It exactly describes the events of the crucifixion and death of Jesus, which they were watching with their own eyes and participating in. In fact, they were speaking the very words of mockery quoted in that Psalm. This should have been the clue that took them to the conclusion.
He only spoke the first line of that Psalm, but that should have been enough. In Hebrew the titles of the first five books of the Bible are the first word or few words of the opening line. For example, the book you call “Genesis” in English is called “In the Beginning” in Hebrew.
That Jesus was speaking and experiencing this Psalm also shows the great importance to Me of My written Word. Jesus only said My Words because they have eternal life in them. These are not idle words, but your very life. In giving Joshua the instruction on how to prosper and succeed in taking possession of the Promised Land I told him, “This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth,” Joshua 1:8.
Jesus also honored the prophet David, the man after My own heart, who wrote these words under the inspiration of the Spirit. My Son calls Himself the root and offspring of David. It was fitting that David wrote about Him so often in his psalms. The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
David, after telling the details of the crucifixion in Psalm 22, in the very next psalm, Psalm 23, David sings of the good Shepherd. And later Paul would verify this:
Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, Jesus our Lord, equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. Hebrew 13:20-21.
My Son was taken from the Cross to the grave, in what seemed like weakness and defeat, but I raised Him as your great good Shepherd leading you to Me and to eternal life, guiding you in paths of righteousness, and that He will always be your Shepherd.
For the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd and will guide them to springs of the water of life; and God will wipe every tear from their eyes. Revelation 7:17.
Jesus that day, through accepting your sins into His sinless and eternal flesh, felt the sorrow and pain of separation that sinners know. It was so crushing that it took His life in the flesh. It so marred Him that He no longer looked human. That is what sin does to you. Stay away from it like the poisonous snake that it is. And He experienced the torment of the damned that day and it put Him and all creation into darkness. For everything was created by Him, through Him, and for Him and everything that day in creation was so moved that upon His death the earth shook and the rocks were split. The very stones cried out.
As soon as He was approaching, near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles which they had seen, shouting: “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord; Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.” But Jesus answered, “I tell you, if these become silent, the stones will cry out!” Luke 19:37-40.
You who are saved by receiving Jesus as Lord will never know the hideousness of the torment in the soul of a sinner who has rejected My Son. The unclean spirit of depression is the spirit of Hell for there is no hope there of ever being able to exit for eternity that dark, evil place of hatred, regret, guilt and shame where the worm dies not and the fire is never extinguished. My Son bore that in order that you will never have to do so. He knows what it is to suffer that separation of torment and that is one reason that He has such great compassion for sinners. He came to save you and He did it by taking on your sins and the punishment due them. He came to set the captives free and whom the Son sets free is free indeed. Why? Because He paid your debt to Me. He gave His eternal life in the flesh for the eternal life you lost. You are forgiven and restored to better than you had before.
You have no business entertaining spirits from hell such as depression, hopelessness, fear, oppression, shame, anxiety, and hate. These are not yours. Rebuke them with the truth of My Words of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Jesus took them from you just as He took your sins, illnesses, and pains. They are not yours.
And some of those around the Cross, who heard His loud cry of “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” so missed that He was quoting Psalm 22, began saying, “This man is calling for Elijah.” Immediately one of them ran, and taking a sponge, he filled it with sour wine and put it upon a branch of hyssop and brought it up to His mouth, and gave Him a drink. But the rest of them said, “Let us see whether Elijah will come to save Him.”
They were still testing Me and My Son to make us do some act of rescue. But it for this that My Son came to this hour. Do you still not understand?
I love you. I will NEVER leave you or forsake you. My Son made sure of that. All according to My Will. For My delight is to be with you.