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:
Today we continue with the conversations of Jesus on the Cross. We are considering His Words addressed to Me. There are five directed to Me and in our prior Life Lesson, we considered “Father, forgive them they know not what they do.” This was the first spoken aloud communication to Me when He was crucified. But as you know from what He spoke to Me at the tomb of Lazarus, that is, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. I knew that You always hear Me; but because of the people standing around I said it, so that they may believe that You sent Me,” John 11:41-42, that He was constantly carrying on conversation with Me in His heart (spirit). This is what is called “prayer” but it is basically conversation in fellowship and partnership with Me and for you it is with Me through Jesus, the High Priest of your confession (homologia, that is, speaking in agreement of heart with Me) and through the access of My Holy Spirit in you and on you.
Jesus knew I had heard Him in His first Word when He was crucified and that I had accepted His sacrifice of Himself. Just as at the tomb of Lazarus I made no audible answer but everyone saw the result. I had heard.
This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him. 1 John 5:14-15.
But there is a reason these are the first words of Jesus on the Cross and that they are addressed to Me and not the crowds. You too, in any situation, should first before saying anything determine the result you want in keeping with My Word and speak it aloud to Me, but so others hear as well, so I can direct the rest according to that release of faith, which is prophecy. It is then I can perform it.
If instead you complain and speak the dreaded result there is not much I can do against your words. It is by your words you are declared righteous or you are condemned. Death and life are in the power of your tongue.
Jesus spoke the reason He was there and dying, it was so all your sins would be atoned for and taken care of by His sufferings and death. He made sure that He could be the burnt offering, sin offering, peace offering, and guilt offering for all of you whether it was the most hideous premeditated and planned sin or just a sin out of the weakness of the flesh, but that all were qualified to take Him as their offering for the propitiation of their sins.
He also made very clear He had forgiven all who would sin against Him for all time and that was His desire in doing My Will and giving His life that you might never perish but have eternal life. He wanted nothing about His death to be held against any of you. So be careful about that, do not blame people groups as having been responsible for His death whether it be Jew or gentile. Your sins caused His death and nothing else, so in a sense you are all responsible for His death but all in Him are forgiven.
Jesus made it clear that the condemnation on Him was from Me and He had chosen that to take it away from you in accordance with My good pleasure to free you from the curse of the Law by Him becoming the curse for you.
Yes, His first words set the tone that this was a miracle of forgiveness and new creation for all of you in Christ Jesus. A day of grace that would pay your debt to divine judgment and release you from your sins. And the criminals crucified with Him heard it as well, and it planted in the heart of one of them as his hope in the darkest day of his life. Those words became his lifeline to salvation.
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. 1 Corinthians 15:3.
In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. Ephesians 1:7-8.
Jesus spoke first to Me at about 9:00 a.m. when He was crucified (the third hour). Mark 15:25. This was the time of the daily morning sacrifice, first instituted by Moses at My command in the Tabernacle in the wilderness, of the unblemished lamb, unleavened bread, and the wine. The next time Jesus spoke to Me was close to 3:00 p.m. (the ninth hour), which was the time of the daily evening sacrifice of the unblemished lamb, the unleavened bread, and the wine that Moses had also instituted at My direction in the Tabernacle in the wilderness.
Darkness had fallen on the land by an eclipse of the sun about noon (the sixth hour) remained until Jesus gave His spirit into My hands and died at 3:00 p.m., for all nature mourned and trembled at the death of the Creator, for I made all things by, through, and for My Word. And while still in the darkness, close to the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice in Hebrew, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Matthew 27:46.
My eyes are too pure to look upon sin, Habakkuk 1:13, and Jesus had become sin for you so I turned My face away from Him and unto you to whom He had given His righteousness. He was put in the place of the souls who have left Me to go to the outer darkness of the continuum of life that is in Me, as far from the center as you can go. So different from Me, who am Light, as night from day. It crushed Him. He reached out and cried out and it was in the Words David had heard in his heart long ago, the cry of the redeemer covered with your sins going down to the dust of death as He took your sentence for you, “Dust you are and to dust you shall return.” The double death.
But you who are in Him by receiving Him as Lord will never go to the dust of death, in fact, you will never even taste death, absent from the body you will be present with Me. And you will never be forsaken. In Him, there is no sin on you any more. It is not only forgiven but gone. You sins and offenses I remember no more. He took them all.
Hanging on the Cross under the weight of your sins, Jesus was so weak and so thirsty from the loss of blood and fluid, that had even begun the night before, that He could barely speak. But David had already written all that was being said to Me in the heart of Jesus down for you all to read in Psalm 22. I heard it and answered Him. And that is why after this the darkness lifted from over the land at His death.
The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness (gloom) the light has shone. Isaiah 9:2.
If you want to know all Jesus said to Me on the Cross in this conversation and the wonderful way it all turns out we will now look at Psalm 22 in all its awesome wonder:
For the choir director; upon the Deer of the Dawn. A Psalm of David.
My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?
Far from My deliverance are the words of My groaning. O My God, I cry by day, but You do not answer; and by night, but I have no rest. Yet You are holy, O You who are enthroned upon the praises of Israel. In You our fathers trusted; they trusted and You delivered them. To You they cried out and were delivered; in You they trusted and were not disappointed.
But I am a worm and not a man, a reproach of men and despised by the people. All who see Me sneer at Me; they separate with the lip, they wag the head, saying, “Commit yourself to the LORD; let Him deliver him; let Him rescue him, because He delights in him.” Yet You are He who brought Me forth from the womb; You made Me trust when upon My mother’s breasts. Upon You I was cast from birth; You have been My God from My mother’s womb.
Be not far from Me, for trouble is near; for there is none to help. Many bulls have surrounded Me; strong bulls of Bashan have encircled Me. They open wide their mouth at Me, as a ravening and a roaring lion. I am poured out like water, and all My bones are out of joint; My heart is like wax; it is melted within Me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue cleaves to my jaws; and You lay Me in the dust of death.
For dogs have surrounded Me; a band of evildoers has encompassed Me; they pierced my hands and My feet. I can count all my bones. They look, they stare at Me; they divide My garments among them, and for My clothing they cast lots.
But You, O LORD, be not far off; O You My help, hasten to my assistance. Deliver My soul from the sword, My only life from the power of the dog. Save Me from the lion’s mouth; from the horns of the wild oxen You answer Me.
I will tell of Your name to My brethren; in the midst of the assembly I will praise You. You who fear the LORD, praise Him; all you seed of Jacob, glorify Him, and stand in awe of Him, all you seed of Israel. For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; nor has He hidden His face from Him; but when he cried to Him for help, He heard. From You comes My praise in the great assembly;
I shall pay My vows before those who fear Him. The lowly will eat and be satisfied; those who seek Him will praise the LORD. Let your heart live forever!
All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations will worship before You. For the kingdom is the LORD’s and He rules over the nations.
All the prosperous of the earth will eat and worship, all those who go down to the dust will bow before Him, even he who cannot keep his soul alive. Posterity will serve Him. It will be told of the Lord (Adonai) to the coming generation. They will come and will declare His righteousness to a people who will be born, that He has performed it. Psalm 22:1-32.
Although David lived a thousand years before Jesus took flesh, David’s Psalm 22 is the account of an eyewitness who saw in the Spirit. He saw the mocking of the Pharisees, chief priests, scribes, and the crowd and heard their precise words, he saw the soldiers casting lots and gambling for the garments of Jesus, he saw the nails piercing His hands and His feet, He saw His mangled out of joint body, and saw and heard His great thirst and His broken heart.
But in this Psalm, David went beyond the Cross to when all would bow before Jesus and turn to Me through Adonai. And the very next Psalm that David placed right after Psalm 22 is Psalm 23. The great good Shepherd. David knew.
Now the God of SHALOM, 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. Hebrews 13:20-21.
Remember the Holy Spirit rushed on David when Samuel anointed him King and never left him. David knew Me and I showed him My Salvation, Jesus, the Messiah who would come from his line according to the flesh but be My Son according to the Spirit and David’s Adonai.
Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question: “What do you think about the Christ, whose son is He?” They said to Him, “The son of David.” He said to them, “Then how does David in the Spirit call Him ‘Lord (Adonai),’ saying, “The LORD (Yahavah) said to my Lord (Adonai), sit at My right hand, until I put Your enemies beneath Your feet”’? If David then calls Him ‘Lord (Adonai),’ how is He his son?” No one was able to answer Him a word, nor did anyone dare from that day on to ask Him another question. Matthew 22:41-46.
Jesus is quoting Psalm 110, in which David declares Jesus High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. Remember again, the Holy Spirit rushed on David when Samuel anointed him King and never left him. He knew Melchizedek. Yes, the Holy Spirit who anointed him and anointed Jesus.
The last Words you hear from Jesus in the Bible, Revelation 22:16, what does He say?
“I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.” Revelation 22:16.
Jesus calls Himself the root and offspring of David. He identified Himself with David. Jesus was one of his descendants according to the flesh by My promise to David but His creator according to the Spirit. David loved Me and he loved My Salvation, Yeshuah. He was the first person ever to declare he loved Me and his gratitude to Me and it came up right out of his heart. Psalm 18:1-3. And better yet, he sang it to Me.
David longed to experience the time you are living in now, the time of grace, but he claimed the grace and the forgiveness before the time and I gave it to him. David wrote:
“Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the one whose sin the LORD does not impute against him and in whose spirit is no deceit.” Psalm 32:1-2.
I love you. You are indeed blessed. You were born for such a time is this. Tomorrow we shall consider the treasure of Jesus’ precious third Word to Me.