BEHOLD--THE LAMB

"Despised...Rejected...Stricken...Smitten...

Afflicted..Pierced...Crushed...

Wounded... Oppressed..."

Isaiah 53.3-7

These words do not do justice to what really happened.

No words can do so. We cannot imagine what really happened, though we are awed by the horror of what we do imagine.

The utmost brutality and humiliation.

Pain inflicted with cruelty and malice, deep desire to hurt and punish, brutalize, shame, torture, unmitigated evil with intent to sadistically brutalize and abuse.

Jesus suffered a torture greater than any man or woman has ever imagined, nevertheless experienced. It came from a sadistic malice greater than any person has ever poured out on anyone else.

We understand sadism and malice, torture to humiliate, mock, shame, and destroy both body and soul, but what Jesus experienced went beyond what we can imagine or what any man can perpetrate aganinst another.

For this was the ultimate venom of Satan against God, The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This was Satan's greatest rage. And Satan intended that we be next!

But!...He can never do this again!

It was his worst, the worst of all eternity, in that one night and day of malicious brutality.

What about the awful pain and shame that is allowed to be vented by some warped people against others? The gang tortures, rapes, sexual slavery and tortures, child abuse.....? The cruelty and horrors of war.... Accidents and diseases.... Famines, plagues, catastropes..... Volcanoes, earthquakes, storms....

None of this compares to what Jesus experienced. His suffering of body and soul went further and deeper than any and all have ever known.

So, ...? And,...?

He did so for us. He took what Satan intended for us and now saves and protects us from the worst. He died for us in this excruciating way because He loves us, to protect and save us from such horror.

Though He does not yet stop the suffering of people today, He comes to say, "I know what you are going through. I understand, and I am with you. I love you. I am with you; I will never leave you or betray you. I will save you."

When we understand Jesus' love and find comfort, strength, and encouragement, and finally deliverance in HIs grace, wisdom, and power, we walk out of that awfulness with a realization of how much Jesus loves us because He suffered so much more than we did in order to save us.

The greatest of our sufferings lets us know more of the greater sufferings of Jesus. We see His sacrificial love for us in our sufferings.

Coming to know the love of Jesus in our sufferings, we can proclaim that loveto all we know.

The Father sent the Son into that suffering. The Holy Sprit stood by while it was happening. Jesus suffered alone.

But the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit come to us in our suffering. We do not suffer alone. Even though it may seem like we are alone, abandoned, betrayed, and victimized without the help of God to save us, none of these things separate us from the love of God.

When we realize this love, we praise and proclaim the compassion, mercy, humility, gentleness, forgiveness, encouragement, comfort, joy, thanksgiving, gratitude, honor, and glory of God to all we meet.

WHY DOES/DOESN'T GOD...?

Why, O Lord, do You stand far off?

Why do You hide Yourself in times of trouble?

Psalm 10.1

The Psalms have about 150 questions about God and His ways.

They have about that many answers from God.

Here's one of them, expressed two ways.

I think the basic answer here is answered by God with Isaiah 59.1-2:

Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save,

nor His ear too dull to hear.

But your iniquities have separated you from your God;

your sins have hidden His face from you,

so that He will not hear.

Apparently, God is not hiding some place "far off," careless and indifferent.

More likely, our being concerned with our own agendas that God seems not to pay attention to means that we are not paying much attention to what God is doing, particularly those things that God is saying that He expects of us.

James 4.1-3 says pointedly that we don't get what we want from God because all we want from God is what we want, for our own selfish purposes and pleasures.

If in our selfishness we are blind to one another, pretty much unaware and unconcerned about needs and desires of others, perhaps its understandable that we would think God is not interested in us.

The Bible's picture of the situation is that

1. God is not standing far off, but that are avoiding Him and His ways.

2. God is not hiding from us, but we are hiding from Him until we get into trouble and then we can't seem to find Him, or at least blame Him for the trouble we got ourselves into. It's more like, "Why didn't You prevent this, God?" than "Why was I not listening when God was giving me directions and warnings?"

3. God is not short-handed, but we are staying out of His reach, out of touch with what He is trying to say.

Since we intentionally avoid God until we want something from Him, we tend come up with all kinds of complaints, "questions/questioning" about God's not taking care of us and finding fault with how He is or is not running the rest of the world the way we think it should be done, seen from our very limited, very selfish, very discontent point of view.

Our limitations and complaints are probably not going to impress God to the point He abandons His sovereign wisdom and power to cater to our complaints and criticisms, whims and whinings.

Until we see and recognize our own mismanagements and "eye-beams," we probably ought not be too abrasive in our judgments about what we think is wrong about the way God is doing things, or not doing them, as we may think.