Tehillah Generation Chapel
Daily Manna | Friday, August 24, 2018 | Topic: Conscience 106
Scripture: And when they saw Joseph afar off, even before he came near to them, they conspired against him to slay him. Genesis 37:18
Note: Some people have questioned whether Jesus really died, and if He indeed died, why He died so early compared to the other two felons with whom He was crucified. Jesus died comparatively earlier than anticipated by the soldiers, who had gone ahead to break the legs of the other two thieves, to hasten their death process. As the means of death by crucifixion was through asphyxiation, victims only succumbed to death when it got to the point where the will and the endurance was no longer there to be able to push themselves up and breathe.
Jesus was totally exhausted, having earlier lost too much blood through scourging, beatings and torture; enduring long and multiple trials and mockery with unimaginable torture that left His body completely deformed and facially unrecognisable. The prophet Isaiah succinctly described the torture and scourging of the Messiah prior to his death in the 53rd chapter of his book. In verses 2b and 3, he said, “he hath no form or comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”
Victims condemned to death were under obligation to carry their own cross to their destination of death. Jesus was simply too exhausted to carry His cross, needing assistance to carry His cross (Matt 27:32); having lost so much blood. After His trial by Pilate who had found no fault in Jesus, he had ordered Jesus to be scourged as a way of placating the angry Jews, so that he could set Jesus free. Unfortunately, the political furore that arose pointed to a popular rejection of his plan to set Jesus free. Unwilling to suffer the political consequences of setting Jesus free, he was compelled to acquiesce to their choice to have Jesus crucified.
Jesus thus, suffered a double jeopardy of flogging, beatings, scourging, mockery, getting spat upon and being stripped of His garments before His crucifixion. Jesus’ ordeal began with a scourging when He was tied to a post and beaten with a Roman whip made of a strip of leather with jagged bones and lead balls woven into it. This whip produced lacerations that made His back a mass of torn and bleeding tissue. Then 5 to 7 inch spikes were driven through His wrists and His feet to leave the Master a weak, wretched and pathetic sight to behold. On the cross, He was too weak to push up to continue to breathe. He gave up the spirit on His own volition and died.
Food for thought: Jesus bore our iniquities upon Himself. Nobody deserves to suffer from the wrath of God for their iniquities.
Declaration: But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed. Isaiah 53:5
©Author: Rev Fred Aboe
