Tehillah Generation Chapel
Daily Manna| Saturday, August 25, 2018 | Topic: Conscience 107
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: Jesus had bled profusely from the scourging and beatings that He received prior to His crucifixion. Exhausted and still bleeding from the open wounds from the scourging, He was unable to carry His cross. Simon, a man of Cyrene was compelled to carry His cross to the place of skull, by name Golgotha. By the time Jesus was nailed to the cross, He had bled so much that there was little life left in Him. It wasn’t long before the soldiers realised on inspection that Christ had already given up the ghost. This was at a time the two compatriots crucified together with Him at the same time were very much alive.
This inspection had been necessitated by a Jewish tradition that forbade bodies hanging on a cross, as it was preparation for the Sabbath. This one was a high day as it was sabbath preparation for the Passover feast. John 19:31, “The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.”
The bodies hanging on the cross was considered a curse. Even the ordinary Jews understood the process by which death occurred through crucifixion. They had witnessed a lot of such incidents in their society. Breaking the legs of the condemned did the trick to accelerate their death. Jesus was however, already dead, so they didn’t need to break his legs. By not breaking Jesus’ legs, the soldiers fulfilled a prophecy in Psalm 34:20 that not a bone of the Messiah would be broken.
And to make sure that Jesus was certifiably dead, one of the Roman soldiers thrust a spear through His side, puncturing the sac around His heart. John 19:34, “But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.” The pouring out of blood and water was indicative of the fact that Jesus had poured out every ounce of blood from His body. He was left with nothing in His body. It’s impossible for any human to survive death without any blood in his body. If Jesus was presumed dead by the soldiers, the spear through His heart did no such presumption. It ensured that He was surely dead.
Food for thought: Jesus became a curse on our behalf to cancel any curse against us. By His death, He became the Lamb for the Passover feast.
Declaration: The next day John saw Jesus coming to him, and said, Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world. John 1:29
©Author: Rev Fred Aboe
