Tehillah Generation Chapel
Daily Manna | Monday, August 27, 2018 | Topic: Conscience 108
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: The experience of Jesus, in His crucifixion to die on the cross, witnessed the dramatic fulfilment of two different prophecies in the Old Testament. The Psalmist prophesied in Psalm 34:20, that not a bone of the Messiah shall be broken, Jesus having earlier given up the ghost not to have warranted hastening of His death. The second prophecy taken from Zechariah 12:10, says that a spear shall pierce through his side. The soldiers used the spear on Jesus as an infallible proof of their due diligence in ensuring His death.
Even if Jesus was still harbouring a pretentious desire to deceive the soldiers with His death, the spear that went through His side, rupturing the sac around His heart, left Him with no way of escape. Granted that Jesus still outrageously managed to cheat on death with no blood flowing through His body by miraculously surviving the thrust of the spear through His side, the next thing that had to do with the body of Christ makes for interesting observations and conclusions.
John 19:39, “Nicodemus, who had first come to Him by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds weight.” In the days of Jesus, when a person died, the body would be embalmed. They would take about 100 pounds of spices and wrap them in cloths around the body to prevent premature decomposition. It’s totally amazing how any person who had suffered so much trauma spanning a litany of scourging, beatings, torture, crucifixion and the brutal piercing of a spear through His side all in just one day, and in addition to these, such strong spices be embalmed on his body in an enclosed grave with limited oxygen supply, could possibly survive all these ordeal and be resuscitated from all these.
Even with the best of intentions to survive, Jesus would have been killed by any of these interventions. The cool air breeze in the enclosed grave suggestion from the proponents of the swoon theory, is a mockery depicting a complete lack of appreciation of the types of graves used at the time and the special stone that was placed at the tomb of Jesus to ensure that even in His best of strength, He couldn’t possibly have escaped from the tomb, guarded by the watchful eyes of 4 soldiers whose own lives depended on the integrity of the imprisoned body of Christ. To suggest a cool breeze on a body with 100 pounds of strong spices which will be competing for the limited oxygen in the enclosed tomb, only succeeds in opening the naysayers and detractors of Jesus to open ridicule on facts and commonsense.
Food for thought: Nicodemus’ first encounter with Jesus was in the dead of the night. His second encounter was with the dead body of Jesus. Don’t allow fear to make you a latecomer.
Declaration: Jesus answered and said to him, “Verily, verily, I say to you, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” John 3:3
©Author: Rev Fred Aboe
