As Jesus' life expired on the cross, he moaned these words: My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?
Today's Scripture reading out of Job 30 includes the following lament, one that echoes the pain of Psalm 22, from which Jesus quotes his agonizing moan of abandonment.
The death God died through Jesus is real...and dreadful. The power of Evil - its tentacles choking the hope out of Job, and draining the life out of Jesus, and which afflicts the souls of all men, women and children, this power must be overthrown. Evil pierces the bones of God in Jesus...and it would seem that terror will overwhelm the world.
Oh the forsakenness that Jesus must have felt in his limbs for our sake...
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Terrors overwhelm me;
my dignity is driven away by the wind,
my safety vanishes like a cloud.
And now my life ebbs away;
days of suffering grip me.
Night pierces my bones;
my gnawing pains never rest.
In his great power, God...throws me into the mud,
and I am reduced to dust and ashes.
I cry out to you, God, but you do not answer;
I stand up, but you merely look at me.
You turn on me ruthlessly;
with the might of your hand you attack me.
You snatch me up and drive me before the wind;
you toss me about in the storm.
I know you will bring me down to death,
to the place appointed for all the living.
2 comments:
Did you write those lines yourself? Gut wrenching....
It is a lament of Job. Though I didn't write it, I did find it disturbingly honest in its trust towards God.
Job and Jesus were both righteous and both suffered, and through them others were blessed because of the pain. Their prayers and laments come from similar sorrows.
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