Devotions: Ps 22, 40:1-14; 54; 95, 102, 142, 143; Gen 22:1-14; Job 19:21-27a; Jer 20:7-11; 1 Cor 10:14-17; 11:27-32; 1 Pet 1:10-20; Heb 4:1-16; Rom 8:1-11; Jn 13:36-38, 17:1-11; 19:38-42
Jesus prayed Psalm 22 from the cross: My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why so far from helping Me, from my groans and pleas? Still, You are holy, enthroned on Israel's praises. I am despised and mocked by the mortals You created through Me. Stay near, I pray, for trouble is upon Me. I am surrounded by rage and poured out like water. All My bones are out of joint and My heart is melting; My strength is gone and My tongue cleaves to My jaws. I am surrounded by ravening dogs; they have pierced My hands and feet; they divide My garments and gamble for My raiment. Deliver Me from vile and violent enemies. I will lead Your people in praise, and all the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, the King of everything. I waited for the Lord, and He heard Me. He drew Me up from death and put a new song in My mouth. Blessed is everyone who puts trust in YHWH. I delight to do Your will, My God. Let Your steadfast love and mercy and faithfulness cascade over Me; My own heart fails, but I will trust in You, even to the point o fdeath. Let Me enemies be dishonored and those who seek You rejoice, Lord, My Help and My Deliverer. God is My Helper and He will requite My enemies. I lay down My life before You, Father. Vindicate Me, I pray! Let us sing to YHWH our Maker, the Rock of our salvation. We come before Him with thanksgiving and songs of praise. He is our God and we are His flock, sheep of His fold. YHWH will regard my prayers and deliver Me from destitution. God has broken My strength, but He will restore Me in His time and His way. Enemies have sought to destroy Me, but God is My Refuge; He will deliver Me from My persecutors. Answer Me in Your righteousness, Father; I thirst for You! Let Your good Spirit lead me on a level path; preserve Me for Your name's sake, for I Am Your Servant.
God directed Abraham to offer his only son Isaac as a whole burnt offering, and Abraham immediately made preparations and began to obey. Only when he was poised with knife in hand to kill and burn his son did God stay Abraham's hand—though he had previously said that he and the boy would return after they worshiped God on His holy mountain, and that God Himself would provide the ram for the sacrifice. Both were true, as it turned out! Abraham named the place where all this occurred 'YHWH jireh' [God will provide]. And so it is. God Himself provides the Lamb without spot or blemish as the proptiating sacrifice for the sins of the whole world.
Job's frustration and faith foreshadowed the passion of the Messiah Jesus: Have pity on Me, My friends, for God's hand has touched Me and I am pursued to death by enemies. If only My words could be inscribed in iron, for I know that My Redeemer lives and will stand upon the earth in the last moment. Though I die, yet I will see God in My flesh, siding with Me in My hour of testing.
Jeremiah lamented: YHWH, You have deceived me thoroughly; You are stronger than I and You have prevailed. I am a laughingstock; everyone mocks me. I get attacked whether I prophesy or not; but I must speak, for God's words are like a fire in my heart and bones; I cannot hold it in! There is terror and whispering on every side, people waiting to destroy me. But YHWH is with me, like a dread warrior. I know my persecutors will stumble and will not succeed. And their dishonor will never be forgotten. God, let me see Your vengeance on our enemies!
Paul wrote to the Corinthians: Shun the worship of idols. The cup of blessing is a participation in the blood of the Messiah, and the bread we eat is a participation in the Messiah's body. Because there is one bread, we are one body, though many, for we join in partaking of one bread. But whoever eats the bread or drinks the Lord's cup in an unworthy manner is guilty of profaning the very body and blood of the Lord! So let everyone examine himself beforehand, and so eat the bread and drink the cup soberly and with reflection. Many of you are weak and some have died because they failed to do this. But if we judge ourselves truly, we will not suffer the Lord's judgment; we are chastened so that we will not be condemned along with the world.
Peter, an eyewitness of Jesus' passion and resurrection, wrote: The prophets spoke of the grace that is to be yours; they inquired about the specifics of the passion of the Messiah, and His subsequent glory. God revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but Christians in generations to come. So get serious: set your hope fully on the grace that is coming as Jesus the Messiah is revealed. Be holy in all your conduct, as the One Whom you follow is entirely holy. If you invoke as Father the One Who judges everyone impartially, then conduct yourselves accordingly, with fear to offend Him, throughout the time of your exile. You were ransomed from futile ways inherited from your ancestors, with the precious blood of the Messiah, like that of a lamb without spot or blemish. He was destined from before the foundation of the world, but was manifest at the end of times for your sake.
The Good News is offered to everyone, but only those who receive it with faith can understand and obey the Messiah's message. Only we who believe will enter His rest. He has set a certain day, 'Today,' when we must receive His message and not harden our hearts against Him. There remains a sabbath rest for the people of God, and they will cease from their labors just as God has ceased from His. Therefore, let us strive to enter that rest; let none of us fail to do so through disobedience like that of the exiles from God 's mercy. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword; it penetrates to divide soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Before God no creature is hudden; all are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with Whom we have to do. Since we have a great High Priest Who has passed through the heavens, namely Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. We have a High Priest Who is able to sympathize with our weaknesses, because He was tempted in ever respect, just as we have been, yet He did not sin.
There is now, therefore, no condemnation for those who are in the Messiah Jesus. The law of the Spirit of Life in the Messiah Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death. God has done what the law could not do: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk according to the Spirit, not according to the flesh. Those who live by the flesh set their minds on fleshy things; and those who live by the Spirit focus on spiritual matters. To set one's mind on the flesh is death, but to set one's mind on the Spirit is life and peace. The fleshy mind is hostile to God, and cannot submit to God's law; those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, if God's Spirit indwells you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, by His Spirit, though your bodies are dead because of sin, your spirits are alive because of righteousness. If the Spirit of Him Who raised the Messiah Jesus from the dead lives in you, He will give life to your mortal bodies also, through His Spirit Who lives in you.
Simon Peter asked Jesus, 'Lord, where are You going?' Jesus answered, 'Somewhere you cannot follow now, but you will follow later.' Peter asked, 'Lord, why can't I follow You now? I will lay down my life for you!' But Jesus answered, 'Will you, Peter? I tell you most truly, the cock will not crow until you have denied Me three times.'
On the night before He died, Jesus prayed for all His followers: 'Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son so that the Son may glorify You. You have given Him power over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom You have given Him. Eternal life is this: to know You the only true God, and Jesus the Messiah Whom You have sent. I glorified You on earth, and accomplished all the work You gave Me to do. Now, Father, glorify Me in Your own presence with the glory which I had with You before the world was made. I have manifested Your name to the mortals whom You gave me out of the world. They were Yours, and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. Now they know that everything You have given me is from You. For I have given them the words You gave Me, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from You; and they have believed that You sent Me. I am praying for these, and for all You have given Me. I am not praying for the world, but only those who are Yours and Mine. All Mine are Yours, and all Yours are Mine, and I Am glorified in t hem. Now I Am no longer in the world, but they are staying here and I Am coming to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, which You have given to Me, that they may be one, even as We Are One.
After Jesus had died, Joseph of Arimathea petitioned Pilate to take Jesus' body away, and Pilate gave him permission. Joseph came with Nicodemus, and they took the body, along with about a hundred pounds of myrrh and aloes. They bound the body in linen cloths with the spices, as Jews do for burial. They laid the body in a new tomb in the garden adjacent to the place where Jesus was crucified.
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