Everything is proceeding according to plan…
But Jesus also told them that He would be raised up and then meet them later at a specified location [in Galilee]. He was raised back to life. He did rendezvous with them in Galilee. And He spent 40 days with them presumably teaching them [among other things] the significance of His death in the greater plan God was rolling out.
What All Was Planned?
- There would be a kingdom – ruled by the resurrected Christ Matthew 25:34
- A small number of man & women would be chosen and prepared to participate in that rule Ephesians 1:4-5,9-12
- Before those events, Christ would die - to pay the death penalty they deserved because of their sin. Otherwise, they could not receive the power of eternal life. Revelation 13:8
Saying something is planned after it has happened isn’t very convincing. [crazt pool shot… oh, I planned it that way]
I’m way more likely to convince you that I had a specific event planned all along if I tell you in advance what I am going to do… better yet, I give it to you in writing so we can both refer back to it later.
I never remember you saying that… well I sent it to you in an email last month… look in your junk mail folder… I’ve got the record of when I sent it right here… it was at 11:46 on January 9
In the same manner certain details of God’s “plan” are pre-recorded in scripture and therefore come with a universally acknowledged date stamp to prove they were given prior to the event. Without bogging down in multiple historical details… its an agreed upon fact that the old testament scriptures were written hundreds of years before the death of Jesus Christ.
Details of God’s plan are indeed embedded in the old testament scriptures. So we can look back and say, the death of the messiah was planned event… and based on the explanation we get from the new testament… planned from the very beginning. And because this is so, I can have confidence that the parts of God’s plan that are yet to come... will come.
Other writings… the quran, the hindi scripts, the buddhist writings, the bablyonian mysteries, the greco-roman myths lack this essential bedrock relationship to human history. They may contain snippets of distilled human wisdom, or systems for coping with the enigma of human experience, but none qualify as the verifiable word of God.
The Death of The Messiah
Luke 22:42 Jesus knew what lay in store for Him. He knew the scriptures… He knew what they were really foretelling… He knew the plan. He knew He would be slain/executed to pay for the sins of all humanity. Knowing everything was proceeding according to plan got Him through the horrible ordeal Hebrews 12:2. Knowing and believing that everythingis proceding according to plan can help you too.
Jesus was arrested, given an unfair trial, sentenced to death, and crucified according to Roman law.
Matthew 27:46 Jesus cry of despair is actually a quote from Psalm 22:1. He was hanging there dying yet still teaching… directing the onlookers, and directing us, back to a prophecy of His suffering. A prophecy with details that could only have been brought to pass by the power of God.
Question: If Jesus knew the plan… why was asking “God, why have you abandoned me”? Was He in doubt about the plan?
Consider this: at that very moment He took upon Himself all the penalty for all the sins of every person who ever lived, or would live. And sin causes separation from God. At this point there is bound to be spiritual, emotional, psychological turmoil going on. Jesus had always enjoyed a strong, close relationship with God the Father. Now He was separated. It woud be intense, it would be something He had never experienced before… His flesh and blood mind would be crying out, “I don’t deserve this!”... “I have done nothing wrong!”
His final words show us He did not lose the vision. After a very short while He says “it is finished” Meaning: it is completed, it is accomplished, it is done [teleo] John 19:28-30.
Psalm 22:3 God’s enthroned in His holiness will not touch or have any part with sin.
Psalm 22:4-5 depicts some of the inner struggle of faith and trust [rememberance of what God has done in the past gives confidence for the future].
Psalm 22:6-8 refer back to Matthew 27:41-43 and you’ll see that is exactly what the onlookers are recorded as saying to Jesus as He is dying. The version in Luke uses the exact wording from the greek translation of the old testament… “laugh to scorn”. They were mocking His trust in God.
Psalm 22:9-11 emotions roll back and forth… now they remembering how God has been there in His life. Reflecting back on your personal history to validate present trust in Him.
Psalm 22:12-13 more mockers… perhaps this time a picture of the demon world surrounding and mocking.
Now comes the most remarkable section of Psalm 22. When these verses were written centuries before they were probably understood to describe some sense of inner frailty… but looking backwards from the day Jesus was dying they are a remarkably accurate description of what happens to a body during crucifixion.
Psalm 22:14-15
- The victim is killed be exhaustion – hanging from the nails he has to push up on the nail in his ankle, tearing up the bone and tissue. This would go on and on until complete exhaustion would take over, and the person wouldn't be able to push up and breathe anymore… and they suffocate.
- Stretched the bones out like they were on a rack
- The victim would experience agonizing thirst
Some of these physical effects could come from a variety of other forms of torture and death which would lessen their impact as prophecies. Which is why the next two verses are worthy of special note.
Psalm 22:16-18 the Hebrew words here literally mean to dig/make holes in the hands and feet. Now we have come to a detail that is so specific that when coupled together with the stretching out of the bones seems to indicate a person nailed to a stake, or a tree, to hang there and die.
Because its so specific, this verse became highly controversial. How?
From the viewpoint of the 21st century the majority of Hebrew manuscripts render the word “pierced” as “lion”. The two words written in the Hebrew alphabet look almost identical [show pic]. So Jews translate it as “the lion is at my hands and feet”.
Over the past 150 years sceptic bible scholars latched on to this discrepancy and proposed that the verse [and therefore the fulfillment of prophecy] can no longer be trusted.
However, the majority is not always the deciding factor in determining which reading is correct. For example, in the Dead Sea Scrolls, which predate most other Hebrew texts by over a thousand years, the term is unmistakably “pierced.” In addition, the oldest Syriac, Vulgate, Ethiopic, and Arabic versions also go with “pierced.” The same is true in the Septuagint, the first Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, which was completed approximately 200 years before the birth of Christ.
The oldest texts render itas pierced!
Those who argue for “lion” typically claim that “pierced” is a corruption, inserted by Christians, in an attempt to create a prophecy about Jesus. However, there are many manuscripts that came before Christianity which have the “pierced” reading. How could christians corrupt the text even before christianity became a thing?
Its more likely that the “lion” reading in the Masoretic Hebrew text is the corruption. The Masoretic manuscripts predominantly date to the 3rd and 4th centuries AD, after Christianity was established. By that time the Jews had a clear motive to conceal what the OT Scriptures predict regarding Jesus Christ.
The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947 more or less settled the matter in favor of “pierced”… but you will still see an * put next to the verse in many bibles.
Psalm 22:18-21 dividing the clothes John 19:23-24
Section 1 ends with a prayer for deliverance… “save my precious life… its all that I have”. As noted earlier Jesus knew he would be delivered.
What Do the Last 10 Verses of Psalm 22 Contain?
The plan God has is not yet complete… the atoning death of the messiah is now part of history. But ahead of us is the return of Christ to rule in power, the resurrection of the saints to eternal spirit life, and the reconciliation of ALL things to God through Christ.
The suffering and death of Christ prophesied in verses 1 through 21 of Psalm 22is followed by prophecies of thse yet future milestones in God’s plan in verses 22-31.
Psalm 22:22-24 begins with a verse referenced in Hebrews 2:12 where Jesus announces His solidarity with those who have lived in the flesh. He who was God and was with God became flesh… He died in the flesh… He was resurrected in the spirit… He didi this to show us the way to accomplish that same glorious existence ourselves. As we read… “God did not hide His face [abandon] and leave Him dead… the Father brought Him back to life. He promises to do the same for you.
Psalm 22:25-26 Jesus fulfilled His vow… He finished the mission He came to accomplish. Those who are willing to humble themselves, accept that they need His sacrifice if they want any hope for a future… all such are invited to partake of the sacrifice that was made in fulfillment of the vow… an acceptance which leads to eternal life, as the verse says… may your hearts [mind, spirit, everything that is you] live forever!
Psalm 22:27-29 He will rule all nations… all people. Everyone will have to accept Christ’s blood shed for them if they are to receive the power of eternal life.
Psalm 22:30-31
We are not at the beginning of God’s plan. We are not at the end of God’s plan. We are in the middle. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ were planned out even before the physical creation was started.
Psalm 22 was written down by the inspiration of God and lay dormant for 10 centuries… then what was said would happen, actually happened. With details and events no mortal could cause.
Everything Is Proceding According To Plan
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