Today is Good Friday-the anniversary of our Messiah’s incredible sacrifice to die innocent of all sin for sin and a pathway to everlasting life. It is easy to pass by things that were written of His ordeal without picturing what He really went through. Not only the violence He went through, but the humiliation and His own torturous thoughts that pained Him. Totally unfit for our King.
Jesus knew early on in His adult life what He was here to do. He knew as time went on His purpose would change. It must have been grievous in His early adulthood to hold back the gifts He had waiting for the right time to use them. After it was time for Him to preach and heal, He knew it would be time for His death. This thought must have haunted Him countless nights and moments, but He marched on never allowing it to frustrate Him. He must have known that some who were enamored by Him as He healed would one day shout for His crucifixion. How would you react knowing you were giving such people the greatest of all gifts would also want you dead not long down the road?
The longest day was not the D-Day invasion in WWII. It was the day our Christ was betrayed and killed. He was put on trial by Kenite scribes, chief priests, and elders who were afraid of losing their power. Kenites are those Jesus described as those who say they are Jews, but are not in Revelation 2:9 & 3:9. Eve had a child by the serpent, who was Satan, named Cain. God told the serpent that He would put enmity between him and the woman, but also his seed and the woman’s seed would have enmity towards one another, saying “it shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.” Lo and behold Cain was tormented by the good works of his brother Abel, so he slew him. The same exact motivation God prophesied. Cain was not the son of Adam. In Genesis 4:17, the line of Cain separates from the line of Adam. Those are the Kenites. The Israelites and the Kenites meet up after the battle in Canaan, where many of the nomadic Kenites settled and went with the Jews to Israel. In 1st Chronicles 2:55, Kenites were appointed to be scribes. Imagine how good their ability was in convincing the people of their interpretation of matters for those who clearly were not Israelites by scripture to be given this esteemed position in Israel. They must have been very convincing, just as their father was. They have the same traits Satan has. They are convincing, great at lying, hating real Israelites and Israel, hiding their true intentions, and maybe most of all power-hungry. The reason I bring this up is because these things were the true motivations of Caiaphas, the scribes, the priests, and the elders. After being appointed to be scribes, Kenites put themselves in positions of power over the generations. Never before though, not until the Romans came in did they enjoy so much power over the Israelites. Kenites have and will work with the enemies of the Jews as long as it is beneficial to them. Any threat to their power would be met with death to secure their power. “Woe to you scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites!”, Jesus repeated in the gospels. He was speaking to the Kenites.
In His trial by these Kenites, He was spat on, hit, and slapped. He was shipped to and fro in the morning hours making time another torturous thing for Him. Here is wisdom: Jesus admitted to His accusers that He was the Christ after they couldn’t find any truthful witnesses to ensure His death sentence. Even after wanting to have this cup pass from Him, if it was the Father’s will, He made sure He would not escape His terrible fate. After the sentence was given, He was scourged. There is not much more of a violent thing devised by men as scourging. Chunks of His flesh were tore from His body. He could have at anytime said to God “I can’t take it anymore!”, and God would have spared Him. Imagine knowing this, but keeping silent while men with a bloodlust look at you enjoying each piece of flesh that is tore off your body. He stayed silent. After His scourging, He is mocked by Roman soldiers who put on His head a crown of thorns. He is also spat upon again and hit in the head with a reed. His temptation might have really been to meet their power with a power beyond their comprehension, but He didn’t lash out. He stayed silent.
Then He is forced to bear His own cross, but weakness comes from bloodloss and His body going through shock from the scourging, so He needs help. Just when He can seemingly take no more, His hands and His feet are pierced. On each side were criminals who had no ability to get out of their situation. He did. The same Kenites who saw Him heal mocked Him saying “if He be the Christ, then let’s see Him come down”. The hope of Satan, infiltrating to his children was to make Jesus feel such pains and temptations that He would decide He couldn’t take no more and have His Father come get Him.
When Jesus was in the desert to be tempted by Satan after fasting for forty days, Satan put Him on a pillar of the Temple, saying “If You be the Son of God, cast Yourself down: for it is written ‘He shall give His angels charge concerning You: and in their hands they shall take You up, for fear at anytime You shall bump Your foot on a stone.'” The reason this was done was to see if Jesus would call on the angels to save Him instead of dying. Satan wasn’t only tempting Him to sin with Satan’s last offer to Jesus, but was testing Him to see what he would have to do to Jesus to have Him escape death. From beginning to end, the punishment of Jesus was exceedingly brutal and humiliating because Satan was hoping Jesus could take no more and call on the angels to save Him. Satan would have been overjoyed that this creation has lost its Saviour, not to death, but escaping His purpose. If He did, where would we be? Satan the Persecutor would have told God “see, I told You about them!”, after the best of us failed. Maybe that would have been it for our creation. Would God have given us another chance? But He stayed silent. He held back all of His power to die for us-not to guarantee us everlasting life, but merely the hope we would use Him to find it for ourselves. A King’s gift to us and all we love.
I am most grateful to You, my Lord, for Your incredible sacrifices. I love You so much. My love and appreciation for You and what You have done I can’t put into words, but I am trying. What You’ve done for not only me, but the ones I love is beyond comprehension. I love You, Lord Yeshua. I am eager to serve You through every step of the way and as my purpose also changes. Victory is sealed because of You!
ONE OF THE ELECTION OF GRACE 