My El, My El, why has thou forsaken me?
Matthew 27:46 reports, "And about the ninth hour Yahshua cried with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My El, my El, why hast thou forsaken me?"
Now, why is it that Yahushua, if he really is the Messiah, would cry out in such dispair? The "Christian sentimentalist" might point out that, "after all, he is only a man. He is entitled to his own weakness. He was dying on a cross, after all." But Yahushua Messiah is the Son of the living El, the Messiah of Israel.
Why would he cry out in such a way?
If we put away our hard hearts, which cause deception, and put on our 2 Timothy 2:15 caps for a moment, we will see that he was in fact reminding everybody present of a song written by David that they likely sang in their synagogues. Yahshua was reminding all of them and even us today of what the scriptures say about the Messiah, reminding us that He is the fulfilment of those scriptures! We read in Psalm 22, "My El, my El, why hast thou forsaken me?" This is the portion of the Psalm that Yahushua cried out as a reminder to all that heard because this Psalm perfectly described Yahushua at that moment. If those around him had known the scriptures, if they did not have such hard hearts, they would have known exactly what Yahshua was speaking about at that very moment.
Psalm 22:6 says, "But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people." This word was fulfilled at that very moment as recorded in Matthew 27:39, "they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads."
Psalm 22:7, 8 says, "All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted on Yah that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him." This word was also fulfilled at the moment Yahushua hung on the tree with the words of the Jews recorded in Matthew 27:43, "He trusted in Elohim; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of Elohim."
Psalm 22:16 says, "they pierced my hands and my feet." Again, this word was fulfilled right before their eyes as Yahushua hung by the nails pierced through His hands and feet.
But those who heard Yahushua's words, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" did not realize what He was actually talking about because their hearts were hard and they did not believe their own scriptures.
This episode from scriptures reminds us how very important it is that we know and understand the Holy Scriptures. Because they did not know and believe their scriptures, the people rejected their Messiah even as the scriptures were being fulfilled in His life and His death.
They were waiting for a Messiah that had become a figment of their imaginations. They had created many false notions of the Messiah because of their traditions. For example, the Pharisees rejected Yahushua because, as we read in John 7:52, "out of Galilee ariseth no prophet." Nazareth, which is where Jesus lived for many years, was in lower Galilee, but this statement, "out of Galilee ariseth no prophet" is nowhere in the scriptures. The Pharisees made this up! The people were deceived because they did no know or did not believe their own scriptures.
May it not be so with us!
Read and study your Bible daily!
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