Hi, I'm Dr. Nick Leibish, and this is a scripture in tradition Bible Bites. What I want to talk about in this episode is the words that Jesus utters on the cross when he says, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? So too many people think Jesus is crying out as if he feels, you know, he's in despair, he is rejected by God, God will turn his eyes to Jesus, Jesus is just despicable, right?
And he's wondering, oh God, why have you forsaken me, right? There's so much more. That is incorrect, right? What Jesus is doing in his last moment, like he did throughout his entire public ministry, is showing that the scriptures are fulfilled.
When he says, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He's quoting the very first verse of Psalm 22. This was a common teaching technique that rabbis would do, it would happen in the Jewish world. It was just quote the first line of the Psalm, and everybody knew, oh, that's the Psalm that you're referring to, because they had the Psalms memorized.
We don't have scripture memorized, we know pop songs and movie lyrics and all this stuff. They knew the scriptures, so it only took one verse, the first verse, and everything would come to mind. And so what Jesus is saying is, I am fulfilling Psalm 22, and I want to share just a few examples in this short little Bible Bites for you. And Psalm 22 verse one, of course it says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Okay, that's what Jesus is quoting. So everybody knows, oh, okay, Psalm 22 is what's being fulfilled here. So let's look at a couple of other verses. Verse six, I am a worm and no man sworn to buy men and despised by the people, all who see me mock at me, and they make mouths at me, they wag their heads.
He committed his cause to the Lord, let him deliver him, let him rescue him, for he delights in him. That sounds exactly like what Jesus is experiencing here at the crucifixion. Everybody's saying to Jesus, oh, you delivered other people, delivered yourself, come down off the cross, and they're despising him, and striking him, and punching him, and spitting on him. He's being persecuted all the way to death, and this is being clearly fulfilled as well.
Let's look at another example, simply here verse 16 and following, yes, dogs are round about me, a company of evil doers and circle me. They have pierced my hands and my feet, I can count on my bones, they stare and gloat over me, they divide my garments among them, and from my clothing they cast lots. That sounds very, very familiar, right? This is being fulfilled in the crucifixion.
They have pierced my hands and my feet, they divide my garments for lots, because this is actually being fulfilled right there at the crucifixion. The Romans don't want to tear Jesus' garments, so what they decide to do is to divide the garments by lots. They're going to cast the dice, right? So who's going to win Jesus' garments?
There's a whole reason for this that we can't get into right now, but this is clearly being fulfilled right there at the foot of the cross. But the whole thing does not end in failure, the whole thing does not end in despair. It's showing the suffering of Jesus Christ, it's showing the crucifixion, but it ends in victory. And there's a lot to say, but let me just go down here to verse 27.
It says, all the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nation shall worship before Him, for dominion belongs to the Lord, and He rules over the nations. So you can see this psalm begins in tribulation, but it ends in victory. Jesus will conquer death, He will rise from the dead, and then all nations will worship Him, all nations will glorify Him, and that is exactly what the psalm is saying. So Jesus is saying, you're looking at me now on the cross, remember Psalm 22, this was all foretold, it was all pre-announced, including my victory.
This is what Jesus is saying, He's not despairing, He does not think that God has turned His back on Him, that's not the truth, He's quoting the scriptures. I remember learning this in college and at blue in my mind, whenever I teach students, they're like, wow, this is amazing, so I hope that's your experience as well. Please leave a comment and share what your reaction to this is, and maybe you have a couple of insights as well, and be sure to like and follow, share it with a friend if you could, and follow me at ScriptTrampTradition.com. We've got full courses there.
God bless you.