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Purpose
Promise
Performance
What a trinity of blessing these three words contain, and they belong equally to Israel
and the Church, without the possibility of failure through lack of power, through
changeableness, or for any possible reason. May this blessed `confidence' be the portion
of all who have put their trust in Him "Who is faithful that promised".
The Question Why?
There can be few, if any, who have walked along life's pilgrim pathway, without at
times finding the word "Why?" forced from heart and lips, and we go straight to perhaps
the most wonderful exampled of this human feature, the record of the crucifixion, and
read the poignant words:
"My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?"
Matthew tells us that the language actually used by the Saviour was,
"Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" (Matt. 27: 46).
These words are a quotation from Psa. 22:, and there is every evidence that the
Saviour recited the whole Psalm and identified Himself with David and all perplexed
believers, for later the Psalmist said: "They pierced My hands and My feet". "They part
My garments among them, and cast lots upon My vesture", and the closing words of the
Psalm "He hath done (this)" could easily be the equivalent of the closing words of the
crucified Saviour, "It is finished". The cry "Why hast Thou forsaken Me?" cannot mean
that Christ was taken unawares by His betrayal and actual crucifixion, such passages as
Heb. 10: 5-10, Matt. 16: 21; 26: 2 and Luke 18: 31 make such an excuse
impossible. Let us for a moment turn to an earlier trial, and see how the Saviour met it.
In Matt. 4: 1-10 we have a record of the temptation of the Son of God in the wilderness.
How did He resist the temptation, rebuke and triumph over the tempter? He Who
Himself was The Word met the tempter exactly in the same way that you and I must meet
him, He said "It is written" three times, and quoted three passages from O.T. Scriptures.
The reviling crowd spoke truth when they said "He saved others, Himself He cannot
save".
Look at the record of Mark 4: 35, 36. At the close of a strenuous day of healing and
teaching not only the multitudes, but when alone with His disciples, He at length said to
them, "Let us pass over unto the other side". Now note the words that follow:
"And when THEY [not He] had sent away the multitude, THEY took Him EVEN AS
HE WAS in the ship",
and even though a storm arose that threatened the safety of the ship, "He was . . . . .
asleep on a pillow' (38). Here was "The Man Christ Jesus" dead beat, physically
exhausted, working miracles for others, but never for Himself. At the disciples' cry
however, He Who had been carried "even as He was", arose, rebuked the wind, and at
His word "the wind ceased and there was a great calm" (Mark 4: 39-41). Now these