THURSDAY
We ended yesterday saying that through suffering God is often revealing his character and working out a bigger more glorious salvation. This is seen most clearly in Jesus.
When Jesus is on the cross we read:
Matthew 27:45–50 (NIV) 45 From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. 46 About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?”* (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).
On the cross Jesus cries out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me”. Jesus, himself, felt forsaken by the Father. Was the Father not fighting for him?
In the theological sense, in that moment on the cross the relationship between the Father and the Son changed in some mysterious way. The Father’s wrath against the sin of God’s people was poured out upon Jesus (Isa. 53:4-10). Jesus, although sinless himself, substituted himself for God’s people as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. So in that moment, Jesus felt the difference in his relationship to the Father. In his suffering, he was forsaken by the Father…but only for a moment as the theme of the quoted text reveals.
This is a quotation from Psalm 22 which was written by David. Let’s read the first 2 verses.
Psalm 22:1–2 (NIV) 1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish? 2 My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but I find no rest.
In this psalm David is crying out to God. He is lamenting God’s distance from saving him. David feels forsaken by God in this moment and so he laments. This psalm pivots a lot. As one commentator says, “This structure, then, is disjointed, possibly reflecting the emotional turmoil that a faithful one undergoes as she tries to make sense of suffering and pain and even attacks from others with a belief in a powerful and loving God.”1 Later in the psalm David pivots to a plea for help from God and declarations of praise to God.
Psalm 22:19 (NIV) 19 But you, Lord, do not be far from me. You are my strength; come quickly to help me.
The whole Psalm then pivots on v. 21.
Psalm 22:21 (ESV) 21 Save me from the mouth of the lion! You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen!
David goes from a plea for God’s salvation to a declaration of his rescue. Although he felt abandoned by God for the moment when God seemed distant and rejected his cries for help and deliverance, God ultimately delivered him in the end. He didn’t see what God was doing in his suffering but later he saw God’s deliverance.
The Psalm then pivots again to praise.
Psalm 22:22–24 (NIV) 22 I will declare your name to my people; in the assembly I will praise you. 23 You who fear the Lord, praise him! All you descendants of Jacob, honor him! Revere him, all you descendants of Israel! 24 For he has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help.
Although he felt abandoned by God in the moment he now realizes that God has not “despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help.”
Then it pivots yet again to the cosmic salvation that God was bringing through the suffering of his servant. God was working a greater deliverance through his suffering that he couldn’t see in the moment in which he felt abandoned by God.
Psalm 22:27–31 (ESV) 27 All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you. 28 For kingship belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations. 29 All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship; before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, even the one who could not keep himself alive. 30 Posterity shall serve him; it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation; 31 they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn, that he has done it.
The whole meaning of this Psalm is likely what Jesus was pointing to in his declaration on the cross. While on the cross Jesus was, in some theologically real sense, abandoned by the Father as he took the just punishment for the sins of God’s people upon himself. But that was not the end of the story. This was “God’s will to crush him” (Isa. 53:10). Jesus humbly submitted to the will of the Father in the garden (Matt. 26:39). The Father’s will was for Jesus to go to the cross and suffer. But through his suffering and abandonment God was working out a greater, more glorious salvation and vindication. In three days Jesus would defeat death and rise from the grave. Now, all those who believe in his name are saved from sin and death. They have the resurrection life of Christ.
Like Jeremiah, in Jesus’ abandonment, God was working out a greater salvation. Jesus’ salvation was seen in 3 days. Jeremiah’s was seen in 550 years or so. So it is with us. In some way our suffering is working for us a greater glory to be revealed in the end when Jesus returns (2 Cor. 4:17; 1 Pet. 1:7). Though we may feel abandoned now (like God is not fighting for us) in the suffering we undergo, he will ultimately rescue us according to his will, in his timing, and in his way. If not in this life he certainly will rescue us in eternity, where we will all declare, “He has done it!”
The feeling of abandonment is always only for a time. It will pass. Wait on the Lord. Your vindication and glorification is at hand.
- Rolf A. Jacobson and Beth Tanner, “Book One of the Psalter: Psalms 1–41,” in The Book of Psalms, ed. E. J. Young, R. K. Harrison, and Robert L. Hubbard Jr., The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2014), 227.
*Matthew includes the Aramaic of what Jesus said to explain why the people misunderstood him as calling out to Elijah. Eli (or Eloi my God) is very close phonetically to the Aramaic of Elijah (Eli or Elya). Elijah was the subject of much eschatological speculation (Mal. 4:5-6). Elijah was taken to heaven without dying (2 Kgs. 2:11) so Jews speculated that he would return to rescue the righteous when they were in need. Malachi 4:5-6 say that Elijah will return. John the Baptist was fulfillment of this prophecy as he came in the spirit and power of Elijah (Lk. 1:17).