Bible Study

Eli, Eli, Lema Sabachthani!

"It is for the Will of God, Not Ours"

by David M. Brown

Founder

Mission Lighthouse Ministry

Good morning!  Today, in Tucker, Georgia, the sun is rising and it is a beautiful day.  Yet, I have to say, over two thousand years ago, three men nailed to their respective crosses, dying in a form of death that was horrific and no doubt very painful wondered what would happen to them.  This was not the most beautiful day on Mount Cavalry, just outside Jerusalem, Israel.  I did say three, yet the man in the middle of the other two, bleeding from his wrists and his feet and even from his side as a sword pierced his side and even from his head as the Roman soldiers placed a crown of thorns on his head, was different.

The man in the middle was way more than a man.  He was a perfect man.  He was a man who committed no sin.  He was a man that came to earth to eventually die on the Cross not because He committed any crime, it was because He was the Lord and the Savior, the Messiah and the Son of God.  He was the Alpha and the Omega; the First and the Last.  He was God in the Flesh!  His name was and is Jesus Christ!

The title of this post, "Eli, Eli, Lema Sabachthani!" is Aramaic and it means, "My God, My God, Why have you forsaken Me!"  (Matthew 27:46, ESV).  This is what Jesus Christ cried out nearing the ninth hour after being placed on the Cross.  He was crying out to the Father in Heaven, yet, He knew that what was happening to Him was not something He did not expect. He knew that according to prophecy in the Scripture of the Old Testament of the Holy Bible, His death on the cross was necessary because He was saving the world.  He was saving the world from itself, from sin and from transgression.  He was saving us from ourselves, we are the world and we are the one's created by God to take care of His creation, the earth.

The reason that I come to you this morning is because of a great sermon delivered by a pastor at my church.  It was a great sermon and it was a timely sermon for me and maybe for hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people who just might be in the position that I am in.

You see, when things go wrong, what is it that we do?  We look up to the heavens, we raise our hands to God and we ask Him the same thing, "My God, My God, why have you Forsaken Me!  Eli, Eli, Lema Sabachthani!"  What we do not understand at times is this, God has not forsaken us because He has a plan for us.  We as humans and believers in Him have to remember that God created us in His image meaning that He wants us to be like Him.  "Then God said, "'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.  And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.  So God created man in his image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them"'  (Genesis 1:26-27, ESV).

With all of this said, I have to relate my story, which is not much different than the pastor who delivered his message last evening at Wednesday night fellowship, worship and prayer at church.  My story begins in 2009.  I had just lost my mother to a terrible blood cancer and I had taken care of her for some time.  It was not easy as I had to take her to many doctor's visits, blood transfusions and bone marrow biopsies.  It was not easy for me as I was unable to work full-time.  I worked from home, trying to establish a home based business which brought in much less income at the time than any full-time corporate job would have brought in but God instructed me that I had to take care of my mother and so I did.  This was part of His plan for me because He knew that my mother and I were close.

With a ragged old car, I would deliver my mother to her doctor's appointments and to her blood transfusions and other appointments for nearly a year.  There were times in the middle of the night I would have to transport my mother to a nearby hospital emergency room because she had problems related to her disease.  On the day that her cancer doctor gave me the news that she had less than a year to live, I ran down to the hospital chapel and I prayed.  I prayed hard.  It was the day that I prayed the hardest up to that point in my life.  I raised my hands as I fell to my knees and I asked God, "Why? You have already taken my father and my brother but now my mother?  Why!"

I forgot the fact that this was all in His plan.  You see, our lives on this earth are short.  Just as God had a plan for His Son Jesus Christ, He has a plan for each of us.  As the pastor said last evening, it might not be the plan that we hoped for but it is a plan and He wills us to follow that plan.

We can go back into Old Testament Scripture and see that Jesus Christ was not the first to ask, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?"  In Psalm 22, ESV, King David, being chased by his brother all over Israel, also spoke these same words:  "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?  Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?  O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest.  Yet, you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel" (Psalm 22:1-4).

Even today, we find ourselves asking God the same question.  We are on our own personal Crosses.  The story that I related to you about the time I was a caregiver to my mother was just the beginning. After her death, I did get a job, maybe not the one that I was expecting, yet, it was one in a field that I had worked before.  I started off at the ground floor but moved up fairly quickly to the mid-level.  Then, I lost the job nearly a year later.  Things, then began to get tough.  

It is now four years later since my mother's death and having that job and I am still questioning what it is that God has planned for me.  I ask Him to lead me in the direction that He has planned for me.  It is not an easy one but no one, I mean no one, not even Jesus Chris Himself said this life would be easy.  

I decided to go into my own business.  I am in the business of photojournalism, photography and media services.  Is this where God has led me?  I have to say that I hope so because I enjoy this field.  Yet, sometimes, I feel that I am doing it on my own.  I have to understand that I am not doing it on my own.  I have God to lift me up.  In human, earthly terms, I know that I might just get two feet forward but at times, those same two feet might lead me backwards by a foot or so.  Yet, God stands behind me and gives me that push and leads me forward again.

With all of this said, let us remember that God has a plan for each and every one of us.  We have to believe that plan is what it is and that it is not for our will but for the Will of God.  Jesus Himself may have asked the question but in the beginning and in the end, He knew what plan He had for Him because He was God; God in the flesh.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.  All things were made through Him..." John 1:1-3"

So, if you find yourself asking, "Eli,Eli, Lema Sabachthani? My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?"  Remember, He has a plan for you and He is there through each and every step of that plan.  If you feel you are losing your way, go to God in prayer and even though you might think He is busy, He hears every one of our prayers and He will answer.

To God Be the Glory!!!!!

Have a great day!