HE OPENED NOT HIS MOUTH!

Tuesday, January 21, 2020

HE OPENED NOT HIS MOUTH!

Ps 38:11-15

11 My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore; and my kinsmen stand afar off.

12 They also that seek after my life lay snares for me: and they that seek my hurt speak mischievous things, and imagine deceits all the day long.

13 But I, as a deaf man, heard not; and I was as a dumb man that openeth not his mouth.

14 Thus I was as a man that heareth not, and in whose mouth are no reproofs.

15 For in thee, O Lord, do I hope: thou wilt hear, O Lord my God.

Isa 53:7

7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.

Isaiah 53 has both traditionally and obviously referred to Jesus at His trial before Pilate but have you also read Psalm 38? We humans have been given two possible responses to extreme challenges – fight or flight. Jesus chose neither.

Jesus knew what His tormentors did not! He knew there was a purpose, a process, and a product of his suffering. To defend himself would have been to condemn everyone else. To live would have delivered the sentence of death to others. To refuse the pain would have been to insure eternal suffering for those He came to redeem.

Pilate, on the other hand, did not even know what he thought he knew. We see this in the following verbal exchange.

John 19:10-11

10 Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee?

11 Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin.

Eph 4:31-32

31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:

32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.

Thank you, Lord, for foregoing your own defense so that I could avoid condemnation. AMEN