Today’s reading: Deuteronomy 28; Mark 15:27-47
63 And as the Lord took delight in doing you good and multiplying you, so the Lord will take delight in bringing ruin upon you and destroying you. And you shall be plucked off the land that you are entering to take possession of it. Deuteronomy 28:63
37 And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. 38 And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. 39 And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!” Mark 15:37-39
Moses described the seemingly endless ways Israel would suffer if they disobeyed God’s law, if they were not careful to obey it all, and if they did not “serve the Lord your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart” (v. 47). Their suffering would be through loss of crops, famine, mental anguish of all kinds, national humiliation, family breakdown, and (shudder) cannibalism.
Israel did fail to obey God. Israel did suffer the consequences predicted. But the ultimate suffering was experienced, not by the nation, but by the Messiah, God’s own Son, Jesus Christ, who bore the full weight of God’s wrath for His people. Jesus suffered fully for sin. God the Father willed that His Son should bear this. It seems correct, although shocking, to say, based on our selection in Deuteronomy, that God the Father delighted to bring ruin upon His Son, thus vindicating His holiness and just wrath.
So fully did Jesus’ death satisfy the wrath of God that the temple curtain separating the people from the Holy of Holies, wherein was the mercy seat, was torn in two. In Christ, the way was made for all His people to come into God’s presence and to receive mercy.
What a great salvation Jesus’ death purchased for us! Let this truth grip you afresh today.
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