March 1932
B u s i n e s s
105
T h e K i n g ’ s
HIS GLORIOUS RESURRECTION B y R ussel E. K auffm an
n And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, nei ther was any deceit in his mouth. » (I sa . 53:9).
“Not here!" The angels to His resurrection Gave witness when sad Mary came to mourn; “Not here!” The Lord is risen as He promised — And in her saddened heart new hope was born. Could it be true—had He, her Lord, not suffered The agonies of Calvary, and died? Had they not mocked and scourged her blest Mes siah? Had not her precious Lord been crucified? Yes, Mary, Jesus diedI And He was buried In Joseph’s tomb—by Roman soldiers sealed; But over death He triumphed, more than con queror, His resurrection power He revealed! We worship not today a dead Messiah, But One who lives again—our glorious Lord! Because He lives, we too o’er death shall triumph. Believe the wondrous promise o f His word!
G R A V E
ever
By KEITH L. BROOKS Los Angeles, CstTf or n ia
' a a
*
T he words of the text, in Isaiah’s great prophecy, have presented difficulties to expositors and furnished material for the critics. At first sight, the statements seem to be in the wrong order, and some would change about the words “grave” and “death,” because naturally Christ’s death came before the grave. areful students of the original have come to see, however, that the passage needs no altering as to or der, and that the words in their present arrangement yield a startling truth fully borne out by the New Testament. There was a grave dug for Christ—a grave in which His body never lay. The Revised Version comes somewhat nearer the cor rect sense in rendering it, “They made his grave with the wicked,” instead of, “He made his grave.” Hebraists agree that the verb “made” is here impersonal. Dr. Calkins .trans lates it, “They appointed him a grave with criminals.” The simplest rendering seems to be, “His grave was made.” Yet, when He came to die, He was buried in the tomb of the rich. Who made this grave? It is a well known fact that,
sunset. In the case of the death of Christ, a second law came into effect, for the following day was the Passover ( “an high day” ) and must not be profaned by the exposing of the bodies of criminals. The Romans, for the sake of peace, made certain concessions to the religious convictions of the Jews. What would they do, then, with the bodies of Jesus and the two malefactors? They provided for the burial of three men, either by digging three graves somewhere in the vicinity of the crosses,, or by making one grave capable of holding the three corpses. “They made his grave with the wicked”—but God had another plan. There was a man named Joseph, of Arimathaea, hither to a secret disciple. Strangely enough, there came to him the thought of, pleading for the body of Jesus, that he might place it in his own new tomb. Officials were about to dump His body in a hole with criminals, but seven hundred years before, God had declared that His suffering Servant should have a grave with the rich. ‘♦'■7' oseph of Arimathaea,an honourable counsellor, which also waited for the kingdom of God, came, and
according to Roman law, the bodies of crucified criminals were generally left hanging until they disappeared through exposure or were picked by ravenous birds, the bones then being burned.. In Judaea, however, a religious problem pre sented itself. There would be no peace with the Jews if the law of Moses was needlessly trampled under foot. The law of Moses taught that the bodies of exe cuted criminals must not be exposfed after
went in boldly unto- Pilate, and craved the body of Jesus . . . He gave the body to Joseph” (Mk. 15:43-54). “He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus. And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight. Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the [Continued on page 130]
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker