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THE KING’S BUSINESS
the saints were raised and came forth out of their tombs “after His resurrection,” He Himself being the first fruits of them that slept. Even the heathen centurion was convinced by what he saw and in great fear cried out, “Truly this was the Son. of God.” Friday, May 14. Matt. 27:57-66. Joseph had been a disciple for some time, but secretly for fear of the Jews (John 19:38), but the apparently overwhelming calamity that had overtaken Jesus and which had caused all His disciples to for sake Him and flee, brought Joseph out into the open, and he comes boldly to Pilate and asks the body of Jesus, and having ob tained it, lays that dishonored body in his own new tomb. Here again is a literal ful filment of prophecy, the prophecy that Isaiah had made more than 700 years before, that the crucified Messiah should “make His grave with the rich in His death” (Isa. 53:9). How came Isaiah to foresee all this? There can be but one answer, viz., in his prediction he was not giving his own speculations but was “carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1 :21 Greek). It is to be noted that the enemies of Jesus re membered what His disciples forgot, that Jesus had predicted that after three days He would rise again. They took every precaution in their power to keep Him in His grave, but they left God out of their calculations, and consequently failed. Saturday, May 15. Matt. 28:1-4. We will come to the Story of the resur rection again in three other Gospels; each Gospel account has deeply' significant fea tures of its own. Here we have “the great earthquake” and “an angel of the Lord” rolling back the stQne. It is to be noted that the correct translation is not “the angel of the Lord.” "The” angel of the Lord never occurs in the Greek text (thought it does in our Authorized Version) after the birth of our Lord Jesus. This angel did not roll away the stone for Jesus to get out,
and turned day into night. The darkness was supernatural. It could not have been occasioned by an eclipse for the Passover moon was at the full and an eclipse of the sun cannot take place at full moon (cf. Rom. 8:20, 21 R. V.). Jesus had taken the sinner’s place (2 Cor. 5 :21 ; 1 Peter 2:24), forsaken of God (Micah 3:4) and utters the appalling cry, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’’ There was never a man who clung to God as Jesus did, and yet never one who was so utterly forsaken by God, but not for. His own sin but for ours (Isa. 53:6). This cry was another detail that had been prophesied cen turies before (Ps. 22:1). Even in that moment of seemingly utter desertion, He still holds on to God and cries, “MY God." He is conscious of personal innocence while suffering for the sinner. Certainly this story so marvelously and profoundly true in its smallest detail could never have been manufactured. And now all is “finished” (John 19:20) and the cloud passes by and faith shines forth triumphant and again He crier out with a loud voice, but no longer “My God,” but “Father, into thy" hands I commend my spirit.” No man took His life away from Him, but He laid it down of- Himself (John i0:18) willingly, gladly for the sake of thé sheep. Thursday, May 13. Matt. 27:51-56. Through the crucifixion of Christ, the way into the Holy Place was now made manifest (Heb. 9:7, 8) even “through the veil that is to say His flesh” (Heb. 10:19, 20). No longer was there to be access to the High Priest alone, once a year, but to the humblest believer at all times, so that he might come fully into the holiest of all by the blood of Jesus there shed; therefore the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom. As His death was to bring to naught him who had the power of death, i. e. to say the Devil (Heb. 2:14), as the foreshadowing of this great truth of the resurrection through His death, the tombs were opened and many bodies of
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