I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction” (Hosea 13:14)
Doesn’t it amazed and excite you that even though our Father God
spoke again and again about how He’s going to do to redeem us way
before our Lord Jesus came, the devil (“the defeated one”) and his
gang still did not have a clue. Here again in this prophecy from
Hosea, several hundred years before our Christ (“the risen and
exalted LORD”) came, the prophet Hosea speaking for Him here
made a declaration. The declaration was directed to death. The
proclamation addressed to Mr death went this way:
“O death I will be thy plague,
O grave I will be thy destruction”
Did Mr death and company hear this prophecy? They probably did. Did
they understand? They definitely did NOT understand. Satan could not
understand. Just as he could not understand Gen 3:15 (“It shalt bruise thy
head”) neither did he understand Isaiah 53 and the other similar prophecies
of David. This is because the wisdom of God was spoken in a mystery,
even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our
glory.
“Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it,
they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. (I Cor 2:8) O the depth
of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable
are his judgments, and his ways past finding out” GLORY TO GOD ALMIGHTY.
Let’s turn for a moment to the Crucifixion as reported in the gospel and in the
prophets. The gospel will narrate the drama as seen by the natural men that
were there. The prophets (Isaiah, Hoshea, and David ) will tell us what really
happened behind the scenes which natural eyes did not see. Mark and Luke will
tell us the aspect they saw from the angle they looked, but we will ask Isaiah to
tell us exactly what happened behind the veil of the flesh because he saw it
all from spirit realm above.
First we see Him arrested in the garden of Gethsemane, taken down to the hall
Of Caiaphas the High Priest, blind-folded and spat upon, insulted and beaten. We
follow Him as he was taken before Pilate and then to Herod and was mocked,
clothed with mock garment of kingly authority with thorns for a crown. We then
follow Him back to Pilate as “He was taken from prison and from judgment “
(Isaiah 53:8), and watch His trial and see how
” 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. He was taken from prison
and from judgment: “(Isaiah 53:7) Yes, the prophet Isaiah saw it all.
Now before Pilate, we see Him scourged 39 times with those awful Roman
whips, His blood flowed as His flesh was torn by those cruel blows that
landed mercilessly upon His bare back. Yet Pilate said, “I find no
fault in Him”
Just yesterday, after my eight-year old boy listened to a message on the
Crucifixion, and thought about the horror of the trial and the Crucifixion
of the Lord Jesus, he asked “Who are the Romans?”; “They must be very mean
to have done that to Him that did nothing wrong!” he said. Turning to Him,
I said, No son, not just the Romans did that to our Lord, you and I
together with them did. “How? he said, I wasn’t even born yet…” He exclaimed!!
Yes of course, in the physical realm, the Lord Jesus was condemned and delivered
up by the Jews and crucified by the Romans. However in the “reality realm”, He
was “delivered up by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God”, bruised
and wounded for our trangression and iniquities. The natural eye saw the Roman
Soldier bruise and chastize Him, but in “reality” it was God that bruised Him
when He made the Lamb an offering for Sin. Isaiah said:
“Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief” (53:10) and
the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. (53:6)
Now, let’s get back behind Him and follow as He carried His own cross after
going through the long weary trial and torture . We see him staggering beneath
His heavy cross until they found Simon the Cyrenian who was compelled to
carry it to the “place of the skull”. There they nailed Him to the tree. As He
hung there, we see the mob mocking Him, the rulers telling Him to save
Himself if He be the Christ, and the soldiers sharing his garments. David the
prophet-king saw this happen, hear what he said in Psalm 22:16-18
“For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me:
they pierced my hands and my feet. I may tell all my bones: they look and
stare upon me. They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.”
David saw it first and Matthew then quoted him in Matthew 27:35.
However, dear brethren, what we need to recognize is that the greatest agony
for the Lord Jesus were not the agonies He went through from men or the torture
on His outward flesh (which were unthinkable for a man) but what happened behind
the scene. Sense-knowledge limits Christians to only see the physical agonies
of the cross, but the greater one happened behind the veil of the flesh. “He
hath put Him to grief.” David (Ps 22:1) and Isaiah (Is. 53) saw it all. The
moment God laid on Him, all our iniquities, all our sicknesses and infirmities,
the Father God had to turn His face from Him. The moment God made Him the
Sin-Bearer for the whole human race, “making Him Sin for us”, God could not
behold Him, God turned away from the Son. Isaiah saw it and shouted in
amazement saying:
“As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man,
and his form more than the sons of men:” He became Sin, became a worm for us
as David saw him in Psalm 22:6. He carried for us all the diseases both known
and unknown to man as He hung there. God had to forsake Him.Our sins that
He was carrying caused Him to die spiritually, for the wages of sin is death. He was
separated from His Father and alone there to pay all our debts. “My God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me?”; He cried. He hung there among the outcasts of men
between two robbers and taking the place of the worst criminal of the day, Barrabas,
dying the death of the cursed. “For cursed is he that hangeth on a tree”
Isaiah saw it and said: “And he made his grave with the wicked” (Isa 53)
Even there at the Cross we see supernatural things happening that made at least one
of the Roman Centurion to say “Truly this was the Son of God”. Darkness covered
the earth for three hours, and the veil of the temple was rent in twain from
the top to bottom. The way to the Holiest of All is now open for us.
Then we see the Roman Soldiers smashing the legs and breaking the bones of those
crucified with Him. But when they got to Him, they paused, confirmed that He
had died, they did not break His bones as already declared by the prophets.
He was brought down from the cross and buried in Joseph’s rich tomb. Isaiah
saw this and said: “And he made his grave with the wicked and with the rich
in his death.”
Let me remind you of what our Lord said before this day; He said:
“as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man
be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” Notice He said 3 days and 3
nights, not 2 days and 2 nights as the traditions of men taught us (good Friday to
Sunday morning).Apostle Paul confirmed this in his gospel saying: “For I delivered
unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins
according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third
day according to the scriptures” (I Cor 15).
As He descended into the grave, death was glad he had captured Him, now
grave was prepared to receive and lock Him up. He descended into Hell and was
held there as it were in chains or pangs of death. Death was glad, and the grave
celebrated for victory over the ONE MAN who in the flesh had complete victory
over sin, sickness, and satan.
But while the Lord was down there, David overheard what He said and spoke
concerning him saying: “
“I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I
should not be moved: Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad;
moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope: Because thou wilt not leave my soul
in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou hast
made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy
countenance. (Ps 16:10, Act 2:25-28)”
The Lord Jesus went to Hell for us and during the three days and three nights,
He suffered the unspeakable agonies as our substitute until the demand of
Justice was met. After all the demands and all our debt had been paid, suddenly,
there was a commotion in hell. “He was justified and made alive in the Spirit.
(I Tim 3:16) All of a sudden, there was Light in the domain of darkness, “the
Light that shined in darkness, and darkness overpowered it not” He arose
and hauled off from Himself the pangs of death. With all the hosts of hell holding
Him down, he broke loose and defeated them all in their own kingdom. He
loosed the pangs of death because it was impossible for Him to be
held by it. “And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew
of them openly, triumphing over them in it.” He then took back from the devil
all the authority, all the dominion, and the keys that he stole from the first
Adam and became the Lord of ALL. The Lord of the Living and the dead.
He defeated death, and overcame the grave and became the PLAGUE that
plagues death. He immediately released the prisoners and the captivity captives
that satan held and set them free, some of whom were raised up with as the
first-fruit wave-offering of our Melchisedeck High Priest. Just as Hosea said of Him:
“I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will
redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave,
I will be thy destruction” (Hosea 13:14)
The plan of God had succeeded again. The devil was dazed, completely taken
by surprise. He had been caught in the trap. It then became clear that when death
said ” I have destroyed the Last Adam even as I destroyed the first”, God was
saying, “When my Son hung on the cross and went into the grave, it was you O
death and you O grave, that was brought to destruction.”
“Apostle Paul declared the good news in the book of Acts saying: “And we
declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the
fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath
raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my
Son, this day have I begotten thee.”
Yes! Throughout eternity, in the Records of heaven, and also there in the
records of hell (if they have one), there will be records of the Son’s
visit to Hell, of Satan’s total defeat. The entire kingdom of darkness was
there, when the Son openly disgraced their lord, stripped him of his armor
and became Lord of ALL. He then said: “I am the first and
the last; I am He that liveth, and was dead; and behold, I am alive for
ever-more, Amen; and have the keys of hell and death.
Let us therefore brethren, celebrate His resurrection knowing this that
when He was Crucified, we were crucified with Him, we died with Him,
we were buried with Him, we were made alive with Him and we were in
Him when He overcame the devil. May He see the “travail of His soul over
us and be satisfied.”
