Ok, I can identify with all of that since I grew up baling hay and straw for many years. However, he continues with this where he describes the dread Jesus felt before he knew he was being crucified:We have all faced a task or obligation that we did not look forward to doing, but that had long-lasting benefits. Allow me to relate an example from my youth: I grew up on a farm and over time helped bale many thousands of bales of hay while riding on the back of an old punch and tie baler. In those days, when you saw that a field of hay had been cut and raked, you knew exactly what was soon coming.
Of course, the summer season working temperature would be in the 90s Fahrenheit (32 Celsius), the wires that held the bales together had a lot of sticky grease or oil on them, the baler would kick up dust and debris from the hay and field, and naturally, all of this would get into your eyes and down your shirt.
Now, after baling the hay, you had to load it on a truck and stack it in the barn loft. This represented an all-day job. At night, you could not wait to take a bath. Back then, the only problem was that we did not have indoor plumbing! Consequently, the fastest way to clean up would be to jump in the nearby creek or stream with a bar of soap. As you can imagine, a certain amount of dread crept up when we could see a hay field being cut–we knew what that meant for us.
Why mention this? Hold that thought for moment.
We will shortly be observing the Passover, which pictures the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for all humanity. Revelation 13:8 clearly states that Jesus (the Lamb of God) was slain from the foundation of the world. Did God understand in advance that it was conceivable for the angels and for humans to sin? Yes, He did! He made room for this possibility in His plan from the very beginning. Notice what Peter adds to our understanding about this in 1 Peter 1:18-20: “knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you…”
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Jesus knew what Isaiah 52 and 53 stated: He was going to suffer. With full understanding of what lay ahead in the coming hours, He naturally dreaded enduring that agonizing pain and suffering. But even knowing this in advance, He fully submitted Himself to God’s will. Even though He was not anxious to undergo excruciating pain, He knew there was an eternal purpose for it. As we read in Isaiah 53, verses 4 and 5: “Surely He has borne our griefs [sickness] And carried our sorrows [pains]…But He was wounded for our transgressions [for our sins], He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.”
According to Holladay, the dread that Jesus felt for his upcoming crucifixion could have lasted for millions of years.
Somehow Holladay's "hay dread" does not compare to the same dread Jesus had the day before he was crucified and he was sitting down to eat with his disciples.From the beginning, Jesus Christ knew that He would be tortured and executed by the very humans that He created! From the beginning of the physical universe, possibly many millions of years ago, Jesus (then The Word) knew full well what lay ahead of Him and all that it meant.
9 comments:
What can you expect from a man who knows more about Moses than he does Jesus. This is what happens to a person who has no theological training from a seminary.
Roy would do well to study what Isaiah 52 and 53 is really all about. It is not about Jesus but Israel and the suffering servant may have been Isaiah's view of himself trying to get Israel to listen. NT writers did mine the chapters for story line I'm sure as they did with Psalm 22
By using an inadequate, or inappropriate metaphor or analogy, Roy Holladay has actually trivialized what Jesus willingly suffered on our behalf. Even suffering a horrible beating to protect a loved one and ending up in the intensive care unit of the hospital, though getting closer, doesn't quite make it. I wonder how many of the ministers have even had that experience.
BB
Typical psychopath thinking. They have no understanding of pain others suffer.
I actually looked forward to baling hay throughout my teen years. Tossing it up onto the truck and then into the barn. Good, honest, hard work! Guess I'll never be a UCG minister!
Ancient cultural references throughout history are full of "god-men", many of whom are described sacrificially, much like Jesus was in the Christ story.
It's and old old story, and one which surely predates Christianity.
For a person to equate himself with any of these god-men shows that he has a psyche that is stunted at a pre-pubescent/pubescent male level, and thinks of himself as more than he really is- leading him to think of himself as if he is like a one or more heroes from action movies, comic books, the Koran, Bible, or whatever else.
A similar internal dynamic can take hold after attending sales seminars, large group awareness trainings(such as Promise-keepers stadium events), Hitler Youth rallies, and Christian megachurch events.
They are all so stupid! Their minds went on a Holiday long ago.
Guthrie - a town North of Edmund, Oklahoma had 14 earthquakes (over 2.4) in the last 4 days. A small prophecy says the compound at PCG is overdue.
Yes, Dennis, the gospel writers did mine the OT for the Jesus story and it was the Septuagint OT at that. The Greek doesn't read the same as the original Hebrew. There is no piercing of the hands and feet in the original, that's the Septuagint that says that.
The Christian religion and the Jesus story was wholly invented from the Greek OT - probably by Greek converts to Judaism who had earlier separated themselves from the Jews to start their own version of that religion.
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