Day 41 Bible Reading

Exodus 6: 12-30, Exodus 7-8, Matthew 26: 47-68, Psalm 21: 8-13

Matthew 26: 53-54 (ESV)

“Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?””

Verses 53 to 54 from Matthew 26 remind that Jesus is the model by which we must surrender to God’s will for our lives. Jesus knew he was going to his death when he was arrested, but he submitted it to his fate so what was prophesized in the Old Testament would come true. It struck me one day when I remembered that Jesus was called the “lamb of God” and in Jewish culture lambs have been used a sacrifice, that Jesus was always going to be sacrificed to take away our sins. We had a foreshadowing of Jesus’ death when Abraham was going to sacrifice Isaac, but he did not. God was going to sacrifice his only son to free us from sin. Was Jesus always so sure of his submission? No, because he asked on that same night that the burden be taken away from him. The human part of him asked, but the divine in him surrendered to his father’s will. I have never been in the position of having to sacrifice my life for God, but I have had to sacrifice things that sometimes felt just as horrific such as my ego. The death of your ego is like a physical death in so many ways, but it’s not. And when I do manage to give something precious up to me, God always rewarded me in one way or another. And if felt like one door closed and another chapter in my life was closed, so a new chapter and a new door could be opened. And it always worked out if I reminded myself to surrender like Jesus to the plan for my life.