YAHSHUA was taken, but His disciples disappeared into the dark of the night, afraid of the outcome. In no way did they want to be associated with YAHSHUA at that moment. They forsook Him in the hour when He- God, their Creator, their Teacher, their Shepherd and Healer was going through the valley of the shadow of death for their sake. The only time ever when He would need them to stay praying with Him just for one hour! What is one hour, when there are twenty-three more in a day? When a life is agonizing in sweats of drops of blood, under extreme stress? “My soul is exceedingly sad so that it almost kills Me!” were YAHSHUA’S words to the disciples. Where was then the sense of urgency from the disciples when they ran away from it all, and continued leaving Him alone, without the courage to pray for Him at His request? The Garden of Gethsemane became a garden of sorrow, marked by the drops of sweat, turning into blood, as He dealt with severe stress, fear and mental contemplation. In that garden He agonized the coming separation from His Father, as He were boring the sins of the entire world. That meant hell to Him. That was hell to Him, for hell is the place void of the presence of God. His nation, under the religious authorities, rejected Him openly, by demanding Governor Pontius Pilate to have Him killed by crucifixion. They shouted, We do not want Him as our King; we want Cesar! They also chose to have a criminal by the name of Barabbas to be freed instead of YAHSHUA, at the governor’s suggestion to free Him. Isaiah described YAHSHUA’S unjust trials and death about seven hundred years before it came to pass. In his prophetic writings, he presented YAHSHUA as the suffering and rejected Messiah up to His death. He said, He was despised and rejected and forsaken by men, a Man of sorrows and pain, and acquainted with grief and sickness; and like One from Whom men hide their faces, He was despised, and we did not appreciate His worth or have any esteem for Him. Surely, He was borne our griefs and carried our sorrows and pains, yet we considered Him stricken, smitten and afflicted by God; but He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our guilt and iniquities; the chastisement [needed to obtain] peace and well-being for us was upon Him, and with the stripes [that wounded] Him we are healed and made whole… He was oppressed, He was afflicted, He was submissive and opened not His mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth; by oppression and judgment He was taken away…yet was the will of the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief and made Him sick… (Isaiah 53:3-5,7-8). When the weight of the world’s sins fell on YAHSHUA, He expressed His pain by letting out an agonizing cry, “My GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?” Yes, that was the rejection from His Father, as He looked at our sins on Him. That was the worst pain He had suffered so far- the pain of hell. Four thousand years ago from that time, He stood at the Garden of Eden and promised them salvation. Now He was fulfilling the promise to them with His own life.
The question YAHSHUA asked His disciples in the moment of His need, is the same question needed to be asked of us on behalf of someone perishing in his sins. Someone drowning, crying for help in the urgency of the moment, but no one available to hear his cry. He perishes in his last breath, because we were deaf to it. Perhaps our ears were all plugged up with gargets, listening to sounds that please the flesh, as in, we are so much unto ourselves and oblivious to other’s needs that we can only see our own. One hour, that is all that it is asked of us to give to pray for someone, whose soul is at the point of death; one hour! May the Lord give us ears to hear the cries around us; heart to love with a sacrificial and enduring compassion; eyes to see, perceive and understand the extent of one’s suffering; a heart to serve Him without wavering; always bent in humbleness and contrition; a heart that sheds tears of compassion for those who are suffering; strong hands to make a difference in one’s life, as we bring them together in a prayer that is prayed with love and compassion. That’s the prayer that delights the Lord; that’s the prayer that is powerful and a prayer that will be heard through eternity and be answered.
CAN YOU TARRY WITH THE LORD FOR ONE HOUR ON BEHALF OF SOMEONE?
What would you say?
THINK ABOUT IT!
Light from the Word 