Of course, Jesus Christ was crucified, which was not a sanctioned method of execution in Israel. However, it was foreshadowed in the wilderness wanderings that Christ would be lifted up as the serpent in the wilderness was lifted up. You can find that in Numbers 21:9. This was probably before the method of execution was even used anywhere. A lot of times when you look up crucifixion, it tells you that the Persians or some other group first started it. That may be true. It just depends on which time the Persians began using it. But it was Moses' time when He was giving these laws and their going through the wilderness was probably about 800 years before the Persian Empire. So this idea that Christ would have to be lifted up like the serpent in the wilderness was already extant for close to a millennium before it actually became a frequent practice. I was going to say a popular practice, but before any nation started using it regularly.
Before I leave this, there is one other thing I wanted to mention about the serpent in the wilderness episode (that is Numbers 21:1-9). Of course, God told Moses to make this bronze serpent and if the people would look at it, then they would be healed from the bite of the serpents. And, of course, he would have to hold it up high for all of the people to see. Well, Jesus uses this imagery when He talks to Nicodemus there in John 3:14 about that He would have to be lifted up like that serpent in the wilderness.
So Jesus Himself uses that figure from way back in the time of the wilderness to say that that prefigured Him and what He had to go through. And as we know, He had to go through a lot! He had to suffer excruciating pain and torment. There was the issue of shame, thirst, His inability to breathe, because in crucifixion your body sags and you are so depleted of energy and blood that you have a hard time pulling up. And even if you have the energy to pull yourself up, it is excruciatingly painful around the hands and the feet because of having to use them as your support and you have got a nail in your flesh at those points. And it is not pretty; not an easy thing to do.
And of course, there was the extreme loss of blood which He suffered. He was beaten several times, flayed open, blood was pouring from Him. And it was this last thing, His loss of blood that actually killed Him. He gave His all, all His life was poured out as a payment for our sins.
And we should not forget one other factor. And that is, at a certain point, His suffering was increased exponentially when all the sins of the world were placed upon Him. If nothing else, it was extreme spiritual, mental, and emotional agony for what He had become with all of those sins put on Him, all the burden and offense that was in those sins. And it would have been especially acute for Him who had never sinned. He had never had to in Himself deal was sin. He dealt with it in other people, but now it had come close and now it had come not only with one person's sins, but billions of persons sins.
It is hard to imagine. How did He do it? How did He maintain His ability to speak with the thieves next to Him? How did He maintain His presence of mind to ask for His executioner's forgiveness? How did He do that? How did He maintain the state of mind to make sure all the pieces of the prophecies that had been given hundreds of years before were fulfilled? How did He do that with all the sin and all the pain, the agony? It is just beyond us. But He put himself through that for us, for our redemption.
Now today, on this Atonement day, we are going to consider an aspect of Israelite law concerning capital punishment. That is why I gave that introduction. But this aspect of capital punishment finds its ultimate fulfillment in Christ's death and burial. Specifically, what we are going to be talking about is Deuteronomy 21:22-23. (It is an easy one to remember, 21, 22, 23.) And we are going to compare that short passage with Paul's … . . .
