Life can be really frustrating, but when you remember the saying, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? You can rest assured that you are not the only one in this.
According to the scriptures, two people were recorded to have made that statement, which appears to be an expression of frustration. These figures were prominent among their sects.
You can already guess who they were, King David and Jesus Christ. Both of them played critical roles in the tale, and today, it’s you and me who are assuming these positions in our time to express a unique feeling of concern and frustration for what is happening in our world.
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What It Means To Be Forsaken
For King David and Jesus Christ, the concern was more about themselves. There had been individual struggles, and perhaps one had to quote the other to make a point that many interpret today as a fulfillment of prophecy.
But before we take a closer look at that, as if we looked at it from a distance already, let’s find out what it means to be forsaken so that someone doesn’t mistake the saying, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me, to mean God didn’t foresee something because, according to the majority of Bible believers, especially Christians, God is all-knowing.
Forsaken is the past participle of the word forsake, which means to withdraw from, leave entirely, reject, or abandon. Forsaken means that someone or something has been withdrawn from, left alone, rejected, or abandoned. Usually, it is used to show frustration and disappointment in discomfort, especially when a close one rejects another in dire need.
Sometime in the past, I listened to a preacher trying to explain a church doctrine called the Trinity. While his presentation sounded like modalism, he made a statement that got to me, supposing that when Jesus said on the cross, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” that was the first time God the Father left his son, supposedly God.
Was it the deity part of the son that left? It seems so. Then God showed up later and raised him up, I guess. But let me not get ahead of myself with these thoughts; I know there would be several other perspectives to it.
My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?
As a child in school, I and other pupils were conversant with a passage of scripture that we recited very often. It was the popular Psalms chapter 23; little did I know that preceding it was a powerful but agonizing passage attributed by Christians to Jesus Christ. It is Psalms 22, where you’ll find the saying, Eli Eli Lama Sabachthani, though that is the Aramaic transliteration of the saying according to the New Testament Gospels. The Hebrew transliteration is Azabtani, whereas the Aramaic is Sabachthani.
Yes, Jesus said, Eloi Eloi Lama Sabachthani, according to Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34; though in Matthew, it appears as Eli Eli Lama Sabachthani, both are interpreted as My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? But before the writers of the Gospels attributed the saying to Jesus, it was first accorded to King David in Psalms 22.
Psalms 22:1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, and from the words of my groaning?
The following verses display the frustration and agony that David experienced due to his feeling of abandonment by God. An extensive reading of the passage introduces one to what is known as the crucifixion depicted in the Gospels. Therefore, it is called the Crucifixion Psalm.
I would love to go further and tell you more about the Christianized version of the Psalms, but then, what about the Jewish version of the passage? Moreover, I just recall that this message was about the statement, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken us?” and its application to you and me, not necessarily them. What a relief!
Perhaps the world would be more peaceful if we didn’t have to argue for and against a particular God. But here we are. Or is it that God is messing with us? Why take a divisive route to relate with the people you claim to love, more so as an all-knowing God? Were they so helpless that it couldn’t be better said and done without hatred and shedding of human blood? Was it some men trying to deceive us?
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why have you forsaken us? Why have you forsaken all flesh? Is it that we missed the point or were fine-tuned to behave in such a way, or that you chose that path to work for some and not for all? Couldn’t it be done any better?
I think I’ve asked many questions, and perhaps I shouldn’t have. I hope you’re not offended, but still, I find it disturbing that you wanted everyone to be saved yet chose a path that would ensure not only that some people would be saved but that others would be seen as adversaries for not being convinced or rejecting some salvation claims for their absurdities or incredibility.
Allow me to ask one more question: Who exactly were you going to save, the ones you knew you would save before they existed or the ones you foreknew that you wouldn’t save before they existed?
If we were brought into a depraved world and are so depraved because of another man’s disobedience, and there is a God, the cry, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” is not for the Christians and Jews alone, but for humanity in and of itself.
As it is written, David did in his time, Jesus did in his time, and here we are. I’m not preaching the Christian or Jewish message; I’m speaking as a human. If there is salvation, where is it? Is it in one that people cannot agree over? What pleasure is it to you that you made us this way and blamed us for it? My God, my God! By and by, they say, by and by, we hear.
