“But now, if You will, forgive their sin — and if not, please blot me out from Your book which You have written!” (Exod 32:32).

Judaism struggles with (and even rejects) the concept of a rejected Messiah who dies for sins of Israel. But if ever a Messiah would be like Moses, he would have to be willing to go to the greatest extremes to attain Israel’s forgiveness, to be blotted out of God’s book, even to be willing to be publicly nailed to a tree! When we stop and think about it, we must confess that truly biblical Judaism cannot but believe in the Messiah like Moses, who went to such horrid extremes so that we (Jews and Gentiles) can be forgiven for our sins!

“About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘ELI, ELI, LAMA SABACHTHANI?’ that is, ‘MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?’: (Matt 27:46).