My enemies surround me like a pack of dogs; an evil gang closes in on me. They have pierced my hands and feet.
I can count all my bones. My enemies stare at me and gloat.
They divide my garments among themselves and throw dice for my clothing.
Psalm 22:16-18
We come to the third of these three references to the crucifixion of Christ within the space of these three specific verses in Psalm 22. Isn’t it remarkable, these prophetic statements all relate to Jesus Christ at the time of His crucifixion? Now we will look in detail at the last of these prophetic utterances and work toward assigning it a probability factor.
When was the last time you went to a funeral and those gathered were sitting around the front of the church or by the grave side, gambling for the deceased’s clothes? That would not be kosher in any society. Very rare indeed. We could almost say it has never happened and wouldn’t ever. It is just not done. I can’t imagine any culture in the world permitting such an act of disdain and dishonour toward the one who has just passed. During my time with Wycliffe, I have encountered some strange cultural practices. But I have never heard of anything so disrespectful as what is described here. I believe that was the point of what they did – to dishonour and poke fun at Jesus as He hung on the cross. The mocking that took place in the robe that was put on Him was meant as an insult to the notion that this man was supposedly a king, royalty. Then to roll the dice at the foot of the cross, in the sight of the one hanging there was a derisive act meant to insult.
Perhaps we could imagine some families descending into fighting when it comes to the division of the estate. But even that would not take place publicly after the funeral. No culture would condone such behaviour. Let alone the fact that the ones doing these abhorrent things were strangers to the One they were taunting and doing it before His very eyes. Oh you can bet it was meant to shame and humiliate.
To throw dice as a way of deciding who would get the garments is nonsensical. You only gamble or throw the dice in order to win a prized possession when others also want that same thing. But these garments were not valuable. The purple robe placed on Christ was not likely to be a true royal robe. It was more likely that it was a military cloak of some sort, put on Him in the military headquarters, but the colour purple or scarlet was chosen deliberately. The purple colour symbolised royalty, but notice the robe was then replaced again with Jesus own garments.
And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him.
Mark 15:20
So the garments they were gambling over did not include the purple robe. That was taken back again and replaced with Jesus normal clothes. (Matt 27:31) They were the torn and bloodied clothes that Jesus had been wearing. This was an act of pure derision as is made clear in the text. They were making a pretence of gambling for His clothes when in fact who would want such clothes anyway? There is no culture on earth which would allow such a practice. In all the cultures I have experienced or heard about among the stories I collected for the Radio Rhema Stories I told over three years, never have I heard of anything that even came close to this bizarre scene. Stop and think of your first reaction to reading something like Psalm 22:18 without knowing the crucifixion story. How could that ever happen? That’s impossible, improbable, unlikely to say the least. But it did.
We could assign a one in a billion chance to such a happening. But I won’t for reasons I have already explained in this series and which I will address in more detail in the next Nugget. So let’s assign a probability factor of 1:1,000.
Representing one chance in one thousand that this prophecy would come true.
With this eighth prophetic statement we have now completed calculating the probability of eight prophecies coming to pass one by one. There may well have been some surprises among these eight prophecies for you. But watch what happens when we weigh up all eight prophecies together in the next Nugget.
Good morning friend.
I remember a message delivered in church a brethren service that I’ve never forgotten. That clothing was sought after because of the time taken weaving it as it was done all on hand looms.Also there was a scriptural reference to his garment being without seam hense the casting of lots rather than destroy it by separating the seams which they would normally have done.
For some reason I have never forgotten this message that was delivered when I was a child.
Kev
Mmm I haven’t heard that before, food for thought.
‘I can count all my bones.’ the pain must have been excruciating yet I’ve failed to notice this before. The hands and feet have always been that most preached. Why?
Yes the pain was immense and made more so by the weight of the body bearing down on the bones of the hand and feet. I can’t answer it has not been preached much. Perhaps the preachers with the opportunity haven’t known or considered such things before.
thank you Ian.
‘all my bones’ that means the whole body including the torso not just hands and feet. What sort of picture does that paint for us?
a complete one Ross; every bone in His body.
Ethiopians teach that they whipped him until they counted the bones in the human body, one of the first times