The Whip, Hammer & Cross

WHIP. HAMMER. CROSS.

PAIN. JUDGEMENT. SEPARATION.

PRESCRIPTION. GAVEL. BRIDGE.

The WHIP – part II. Muscles strained. Strong-armed soldiers cursed, taking turns tearing Jesus’ body into hamburger. Sweat mixed with blood ran from the gaping wounds upon his back. The flogging was slow and methodical. The “grunt” of the soldier. The quick “swish” of the whip through the air. The “slap” of leather on bare skin. The agonizing groan of the victim. “Grunt.” “Swish.” “Slap.” “Groan.” “Grunt. Swish.” Slap.” “Groan.” Over and over it went in a kind of sad, deadly beat. Someone was assigned to count the blows. Jewish law stated that no one could receive more than 39 stripes. The PAIN was intense. In fact, this was to be the worse flogging any man would ever receive. The soldiers didn’t know it. Those standing around watching didn’t know it. Certainly young David in South Korea dying of tuberculosis didn’t know it – at least not yet.

But as iron and bone cut through the skin and muscle of Jesus’ back, sickness and disease began to spread through his body. The WHIP cracked and cancer attacked. It cracked again. Diabetes and Muscular Dystrophy moved through his system. It cracked a third time as Malaria, Heart and Lung Disease, AIDS, Kidney Failure, Leprosy and a whole host of sicknesses and diseases attached themselves to the man strapped naked and bleeding against the whipping post. What Jesus’ executioners could not see was Satan pouring the PAIN onto this man like no man has ever known. And what Satan could not see because he was so busy pouring on the PAIN, was that with each lash of the WHIP, God was writing out the PRESCRIPTION.

At some point during the flogging, the WHIP cracked and Satan selected a vial full of tuberculosis to pour into one of Jesus’ wounds. When he did, David in South Korea literally jumped. He was about to experience a miracle.

The HAMMER – part II. Nicky stood in heaven’s courtroom facing the Great Judge on the White Throne. He was guilty and he knew it. There was no hiding from the one whose eyes now penetrated into the very depths of his soul. Nicky was a sinner and “the wages of sin is death.” He stood there, trembling before the throne awaiting a guilty verdict and the impending JUDGEMENT that would surely follow. On Golgotha, the HAMMER had just driven the last nail deep into Jesus’ feet, attaching them firmly to the cross. Back in heaven, God slowly laid down his GAVEL and stood to his feet. Taking off his judicial robe, the judge came around in front of the bench, and became Nicky’s Defense Attorney.

“Yes” the Attorney told the court, “Nicky did in fact commit the sins with which he has been charged. He was a drug addict, a thief, and a murderer. He was filled with lust and hatred and he was in fact, headed straight for hell. For these things and more he deserved the punishment of death. However, let the court know that one evening after a David Wilkerson Crusade, Nicky Cruz, leader of the notorious Mau Mau gang, accepted Jesus Christ as his personal Savior.” At this point, Satan tried to object again and again, but he was always silenced as the Defense Attorney lifted his hand, displaying a huge scar in the middle of his palm.