Have you ever wondered if God would leave you? Maybe you’ve wondered if your sins were so bad that God wouldn’t help you anymore. The reality is that God is a loving and forgiving Father Who is always there when we need Him. God is good always and He remains constantly present in our lives.
The Word teaches that God will not leave us or forsake us. We must never forget that He is a very present help in trouble (Psalm 46:1). Confidence in His constant presence can bring us great comfort. Here’s a verse we can remind ourselves of if we ever wonder if God would leave or forget us.
Hebrews 13:5:
…for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
God promises to never forsake His children. Perhaps there are scriptures you’ve read which appear to say otherwise. What do we do when we find an apparent contradiction in the Bible? We study the Word to find how the Word fits! A verse which is often misunderstood regarding this topic is Matthew 27:46.
Matthew 27:46:
And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
“My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Wait a minute! Did God forsake Jesus Christ? What? That sounds like just the opposite of many verses which speak of God’s loving and forgiving nature. Did God suddenly change His nature? Was Jesus Christ confused? Something appears to be out of harmony with this verse. In order to know God’s intended meaning with any scripture, we need to understand that the words in the verse must be in harmony with the rest of the verse as well as with all the scriptures relating to the subject.
There are many verses which plainly show that God is forgiving (I John 1:9; Isaiah 43:25; Ephesians 4:32) and that Christ always did God’s will and was pleasing to Him (John 8:29; Philippians 2:8; Matthew 17:5). God was very pleased with Jesus! His death on the cross was part of God’s plan, so that all mankind could be redeemed.
We can see from the Word that God would not leave Jesus Christ on the cross (John 16:32). Some believe that God cannot stand sin and since Christ became sin for us (II Corinthians 5:21), God left him on the cross, forsaking him. As noted before, this is not in harmony with the many verses which state God’s forgiving nature and Jesus Christ’s perfect obedience and alignment with God. This reasoning is contradictory with clear verses on the subject, so it cannot be the rightly divided Word of God. Our Father did not leave Jesus alone on the cross.
If we recognize an apparent contradiction, there may either be a problem in our understanding or in translation. One thing that catches our attention with this verse is that there are some words not translated into English. These words are Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke.
Through a study of Aramaic, we discover that lama is actually lmna, which means “for this purpose” or “for this reason.” The root of the word sabachthani is shbq, which can mean “to spare, to leave, to reserve, or to keep.” Dr. George M. Lamsa in his work The Holy Bible from Ancient Eastern Text translated the latter part of Matthew 27:46 as “My God, my God, for this I was spared.”
Now we have clarity and harmony! With Jesus making this cry of triumph instead of a cry of helplessness, we are reassured that our God is faithful and forgiving. Jesus Christ was given the ultimate purpose for which he was reserved or spared, and God was with him through it all.
God is constantly with us, despite our shortcomings. We can know that He did not forsake Christ on the cross, and He will never ever leave us in our time of need! Let’s be confident that He’s with us and be ready to teach others the same!