The Scourging Block Dilemma

[Sailingflutist-SF]

There was a land in which the institution of family was greatly valued and one of the primary rules was to love your parents with all of your heart. It was a rule which all had to obey. One day during a famine in the land it was discovered that there was a thief stealing from the royal kitchen. In order to set an example the ruler decreed that when the thief was captured he would be punished with such a great number of whip lashes that it would probably kill him. A week later the guards caught the thief and on the next day the scourging occurred. The ruler being the "MC." so to speak, was shaken when the thief was drug up the steps of the scourging platform to the block. It was his mother who'd been stealing food for some relatives. The crowd was also stunned and anxiously anticipated the ruler's response. Either way, the ruler would lose; his mother or his authority in the land and set a precedent for allowing theft, even from his own castle.

After a long pause of silence the ruler gave the order for the scourging to begin. The strong, cold, and tenured deliverer of the punishment stepped forward exposing dipping sweat from his warm up with the cat of nine tails dangling its nine glistening flesh-tearing tools. He whirled it in the air so hard and fast that the sound caused the crowd to hunch. He then drew it back to begin and the ruler shouted, "Stop!" The ruler deliberately ascended the steps to the platform removing his royal garments exposing his back, went around behind his mother, laid down over her body, embraced her and then shouted, "Begin!"


I heard a story very similar to this by Michael Youssef this morn on Leading the Way. Isn't it a touching metaphor of what Christ did for us?

 

[reba]

 

[for_his_glory]

John 15:13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

This reminds me of the decree King Ahasurerus made with Haman in the book of Esther. Haman was given permission by the King to annihilate all the Jews and the decree was sealed by the Kings ring. One a decree was given and sealed it could not be reversed. It wasn't until after the sealed decree that King Ahasurerus found out that Queen Esther was also a Jew and would also be killed. The decree could not be broken, but the King found another way around the complete annihilation by telling the Jews to fight back and kill those who threaten them. Just as this King protected his mother he too found a way around what was decreed.

 

[Deborah13]