Luke 23:34 “Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.”

Crucifixion was a Roman thing. It was designed to be a slow, painful, public, humiliating death… Being God in the flesh did not make it easier for Christ, rather, harder… no wonder he prayed beforehand “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me”… but it wasn’t possible. There was no other way, and there is no other way.

If you are not saved and born again through Jesus Christ the Son of God… you have not found the way… and you are not on the way to the “the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” Don’t be deceived about it otherwise!

Because at Easter, in the words of Christ that he spoke on the cross as he forgave us all for our role in putting him there… see the wisdom of God versus the wisdom of man… “for they know not what they do”.

Jesus knew they didn’t know what they were doing. Do you know what you’re doing? Really?

Because while God did… they all didn’t. The Roman governor didn’t know what he was doing. The Jewish leaders didn’t. The mob didn’t. Even his disciples didn’t! Satan himself didn’t. So what makes you think you really know what you’re doing either? Wisdom is a gift from God, until you get it from God and hopefully more of it… you don’t know anything yet.

In the death of the cross, there was a purpose to everything that happened, to the finest detail… but a purpose, reason, and wisdom that nobody saw, got, understood at the time… even while our salvation and eternity all hinged upon it! Thank God that God took our salvation into his own hands and didn’t leave it up to one of us and our wisdom. Why would you trust yourself over God then?

“for they know not what they do”… could this also be true of you? I know it’s been of me. Man, I had no idea what I was doing growing up, and even now, I feel like Solomon “I am but a little child: I know not how to go out or come in.” God weans us off our own understanding and wisdom teaching us to trust him and walk in his light… because we don’t have light in and of ourselves. We need his light to see and know anything.

Maybe you truly think you know what you’re doing… but did you know that the Bible says “He taketh the wise in their own craftiness”… maybe your best laid plans are only making a noose for yourself as Haman did in the book of Esther, and maybe all you’re doing is just fulfilling scripture and making God that much more true, and that much more glorified.

See, God is glorified in everyone’s life in the end, be it in his mercy and grace and salvation or in his wrath and vengeance and condemnation. All paths lead to the glory of God… be it a vessel of mercy or a vessel of wrath… but you may as yet know it not “Surely the LORD is in this place; and I knew it not.”

See, God is pleased by faith. And faith in his word often surrenders us knowing what we’re doing in faith trusting him that he knows what he is doing. We will know in time and perfectly one day… but God wants us to trust him than ourselves “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”

Do you trust God that he knows what he’s doing when he commands x,y and z of you in his word? Most think they know better and that they are even more righteous than God. To think you know better than God is nothing new, we’ve been doing it since Eve and Adam bit into the fruit with mouthfuls of disobedience.

The people and powers all responsible for Jesus being put on the cross didn’t know like they thought they knew at the time. They didn’t know they were fulfilling God’s glorious plan of redemption. They didn’t know that death had no power over Christ. They didn’t know that in crucifying Christ, they were guaranteeing the inheritance of the world to him… without God, we just don’t know!

But can you see you don’t know what you are doing? “Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.” And the Bible says in the book of Proverbs “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man”… “but the end thereof are the ways of death.” Are you really going to bet on yourself against God?

Are you wiser than God. But the Bible says his foolishness is wiser than our wisdom. And he was happy to make it that way. You don’t see the power and wisdom in the cross do you… which just proves God’s foolishness is wiser than your wisdom!

This Easter, may we remember Jesus Christ crucified on a tree, but also to consider that his death on the cross shows us that we don’t know what we are doing nearly as much as we think we do. The Bible says “had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory”. Yeah… they didn’t get it.

I hope you know what you’re doing! But if you’re deviating from God’s word… you really don’t know what you’re doing! …. “nevertheless the counsel of the LORD, that shall stand.” Trust in God, believe in him, wait on him… he knows what he’s doing, not just in his Son’s death… but in your life… and even while you don’t.

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