A prayer of praise for the cross by Mark Altrog, read by Leah Martin.

If there is read by Leah Martin.

If there is a dispute between men and they come into court and the judges decide between them, acquitting the innocent and condemning the guilty,

then if the guilty man deserves to be beaten, the judge shall cause him to lie down and be beaten in his presence with a number of stripes in proportion to his offense.

Forty stripes may be given him, but no more, lest if one should go on to beat him with more

stripes than these, your brother be degraded in your sight.

Deuteronomy 25, 1 through 3.

How merciful God was in dealing with Israel.

A convicted man was to be whipped in the presence of the judge, but he was only to be given

a number of strokes in proportion to his crime.

The maximum he could receive was 40 stripes so that he would not be degraded in the sight of his brother.

Some crimes might have deserved more than 40 strokes, but God and His kindness did not want to see anyone

humiliated in front of his brothers. But he did not show the same mercy toward his son.

In Matthew 27-26 it says,

Then he released for them Barabas, and having scourged Jesus, delivered him to be crucified.

The E.S.V. footnote for the word scourged says a Roman judicial penalty consisting of a

severe beating with a multi-lashed whip containing embedded pieces of bone and

metal. These cruel whips would literally

shred the skin of one's back and sides. God who would spare a guilty man from excessive whipping so he would not be

humiliated in front of his brother did not spare Jesus from degradation.

How dehumanizing it was when the Roman from degradation.

How dehumanizing it was when the Roman soldiers mercilessly whipped him, crowned him with

...