In tune with my previous posting, dated 05/08/17, and yesterday, I miraculously, located the cover of the calendar of 2005, not 2008 that was with the Emperor’s poems on it, I had been looking all over for it, for years, in vain, and it had been on the small shelf on top of my writing desk for the past 12-year. It is all because of HIM that I was able to find it.

功成十字血成溪 (Pinyin – Gōng chéng shízì xiě chéng xī)

When the work of the cross is done, blood flowed like a river,

The second part of the first sentence is about the shedding of the blood. And the Emperor correctly and amazingly stated what says in tune with the scripture (1) that Jesus was already dead, then one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear and  Jesus’ blood and water immediately flowed out.…

The poetry of any poem without punctuation would open up rooms for many different interpretations. As for 血成溪 (Xiě chéng xī), – 血 (Xiě )is blood; 溪(xī) means Brooks that is a form of water; and the Chinese etymology of 成 (chéng) according to the Kangxi dictionary means the ending, at the end (2).

Evidently, the translation is true to its original Chinese text, but for the spiritual reading of 血成溪 (Xiě chéng xī), you may have to agree with me that the scripture 1 John 5:6 (3-NLT) would be more in tune with the whole sentence than John 19:34. It is because that  Jesus Christ was baptized in water as the son of man; by shedding the blood on the Cross as the Son of God. So His finished work is done by water and blood, and the Spirit confirms it with the testimony.

So His finished work is done with both of the water and His blood, and the Spirit is the truth to testify that. I sincerely hope that by the grace of the social media would have more people to give their comments on it.

五(5) 百(100 – Hundred) 鞭挞寸肤裂 (- pinyin – Biāntà cùn fū liè)          

Five hundred lashes tore every inch of His skin

It has always been for over an hour; without having outlines, only power pointing scriptures and without giving out the sermon topic till the middle of the coming week, that’s how Pastor Prince gave his sermon. Last Sunday, (06/08/17)(4), we were on ‘by His stripe(s) we are healed, from Isaiah 53:5b, (5)1 Peter 2:24-25 (6) and beyond. 

It was Pastor’s continuation on the theme of how of God’s healing virtue would have impacted us as Christians. He prayed for God’s healing for the sick during the worship service.  And I was stunned when he called out the in-house-produced big screen visual aid with the sound effect to show how the soldier would deliver blows to Jesus.

I first heard Pastor Prince’ in-depth word study on ‘stripe(s)’ in October 2016. He explained that how the “Hebrew noun translated “stripes” uses a grammatical singular” to fall in with the cruelty of how Jesus was inflicted on the road to the Cross. Last Sunday, Pastor used the Greek translation of the English word of ‘laceration.‘

Physically, the succeeding blows would ripple all the small blood vessels, and all whiplashed were soaked into the skeletal muscles with no skin adhesion left, therefore, what covered Jesus‘ upper back would appear like a Single Strip. Then we would want to ask, as to how many lashes Jesus received?

Pastor Prince further contended that according to Moses’ Law, scourging couldn’t exceed forty (40), but it was under the Roman Law, so Jesus was scourged with more than forty. Although the Emperor brilliantly used 7-word poetic sentence to animate the beatings, however, 500 lashes would be unreal, a hundred is more acceptable, right?

Then I pondered why the Emperor put the 五(5) before the hundreds (百) lashes?Is it that he understood the symbolism of Hebrew numerology? As the number 5 symbolizes God’s grace. Can we conclude that in Nature, Jesus even had to endure a hundred brutal beatings, God’s  grace was sufficient for Jesus to glorify Himself and the Father Supernaturally.

Obviously, we saw the numeral 7 occurs in the last sentence of the poem. Frequently the number 7 is found in contexts that talk about the completeness, but it’s also about the 7 pieces of evidence of Jesus’ Messiahship; 7 miracles (signs) in the Gospel of John and more than 50 times in the book of Revelation. 

There is more symbolism of 7 occurs in the Old Testament. Of course, we can light-heartedly say that 7 is just a number, but we can’t overlook the spiritual significance that’s evident from cover to cover in the entire Bible. So I would have to write another chapter to see how the Emperor puts his magnificent number 7 into his poem contextually.

Please stay tuned

Kay

1. //biblehub.com/John/19:30b; 19:33-34 ESV
2. 又終也。凡樂一終爲一成。 【書·益稷】簫 – www.zdic.net/z/a4/kx/2
3. 1 John 5:6 New Living Translation- ‘And Jesus Christ was revealed as God’s Son by his baptism in water and by shedding his blood on the cross–not by water only, but by water and blood. And the Spirit, who is the truth, confirms it with his testimony.‘
4. JosephPrince.com – http://bit.ly/2urxBen
5. /biblehub.com/Isaiah/53-5.htm – 18k
6. /biblehub.com/1 Peter 2:24-25.htm – 18k

p.s. Pastor Joseph Prince’ sermon dated 06/Aug/2017 was ‘ See the Price God Paid for Your Healing and Receive with a Merry Heart.’ -www.miltongoh.net