Another prophecy concerning the sufferings of the Lord Jesus can be seen in Psalm 35:19 which shows evidence that Christ was hated without reason. The Psalmist said, “Let not them that are mine enemies wrongfully rejoice over me: neither let them wink with the eye that hate me without a cause” (Ps. 35:19). It is a sad thing when a person is hated without reason. The Messiah in His goodness and grace towards men, was willing to come to this world taking the form of a servant and yet being a servant and God, He was hated.
The context of this passage tells us Psalm 35:19 was actually David’s prayer to the Lord concerning his situation. David’s enemies were actually exulting “in the hope of seeing his overthrow and destruction.” Thus he prayed that “God would not suffer them to realize a desire so wicked.” This was the cruelty of David’s enemies toward him. Nonetheless the cruelty David faced was the picture of the cruelty that would be borne by Jesus Christ when He came in His first coming. For this reason, John the apostle saw that whatever happened to Christ was according to the plan of God. In fact the prophecy of Psalm 35:19 was declared to be fulfilled when John recorded the words of Jesus in John 15:24-25 saying, “If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father. But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, they hated me without a cause.” Truly our God is a True and Living God, the Omnipotent, and Omnipresent God, who knows all things even before He created the world. The suffering, death and crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ were all ordained beforehand.
Looking at the ministry of Jesus Christ no one could find any fault in Him in order to prove that He was guilty. When the Jews arrested Him and brought Him before the council, nobody could testify that Jesus was guilty, except those false witnesses. Pilate after his interrogation of Jesus, concluded that he found nothing that caused Him to be guilty. Nevertheless, the Jews, despite their pure conscious spoke the truth, claimed that Jesus must be put to the death. They were ready to take all the blame if only they could nail Jesus on the cross.
When Pilate knew that Jesus was not guilty, he actually desired to release Jesus from the hand of the Jews. Pilate offered them a choice: to choose Jesus to be nailed on the cross or to release Barabbas, a murderer. Nevertheless because of the hatred that the Jews had, they preferred Barabbas to be released from the cross, and allowed him to do whatever he liked rather than see Jesus teaching their people. Whatever reason the Jews might have, they were still accountable for what they have done to Christ. The terrible hatred of the Jews toward Jesus Christ was inexcusable.
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