What do we hear in the words of a king who sobs over a son who died trying to overthrow his own father, “Oh Absalom, my son Absalom, if only I had died instead of you”? 2Sam 18:33
Is the emotion similar to what we hear in the boldness of a leader who asks for his own name to be removed from the book of the living— if God will not forgive the supplicant’s calf-worshipping family? (Exo 32:32)
Or what are we to think when the Apostle Paul says that he could wish himself cut off from Christ if, by the sacrifice of his own life, he could somehow rescue his brothers and sisters from unbelief? (Rom 9:3)
Could each be helping to tell the story of a far greater cry, “My God, my God why have you forsaken me?” (Matt 27:46)