I am writing today from the beautiful Tampa Bay area.

And Joshua said unto them, Fear not, nor be dismayed, be strong and of good courage: for thus shall the LORD do to all your enemies against whom ye fight.  And afterward Joshua smote them, and slew them, and hanged them on five trees: and they were hanging upon the trees until the evening.   Joshua 10:25-26   

 By hanging these five kings on five trees, Joshua was saying that they had their opportunity to accept Israel’s God, but they rejected Him, so it was good-bye to life forever. This is the death Jesus tasted for us. He did not taste the death of the righteous as He did not save us from the death of the righteous. He saved us from the death of the wicked, therefore He tasted the death of the wicked. Jesus faced the death of the wicked which meant facing total oblivion Obadiah 1:16.      

Hebrews 2:9 tells us Jesus tasted death for every man.

But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.

If Jesus was only tasting the first death, with the hope of salvation, then why does everyone still taste that death themselves? Jesus did not save us from that death. We still experience that death ourselves. Jesus and Paul always refer to the first death, with the hope of salvation as sleep. See 1 Thessalonians 4. 1 Corinthians 15 John 11.  Paul does not say in Hebrews 2:9 that Jesus tasted sleep. This time Paul says “death” – meaning He felt accursed by God, like the five kings in Joshua 10. 

 “Satan with his fierce temptations wrung the heart of Jesus. The Saviour could not see through the portals of the tomb. Hope did not present to Him His coming forth from the grave a conqueror, or tell Him of the Father’s acceptance of the sacrifice. He feared that sin was so offensive to God that Their separation was to be eternal. Christ felt the anguish which the sinner will feel when mercy shall no longer plead for the guilty race. It was the sense of sin, bringing the Father’s wrath upon Him as man’s substitute, that made the cup He drank so bitter, and broke the heart of the Son of God.” -Desire of Ages, Page 753.