1 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed ? 2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. 3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised , and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken , smitten of God, and afflicted . 5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed . 6 All we like sheep have gone astray ; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed , and he was afflicted , yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb , so he openeth not his mouth. 8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. 9 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. 10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief : when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. 11 He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied : by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors ; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors
Have you really ever stopped to think about verse 4-10? It is easy to look back and condemn those who ran away when Jesus was betrayed, but what horrendous struggle this must have been. Upon him was laid the iniquity of us all, and with his stripes we are healed. HE who knew no sin was made sin for us. From personal experience I know of how nauseating the thought of going into sin is after God has given you the victory over it, and yet voluntarily, the Son of God came down became man, and took upon himself the sins of us all. He the totally innocent Son of God, who had no guilt felt the full weight and burden of the sin of us all. No wonder in Gethsemene He prayed if it be possible let this cup pass from me, and suffered so badly that He was sweating great drops of blood. How much it cost the Son of God to pay our price. The torture that He suffered going to and on the Cross is not what killed him, for he told us plainly that he lays down his life and he takes it again. Physically speaking what killed our saviour was a broken heart. As the darkness persisted from the 6th to the 9th hour on the Passover afternoon, while our Lord hung on that cross and the full weight of sin and corruption fell on his shoulders, and He who had NEVER been separated from the Father now for the first time since eternity, had the communication between Him and His Father been cut the burden broke His heart. No wonder was it that He cried out My God, My God why have thou forsaken me? The Father had no more forsaken the Son at his hour of need than He leaves us at our hours of need, but rather the Son felt the enormous guilt and separation that Sin causes, and at that point the weight of Sin clouded the foresight of the Son to a point that the Son could not see forward to the Resurrection Morning. Yet even there despite the risk the Son paid our price. How when Yeshua stood before the people as Pilate pleaded time and again what shall I so with this man? O how must Yeshua’s heart have cried out for them to understand who he was, and how it must have broken his heart to hear them cry out Crucify, Crucify, and we have no King but Caesar. Oh how his heart must have longed for those people, and when they cried out his blood be upon us and our Children forever oh how that must have been a like a spear directly to his heart, as he witnessed what would for successive generations thereafter be an excuse for the inexcusable. After all who really bore the blame for putting him on the cross? It was you, and it was me. Blame? Guilt here? Let’s take another look at that crowd that stood there at that time. Israel had been occupied many times, as various empires rose and fell. You had Babylonians, Medo-persians, Greeks, and now Romans ruling over Israel at various times, and as each successive empire rose and fell, they left a remnant of their people behind, and also on top of that Passover was a time when Jews that were living outside of Jerusalem, and even the country of Israel would travel home to celebrate the feast of the Lord, so all in all you had a very mixed crowd of people there standing outside the Roman procurators Palace. You had representatives of every nation tongue and people there (of the then known world), so to blame one group of people is really unrealistic and plain wrong. That which could be thought of as being one particular group being to blame is in fact not really true, for all could be said to be represented there so who really do you blame? Rather blame you and me for it was our sin that put him there! So having said that, God has promised that that he will turn our curses into blessings so think if every nation of the world is represented in the blame and it is the blood of Christ that cleanses from sin, and pays the price, it was also a marvellous blessing that was called out there as well. His blood be upon us and our children for ever – turned into a blessing would read our lives and that of our children cleansed from sin and our salvation is sure. No wonder when Yeshua was being nailed to the Cross his prayer was Father forgive them for they know not what they do.
Challenge: Think of a situation in which you feel you couldn’t forgive and give it God and ask God to forgive them, and that He will give you forgiveness in your heart for those that have wronged you....
Home
Login
Register