Our Savior and the Lover of our Souls.

The Suffering Servant (Isaiah 53)

Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? ² For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty That we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. ³ He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

⁴ Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. ⁵ But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. ⁶ All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.

⁷ He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth. ⁸ By oppression and judgment He was taken away; And as for His generation, who considered That He was cut off out of the land of the living For the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due? ⁹ His grave was assigned with wicked men, Yet He was with a rich man in His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth.

¹⁰ But the Lord was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand. ¹¹ As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities. ¹² Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, And He will divide the booty with the strong; Because He poured out Himself to death, And was numbered with the transgressors; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, And interceded for the transgressors.

 The journey of our Lord Jesus Christ is indeed the greatest True Story ever told.  As we said yesterday, He was literally, born to die.  Isaiah 53 is just bursting with incredible knowledge and insights into not only how Jesus died, but why Jesus Died, and how He felt.  I am going to spend some time on this passage because I believe it is what God has put on my heart to do.   Please try to hang in there with me, for when God led me to deeply study this passage on my own, the treasures I came away with have transformed me to the deepest levels of my being.  God’s Beloved Son, Jesus, and His love for His Beloved Human Creation, can only be described as paradoxical.  It is beyond our comprehension that God would come down in the form of human flesh, and die for us.  Just look at that Beloved Verse John 3:16 “For God SO LOVED THE WORLD, that He GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, that whoever believes in Him would not perish but have everlasting life.  As a parent of 3 children, I can tell you, that I wouldn’t give up any one of them for anything.  I would have to be killed first.  But that’s exactly what God did.  He is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, 3 Persons, One God.  But He gave Himself up for the sins of the world.  Jesus tells us this in John 10.

¹⁷ For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. ¹⁸ No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.”

Jesus voluntarily laid down His life.  No one forced him to, not even the people who actually arrested Him, tortured Him and hung Him on that cross.  Jesus laid down His life of His own accord because that is what His Father asked of Him.  In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus pleaded for another way, but resolved to fulfill God’s good purpose.  In order not to take too much time each day, I will touch on one aspect each day.  I will end today’s post with this:

Jesus is the one who spoke us into existence.  He is the Word of God.  When He spoke at Creation, and created mankind, He already knew it was going to cost Him His life.  Yet, He created us anyway.  Now that is a love that goes beyond my ability to comprehend.  Let us  Bow down and Worship this Marvelous King of Kings and Lord of Lords, our Savior and the Lover of our souls.