"We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all."
{Isaiah 53:4} (NIV)
This servant of God, who will proclaim peace and salvation to the people of Israel, will be considered by Israel to have been punished by God, stricken and afflicted. What Isaiah is prophesying is mind boggling; he is writing down 700 plus years before our Lord was tortured and killed by the Romans, that the attitude of the Jews would be an attitude of callousness and indifference towards the suffering of the servant of God. A mark of the true servant of God would be that His own people would consider Him a recipient of God’s justice for His own sin.
Surely this prophecy of all the prophecies about the Messiah came true in our Lord’s life! The accounts of the cross record that the Jews beat Him, mocked Him, spit on Him and scornfully called Him to prove that He was truly the Son of God by coming off the cross. YET what Isaiah could see, is that this Christ was actually suffering in our place. It is not the servant of God who has strayed from the LORD - it is us that have strayed. The punishment, the suffering, the crushing that He experienced was actually on our behalf and for the purpose of bringing us peace and healing us. Here is the heart of the message of the cross.
“Our God reigns! Peace with God is possible because Jesus the Christ died in my place for my sin. Salvation is possible for me, because the servant of the Most High God died willing in my place.” Praise His glorious Name!
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