Isaiah 53

Isaiah 53

1) Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

God created all the stars and galaxies with His fingers, but it took the strength of His whole arm to accomplish our redemption.

2) He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

When Jesus was born and grew up, there was nothing extraordinary or special about him humanly to set him apart from everyone else, he was just ordinary.

3) He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

He was one of those people that others won't even look at, that people turn away from, and don't consider worth our attention.

4) Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.

Even though we would think that God was striking, beating and perseuting him, he was actually accepting the punishment and pain of our sicknesses, disabilities and weaknesses, and our disappointments, depression and griefs.

5) But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.

He was nailed to the cross to pay for our rebellion against God, his body was broken for our disobedience, the payment that freed us from being afraid to face God was paid by him, and because he suffered the wounds we deserve, we can be cured and healed of the wounds and sicknesses that are the result of our wrong choices.

6) We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Sheep are prone to wander away from the  fold and get lost. Even if they know the way back, they will keep on going away until they are hopelessly lost. We are like sheep in that way--even when we know the right way to go, we'll still make poor choices to do what we want to do, and then we complain when the consequences of our decisions decend upon us. When we think we know better and turn to our own way, God calls that iniquity, disobeying God's rules because we are arrogant, smarter than God. And God put on Jesus all the consequences of our rebellious, arrogant attitudes.

7) He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.

Jesus was beaten down and persecuted, but as our Sacrificial Lamb given for us by God, he willingly cooperated in his own crucifixion as the sacrifice for us, never even defending himself.

8) By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And who can speak of his decendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was sticken.

By his arrest and trials, he was led away to his death, with no children to carry on his name. He was executed for our rebellion in going our own way.

9) He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.

Jesus was buried in a rich man's grave, even though he lived his whole life in a very gentle way, always speaking only the truth, never accomodating his comments to erroneous views of his hearers, but correcting them.

10) Yet it was the Lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.

Jesus prayed in the Garden, "Not my will, but thine be done," because he knew that he was the only one who could be that Passover Lamb to be sacrificed on our behalf, there was no other way to save us. Though he died and was buried, God raised him from the dead, to live forevermore. He is calling all of his own, and there will be an uncountable number from every nation, every tribe, every language and every time, to be his children, his brothers and sisters, his kings and queens to rule with him, that God's will will be done on this earth, as it is now in heaven.

11) After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.

God's own Son who came to this earth to serve, came to become our sacrificial lamb, to suffer and die in payment of our (my) debt. He rose from the dead to prove to us that God accepted His payment in full and marked our debt in his ledger, "Paid In Full." We will never face double-indemnity with God, what is Paid stays Paid. He justified those who were unjust by his death, he who was just suffered the punishment due the unjust so that he could declare us, the unjust, righteous. 

12) Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors.

Jesus earned his position as King over all kings and Lord over all lords by purchasing this world and everyone in it with his precious blood; because he was considered to be a sinner, and gave himself willingly in execution for sin on our behalf. 

...For he bore the sin of many,

Jesus became sin, he bore our very sin-nature on the cross, to cover even those who have never done anything right or wrong: the little children, the babies, the unborn babies, the mentally infirm--he bought them all.

...And made intercession for the transgressors.

Jesus also paid for all the sins that result from our sin-nature, from the least, the smallest "white lie" to the greatest genocide and rebellion. He paid for them all. For us. In our (my) place.