Isaiah 53:3-6 NLT
He was despised and rejected- a Man of Sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on Him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. [4] Yet it was our weaknesses He carried; it was our sorrows that weighed Him down. And we thought His troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for His own sins! [5] But He was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. [6] All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God's paths to follow our own. Yet the LORD laid on Him the sins of us all.
The verse of an odd hymn has just struck my heart anew this morning:
"He took my sins and my sorrows
He made them His very own
He bore the burden to Calvary
And suffered and died alone"
These words echo Isaiah 53, the amazing prophecy fulfilled in Jesus, when He went to the Cross.
Imagine the Son of God stooping so low as to shoulder my sin and carry my sorrows!
It staggers me and beggars belief that He would care enough to do that.
Take a moment and visualise your deepest hurt and darkest sin being transferred onto Jesus.
There, in the Garden of Gethsemane, see Him crying out to the Father, "It's too much, I don't think I can bear it, the weight is too heavy."
"For me it was in the Garden
He prayed not my will but thine
He had no tears for His own grief
But sweat drops of blood for mine"
Yet wanting to save us so much, He set Himself "like a flint" to carry out Salvation's Plan:
Isaiah 50:5-7 NKJV
The Lord GOD has opened My ear; And I was not rebellious, Nor did I turn away. [6] I gave My back to those who struck Me, And My cheeks to those who plucked out the beard; I did not hide My face from shame and spitting. [7] "For the Lord GOD will help Me; Therefore I will not be disgraced; Therefore I have set My face like a flint, And I know that I will not be ashamed.
"How marvellous, how wonderful
And my song shall ever be
How marvellous, how wonderful is my Saviour's love for me"
When the eyes and ears of our hearts are opened, we cannot help but gasp in amazement at the full extent of His Love:
"I stand amazed in the Presence
Of Jesus the Nazarene
And wonder how He could love me
A sinner, condemned unclean"
This Shabbat morning praise Jesus for His great unending love.
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