The Suffering Servant
2008-04-09

Father, my sin is literally choking the life out of me. I desperately need your help to conquer it. I know that you have conquered all things and, in you, I am supposed to be more than a conqueror. So help me to realize this truth in my life. I'm tired of this fight, tired of losing it all the time. I need a breakthrough. I need it now.



Psalms for today: 9, 39, 69, 99, 129

Save me, O God!
For the waters have come up to my neck.
I sink in deep mire,
where there is no foothold;
I have come into deep waters,
and the flood sweeps over me.
I am weary with my crying out;
my throat is parched.
My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God.--Psalm 69:1-3



Day 135

Isaiah 53:2-5,11-12

This is one of the most wondrous passages in Isaiah. Oddly, the author skips one of the most famous verses, 53:6. Perhaps he thought we were already familiar enough with that one.

Isaiah speaks on behalf all Israel, in the first portion of our passage. He tells us first that there was nothing at all attractive about this man (this passage is a prophecy of foreshadowing about Jesus), that he was scrawny, with nothing that would cause us to even give him a second glance. So right away, we see that all of these "artist's conceptions" of Jesus are way off base. Ever seen a painting of an ugly Jesus? Nope. Me either.

People turned away from him as he suffered. Even though he was suffering for our sins, the people assumed that God was punishing him for something he did. "But it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him--our sins!" (verse 5)

In the second part of the passage, it is God who speaks. Jesus has done something that will be well worth it, and he will enjoy the results of his suffering. The result? He will make many "righteous ones." (verse 11)

He "looked death in the face and didn't flinch." He "embraced the company of the lowest." "He took on his own shoulders the sin of the many."

How is it that Christ will make "many righteous ones?" By his suffering, he paid the price for the sinfulness of man, thereby creating a way for the chosen to get to God. And make no mistake, he says himself that he is the only path to God.



Thank you, Jesus, for going through what you did for us. For me. For all my "brothers and sisters." Thank you for making sure that I could get to the Father. I also thank you that you can make me righteous. I pray for this righteousness to flow through me like water, like the water of life. Flow through me like the blood in my veins. "Overwhelm me with your power, overwhelm me with your grace, overwhelm me with your glory, as I rest in your embrace." (Dennis Jernigan)


Jesus died without a thought for his own welfare. If he died that way, how much more must he have lived that way? Try living that selflessly a few minutes at a time.

Grace and peace, friends!!



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