“Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.”
Have you ever misread the situation? Falsely accusing someone who was really innocent? If you are human the answer is, YES! In the movie, “Sweet Home Alabama,” an angry wife seeking a divorce goes to the small town she grew up in to get the divorce papers signed by her husband only to find that she has misread the situation. She had falsely accused nearly everyone, especially her husband who would not sign the divorce papers. Maybe you have not gone that far but I can assure you we have all misinterpreted situations, making judgements from our own perspectives that are wrong.
The can of worms known as Christianity can be a messy thing, especially when it comes to belief systems and interpretations of the Bible. Chapter 53 is describing Christ and his life and purpose on the earth. Verse 4 is just one of the aspects we misunderstand about Christ. If you read the whole chapter, every action man takes against Christ reads like this: He had no beauty, He was despised and rejected, people hid their face, held him in low esteem, he was pierced, he was crushed and punished. Then God reveals what is behind the scenes.
We read that we are like sheep that all gone astray and turned to our own ways yet the Lord had all that iniquity laid on him. He was oppressed and afflicted yet did open his mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter and sheep before its shearers is silent. Verse 10 is the ultimate truth about God. It reads, “Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.”
Maybe you are like the Israelites in this chapter. No, you are not chanting “CRUCIFY HIM!” but you have been considered this Christian thing outdated and dumb. You might have even thought to yourself that this whole thing is not for me. Just look at those who follow Jesus, they don’t really fit in with all my friends. They talk too much about the Bible and God and things; it gets old and kind of weird.
Today, is the time you read what Christ did for you and stop looking at him the way the Israelites did, punished by God, stricken and afflicted. Following Christ will not get you a merit badge in this world, in fact it will do just the opposite. Jesus told his disciples that His ways are not our ways. If you find yourself trying to understand Christ through the world’s eyes you will see what the Israelites saw. It is only by the Holy Spirit of the living God that you get downloaded the real Jesus. Today should be the last day you willfully go astray so turn and get to know Jesus.
Prayer: Father, I pray that I will not willfully go astray any longer. I pray that I will find you every minute of every day. I choose to put you first in everything I do. I pray that the words on my lips will praise you and not curse you. I pray that the words on my lips will curse others but be filled with love. I pray that I am being transformed into a I Corinthians 13 kind of person. In Jesus name, amen.
Let It Go 
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