I’ve been meditating on Isaiah 53:7. “He was oppressed and He was afflicted. Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth.” Jesus was the substitutionary sacrifice for our sins. Jesus took our sins upon Himself and was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities. This prophecy from Isaiah was written more than 700 years before it happened. Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice. No other would suffice. 1 Peter 1 states that we would not be redeemed from our empty way of life handed down by our forefathers, but only by the precious blood of the lamb. And Jesus was chosen to be the substitute for our sins “before the foundations of the world.” Before this world was, God saw there was but one way we could be redeemed…the horrible sacrifice of His only son. For God so loved the world. And yet we still don’t fully understand.
I’ve been quite bothered lately by examples being used of how certain peoples’ ordeals mirror that of what Jesus went through. Imagine Jesus’ answer to Judas when he asks the Lord to sign a few Torahs as they could probably get a couple denarius for each one. Probably He’d reiterate what He said in Matthew 6:24, “You cannot serve God and money.” Even Billy Graham said he wouldn’t sign people’s bibles when asked because he was not the author. Or maybe the Lord would overturn a few tables the money changers had set up in the temple and say, “My house shall be called a house of prayer but you have made it a den of thieves.”(Matthew 21:13) Rather than telling people to go after those He felt harmed Him, Jesus might have said hit them, make fun of them. Here are the names of even their families so you can threaten them. But in Luke 22, when they came to arrest Jesus at the Garden of Gethsemane and Peter cuts off the ear of Malchus, Jesus heals his ear. On the cross Jesus asks His Father to forgive those who crucified Him. So, what are we missing here? Donald Trump has compared what he is going through to that which Christ went through. He stated that he’s going through his terrible trials the very week Jesus went through His. As if they and he are similar to our Savior. If Jesus had yelled out the names of those responsible for His scourging and crucifixion, all of mankind would have been named. We all must take an accounting of where we are with Him. Follow God or man.
Jesus said in Matthew 5 that we are to be the salt of the earth. Too many have lost this flavor. We are to be the light of the world that shines before men and glorifies our Father in heaven. We are falling short by our actions and our inaction. Saying nothing in the face of that which is contrary to His commands is being complicit. We must realize that He has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness. So why would we follow after wrong teaching that will only lead us astray? Why endure teachings that insult the spirit of grace? It is written that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hand of the living God. (Hebrews 10) But at some point, we may just see a re-enactment of Acts 13 where the people listened to King Herod and shouted, “The voice of a god and not of a man.” And immediately an angel of the Lord struck him and he was eaten by worms and died because he took the glory that was the Lord’s.
I pray we do our best to put things in proper perspective. Jesus gave His life for us. No one can relate to what the Lord did for us. No one! Read and ask what it means to be crucified with Christ. Hope you never hear who has bewitched you or worse…depart from me. Embrace Him. Love one another. He who does not walks in darkness. Meditate on what the Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 11:1 “Imitate me as I also imitate Christ.” It’s a good start. He is risen! Be blessed.
Stand My Watch 