Who has believed what he has heard from us?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 For he grew up before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by men;
a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people?
9 And they made his grave with the wicked
and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;
he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
make many to be accounted righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,
because he poured out his soul to death
and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
and makes intercession for the transgressors.
I think a lot of us, as Christians really kind of miss the point of Good Friday. "If Jesus died on this day, then why are we celebrating it?" I think it is not so much a celebration as it is a time of mourning, reflection, and thankfulness to our loving King. For it was on this day that Jesus "poured out his soul unto death" and truly "made his soul an offering for sin." This is one of my favorite passages in the old testament about Jesus.
I think it is really interesting that Jesus died on passover, because that really displays why passover makes sense, and why God instituted it to the Israelites in the first place. Just like the lambs in Egypt became an offering, so that their blood might make satisfaction for the wrath of the angel of death, so then Jesus, the Son of God, became the ultimate passover lamb--a true offering for sin, that sin might pass away. That is the significance of Good Friday.
I encourage you, open your Bible, if you have it, and reread Isaiah 53. Do it several times, and meditate on it, applying every word to your heart.
And even more than this, read Ephesians, and be reminded that on this day Christ made it possible for US to be dead, to our sins. So, we have no excuse to keep on sinning.
I pray that all would have a reverent, humbling Good Friday
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