Isaiah 53: 4 states:
“Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.”
This Messiah of whom Isaiah testifies will bear “grief” and “sorrow,” but these will belong to us. They will be ours. In His suffering will be found our own shortcomings and failures. He will assume them for us.
As He suffers, we will think it is His own deserved punishment. We will think it is God’s doing. God will smite Him. God will afflict Him. After all, He was not truly God’s Son.
We miss the point of Isaiah’s message when we confine it to the Lord alone. His messengers will also come “as a thief in the night” to warn again before His coming. They, too, may fit the same pattern. If so, then we should be careful when we think another person’s grief and sorrows are inflicted upon them by a God who has smitten them. Such an assessment may, like those who lived and rejected the Messiah, put you on the wrong side of the confrontation.
The Lord’s doings are ever the same. The pattern simply does not change.
“We miss the point of Isaiah’s message when we confine it to the Lord alone.”
Verses 10-12 sounds like a “messenger” or “servant” yet to come…. it sounds like Isaiah is speaking about someone other than the Lord. I’m interested to see your thoughts on these verses.
Its interesting to note that being Christ-like may also mean we are also
“stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.”
I have wondered many times why I have I been afflicted so much when I wanted to be like him. When I was around 20 on my mission I began praying for calling election, and instead of feeling more Pious inside, I was given more struggles. I realize now the many struggles I have were in answer to my prayers. Having the struggles I have was the Answer to my prayer. I know how it is to be looked down upon (even at 6’10, it can happen to me), to be despised, to be loathed. Much of it was my own doing, but I realized the Lord went through that being completely innocent, and did not lash out in Anger.
In Summary, I am feeling a deep stirring within for the Lord answering my prayer, even though I had thought I had failed Him.
Denver, Thank you for the New perspective on being Christlike.
suffering before salvation.