I was sitting at my desk praying and wondering what to write for this post, when all of a sudden I found myself glued to some old Bible study notes. One verse in Isaiah 53, I found myself coming back to time and again. It was v. 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.” [ESV – highlights mine]
Let me backtrack a bit. First off, I’m a note-taker. If I don’t write down stuff, I just plain forget – usually in one ear and out the other. So I have stacks of notes from sermons and Bible studies sitting on my bookcase and my floor. And, to be quite honest, they are in no particular order. That’s a project for some other day. My husband mentioned to me recently that I really needed to get those organized, and I kind of freaked out. I guess my chaos is also my order – if that makes any sense at all.
Anyway on the day of drafting this post, I was in the middle of having yet another whiny, feel sorry for myself day. I was letting my mind go all over the place – in places I should never let it go! It actually was quite pathetic.
So I’m sitting at my desk staring at a sheet of Scriptures I’d written down a few years back, and decided to start reading through them. I was certain something would pop out.
And, of course, it did. I couldn’t seem to get past Isaiah 53:11 – particularly the word “anguish.”
For those of you not familiar with Isaiah 53, it is a prophecy of the coming of Jesus – the Messiah that the Jews had been waiting for. It speaks of Jesus starting out as a kid, and then goes into the suffering that He would have to endure. Why? Because of the Father’s love for us.
I found myself thinking about Jesus’ life as a man while He lived on earth. Isaiah 53 says that He was ordinary in appearance (v. 2), so there certainly weren’t groupies following Him around because of His looks. It also said that His life would consist of rejection, suffering and grief unlike what we can even imagine.
Personally I don’t handle rejection well. I’m sure a lot of you don’t either. But that was Jesus’ life while on earth once He began teaching. Yes, He had His group of disciples and other followers, but for the most part people didn’t like Him. They didn’t trust Him. After all – who did He think He was to say that He was God’s Son – wasn’t He Joseph’s boy, a carpenter (John 6:42)? He couldn’t be God in the flesh!
Yes, it must have been really hard at times…
But Jesus kept going. He kept on the path that God chose for Him because of His love and His obedience. Then came the day when He was arrested, tortured beyond belief, and hung on a cross to die (Mark 10:34). Do you have love like that for anybody?
As I continued to reflect on what I was reading, I began to feel my mind shift from a pity party back to what was really important: That I am a child of the King of Kings, and that nothing can change that – ever!
So I sat, and remembered in gladness and joy. And I came before my Father asking for a refreshing of my spirit, as well as forgiveness for the horrible attitude I’d been having.
We all have days when we need the refreshment of Jesus’ love to wash over us, don’t we? How long has it been since you stopped and really shed tears for Jesus?
The God Of All Comfort 