Bruised for Our Iniquities
Scripture Reading:
1 Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been
revealed? 2 For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, And as a root out of
dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him, There is no
beauty that we should desire Him. 3 He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of
sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was
despised, and we did not esteem Him. 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 bruised for our iniquities; The
chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by 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; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And
as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth. 8 He was
taken from prison and from judgment, And who will declare His generation? For He
was cut off from the land of the living; For the transgressions of My people He was
stricken. 9 And they made His grave with the wicked— But with the rich at His death,
Because He had done no violence, Nor was any deceit in His mouth. 10 Yet it
pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul
an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, And the
pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand. 11 He shall see the labor of His soul
and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He
shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, And He shall divide the spoil
with the strong, Because He poured out His soul unto death, And He was numbered
with the transgressors, And He bore the sin of many, And made intercession for the
transgressors.
These twelve verses pretty much say it all. A few years ago I memorized this chapter
and as I did so I fell in love with it and even more so with my Savior. These aren’t
usually the verses that are read on Resurrection Sunday but by the time we get to the
end, I think you’ll appreciate the journey. This very important chapter with all it’s
words of prophecy, and for us fulfilled prophecy, has only twelve verses. Twelve is
very significantly used when God is referring to His people. Twelve tribes of Israel,
twelve sons of Jacob, twelve apostles; and here are twelve witnesses to Jesus Christ.
Verse 1, John 20:24-30. You see, even one of the twelve didn’t believe. If one that
had walked with Jesus for so long would have difficulty believing, then as Isaiah 53:1
says, “Who has believed our report?” But you see at the end Jesus blesses all those
who have not seen but will believe. That’s us! Jesus is blessing us! Verse 2,
Matthew 2:13-15. He is a tender plant, a young Child vulnerable to Herod’s sword
which is why the Lord directs Joseph to move to Egypt. He is the root coming out of
dry ground, Egypt which also fulfills another prophecy. He is a regular person, not
particularly handsome, nothing so beautiful that would make us look at Him and desire
Him.
Verse 3, Mark 3:20-22 & Matthew 13:53-58. He was not esteemed by the learned
men of power. He was rejected by His own and those from His own area were
offended by Him. Verse 4, Matthew 27:39-43. It appeared to those watching that God
had abandoned Him, even stricken Him. Verse 5, John 19:1-3. Scourging doesn’t
sound like too bad of a word but it was being beaten with a cat-of-nine-tails which were
leather straps with things like glass and nails and spikes on the ends. If you’ve ever
been beaten with a belt, just imagine that times nine with things on the end that will rip
open your flesh. The crown of thorn dug into His scalp and then, according to the
Matthew and Mark accounts, they took a reed and hit Him on the head which would
have dug the thorns in even deeper. Yes, He was wounded, He was bruised but not
for anything He’d done; for our sin and iniquity He went through this. The payment
that bought our peace He paid with His flesh and blood, and the stripes of the cat-of-
nine-tails brought us healing.
Verse 6, Romans 3:10-12 & 23. Every one has turned away to sin. None is
righteous. He has had all that iniquity laid on Him. Verse 7, Matthew 27:12-14. He
had to be our Passover Lamb. What lamb is going to speak as it is being led to the
slaughter. Verse 8, John 19:13-16. He was cut off which to a Jew means to die
without children. This flies in the face of that new movie coming out called the DaVinci
Code. Verse 9, Mark 15:27-28 & John 19:38-41. So as He was dying His grave was
with wicked but after He was dead it was with the rich because He was buried by two
leading men of Israel. Verse 10, Genesis 3:15. You may wonder why it says that God
will be pleased to put these things on Him, but when you realize that Jesus is the Seed
He was referring to back in Genesis 3, the One that would crushed the head of the
serpent, it makes sense.
Verse 11, John 21:15-17. Jesus saw the labor of His soul. He saw all those who
would come to Him and counted us worthy to go through all this for our sakes. He first
says to Peter ‘Feed My lambs.” Lambs are babies and signify us as babes in Christ
when we first come to Him. Then He says, “Tend My sheep.” This implies growth into
maturity, and signifies us as we mature in Christ. Watch over the sheep. Then He
says, “Feed My sheep.” Sheep eat differently than lambs. Just like babies eat
differently than a grown man. We as mature in Christ we have to be willing to change
our Bible studies habits. We have to move from the baby food of the Word, onto the
meat and potatoes. Verse 12, Revelation 19:11-16. God has granted Him an exalted
place and a name that is above all other names, and He has also made intercession
for us who believe on Him and call Him Savior and Lord. Praise God!
John 14:1-6, He has risen! The tomb is empty! He is busy preparing a place for us.
We must get busy preparing ourselves and others for the journey.
Sermon by: Denise Baxley
Date: April 16, 2006