The Living Bible

Today I opened the Living Bible and read through
Isaiah 53 which was written 700 years before the
birth of Jesus Christ.

...how few believe it!
Who will listen?
To whom will God reveal his saving power?

In God's eyes he was like a tender green shoot, sprout-
ing from a root in dry and sterile ground. but in our 
eyes there was no attractiveness at all, nothing to make 
us want him. We despised him and rejected him--a man 
of sorrows, acquainted with bitterest grief. We turned 
our backs on him and looked the other way when he 
passed by. He was despised and we didn't care.

Yet it was our grief he bore, our sorrows that weighed 
him down. And we thought his troubles were a punish-
meant from God for his own sins! 
But he was wounded and bruised for our sins. 
He was chastised that we might have peace; 
He was lashed--and we were healed! 
We are the ones who strayed like sheep! 
We, who left God's path to follow our own. 
Yet God laid on him the guilt and sins of every one 
of us...   

And when he sees all that is accomplished by the an-
guish of his soul, he shall be satisfied; and because of 
what he has experienced, my righteous Servant shall 
make many to be counted righteous before God, for he 
shall bear all their sins. Therefore I will give him the 
honors of one who is mighty and great, because he 
poured out his soul unto death. He was counted as a 
sinner, and he bore the sins of many, and he pled with 
God for sinners. Isaiah 53: 1-6; 11,12

Reader, we commemorate the crucifixion and resurrection
of our Lord in just two weeks. It is not too soon to ponder
what our precious Savior did for us when He went to the
cross and became sin for us.