Reading Isaiah 53, I kept inserting Jesus' name in for all the references to 'he.' As I did this, the prophetic potency of this chapter became all the more clear to me.
Isaiah 53 with Jesus' name added appropriately into the text... Read it deliberately. Read it slowly. Read it intentionally. And read it again and again as God leads you...
Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? Jesus grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. Jesus had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. Jesus was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces Jesus was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
Surely Jesus took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But Jesus was pierced for our transgressions, Jesus was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Jesus was oppressed and afflicted, yet Jesus did not open his mouth; Jesus was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so Jesus did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment Jesus was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested? For Jesus was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people Jesus was punished. Jesus was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though Jesus had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.
Yet it was the LORD's will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life an offering for sin, Jesus will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand. After Jesus has suffered, Jesus will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and Jesus will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and Jesus will divide the spoils with the strong, because Jesus poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For Jesus bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Thank You, Jesus. Thank You. Thank You. Amen.
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