TUESDAY, FEBRUARY
26, 2013
35 Days to
Resurrection Sunday
Isaiah 53:5 “…and
with his stripes we are healed…”
SCRIPTURE READING: ISAIAH 53:5-10
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was
bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and
with 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 hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened
not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before
her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who
shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living:
for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
9 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the
rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in
his mouth.
10 Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him
to grief: when thou shalt 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.
REFLECTION: Look again at maladies and the cures in Isaiah
53:5:
The malady: Transgressions.
The cure: He was
wounded.Nails, thorns, and a spear wounded our meek Savior. (John 19:37)
The malady: Iniquities.
The cure: He was
bruised.Fists bruised our Lord’s sinless body. (Matthew 26:27)
The malady: No peace.
The cure: He was chastised.A
reed that served as a mock scepter was taken from His hand and then used to
beat his thorn-crowned head. (Matthew
27:30)
When we come to the fourth cure, “By His stripes,” no specific malady is cited. We know that the whip of the Roman
Legionnaire shredded the flesh of our Lord’s body leaving the stripe-marks here
mentioned. (Matthew 27:26).But Isaiah does not explicitly tell us what it is
that the “stripes” will heal.
“Transgressions,”
“iniquities,” and “peace-lessness,” are
spiritual conditions. We usually assume
that the “stripes” were to bring
about physical healing, but the context surely demands a spiritual
significance.
That the Lord miraculously healed and heals the
physically sick we are sure. We are
witnesses of His power over nature. Yet we are also sure that every person our
Lord healed during his ministry, even those whom He raised from the dead,
ultimately passed through the valley of the shadow of death.
We believe that the cure for transgressions is permanent. We believe that the cure for iniquities is
enduring. We believe that the cure for
peace-lessness is lasting. But if we see
the stripes as the remedy for“physical ailments,” we must admit the cure is
temporal at best.
The Apostle Peter refers to this Scripture in his first
letter to the persecuted Church. He
urges suffering Christians to follow in the footsteps of Christ, who, “his own self bare our sins in his own
body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness:
by whose stripes we are healed.” (I Peter 2:24). Here again there is no specific mention of
physical ailment. There is an explicit
reference to spiritual health, evidenced by “righteousness.”
While in the Recovery Unit at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota,
the doctors asked the respiratory therapists to remove the ventilator from my Father’s
face. He looked at his anxious wife and
two sons, faintly smiled and whispered, “Bless
the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all
his benefits: Who forgiveth all thine
iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy life from
destruction; who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies.” (Psalm
103:1-4). I can’t tell you how thrilling that was for our family.
Then within twenty-four hours my father was again
requiring the ventilator. Nine weeks
later he was breathing the ethereal air of heaven. He testified, “Bless the Lord… who healeth all thy diseases…” then infection
took him from us.
What is this healing to which David and Isaiah and Peter refer?
It is first and foremost that healing of the sin sick soul. That old African-American Spiritual had it
right:
“There is a balm
[cure] in Gilead
to make the wounded
whole;
There is a balm in
Gilead,
to heal the sin
sick soul.”
Marvelous truth.
Christ came not only to forgive transgressions, wash away iniquities, and
speak peace to troubled souls, He came to bring spiritual health to sin-prone
souls.
He came so that we might be filled with “all the fullness of God,”(Ephesians
3:19) and that“the very God of peace”
could and would “sanctify wholly.”He
suffered outside the gate that He might sanctify us with His blood. (Hebrews
13:12) He did all that was necessary so that “our whole spirit and soul and body would be preserved blameless unto
the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Thessalonians 5:23). To those who doubt the possibility of such spiritual
healing, sanctifying grace, the Apostle Paul testifies, “Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.” (1
Thessalonians 5:24).
PRAYER: Our
Father, “My heart is thrilled when ere I think of Jesus! That blessed name, which sets the captive
free! The only name, through which I
find salvation! No name on earth has meant so much to me.” I cannot possibly comprehend all that Christ
accomplished “wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, the
chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed,” but
I can offer a heartfelt “Hallelujah!” for your sacrifice for me. “I long to be perfectly whole, break down
every idol, cast out every foe, now wash me and I shall be whiter than
snow!” Bless and make me a blessing today. In the strong name of Jesus, Amen.Our Father, &c.
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