[리빙 라이프]The Lamb Led to Slaughter 2009.Mar. 31 Tue The Lamb Led to Slaughter [ Isaiah 53:7 - 53:12 ] The Suffering Servant 7. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. 8. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken. 9. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. The Lord’s Will 10. Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand. 11. After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied ; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. 12. Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. Reflection The Suffering Servant (53:7-9) How difficult is it to remain quiet when people are accusing you of all sorts of things? How much restraint must you have to not retaliate when people are spitting on your and beating you for no reason? In this world, we fight for our rights. In today’s passage, Isaiah prophesies about an innocent man who will bear the sins of the world, giving up His rights as a man and privileges as the Son of God to save all who have gone astray. The completely innocent Suffering Servant mocked, beaten and ridiculed for our sake. When we read this passage, our sense of justice tells us that something’s wrong but our awareness of our sin keeps us silent. As Jesus Christ silently took upon the sins of humankind, we realize that it was His silence that defended us before the righteous wrath of God. The Lord’s Will (53:10-12) The prophet Isaiah tells us that it was the Lord’s will to allow His Son to suffer and die. Why? Because it was the Lord’s will to save us. We remember Jesus’ prayer in the garden, “Father, if You are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will but Yours be done” (Luke 22:42). In the prayer that He teaches the disciples, Jesus also prays for God’s will to be done on earth. This is not an easy prayer. The words roll off our tongues from rote memory but it is a calling to a deeper faith. It is a calling to complete sacrifice, complete surrender, complete obedience. Isaiah tells us that this Suffering Servant is completely given to the Lord’s will and therefore, He will see the light of life and be satisfied (v. 11). In the same way, when we obey the Lord’s will, we will also be satisfied. The Suffering Servant not only gave us salvation but HE also gave us a portrait of perfect submission to God’s will. Application - We don’t have to fight for God. God is not weak—He fought and won for us. As we enter into the Easter season, let’s remember that this prophetic passage of suffering is bursting with extraordinary power and incomprehensible goodness. - Let’s pray for the Lord’s will to be done in our lives but also in this world through our lives. It’s not easy and it demands more than we will realize but as we trust in our good God, let’s dig deep and have faith. Let’s get ready for the ride of our lives! A Letter toGod Our Father, who is in Heaven, holy is Your name. May Your Kingdom come, and may Your will be done on earth just as it is in Heaven. Provide for Your children daily and please forgive us of our sins as we forgive those who have hurt and offended us. Keep us from falling into temptation and deliver us from evil. May all power and glory be Yours forever. In Christ’s name. Amen. E s s a y How Much Can God Forgive? Iam convinced that the greatest single cause of spiritual defeat is a guilty conscience. We know we have sinned and are weary of it; yet we don’t know how to be free from a sense of failure. … C. S. Lewis, in Screwtape Letters, vividly describes Satan’s strategy: he gets Christians to become preoccupied with their failure; from then on, the battle is won. …The greatest blunder of Christians is not their failure when trying to live for Christ; a greater mistake is that they do not understand God’s remedy for failure! Read the next few pages carefully: they are an attempt to explain God’s cure for the guilt syndrome. …Christ’s death on the cross included a sacrifice for all our sins, past, present, and future. Every sin that you will ever commit has already been paid for!...(Col 2:13) God does not find it “hard” to forgive us. It is not as though He must regretfully give us a second chance. The price of forgiveness has already been paid, and God wants us to accept it freely. Christ “is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world” (1 Jn 2:2). That means He satisfied God for all sins which can possibly be committed. Let me repeat, God has been propitiated (satisfied) for any imaginable evil you might commit… When Christ cried, “It is finished, “the expression is but one word in Greek, tetelestai, a word used for business transactions. When this word was written across a bill, it meant “Paid in full.” You need never try to “make up” for your sins on your own. Christ’s death paid for our sins in full. - Failure: The Back Door to Success by Erwin W. Lutzer -
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