| One of the greatest proofs that the Bible is the Word of God is fulfilled prophecy. Many prophecies in the Old Testament concern the coming of Jesus Christ, including his birth and his death. Here of course, we are dealing with his death. Notice first of all the strangeness of this prophecy. If man on his own had been writing the Bible, he would have certainly portrayed the coming Messiah as a great attractive personality who would come with a great show of power and splendour. But that is not how the Old Testament pictures him. One of the names given to him here is 'man of sorrows'. While he was on earth he knew so much of humiliation and loneliness. Secondly, notice the rejection that was prophesied. One of the saddest verses in the Bible is John 1:11 - 'He came unto his own and his own received him not'. Isaiah says 'we hid ... our faces from him'. Literally it means 'we turned our faces away when we met him'. Is there anything harder to bear than to have those who should be our friends turn away from us when we meet them? Thirdly all his sufferings were for us and not himself. Look at verses 4 and 5. It was just as the hymn says 'He took our sins and our sorrows and made them his very own'. Transgressions are those occasions when we break God's laws. Iniquities are our attempts to twist God's will to fit our own. Peace is what we did not have, yet we badly needed. We could not atone for these things by ourselves. God knew that and he sent his own perfect sinless son into this world to accomplish it for us. But it costs him his life. No-one has ever suffered as Christ did. No sorrow has ever been so deep. No sorrows were ever so undeserved. Yet no sorrow has had such tremendous results. Why not thank God the Father again today for the way he planned our salvation. Thank the Son of God for all his suffering and death on your behalf and mine? | 
沒有留言:
張貼留言