Day 3 - Week 27 - Isaiah 53:5 "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."

....He was bruised for our iniquities....

Bruised = Hebrew, Daka' = to be crushed, to be shattered, to be made contrite

Do you ever look up a word and have to look up another word to get more understanding.  Such was my case tonight.  When I looked up the Hebrew, daka', and saw the word "contrite", I had to go to regular dictionary to get the exact meaning.  It's not like I didn't know what it meant, but I didn't know exactly what it meant! 

So, contrite = Sincerely penitent or feeling regret or sorrow, especially for one's own actions  

So in putting together all the definitions we can say that Christ was crushed, shattered, and made to feel very sorrowful for His own actions...?  Not quite!  The next three words tell us that it was "for our iniquities."

But Christ's role as our Savior caused Him to take on our iniquities in a very personal way.  Our sin became His sin, and don't you know that He felt a great deal of regret and sorrow over the heap of sin that we piled upon Him. 

2 Corinthians 5:21 states it beautifully,

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

When I read the account of Jesus weeping over the city of Jerusalem, it makes me think of His sorrow and regret over our sinfulness.  Not only that He was viewing it knowing that He would bear the burden of it, but of His sorrow over seeing that we choose sin over obedience, and how that must hurt Him when He knows the love that is behind every directive that God gives us.

Yesterday we learned that transgressions translates to rebellion.  We know that rebellion is at the root cause of our separation of God.  So tonight, what does the word "iniquities" imply?

Iniquities = Hebrew, 'avon = perversity, depravity, guilt

Here we go again!  Sure we know the words perversity and depravity, but actual definitions?

Perversity = turned away from the (morally) right; willfully erring; wicked; or obstinately in the wrong, stubborn, intractable, wayward

Depravity = moral debasement

Lovely descriptors of us, aren't they?  But, regrettably, accurate descriptors...for without Christ, we ARE turned away from the morally right, we ARE willfully erring from God's ways, we ARE wicked and obstinately in the wrong.  And without Christ we are totally morally debased.  These are the qualities that Christ took on for us that caused Him to be bruised, crushed and shattered.  Can you imagine how Holy Jesus Christ must have felt with the infiltration of these absolutely foreign characteristics coming into His being as He hung on the cross.  I think the only thing that could have gotten Him through that horrific experience is knowing that with His sacrifice, that those who came to understand and accept His absolutely incredible love for us would never carry those characteristics with them into the presence of His Father.  That we would be given a different description...forgiven children of God!

Amazing love, how can it be, that You, my Lord, should die for me?

Day 2 - Week 27 - Isaiah 53:5 "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." KJV

What a verse we have this week!  You know what word I pick up on when I read this verse several times?  OUR --- everything Jesus did was because of OUR sinfulness and OUR need for reconciliation with God. 

When I say this, I in no means want to take away from our focus on Jesus at Christmastime, but you know the popular saying at Christmas, "Jesus is the Reason for the Season"?  Well, in all reality, WE'RE the reason... for Christmas, for Good Friday, for Easter, for the Ascension, for Pentecost, for Christ's return.  All of these things have happened or will happen for the specific purpose of redeeming US.  God has invested a lot in His earthly children, hasn't He?  And yet we still doubt His love for us----why?

Jesus bore all of our sins, all of our separation from God the Father, all of our infirmities and imperfections to make us whole and complete and brought back into a state of peace with God. 

The opening phrase of our verse is, "He was wounded for our transgressions." 

Wounded - Hebrew "Chalal"- in most other verses of Isaiah that this particular word is used it is translated "polluted."  While most translations of this verse don't go that route and instead translate to "pierced", I think there's some merit in applying "polluted"...for Christ was polluted because of us.  He was surrounded by the filth of this world in comparison to the purity of heaven.  His holiness was forced to take on all of the grime of our sinfulness when He bore 100% of the world's sin on the cross.  It grieves me to view Christ in such a polluted state, not due to Him at all, but completely because of man.  I'm picturing Jesus carrying loads of garbage with Him as He walks toward Calvary.  

Transgressions - Hebrew "Pesha'" - plain and simple...rebellion.  Christ became polluted because of my/your/our rebellion.  We rebelled against God's authority, and He had to deal with it. 

It humbles me to think of what God's plan for my redemption cost.  But when I allow myself to allow that cost to really sink into my soul, it motivates me to live a life worthy of the cost that was paid.  Not as a means of earning it, for it has been done and there is nothing more I can do, but to show how deeply appreciative I am of my God who loves me so.

Day 1 - Week 27 - Here we go again! YAY! We are doing this!

I want you to stay encouraged along this journey of 100 verses.  I think it could get very easy at about this point to think, "OK, I am not getting this done...I can't remember 26, let alone 100!"  But as I've said before, you are remembering more than you think and we are storing God's Word in our hearts.  So no matter how well you are doing, you are doing well..and you are doing something worth your time and effort.  Really, what could be more worthy of our efforts?  We are storing treasure that cannot be taken from us!

So "here we go again"...we will start this week's review with the six verses of the Gift of Scripture...ready?

The Gift of Scripture (6)

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2 Timothy 3:16  All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correction, and for training in righteousness.

Joshua 1:8   This book of instruction must not depart from your mouth, you are to recite it day and night so that you may carefully observe everything written in it.  For then you will prosper and succeed in whatever you do.

Psalm 119:11  I have treasured Your words in my heart so that I may not sin against You.

Deuteronomy 6:4-6  Listen, O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength.  These words I am giving you today are to be in your heart.

Deuteronomy 6:7  Repeat them to your children, talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 

Hebrews 14:12  The Word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating as far as to divide soul, spirit, joints and marrow.  It is a judge of the ideas and thoughts of the heart.

Then..

The Gift of Prayer (3)

Hebrews 4:16 Therefore, let us approach the throne of grace with boldness that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us at the proper time.

1 John 5:14   Now this is the confidence we have before Him, whenever we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.

1 John 5:15   And if we know that He hears whatever we ask, we know that we have what we have asked Him for.

And...

The Gift of Assurance (10)

1 John 5:11 And this is the testimony:  God has given us eternal life and that life is in His Son.

1 John 5:12-13  The one who has the Son has life.  The one who doesn't have the Son of God, does not have life.  I say these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know you have eternal life.

John 14:1  Your heart must not be troubled, you believe in God, believe also in Me.

John 14:2  In my Father's house are many mansion, if it were not so, I would have told you.  I go to prepare a place for you.

John 14:3  And if I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come back and receive you unto Myself, so that where I am, you may be also.

John 14:6  Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through Me.

John 14:27 Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you.  I do not give as the world gives.  Your heart must not be troubled or afraid.

Isaiah 26:3-4  You will keep in perfect peace the mind that is dependent on You, for it is trusting in You.  Trust in the Lord forever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.

and adding #9 to our set of 10 verses of assurance....

Isaiah 53:5 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 . (KJV)

This is another verse that I just prefer in the King James Version as quoted above.  I just think the words flow so beautifully into each other. 

Robert J. Morgan introduces this verse stating,

The cross is at the crossroads of every book, chapter, and verse in the Bible, and we clearly see that emphasis in Isaiah 53. This is a miraculous portion of Scripture giving us an advance look of the life, death, and resurrection of our Lord.  Though written hundreds of years before Christ, it's chockablock with prophetic details about the passion of the Messiah.  The images are so Calvary-vivid  that it's amazing to realize it was written hundreds of years before Jesus was born.

This is a miraculous verse and a real treasure to hold on to.  It is one of the verses that so clearly ties the Old Testament to the New, prophecy to the reality of Jesus.  It is amazing!  Let's really honor this verse this week by dwelling on the picture it paints of our Savior and everything He did for us.

(Have to say, I've never used the adjective "chockablock"...I probably would have said "jammed full" or "filled to the brim"....but I kind of like this new word!  chockablock!  May just have to use that sometime soon!)

Day 7 - Week 26 - Isaiah 26:3 "You will keep in perfect peace the mind that is dependent on You, for it is trusting in You."

Remember on the second day of this verse we added to it Isaiah 26:4 for it's perfect completion...are you game to adding it to your memory?  I think this week's verse has been especially easy, so if you're willing to stretch a bit, go ahead and get two verses stored without too much extra effort:

You will keep in perfect peace the mind that is dependent on You, for it is trusting in You.  Trust ye in the LORD for ever, for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength.

So if you are trusting in God, keep on trusting...forever!  For in God, and in God alone we find strength that will never end.

I like the idea of everlasting strength, because I hate exercise!  I got on my treadmill tonight for the first time in....well in a long time!  I do it for many reasons (vanity being one of them, although I must have let the vanity slide about 15 lbs. ago!), but one of the main reasons is to build up and then maintain strength.  I do not want to get old and wobbly!  I would like to maintain a certain degree of strength as I age.  I would like to be able to bend down and be able to get up!  (Something that somewhere around 54.5 seemed to start getting harder!)  My point is, if I want to build strength and then if I want to maintain strength, it is going to take work.  That's because I'm human.

But God, my super strong God, He offers everlasting strength.  A strength that does not have to be replenished through any other means than trusting in Him and in His power to sustain us.  We then become tapped into His strength...and who can stand against the eternal strength of Almighty God?

Three verses come to mind tonight:

1.  1 Timothy 4:8 Physical exercise has some value, but spiritual exercise is much more important, for it promises a reward in both this life and the next.

2.  Romans 8:31b  If God is for us, who can be against us?

3.  1 John 4:4b ...because the One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

We need to remember to trust in our God's strength to overcome anything that we come up against in this world.  His strength is on our side.  We are asked to "get in shape" spiritually, but He is ready to help us with that strength building as well.  For on our own, we'll never be able to be strong enough.

Another quote from Robert J. Morgan,

As we stay our minds on Him, trust Him, and experience His perfect peace, we find daily strength for daily needs.  We have strength sufficient, strength eternally.

Trust in God for the strength you need --- He will never fail you.

Day 6 - Week 26 - Isaiah 26:3 "You will keep in perfect peace the mind that is dependent on You, for it is trusting in You."

Some days it seems easier to have a mindset of peace than others.  Our world is not a peaceful place --- there are numerous areas of unrest worldwide.  Tonight I am thinking about the rockets that have been continually blasting Israel from the Gaza strip this week.  Hundreds of thousands of Israelis have spent their nights in bomb shelters as they hear the rockets fly overhead.  How do you keep your mind in peace during something like that?

Robert J. Morgan writes:

When we fix our thoughts on Jehovah, all other concerns shrink to the proper perspective.  Colossians 3:2 says, 'Set your minds on what is above, not on what is on the earth.' 

We must manhandle anxious thoughts, turning them forcibly toward Christ and making our minds 'stay' on Him.

In doing so, we trust Him more and more.  Faith is the Bible's great antidote to fear, and faith grows stronger as we focus it on Christ instead of on crises.  We acknowledge the difficulty but keep our focus on the Deliverer.

I have never had to live in a lifestyle of fear and terror.  But I think of the many people throughout history who have endured persecution and torture.  I pray that I am building a faith that could endure such difficulty, whether or not I am called to go through it.  I pray that I am increasingly trusting God and learning to depend on Him more and more --- learning to become less and less dependent on what the world offers to me  --- learning to more and more have a mindset of God's perfect peace.  For I know that my Redeemer lives and that He will deliver me from any trial or tribulation that may come to me in this lifetime.  Blessed assurance!