Tuesday
7-28-15 (Home Modesto, California)
Scripture
reading: Isaiah 53-56 2 Peter 2
S=Scripture O=Observation A=Application P=Prayer SOAP for
the soul.
S.
Isa 53:4-6
Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our
sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment
from God for his own sins! But he was wounded and crushed for our sins. He was
beaten that we might have peace. He was whipped, and we were healed! All of us
have strayed away like sheep. We have left God's paths to follow our own. Yet
the LORD laid on him the guilt and sins of us all. NLT
A. It sounds like a reporter
that was at the foot of the cross taking notes. Yet it was written over
700 years earlier by the prophet Isaiah.
I was
struck by two things in this translation, the NLT:
- · Their translators change “Yet it was our sicknesses” and “our diseases” to “Yet it was our weaknesses” and “our sorrows” while leaving the possibility of referring to a footnote clarifying that the original text actually says “sicknesses” and “diseases”. In this case I feel they have taken liberty to insert their personal interpretation perhaps to better fit their doctrinal position. Why not translate what is written?
- · The other thing that hit me is the very reason why I enjoy reading other translations each year. I often notice some things I had not noticed before in the KJV and other translations. It is that many of the onlookers at the cross thought that Jesus was really getting what he deserved. They truly thought He was a blasphemer, since He made Himself out to be “equal with God.”*
But Isaiah
clarifies it for them. God, His Father, was actually allowing Him to be
punished… beaten, whipped, wounded and crushed to death for their
sins… and my sins, not for His.
P.
Jesus, how many
times did you read these carefully inscribed words on a scroll of Isaiah the
prophet as you were growing up as a young lad? Did You know? Were
You already aware that the prophet Isaiah was describing Your suffering and
death? If so, did You shrink back in fear? Did the future beatings,
scoffing, the spitting in Your face, the nails in Your hands… did the cross
seem too much for You to bear? No! “For the joy that was set before
You, You endured the cross.”* You could see me, a lost sinner, heading for
eternal condemnation, being redeemed, set free and joining You in Your mansions
in the sky. Your future joy of seeing me saved… carried You through it
all. Anyone who really believes this and turns his back upon it… is a
fool. I was just a little child, but I embraced this truth and look
forward to a glorious eternity with You. Amen.
Ralph
*John 5:18
Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him,
because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his
Father, making himself equal with God. KJV
*Heb
12:2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the
author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the
cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
NIV
