“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. 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.â€Â  Isaiah 53:5,6
These verses describe a man wounded, bruised, chastised, and scourged with a whip. What was the cause of his punishment? We read that it was for our transgressions, our iniquities, our peace, and our healing that he was treated in this way. This man took upon himself the iniquity, or sin, of us all. The Lord Himself laid the sin of all mankind upon this one man.
Who is the man of whom these verses speak?
As most can see, these verses speak of Jesus. We can read all about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ in the Bible, specifically the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. In these books, we read that Jesus died, not for His own sin, but for the sins of the whole world, and that by placing our faith in Him, we are saved from our sin.
So, the book of Isaiah describes Jesus Christ and His taking of our sins upon Himself. Is there anything special about that? Actually, there is. Isaiah was written 700 years before Jesus Christ was born. Isaiah described Christ perfectly 7 centuries before He was born.
Now, seven hundred years is a long time. If we go back seven hundred years from right now, we would find ourselves in the Middle Ages, before the printing press, before Columbus sailed the ocean blue, before the Reformation. Seven hundred years is a long, long time, yet Isaiah prophesied Jesus Christ’s manner and purpose of death perfectly.
What is more, the Bible is full of perfectly fulfilled prophecies just as this.
In fact, if we read more in Isaiah 53, we see many more prophecies fulfilled by Jesus Christ, seven hundred years after they were written. We read, in verse 2, that He would not come from a royal palace, or be born in the lap of luxury, as most kings would be. In fact, as we all know from Christmas nativity scenes, He was born in a stable, laid in a feeding trough. Who would predict that the God’s Son would be born this way?
We also read in Isaiah 53:9 that He would die with the wicked. Jesus did, in fact, die with a thief on either side of Him. In that same verse, we see that He would be with the rich in his death, and, in fact, Jesus was laid in the tomb of a rich man named Joseph.
We read in verse 10 that after the Lord made His soul an offering for the sins of the world God would then prolong His days. How was this fulfilled? Jesus did not stay in the tomb. He arose from the grave, conquering death, and His days were prolonged!
Jesus Christ fulfilled over 300 prophecies in the Old Testament perfectly. These prophecies predicted His family, His place of birth, His hometown, His time of birth, His type of death, even the way He was to be betrayed. Fulfilled prophecies in the Bible are just one of the many infallible proofs (Acts 1:3) which prove that God inspired it.
Pastor Lee Smith
