the Fourth Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 3 of 5
Isaiah 53:1-12
This is the puzzling Scripture which the chancellor of Queen Candace of Ethiopia was reading in his chariot. "Then Philip . . . began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus." (Acts 8:27 . . .). For us too, this is the beginning of all knowledge: Jesus the Saviour. We had turned every one to his own way of disobedience (v. 6), but in order to save us, the Lamb of God followed the path of perfect obedience and entire submission. On this path He was despised, rejected, oppressed, afflicted and finally cut off by men (vv. 3, 7, 8), but He was wounded, bruised, beaten, put to grief by God Himself (vv. 5, 10). Who will ever fathom the depth of that expression, "it pleased the LORD to bruise Him"? Our griefs and our sorrows (v. 4), our transgressions and our iniquities (v. 5), our sin in all its forms – from the most subtle to the grossest – with all their terrible consequences, such was the unspeakably heavy burden borne by this "man of sorrows".
This was the travail of Thy soul, beloved Saviour! But beyond death, to which Thou freely gavest Thyself, Thou art enjoying now and for evermore, in the very fruit of thy suffering, the inexpressible joy of satisfied love (Hebrews 12:2).
