Isaiah 53:1 Says, "Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?"
What a question! God has done a wonderful, marvelous thing! But, most will not believe it! God has made a way for mankind's every need to be met. But, even when that wonderful message is spread abroad, few can accept it.
It takes faith. Faith based on facts. If you don't know the facts, how can you believe?
The Old Testament Prophet, Isaiah, laid out the facts for us. Hundreds of years before the event, God revealed the facts to Isaiah. What facts? The facts of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. In the Gospels of the New Testament, the method of the crucifixion is described in great detail. However, you could read those accounts of the crucifixion over and over without understanding the significance of it. Here Isaiah sets forth the meaning of the crucifixion, for your life. If you need healing in your body, your emotions, your soul... Read Isaiah below, very carefully. Then be encouraged by the exposition that follows.
ISAIAH 53:1 Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? (2) For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. (3) He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and like one from whom men hide their face, He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. (4) Surely our griefs He himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. (5) But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. (6) All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. (7) He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth. (8) By oppression and judgment He was taken away; and as for His generation, who considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living, for the transgression of my people to whom the stroke was due? (9) His grave was assigned with wicked men, yet He was with a rich man in His death, because He had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in His mouth. (10) But the LORD was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; if He would render himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand. (11) As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; by His knowledge the Righteous One, My servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities. (12) Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the booty with the strong; because He poured out himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet He himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors. (NASV)
In verse three Isaiah begins to describe the crucifixion, as God showed it to him. He says that Jesus "Was despised and forsaken of men" and, the Gospels tell us that the religious leaders of His day despised Him. They were looking for a Messiah, a Savior. But, they did not recognize Him when He came. Don't make the same mistake!
The nation of Israel was under the yoke of the Roman Empire at the time. And, they were looking for someone who could save them from their circumstances. They did indeed need a Savior. But, what they didn't realize was that they needed to be saved from much more than just the Romans.
You may indeed need a healing in your physical body. But, you need to realize that God is interested in much more than just your physical healing. He wants to save you from much more than just the symptoms of an injury, disease or disability. His desire is to deal with causes rather than symptoms: underlying conditions, rather than circumstances. Isaiah goes on to say that "He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and like one from whom men hide their face, He was despised, and we did not esteem Him." Yes, Jesus was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief: the sorrow and grief of the cross; of being despised by the very people He came to save; of being forsaken by His closest friends and disciples. What sorrow! What grief! But that is not the sorrow or grief Isaiah is speaking of, for he goes on to say "Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried."
This is where Isaiah begins to unfold the facts of the crucifixion as they relate to your life, and your healing. He bore our griefs and our sorrows, not His own! Romans 5:8 says "While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us!" That means He carried your griefs and your sorrows and He died for you! And, get this!! If He carried your griefs and your sorrows with Him to the cross you don't have to carry them anymore. Isn't that great? Isn't that wonderful!?
And, here's where it gets really good! You see, often when translating something from one language to another, a lot can be lost in the translation. This passage originally written in ancient Hebrew, gives the word "griefs" above, a five-fold meaning. It is the Hebrew word "choli" which means: affliction, disease, grief, illness or sickness. And, the word translated "sorrows" above is the Hebrew word "makobah" which means: pain, suffering and sorrow.
So, what Isaiah is saying is "Surely the afflictions, diseases, illnesses and sicknesses which cause our griefs He Himself bore, and the pains and sufferings which cause our sorrows He carried." And, remember if He carried your griefs and your sorrows with Him to the cross you don't have to carry them anymore. Those are the facts upon which to base your faith. Jesus Christ carried your afflictions, diseases, illnesses and sicknesses, the cause of your griefs to the cross. He carried your pain and suffering the cause of your sorrow to the cross.
The cross is the place of death and destruction. Your afflictions, diseases, illnesses, sicknesses, pain and suffering were destroyed on Calvary's tree almost two thousand years ago! You don't have to carry them any more!
In God's eyes those are the facts. Now, you must understand those facts and believe those facts and base your faith on those facts. To be healed you must accept what Isaiah says as fact, not fiction, fairy tale or myth. No intelligent adult would base their life on a belief that Santa Clause is real or that reindeer can fly. But, unfortunately there are many who would dismiss the facts as they are presented by Isaiah as being in the same category. Don't make that mistake. There are literally millions alive today who can testify to the truth of God's Word.
Lets go back to Isaiah chapter 53 and look at more of the facts. Verse five says that "He was wounded for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed." Remember, I said that God does not want to heal just your physical body. He is interested in your whole being. This verse shows that! In Jesus Christ, God dealt with your guilt. "He was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities." As previously stated, God allowed Christ to accept the punishment for your sins. While at the same time He provided for your physical healing, "The chastening for our peace (well being) fell upon Him, and by His scourging (40 whip lashes laid upon His back) we are healed. "The lashing Jesus endured was punishment. But, He had done nothing wrong. That punishment was our punishment, my punishment, your punishment.
Every one of the lashes that Christ received upon His back was representative of one of the afflictions, diseases, illnesses, sicknesses, pains and sufferings of mankind. Whatever your sickness, whatever your disease, no matter what the cause of your pain or suffering. He bore it on His back during that horrible lashing... And it was crucified (its power destroyed) with Christ on Calvary's tree. That's a fact that you can count on. Believe it! Receive it! It's true!
There are those who would try to tell you that the healing that is spoken of in Isaiah Chapter 53, is only a spiritual healing. That is not true! The same Holy Spirit that inspired Isaiah to write this chapter, also inspired Matthew to interpret it as follows: "And when evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed; and He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were ill, in order that what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, saying, 'HE HIMSELF TOOK OUR INFIRMITIES, AND CARRIED AWAY OUR DISEASES(Matt. 8:16-17).'" Jesus was able to provide physical healing by looking ahead to the work which, He well knew, He would accomplish on the cross. Today we can believe God for our healing by looking back to that same event. Looking back to see our sin and guilt, our infirmities, our diseases, our pain being carried up Golgotha's hill, by a Savior who loved us enough to bear it all for us, so that we can be forgiven, healed, set free and delivered.
Be sure to Pray accordingly... As Jesus said in Mark 11:24 “ “Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you.”
I want to make it very clear. That no human being can guarantee your healing. Certainly I can not. Only God can do that! But, for those who might be skeptical of my teaching thus, I would remind all that, “Faith comes from hearing and hearing by the Word of God” And, the Scripture says, “WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.” And, “How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?” (Romans Chapter 10)
For the purposes of this article, I am the preacher, who fully believes that the Word of God is certainly guarantee enough for me and all who read, to place their Faith and Trust in.
The Healing Word
