The Living Bible

From the Living Bible Isaiah 53 which was written 700 years before the
birth of Jesus Christ.

...how few believe it!
Who will listen?
To whom will God reveal his saving power?

In God's eyes he was like a tender green shoot, sprout-
ing from a root in dry and sterile ground. but in our
eyes there was no attractiveness at all, nothing to make
us want him. We despised him and rejected him--a man
of sorrows, acquainted with bitterest grief. We turned
our backs on him and looked the other way when he
passed by. He was despised and we didn't care.

Yet it was our grief he bore, our sorrows that weighed
him down. And we thought his troubles were a punish-
meant from God for his own sins!
But he was wounded and bruised for our sins.
He was chastised that we might have peace;
He was lashed--and we were healed!
We are the ones who strayed like sheep!
We, who left God's path to follow our own.
Yet God laid on him the guilt and sins of every one
of us... 

And when he sees all that is accomplished by the an-
guish of his soul, he shall be satisfied; and because of
what he has experienced, my righteous Servant shall
make many to be counted righteous before God, for he
shall bear all their sins. Therefore I will give him the
honors of one who is mighty and great, because he
poured out his soul unto death. He was counted as a
sinner, and he bore the sins of many, and he pled with
God for sinners. Isaiah 53: 1-6; 11,12

We commemorate the crucifixion and resurrection
of our Lord in just two weeks. It is not too soon to ponder
what our precious Savior did for us when He went to the
cross and became sin for us.