Tiffany's Letter for March

I received an other letter from my friend, Tiffany today. I wanted to share it like I did the first one.
I hope everyone has a wonderful day tomorrow as we celebrate the Resurrection!

March 2008

“He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth:
He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb,
so He openeth not His mouth.”
~ Isaiah 53:7 ~

Our family recently visited the Creation Museum, which is a little over an hour from our new home in Kentucky. It was a phenomenal experience. And though I was blessed and challenged by a great many things there, the thing that affected me the most was seeing the models of the sacrificed lambs upon the altars. There were three such models that I recall, each gruesomely displaying an animal with bloody muscle and bone exposed. In all of the pictures that I have seen in the past of sacrificed lambs, goats, rams, or bulls, though bloody they still look like animals, with wool and skin attached. But in these models, the wool and skin were removed, exposing raw meat and bone. From the book of Leviticus, we read that the animals used for sacrifices were even more mangled than these.
Immediately I thought of Jesus, our precious sacrificial Lamb, and of the verse in Isaiah 52 which reads, “As many were astonied at Thee; His visage was so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men.” (verse 14) When I came home, I began a search through select passages in Isaiah, the Psalms, and the Gospels, that describe Christ’s suffering and crucifixion. Many, though not all, of the questions I have had about certain passages were clarified as I studied the original Hebrew words used.
In the passage from Isaiah 52, for example, the word “astonied” (which, I confess I always tend to read as “astonished”) means “to stun, grow numb, devastate” or figuratively, “to stupefy.” It implies that what one sees is so terrible that it horrifies or appalls. Seeing the lambs on the altars left me speechless. I cannot even imagine what it was like to see Jesus so changed. And yet this passage says that the face our Lord was so “marred” (the word literally means “disfigured, corrupted, or ruined”) “more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men.” In Psalm 22:17 we read a prayer from Christ’s perspective: “I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me.” The word “may” was added in translation and is not in the original text. The word “tell” means “to score with a mark as a tally, to record, count, or number.” It wasn’t just that people could see His bone, but that so many of His bones were seen that they could be counted. This is unfathomable.
Returning to Isaiah 53, we read that “He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 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.” (Isaiah 53:4-5)
The Hebrew word for “griefs” is choliy (pronounced ‘khol-ee’) which is usually translated “sickness” or “disease.” It can also mean “malady, anxiety, or calamity.” The word for “sorrows” is makobah (mak-o-baw) meaning “anguish or affliction”, but can also be translated “pain.” This verse became increasingly precious to me as I spent much of 2007 in daily pain, battling sickness and disease. How beautiful it is to know that “He hath borne our griefs [sicknesses, anxieties], and carried our sorrows [anguish and pain].”
“He was wounded,” we read, “for our transgressions.” I nearly made the old mistake again thinking, “Well, I know what that means!” Yet the Holy Spirit prompted me to search it out and when I did, I discovered yet another incredible truth. The word “wounded” is chalal (pronounced ‘khaw-lal’), and means “to pollute, defile, or profane.” Our precious, holy, perfect and spotless Savior was wounded – polluted, defiled, profaned – for our transgressions. “For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21) “And ye know that He was manifested to take away our sins; and in Him is no sin.” (1John 3:5) It is amazing to think that His sacred body was so disfigured and dishonored in order that He might bear the penalty for our sin. “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:23) And from 1 Peter we know that we “were not redeemed with corruptible things . . . but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world . . .” (1 Peter 1:18-20)
Coming back again to Isaiah 53 we read that “it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He hath put Him to grief.” (verse 10) The word “bruise” means “to crush, crumble, break” or “beat to pieces.” I have often wondered at this passage. How could it please the Lord to crush His Son? Yet when I looked this up in Strong’s Dictionary, it said that “it is not so much an intense pleasurable emotion as a favorable disposition, or the prompting of the heart to take a certain course of action from a sense of fitness.”
The magnitude of Christ’s suffering is depicted in even greater detail in Psalm 22, the very psalm He quoted in part as He died. Part of this psalm reads:
“Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help. Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels. My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and Thou hast brought me into the dust of death. For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet. I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me. . . . Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog. Save me from the lion’s mouth: for Thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.” (Isaiah 53:11-17 & 20-21)
The word pictures in this psalm are incredibly vivid and powerful. We see bulls, lions, dogs, even unicorns! The word “unicorn” is actually rem (rame) which means “wild bull.” Our word “unicorn” is from the Latin words meaning “one horn.” The rhinoceros is a wild, one-horned animal and a male rhinoceros is called a bull. It is likely that this passage is referring to this enormously powerful creature.
The phrase “my darling from the power of the dog” has often puzzled me as well. But the word “darling” (yachiyd, pronounced ‘yaw-kheed’) by implication means “beloved” or “life” and can be translated “only, only child, only son” among other things. Here, according to Strong’s, it means “self” or “soul.” Jesus cries for His Father to save Him from the sword, to save His soul from the power of the dog, from the lion’s mouth, and from the power of the wild bulls.
Isaiah 53:12 reads, “Many bulls have compassed me.” The word “compassed” is used later in verse 16, “For dogs have compassed me.” It’s a word that means “to revolve, surround, border, to turn, or go around” and is a verb that “represents a circular movement.” The visual image is tremendous: angry bulls and fierce, yelping dogs not just surrounding, but circling, pacing around the bruised body of our Lord. I can almost hear the incessant yapping of the mockers, the roar of the furious crowd intimidating Him, encircling Him, hungry for His blood. Matthew Henry, the great theologian, says that the bulls represent His enemies that were of a higher rank, the chief priests and elders – “fat and fed to the full, haughty and sour” – while the dogs represent those of a lower rank, “filthy, greedy, and unwearied in running Him down.”
We frequently call to mind how the physical torture injured Him. But often we forget the hateful cries that wounded – polluted, defiled, and profaned – Him, to whom only praise and honor was due. And more astounding than this is the spirit with which He received those bitter blows. “He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth: He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth.” (Isaiah 53:7) Oh, what an example He set for us! First Peter 2:21-24 reads, “Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow His steps: Who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth: Who, when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered, He threatened not; but committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously: Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.”
One last thing. In the passage we looked at earlier from Isaiah 53, there is a phrase that made me stop and think. It is from verse 3 and it reads, “He is despised and rejected of men . . .” Not ‘was’, though later in the verse the past-tense form is used, but ‘is’ – present-tense. “He is despised and rejected.” His life, His cruel death, His miraculous resurrection, and His example of perfect obedience is absolutely ridiculous to those who do not know Him. “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness [literally, “silliness or absurdity”]; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:18) My prayer for each one of you today is that you believe in Jesus, the precious Lamb who was mocked and marred for our transgressions, who was wounded to pay the penalty for sin.
“He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in Himself: He that believeth not God hath made Him a liar; because He believeth not the record that God gave of His Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.” (1John 5:10-13)

Love and prayers across the miles,

Tiffany