God will provide
Healing scriptures restore our faith and provide us with insight into God’s heart. When we need healing for our bodies, minds, or spirits, God’s word provides answers for our afflictions. Reflecting on what God says refocuses our perspective and allows our healing to take place. Rest and read God’s word knowing that it will speak into your situation today.
Isaiah 53:5 demonstrates that God keeps his promises and provides healing when we face sicknesses. His word offers us peace and hope when our bodies need restoration. This verse gives us insight into the biblical answers for healing, trust, and redemption.
Trust in the Lord
Trusting God isn’t always easy—especially in times of struggle and pain. When our bodies are sick, our focus usually rests on our diagnosis, our options, and our road to recovery. We worry and wonder what we can do to make our situation better.
Yet when our focus is solely on ourselves, we lose sight of what Christ has already accomplished on our behalf. Isaiah 53:5 reminds us that Christ has endured our sicknesses and sins on His own body. God has provided a way through our circumstances. By the stripes of Jesus, we’re healed not by our own goodness, but by His goodness.
The book of Isaiah
700 years before the birth of Jesus, Isaiah wrote prophecy after prophecy about the life, work, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The Jewish scribes and Pharisees poured over these texts as the community eagerly awaited their deliverance from bondage and suffering. While the full meaning of the text was hidden at the time, it came to fruition when Jesus fulfilled these prophecies at the cross.
Jesus heals us today because He satisfied our punishment. When the curse of sickness and sin entered the world after Adam and Eve’s disobedience, we lost our God-given shalom. Shalom is a Hebrew word that encapsulates every aspect of our wellbeing. While it’s typical definition is “peace,” it means so much more.
Shalom is a concept that touches every broken place and imparts life to our bodies, hearts, souls, and relationships. It includes overall restoration of each area of our lives. When we have God’s shalom, we have healing, wholeness, and renewal.
Even when the reports don’t look good or the odds are against us, know that God hears our cries and provides a path forward.
He was wounded for our transgressions
The first part of this passage uses violent language to describe what Jesus underwent for our deliverance. He was crushed, pierced, and bruised under incredible stress and pain. Through it all, His suffering was not in vain. He restored us from our transgressions.
But what are transgressions? This is a word that we don’t often hear in today’s language. The definition of transgressions in the Bible has to do with the idea of a covenant. Covenants are contracts made between people, or between God and His people, and there are several examples in scripture.
Transgression occurs when someone breaks a covenant, breaching trust. The Hebrew word for transgressions is pesha (rebellion; to trespass). In rebelling against each other or against God, a void is formed that can only be bridged by redemption or restoration.
As flawed human beings, we had deep transgressions with God as our covenant was broken with Him. We could not save ourselves from the power of sin and death. Separation from God is a breach no human can heal. However, God provided a way for our restoration.
Christ chose to undergo the terrible pain that we deserved to restore our relationship with God. He faced our trespasses to take them down with the fierceness of His love and the fullness of His redemption.
By His stripes, we are healed
The second part of this verse addresses our healing from sin and sickness. God calls us to redemption through the finished work of Jesus Christ. Where our human capabilities fall short, Christ meets us in our weakness and gives us His overcoming strength. Even when the reports don’t look good or the odds are against us, know that God hears our cries and provides a path forward.
Jesus was whipped and tortured for our healing. Rather than looking at our physical conditions, cares, and circumstances, look to Jesus’ finished work at the cross. His body took all our sins so that our bodies could be healed, whole and redeemed. His physical form endured incredible pain so that we can live free today.
By His stripes, we’re healed from every sin. By His stripes, we’re healed from every disease. By His stripes, he demonstrated His overwhelming love towards us. With each stroke, He took the curse upon His perfect being to save our spirits, bodies, and hearts both now and forever. He broke the power of sickness, sin, and death over our lives.
Look to him today, and know that He has already provided a way for your peace, strength, and healing.
Reflection Questions
- Jesus fulfilled the prophecies that were written about His life 700 years earlier. When God redeems us, he redeems us in full. How have you witnessed His redemptive work in your life? Read all of Isaiah 53 to focus on everything Jesus has done for you.
- Isaiah 53:5 demonstrates the fullness of God’s love. Jesus made the ultimate trade so that His scars would bring healing and restoration to our body, mind, and spirit. How does focusing on God’s love and healing impact your situation?
- God gave us scriptures on healing to provide a way to understand the fullness of His heart. How does it change your perspective knowing that Jesus bore all your diseases?
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