I found a web site this morning that displays a parallel Hebrew and English text of Isaiah 53. At the top there is an option to listen to this chapter in Hebrew.

As I listened, I imagined Jesus listening to this scripture as a young boy and then as a young man. Did he know as a child that this was his story? We know he knew he had to be about his father’s business, but how much of this bigger story did he apply to himself?

We know from his battle in Gethsemane that surrendering to this prophecy was an anguishing choice.

I was deeply impacted to read this translation of V3 “…a man of pain, and acquainted with disease…”

Then V 10, “Yet it pleased the LORD to crush him by disease…”

Is it possible that those of us who sing so easily that we want to be like Jesus may be inviting suffering into our lives?

Do I need to let my understanding of God’s love be big enough to allow the suffering of my friend?

I pray this morning, Lord, if possible may this not be your plan (that my friend writhe in the grip of ongoing suffering, so deep that she loses her grip on who you are), but may your will, not mine, be done.

I pray that I would know what part of this story applies to me and embrace both the grief and the hope.