Isaiah 53:3

Isaiah 53

"He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not." (v. 3) 

In this classic verse, we see the rejection of Christ long before He was known on earth. Christ was the most misunderstood man that ever walked this earth; and that, because He was God and man. As one reads the Gospels, it is clear that though John the Baptist was received of men as at least a prophet of God, Christ was not. Isaiah 53 remains the all time classic passage of the Bible, in prophetic terms as well as in doctrinal terms. We learn a lot about man in this passage, and much about Christ also. He was rejected because He was different; He was different because he was God in the flesh; men still reject Him today because of this. Nearly all His teachings were misunderstood, and many were questioned because of it, so, what do we gain from this? To question our Lord is to admit that we are of little understanding. One might ask, "how are we supposed to know if we don't question"? Well, in human reckoning, that is a reasonable question in itself, but with God we are not to question. He will reveal all to us that we need to know, and the rest is simply none of our business! First, we are to believe Him; The Lord has revealed Himself to us in His Word, and therefore there is no need to question, lest we doubt His revelation of Himself. Secondly, He is supreme and whether we understand or not, we need to trust. Why do we think we need to understand everything before we accept it? I guess it is "human nature." 

"We hid...our faces from Him" in shame, of course. One cannot comprehend holiness in the extreme, as Christ was, and so the natural thing to do is to avoid Him, to "hide our faces from Him". The same happens when we have a guilty conscience, we tend to avoid those who would convict us by their presence. He was despised because he was holy, he was rejected because we are in love with our sin, therefore, we must hide our faces from Him. To look upon Him is to see His holiness, His perfection, and it is convicting to all who gaze upon Him.     --Marty Dunn

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