Good Morning! - 2010.07.02 - Isaiah 53:6 - Laid On Him

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:6)

I had a college Bible teacher who told about visiting Israel. He came to a bridge full of sheep and several shepherds were gathered on the bridge talking. The sheep moved around and mingled together. "How in the world will the shepherds get all these sheep separated? No problem.

When the shepherds finished talking, each of them continued on their original path calling to their sheep. Slowly but surely the sheep began to separate and each of them followed the voice of their respective shepherds. In a few minutes, the mass of mingled sheep were neatly separated into groups and walking along behind their shepherds as though they had never congregated on the bridge.

Jesus said: My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. (John 10:27-28)

I've got to ask you: "Do you hear or listen for His voice? Does He know you by name as one of His?" After a battle a young soldier was lying semi-conscious as the medics came through looking for survivors. Suddenly he began calling out weakly: "Here! Here!" A medic bent low and said, "We're here soldier. What do you need?" "Oh nothing, sir. I just heard them calling my name and I was answering 'here!'" And he was gone.

When I was about fourteen, I heard for the first time that my sins were laid on Christ as He hung on the cross. I had been saved five years and knew that He died for me, but had never heard that my sins were actually laid on Him. I memorized it and quote it as often as possible. Like John 3:16, it contains so much in a nutshell. It begins with "all" and ends with "all."

I grew up tending farm animals but we never had any sheep. We had goats, which have a similar nature to sheep, but they're not the same. Sheep are more helpless than goats. They are not as agile and do not climb up on rocks and leap from one place to another. Their heavy coat of wool makes them afraid of water for a good reason; especially running water. They are fearful, mentally slow, and cannot survive without a shepherd. They are susceptible to parasites and prone to wander off until they get hung up in something. They stray through following "the next bite of grass." When sheep are slaughtered, they do not cry out.

In the verse seven, it says: 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)

It takes a lot of humbling to admit you are like a sheep with all its helpless baggage and to admit you've gone astray. It takes some humbling to admit that you are so defective, so bad that your sins were laid on Him. Were you bad enough that it took God's Son's death on the cross to pay for your sins? It's not a matter of being a little religious so God will remember you when you die. You must come to Him as the lost sheep He says you are and depend on him to save your soul. We are not just a little out of adjustment. We are a totally lost cause and not fit to enter heaven as we are.

The good news is that our sins were laid on Him and it was completely sufficient to save us once and for all. Consider this:

Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; 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, but was manifest in these last times for you, (1Peter 1:18-20).

Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. (Hebrews 9:12)