"He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face, He was despised, and we did not esteem Him." Isaiah 53:3 NAS

By now you might have this verse memorized, as it has been the focal point of our last four devotionals. Today lets look at it from a different angle. Let's look it from the side of those who would reject Him. Here we have a picture of a man who we know as Jesus Christ, Son of God.

We know He was forsaken more than any other. We know He was rejected by all. He was rejected by even those who were closest to Him and were intimately acquainted with Him having spent three years of their lives with Him. The Savior of the world became so marred and so despised that men hid their faces from Him.

You can only imagine how hard it would have been to see the One who turned water into wine, delivered men of demons and dumb spirits, healed Peter’s Mother-n-law, healed a leper, healed a paralytic, raised a widow’s son from the dead, calmed a storm, healed two blind men, feed 5000 and later another 4000, walked on water, raised Lazarus from the dead and so more.

Imagine for a moment how you might have re-acted being placed in the disciple’s shoes in that time period under these circumstances. This would have been very traumatic to say the least. His appearance might have been so terrible to look at that it resembled a visual appearance of the disgust of sin in its most horrific picture format.

Remember He who knew no sin became sin on our behalf (2 Cor. 5:21). He of course became sin as a matter of taking on the curse of sin, that being death and separation from the Father. He Himself was without sin and perfect, holy and righteous. God Himself couldn’t actually sin as a matter for punishment, rather he paid the price for sin through His perfection.

Before His actual death and resurrection men hid there face because of His beaten appearance. Today we hide our face from Him because of our appearance of sin. We still turn away and sin against our great Savior Jesus Christ. Then the enemy comes with the guilt and shame convincing us that we can’t go before the Lord so we hide our face from the Lord’s ever abiding presence.

Sin makes us feel distant and far from the Lord. It distorts our vision of His beautiful face that shines perfect love down on us. Imagine for a moment how distant Peter one of the very twelve disciples felt after denying even knowing Jesus and then having his eyes meet those of His Lord.

Peter saw the miracles and was a part of them personally and yet he still turned away and because of sin he hid His face (Luke 22:61). Have you ever found yourself in this place? Have you ever wanted to hide because you seem to have given in once again to that sin which so easily entangles you?

Why do we still feel as though we want to hide our faces after we have sinned against God? We forget that because of “the joy (namely you and I) set before Him,” He “endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right had of God (Heb. 12:2).”

Yet so fantastically wonderful is the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that before we even lift up our heads and confess the sin, no matter how horrible it was He has already forgiven us. We need to remember that Christ went through all that He did so that you and I would be reconciled to Himself (2 Cor. 5:18-19). This means we can come immediately to Him.

We never have to hide our face from Jesus Christ, ever. He has redeemed us with His everlasting love and grace. He knows we are still going to sin and He knows we will fail in our flesh. He knew the whole package He was getting when He hung on that cross and He still endured it for you. Today no matter where you are in this world fix your eyes on Jesus, the firm foundation.

Loved and Redeemed,
Adam