By His Stripes

 

But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and by his stripes we are healed.

Isaiah 53:5

The last line of this verse often comes up when someone is sick and we're seeking supernatural healing. Thus this verse has come up a lot for me over the last five months, as I continue to navigate this new medical diagnosis. 

I always thought I had a high pain tolerance and endurance for suffering, but over these past several months I've been pushing the limits on what I thought I could tolerate.

One day while I rested on the couch a song was playing that quoted the last line of Isaiah 53:5. I started thinking about this verse and wondering what it really meant. 

When Jesus died on the cross for my sins it was done. Salvation was paid for and was now free and available to any who would receive it. Isaiah 53:5 says He was whipped for a specific reason, healing. Yet, physical healing doesn't seem to come like salvation. It's not just a matter of believing and receiving. If it was, a lot of us would be feeling great by now! 

Wanting to make sure I wasn't missing out on anything I had coming, I looked up what the word "healed" in that verse meant in Stongs. 

I was surprised when I found the first definition said: to mend (by stitching). It went on to say: to cure, heal, physician, repair...

But the first thing it mentioned was, mending. 

What things do you mend? When I think of this word I think of fabric and relationships. It's the repairing of something that was once united. 

Jesus could have just died on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins. That would have been enough, but He lost something else very precious to Him in the garden that day with Adam and Eve... relationship. 

Now I'm not here to argue whether or not Jesus paid for physical healing at the cross or not. I'd be more than happy to be instantly healed!

But I think this matter of relationship is far more important. We'll all die someday and these bodies will return to the dust from whence they came, but the relationship we have with the Lord will go on for all eternity. 

I don't know what we had before the fall... I don't know what we lost in the garden that day... but He does. So doesn't it make you wonder? He was willing to have His body ripped open, by all those lashes, just so He could be reunited with me. What have I been missing? If this relationship is on the top of His priority list, what is hidden in the recesses of His higher ways? What would I find buried in the depths of His love, if I was willing to abandon my fears and trust Him? 

What wonder and victory has been locked away in that one line: by His stripes we are healed... we are mended... we are stitched back together with the One we were never meant to be without... 

So far on this journey I have not found supernatural physical healing, but I have been receiving a much deeper healing. Now whenever anyone quotes Isaiah 53:5 to me, a tender love wells up in my heart as I think of my Beloved, as I think of the mending and the love He has for me, that He endured such suffering to not just save me, but to hold me.