Apr 30 Devotion: The Man of Sorrows

Isaiah 53:3 - “ 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.”

Jehovah. Christ. Emmanuel. The Prince of Peace. The Lord of lords and King of Kings. Alpha. Omega. The Lamb. The I AM. The Lion of the tribe of Judah. 

JESUS

All the names above should stir a Christian to rejoice in who our God is. He is the Almighty, omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. He is thrice Holy through the personages of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He is great and greatly to be praised!

All of the names and titles attributed to God in His Word are meant to give man a greater understand of his unknowable Holiness. Each shows us an aspect of His Divine nature so that we may better understand two things: 1.) Part of God’s identity or characteristics; and, 2.) Part of God’s workmanship taken towards man.

Yet, we do not often celebrate the titles and names given to Jesus that are most impactful for a Christian’s daily life. In our verse, above, Isaiah prophesied that Christ would be “a man of sorrows,”“despised and rejected,” and “acquainted with grief.” Note, a title is given to someone to identify and help you understand a person and their life. Christ was foretold to be a many of MANY sorrows, not a singular large sorrow. His life on earth was so full of sorrows that Isaiah felt inspired by God to name him a Man of Sorrows.

Have you ever wondered why Christ, the Holy Creator and the Word made flesh, would willingly subject himself to a life of sorrows? What the purpose was for being despised and rejected by the masses? Why he chose to become acquainted with grief? God did not NEED to submit to these pains and afflictions for his sake! He was already Holy. He was already Perfect. He was already God. He gained nothing through this suffering for His name’s sake.

Have you ever considered, whilst grieving in your life, that the father had to grieve the loss of his Only Begotten Son, when he turned his back on Jesus while laying the sins and iniquities of all mankind onto the perfect lamb?

Christ experienced the earthly life of a man of sorrows for our sake. He instructs us to cast all our cares upon him. He cares for you. Because he cares, he lived a public life of sorrows and conquered those sorrows so that you might be able to say, “God will never forsake me. God’s love is greater than all my sorrows. Christ has already experienced this sorrow and promised to succour his follows as their High Priest.”

We should rejoice just as much in His suffering as we do in His salvation. Without Jesus living as a man of sorrows, he would not have been able to identify, empathize or remedy those sorrows in the lives of His believers. He experienced the absolutely depths of every manner of inexplicable sorrow, rejection and grief. All for your sake.

How great a God! How marvelous a Savior! How compassionate a friend! How wonderful is our Savior!

I only wish for the day where I will truly be able to worship Him in the competed work of salvation: the day our faith will be made sight, the day when we will no longer be burdened or limited by sin cursed flesh. Hallelujah to His wonderful name! Let it be magnified among the heathen. Spread it far and wide. Let the world know that our God loved us so that He became a man of sorrows.

Your fellowservant in Christ,

Bro. Jordan Foster