Meditations

Question from listener on moody radio on openline on 28 Sept 2019:

In Isaiah 53, where it says by His stripes we are healed, I hear a lot of people praying that, a lot of the name it and claim it group but not seen so many healings and I know when we get to heaven, we will be healed completely with our new heavenly bodies and everything when we are with the Lord, is that a good understanding or application of that verse for present day healing or should we look at it as a future promise when we get to be with the Lord?

Dr Michael Rydelnik:

In context, that’s where we got to start … Ed what do you say about the healing in Isaiah 53?

Dr Edwin Blum:

The context, obviously, is the suffering of the Messiah and in the context, it’s the suffering of the Messiah for sin. He bears our burdens and our sin in his own body. Obviously, Jesus did heal people as a sign of the physical being a sign of the spiritual but he was basically a person who came to save people from their sins.

Dr Michael Rydelnik:

That’s what Isaiah 53 is about. It’s redemption from sin. But one day, because he has redeemed us from sin, he will glorify us and that will result in the removal of sickness. Sickness is the result of living in this fallen world and being fallen ourselves. In a sense, there is healing in the atonement but it’s only guaranteed when we receive our glorified bodies, our resurrected bodies, no more sickness, no more suffering because we have been glorified through the redemptive work of Jesus the Messiah. Is Isaiah 53 about healing in the atonement, no and yes, that’s the answer.

In Matthew 8, it’s quoted when Jesus heals people, I think what’s that talking about, when it says that He bore our sicknesses in his body and it quotes Isaiah 53, what that means is because the Messiah in the kingdom will give us this resurrected body and we won’t suffer any more. As a result of that, when he’s here, he can give us a little glimpse of the kingdom, so when he heals, it’s because of what he will do for us ultimately in the resurrection, it’s like a little mini kingdom experience. I think that’s what Matthew 8 is talking about when it quotes Isaiah 53.

Isaiah 53

Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted.
⁵ But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.
⁶ All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. -nkjv

Matthew 8

¹⁶ When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, ¹⁷ that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying:

“He Himself took our infirmities
And bore our sicknesses.” -nkjv