Numbered with the Transgressors
Key
Text
"Therefore
will I divide him a portion with the great, and
he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because
he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he
was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare
the sin of many, and made intercession for the
transgressors." Isaiah 53:12
Fulfillment
"And when they were come to the place, which is
called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the
malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other
on the left." Luke 23:33
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The disciples still expected Christ to reign
as a temporal prince. Although He had so long concealed His
design, they believed that He would not always remain in poverty
and obscurity; the time was near when He would establish His
kingdom. That the hatred of the priests and rabbis would never
be overcome, that Christ would be rejected by His own nation,
condemned as a deceiver, and crucified as a malefactor,--such
a thought the disciples had never entertained. But the hour
of the power of darkness was drawing on, and Jesus must open
to His disciples the conflict before them. He was sad as He
anticipated the trial.
Hitherto He had refrained from making known to them anything relative to His
sufferings and death. In His conversation with Nicodemus He had said, "As
Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be
lifted up: that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal
life." John 3:14, 15. But the disciples did not hear this, and had they
heard, would not have understood. But now they have been with Jesus, listening
to His words, beholding His works, until, notwithstanding the humility of His
surroundings, and the opposition of priests and people, they can join in the
testimony of Peter, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." Now
the time has come for the veil that hides the future to be withdrawn. "From
that time forth began Jesus to show unto His disciples, how that He must go unto
Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes,
and be killed, and be raised again the third day."Back |
