One of the most famous verses in the Bible is Isaiah 53:5. In this verse, Isaiah, who lived hundreds of years before the birth of Yeshua, we read a prophecy of what Yeshua would do. Usually, we glance over this because most mainstream Christians know this verse by heart. But if we do skim over it, it should raise a red flag in us because we should never get so used to being saved that we stop appreciating what Yeshua did for us. So let’s take a moment and go through Isaiah 53:5 verse by verse and show our appreciation for the cross.
“But He was pierced for our transgressions.” This word, transgression, is significant because it refers to sins committed with the intention of angering Yehovah. We know the Bible says in 1. John sin is breaking the law of Moses. So transgressions are the kind of sin you do when you want to anger Yehovah when you have a desire to break His law.
Very few of us have at one time in our life made a conscious decision to disobey God because we are so angry at Him. Even though few us have made a conscious decision to do so, we have all at one time in our life done so without being fully aware of what we did. When society accepts and even encourages the murder of children in their mother’s wombs, they are doing it because they are angry at God. They know the Bible says it is wrong and sinful, but they choose to ignore that. When society accepts and encourages homosexuality, lesbianism, and gender confusion, they are doing it because they are angry at God. They know the Bible says it is wrong and sinful, but they choose to ignore it. So even though very few have said to themselves “I am so angry at God, so now I am going to disobey His laws,” we have all at one time been so angry at God that we have chosen to disobey His laws.
Yeshua was pierced and broken by Yehovah for all our transgressions. If you want forgiveness for all the times you have sinned against Yehovah in your anger, you can receive it right now by choosing to repent from living a lawless life.
“He was crushed for our iniquities.”This word iniquity refers to intentional sin not necessarily done to anger God. The first time you told a lie, and you knew you should have told the truth, you became guilty of iniquity. If you want forgiveness for your iniquities, you can receive it right now by choosing to repent from living a lawless life.
What have we learned so far? We have learned Yeshua was wounded and crushed for all the times we sinned because we were angry at God. All of us have done this when at one time in our life, we have agreed to or encouraged homosexuality, abortion, lesbianism, gender confusion, or any other thing the Torah forbids. He was wounded and crushed for all the times we knew the right thing to do, but we chose instead to sin. You can be forgiven for all of this right here, right now by deciding to repent back to the Torah and believe Yeshua the Son of Yehovah died for your transgressions and iniquities on the cross.
“The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him.” What is peace to you? The absence of conflict? Serenity? In the Bible, the word Shalom is used to describe peace. Shalom cannot be translated into English with a single word. It comes from the word Shalem meaning to be complete. So a person who has Shalom will experience 100% completeness in all areas of life. He or she will have tranquility, justice, sufficient food, clothing, housing, divine health, and no sickness.
The opposite of Shalom in the Bible is Ra. Ra is another Hebrew word we can not accurately translate. Ra means nothing makes sense or fits. There is chaos everywhere, no order, and everything is wrong.
To understand Shalom and Ra we can look in Deut 28:1-13 and Deut 14-28. Ra is described in Deut 28:14-28 and Shalom are described in 28:1-13. Now we understand Ra happens when we commit transgressions and iniquities. Transgression and iniquities give us Ra, and Ra always has consequences described in Deut 28:14-45. But if we believe Yeshua was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities, we will repent and come back to the Torah. Then He will have taken upon Himself on the cross the punishment we deserve, and we will have Shalom in our life.
Now we understand how the Shalom promised in Isaiah 53:5 depends on the Torah. We can only have Shalom if we first choose to repent back to obeying the Torah, believing Yeshua was wounded for our transgressions and iniquities.
“by His stripes, we are healed.” As we have seen, physical healing depends on us believing He was bruised for our iniquities wounded for our transgressions, and because of our faith, choose to repent back to the Torah. If we do all of this, Isaiah 53:5 promises us, Shalom. If we have Shalom, we are healed physically, spiritually, emotionally, and materially. Everything comes into order if we have Shalom, and the consequences of living in disobedience to the Torah (Deut 28:14-45) are removed.
The last part of Isaiah 53:5 promises us healing, so how are we to understand the phrase “by His stripes, we are healed”? The Hebrew word for stripes did not refer to His physical wounds on His physical body when He was whipped, beaten, and crucified. This Hebrew word for stripes could also be translated as fellowship or unity. If we go with the translation that says “by His unity/fellowship, we are healed” the rest of the verse makes sense. If we go with “by His physical stripes, we are healed” it becomes so untangible, and we almost drift into mysticism where we become unable to grasp what it actually says. How do we live united with Yeshua? 1. John 2:6 says those who claim to be united with Him have to obey the Torah as He did. This makes more sense because all the proceeding verses says if we believe He died for our angry disobedience and our intentional disobedience, we will as a natural consequence refuse to continue living in rebellion. The proceeding verses also say our faith in the cross, combined with repentance, will give us Shalom and Shalom is a direct result of Torah obedience. (Deut 28:1-13). Now we see how the last part of Isaiah 53:5 sums up the proceeding parts by saying, if we obey the Torah we will walk in Shalom and Shalom always gives us healing in every area of our lives.
So what have we learned from Isaiah 53:5? The prophecy in Isaiah 53:5 says Yeshua took the punishment for all the times we broke God’s Torah because we were angry at Him. He was broken and wounded for all the times we broke God’s Torah because we wanted to. If we believe He was punished for all the times we broke God’s Torah out of anger, and all the times we broke God’s Torah because it felt good, we will of course not want to continue breaking God’s Torah. So we will choose to repent from living a lawless life to begin obeying God’s Torah. This repentance will be living proof of our faith in the cross, and Yehovah (God) will give us Shalom. What is Shalom? Shalom is not just peace in itself; Shalom is everything we need physically, spiritually, mentally, and emotionally. Shalom defines itself in Deut 28:1-13, by giving us Shalom, Yehovah removes almost all the consequences of our sin and rebuilds our lives.
Some consequences of our sins cant be dealt with by Yehovah. Why? Because they are permanent and affects other people. If someone died because of your sin, repentance and obeying the Torah will forgive you for what happened. It will replace guilt with peace and assurance of forgiveness, but it will not bring that person back to life. We see this illustrated in the life of Paul the Apostle. Before his Damascus road experience, he was responsible for the death of many believers. After his Damascus road experience, he knew he was forgiven, but he also knew those people were still dead. He had to carry the memory of what he had done for the rest of his life even though he never doubted his salvation.
Even though Yehovah removes almost all the consequences of our sins, He will give us Shalom to deal with everything, including those that cant be changed. But He will only do this if we will believe Yeshua was wounded and crushed for our intentional disobedience to Yehovah’s Torah and our rebellion we did to anger Him.
Then Isaiah 53:5 sums it all up by saying, if we always obey the Torah and believe Yeshua died for our sins, we will have Shalom.
This is what the Bible teaches, but this is not what mainstream Christianity teaches. It should concern you there is such a significant discrepancy between what Christianity says and what the Bible says. The Torah has and will always be our only key to Shalom. We will never have Shalom if we disobey the Torah, or we believe the Torah does not apply to us. The Bible even goes as far as to say we are not saved if we do not obey the Torah.
Stop to think for a moment what mainstream Christianity believes in. They claim Jesus the Son of God died for your sins, and if you believe this, you are saved. At the same time, they would say He came to free us from the curse of the Torah (the law) because the law is impossible to obey. The logical consequence of what they teach is this: If you can’t follow the Torah, you can believe in Jesus dying for your sins and choose to live any way you want to. Their God does not really care how you live your life as long as you confess that Jesus died for you, and He is God’s Son.
We have just seen what the Bible says. The Bible says Yehovah (God) does care how you live your life. Sin (disobedience to the Torah) is an abomination and something that angers Him, something He has no choice but to judge. He loves us so much that He was willing to give us His Son Yeshua to take upon Himself our punishment and die for our sins. If we just believe AND repent back to obeying the Torah, we will not only be saved but also walk in the fullness of life.
Is it any wonder mainstream Christianity in the West has lost its authority? Is it any wonder we have 40 000 + different denominations all claiming to be Christians, all being unable to cooperate? Is it any wonder we do not see revival anymore and miracles?
Imagine being on your death bed as a Christian. Your entire life, you have believed what mainstream Christianity teaches, and now that you are about to die, you believe Jesus will receive you into heaven. When you lived your life, you never obeyed the Torah; the Torah was something you thought was a burden, a curse, something just for the Jews. At the moment when your soul leaves your body, and your physical eyes close for the last time, you expect to open them in front of Jesus and hear Him say “welcome home.” How would you feel if you instead heard Him say “depart from Me, for I never knew you, you who lived without Torah”?
When He says those words to you it will be too late; your body is dead, so you can’t go back and live your life again in obedience to the Torah.
That is a scary thought, is it not?
What is even scarier is that this is in the Bible. Yeshua warns us in Matthew 7:21-23 that each day Christians who do not obey the Torah leave this earth, expect to be welcomed home to heaven, but instead, they get to hear “depart from Me, for I never knew you.”
Do not be one of them; start today by obeying the Torah.