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Wednesday (Day 4)

VERSES: Isaiah 53:1-12

I have grown up playing a lot of basketball. Though I played my fair share of organized basketball games in leagues and for schools, I have played MORE games on playgrounds, in front yards, and at rec centers where two captains “pick sides.” On these less formal courts, captains do not always know the ability of those they are selecting, so superficial appearances lead to who is picked first. Since I am not 6’5” and could never jump high enough to touch the rim, I often slid down the draft board when teams were forming. Man looks at appearances - a lesson I learned at the YMCA at an early age.

Yesterday, we saw that though David was not the oldest or the tallest (two characteristics his culture looked for in a king), he was the one picked first by God to be the King of Israel. Man looks at outward appearances, but God looks at the heart.

As we have seen, Jesus Christ comes in the vein of King David. In Isaiah’s prophetic words about Jesus (written 700 years before Jesus was born), Jesus is described as “one without form or majesty that we should look at Him.” In fact, Jesus became a “man of sorrows” who was “pierced for our transgressions.”

Praise God that Jesus, our King of Kings, was not the kind of king who majored on pomp and circumstance during His earthly ministry. He humbled Himself to give us what only He could offer … forgiveness and eternal life.

Because Jesus looked “normal,” He did not glow at His birth. The shepherds who came to visit Him on that first Christmas night identified Him as one lying in a manger, not as one having a halo floating over His head.

The God who looks at the heart, sees your heart today. We cannot fool God through our religious performance. He knows who we really are. Thankfully, He chose us first. He was willing to be pierced for our transgressions and to cleanse us from the inside out.