“IT WAS THE WILL OF GOD TO CRUSH HIM!”

Isaiah 53:10                                                  (ESV)

“Yet “IT WAS THE WILL OF THE LORD TO CRUSH HIM”; HE has put HIM to grief; when HIS soul makes an offering for guilt, HE shall see HIS offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.”

Since GOD is Sovereign (and we KNOW HE is) HE must have (at least) given HIS approval for the COVID-19 virus to become the tragedy it has become.  There are those who say that a loving GOD would NEVER allow something so vile and destructive to mankind for HIS Glory, but you needn’t look any further than the cross at Calvary to quiet that view.  

The 24 hours just before the crucifixion of JESUS was carried out.  One commentary states “Scourging was not normally a form of execution, but it certainly was brutal enough to be fatal in many cases. A person certainly could be beaten to death by the scourge if that was desired. Its purpose was not only to cause great pain, but to humiliate as well. To scourge a man was to beat him worse than one would beat a stupid animal. It was belittling, debasing, and demeaning. It was considered such a degrading form of punishment that, according to the Porcian (248 B.C.) and Sempronian (123 B.C.) laws, Roman citizens were exempt from it.  It was, therefore, the punishment appropriate only for slaves and non-Romans, those who were viewed as the lesser elements in Roman society. To make it as humiliating as possible, scourging was carried out in public.”

GOD permitted HIS ONLY SON to be brutalized beyond what most men would have normally died from, to pay the price for the sins of an ungrateful world.  The sins that I commit everyday.  The sins that you commit everyday.  This just doesn’t make sense to me.  But Isaiah 55:8-9 reminds me that “For MY thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways MY ways, declares the LORD.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are MY ways higher than your ways and MY thoughts than your thoughts”.  Just because GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD!!!

The COVID-19 virus has killed just over 100,000 people as of the writing of this devotional.  One would say that GOD would NEVER allow such evil to exist.  Tell that to Joseph in Genesis 37.  However, we are set straight in Genesis 50:20 when Joseph tells his brothers who sold him into slavery “As for you, you meant evil against me, BUT GOD meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today”.  We don’t need to SEE ourselves higher than we are.  We are NOT GOD, regardless of what some think!  “IT WAS THE WILL OF GOD TO CRUSH HIM”, HIS SON, so we could spend eternity with HIM!  As for me, I do not have the capability to suggest what GOD would offer....either through MERCY or JUDGMENT!  All I know is “IT WAS THE WILL OF GOD TO CRUSH HIM” for my sake, and I am eternally grateful that HE did!!!