Random Quotes & Articles to Provide Food for Thought
Read Isaiah 53
On December 7, 1941 a Japanese squadron of 360 planes launched an all-out attack on Pearl Harbor, an act of aggression that launched the Pacific War. The commander of that Japanese Squadron was a man by the name of Mitsuo Fuchida. He was considered to be Japan’s most skilled combat pilot. As the commander of the squadron, he was the one who gave the command to attack Pearl Harbor. Fuchida continued in the war for the next four years, and miraculously escaped death four times.
Fuchida was not a religious man, but after the war his thoughts turned to God. One day at a railway station in Tokyo he was handed a Christian pamphlet. The pamphlet was entitled “I Was a War Prisoner of Japan.” It was the testimony of Jacob DeShazer, an American, telling how during his imprisonment in Japan he started to read the New Testament and was converted and his whole life transformed. Immediately Fuchida’s interest was sparked, and he, too, started to read the New Testament.
Soon he came to the story of the crucifixion. He read of how Jesus forgave His enemies from the cross when He prayed, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Fuchida says that his heart broke when he read this account. He couldn’t understand how someone could pray for their enemies and ask for their forgiveness. At that moment, Fuchida opened his heart to Christ and eventually became a Christian evangelist. What a powerful testimony of the wonderful grace of God! Captain Fuchida later came to America and traveled around apologizing for the war and preaching forgiveness through Jesus Christ.
In the light of that story, I want to draw your attention for a few moments to verse 6 of the passage I read earlier. “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”
We find this verse in the middle of an amazing prophetic passage which foretells the sufferings of Christ in precise detail, over 700 years before it happened. The prophet shows very clearly that Christ would die as a substitute, that He would pay the penalty for the sin of the world; that the iniquity of the whole world would be laid on His shoulders.
In verse 6 the prophet likens the whole human race to sheep. The nature of sheep is to wander and go astray. This seems the more incredible because of all animals, sheep are dependent on human help. They couldn’t survive for very long in the wild. They need a shepherd—they need someone to guide them and protect them. And yet they are so amazingly prone to wander. But is not this true also of us? We were made to be dependent on God for guidance, protection, and so many other things, and yet as a race we have struck out on our own. We’ve gone our own way. We’ve left the sheepfold of God’s loving protection and guidance and gone our own way, done our own thing. How foolish we humans are—just like sheep.
But not only have we gone astray as a race, as a whole, we have also gone astray as individuals. Our text says, “we have turned every one to his own way.” The human race is made up of individual humans, and like the straying sheep on the mountains, we have each gone our own individual way. Each of us has our own particular catalog of sins and wanderings from God—a little different from the next person and the next person. For one it might be lying, or cheating, or stealing. For another it might be adultery. For another it might be self-righteousness or hypocrisy. For another it might be blasphemy, taking the Lord’s name in vain, using the Lord’s name as a curse word. Or it might be unbelief. There are many ways in which we as individuals have gone astray from God, wandered away from His commandments, strayed from His guidance, protection, and provision.
One of the characteristics of a sheep is that it can very readily find the hole in the fence to get out of the sheepfold and stray away, but it can never find that same hole in the fence to come back. Once out, it has not the ability to come back. And again that’s a perfect picture of us humans. It comes natural to us to wander away from God, and yet we can’t find the way back unless the Holy Spirit comes alongside and helps us. We need the Spirit of God to open our eyes, to strengthen our wills, to break down our stubbornness, to help us find our way back to God.
So we have sinned as a race. There is not one person anywhere in the world who can say that he or she has not sinned. “ALL we like sheep have gone astray.” We have also sinned as individuals: “We have turned every one to his own way.” But the good news is that our sin has been taken care of: “The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” There is a sin-bearer. His name is Jesus. At a place called Calvary, 2,000 years ago, God the Father took the sins of the whole world and laid them all on Jesus. The sinless, spotless Lamb of God took every sin of every person that has ever lived and that ever will live and said, “This is my sin; this is my guilt; I take it upon myself. I’ll take the consequences. I’ll take the responsibility. I’ll pay the ultimate price. I’ll die for these sins.” “The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” God the Father laid the iniquity of the whole world on the Son; the Son willingly accepted the burden, and became a sin offering. “He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and by His stripes we are healed.”
It doesn’t matter where you have wandered tonight. It doesn’t matter which particular paths of sin your feet have followed.
It doesn’t matter how much you have wandered. It doesn’t matter how long you have wandered. You may be at the close of a long life and have wandered for many years. God’s Word says that your iniquity has been laid on Jesus. You may have rejected and refused many offers of the Gospel and many of the wooings and drawings of the Holy Spirit. Isaiah 53: 6 says that your sins have been laid on Jesus.
The Japanese squadron commander I talked about earlier found that God had laid his iniquity on Jesus. By believing in Him, he became a free man. His sins were washed away. His wanderings were over. If you are not in God’s sheepfold tonight, may I invite you to come and find peace, rest, comfort, protection and guidance by repenting of your sins and believing that Jesus takes them all away.
Amen.