JUNE 3 “The power of Christ’s death over our sicknesses”

In modern times, we call it caning or lashing. In ancient Jewish time, the scourging by lashing was a common form of punishment. Roman canes or scourges had pieces of metal or bone attached and the victim was striped to the waist before being lashed. The number of stripes given to a victim varied depending on the severity of the person’s case.  However, the Jewish law atg that time stipulated not more than 40 stripes for any offence. During this lashing, the victim’s body was usually heavily lacerated and most often, the entrails gushed out leading to the death of the victim most times.

These were the kind of stripes that Jesus took for doing nothing except as the Bible says, ‘the chastisement of our peace was put upon him’. An interesting thing is that the book of Isaiah from where we took our passage today was written about 750 years before Christ came to fulfill the prophecies therein. Jesus came to fulfill this prophecy by taking the stripes on our behalf. His body was terribly lacerated for us culminating in His death on the cross of Calvary.

As Isaiah puts it, it was by this particular punishment that bodily healing was provided for us. 1 Peter 2:24 says, “who his own self bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed”. It is therefore important for us to note that physical healing is part of the redemptive work of Christ by his atoning death. Mathew 8:17 also affirms that he himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses.

Are you nursing any infirmities or sickness in your body? Why not cry to Jesus this morning to heal you by the stripes that He took on your behalf?

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, have mercy on me and heal me of my infirmities and sicknesses since you have taken the stripes on my behalf and by your stripes I am healed, Amen.