Isaiah 53:3 “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”
From the time that our Lord was born into this present world, “he was” both “despised” and not “esteemed”! That is, He was held in hateful contempt and disrespected by the authorities. Their hatred for Him was so intense that they immediately attempted to assassinate Him, even as a child. Indeed, He was a problem for the wicked rulers because they saw Him as a threat to their kingships and priesthoods and other positions of authority. And when, as John the Baptist began preaching “Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2), there was even more contempt for Him because the authorities saw that they were losing their binding influence over the people, because a great host were following Him. And, when He began to preach and teach moral behavior and integrity, many of the people rejected Him for they saw Him as an obstacle to their lust motivated lifestyles. We should not be surprised at the opposition to True Christianity in our day; for, He is still “despised” and not “esteemed” by those who love their immoral lives and by those who thrive on dishonesty and self-promotion. Their hatred is so intense that they will contrive and do dreadfully evil things to subdue Christianity. They will even assemble with Christians in order to confuse and manipulate our Lord’s Holy Word, so that they can make Christianity fit with their lust-laden lives. In many cases it is now so distorted that it is not even recognizable as the Word Of God. Our Lord candidly warned us to “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.” (Matthew 7:15). The challenge-Commandment to us; is to, even in the very face of this great evil, “be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord” (I Corinthians 15:58)!