Isaiah 53:4 “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.”
Our most Gracious and Merciful Lord “hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken”! The idea that, ‘if you always do good, good things will always happen to you’, certainly didn’t apply to Jesus Christ. He “went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him”; but, “they slew and hanged” Him “on a tree”; however, “God raised (“Him”) up the third day, and shewed him openly” (Acts 38-40). In this context, to “esteem” is to observe in order to certify and to give credible testimony that He was “stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted”. There seems to also be a judicial overtone to it; emphasizing the blessed truth that He was counted or reckoned to be the One who was “stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted” to fully atone for the sins of His people! There were many who personally observed His Suffering Sacrifice, and have certified that it is so; but, we know it is so by the “faith” that He has given us (Hebrews 11:1; 12:2). Our hearts sorrow that He Suffered so grievously, but we also rejoice that, out of His “great love” (Ephesians 2:4) for us, He absolutely did fully and finally pay our sin-debt by His Sacrifice; thus, on the Great Resurrection Day we will hear Him Command to us, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 25:34), and everyone of His Children “shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (I Thessalonians 4:17)!