I love this for a Good Friday revelation. Brad Jersak writes that for years, he thought Jesus was ‘stricken by God’. But that very mistake was prophesied in Isaiah 53:4-5, when the prophet said:
Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
The punishment and affliction, the piercing and the crushing were not at the hands of the Father. We did that – people, zealous religious people.
Bradley Jersak, A More Christlike God