Refining

I was reading this in my Bible last week and it really struck me. It's Isaiah talking about the coming Christ. I wanted to share it with y'all. 

Isaiah 43:2-12

There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance,

    nothing to attract us to him.

He was despised and rejected—

    a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief.

We turned our backs on him and looked the other way.

    He was despised, and we did not care.

Yet it was our weaknesses he carried;

    it was our sorrows that weighed him down.

And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God,

    a punishment for his own sins!

But he was pierced for our rebellion,

    crushed for our sins.

He was beaten so we could be whole.

    He was whipped so we could be healed.

All of us, like sheep, have strayed away.

    We have left God’s paths to follow our own.

Yet the Lord laid on him

    the sins of us all.

He was oppressed and treated harshly,

    yet he never said a word.

He was led like a lamb to the slaughter.

    And as a sheep is silent before the shearers,

    he did not open his mouth.

Unjustly condemned,

    he was led away.

No one cared that he died without descendants,

    that his life was cut short in midstream.

But he was struck down

    for the rebellion of my people.

He had done no wrong

    and had never deceived anyone.

But he was buried like a criminal;

    he was put in a rich man’s grave.

But it was the Lord’s good plan to crush him

    and cause him grief.

Yet when his life is made an offering for sin,

    he will have many descendants.

He will enjoy a long life,

    and the Lord’s good plan will prosper in his hands.

When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish,

    he will be satisfied.

And because of his experience,

    my righteous servant will make it possible

for many to be counted righteous,

    for he will bear all their sins.

I will give him the honors of a victorious soldier,

    because he exposed himself to death.

He was counted among the rebels.

    He bore the sins of many and interceded for rebels.