Shalom
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Isaiah 53:1-6
Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
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.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
SPIRITUAL PRACTICES
Read Scripture:
Spend some time reading and meditating on Matthew 2:1-12
Here’s a quick guide for spending time in Scripture:
DISCUSSION GUIDE
Questions:
1) How would you typically define ‘peace’?
How would you typically define ‘shalom’?
What’s the same? What’s different?
2) When has prayer brought peace (shalom) in your life?
3) Read Philippians 2:6-11, how does this passage intersect with Isaiah 53?
Aaronic Blessing:
”The Lord bless you and keep you.
The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you.
The Lord lift up his countenance on you, and give you shalom.”
—Numbers 6:24-26
