**Prayer Updates:**
Isaiah 53
1 Will anyone believethe news that we have to tell people?
how the Lord has used his great power?
2 God's servant grew up in front of him,
like a young, green plant,
with its roots in dry ground.
He was not handsome.
He did not seem like a great king.
We did not see him as a special person.
There was nothing to see
that would make us want to be with him.
3 People did not respect him.
They refused to accept him.
He was a man who received much pain.
He knew what it felt like to be weak and ill.
People did not even want to look at him.
They did not respect him.
We decided that he was worth nothing.
4 But he took away all our weakness!
He carried our pain for us.
We thought that God was punishing him.
We thought that he was in pain
because of his own sins.
5 But it was our sins that caused him to be hurt.
The bad things that we had done knocked him down.
The punishment that he received
has brought peace to us.
The wounds that he received
have made us well.
6 We have all turned away,
like sheep that take the wrong path.
Each of us has turned to follow our own way.
But the Lord has taken all our sins
and put the punishment on him.
7 People were cruel to him,
and he received much pain.
But he did not say anything to complain.
He was like a lamb that people were leading away to kill.
He was like a sheep when they are cutting off its wool,
but it makes no noise.
In the same way, he did not say a word.
8 They spoke lies to accuse him in court.
Then they led him away to kill him.
And nobody at that time said that it was wrong.
His life in this world quickly came to an end.
And it was the sins of our own people that caused him to die.
9 They decided to bury him with wicked people.
But his body was put in a rich man's grave.
He had not done anything to hurt anyone.
He had not told lies to deceive people.
10 But it was the Lord who chose to hurt his servant.
He caused his servant to receive much pain.
He died to remove people's guilt.
As a result, God will bless him with many descendants,
and he will have a long life.
The Lord will do everything that he wanted to do,
because of what his servant does.
11 When God's servant sees the result of his pain,
he will understand what he has done.
And he will be happy.
The Lord says,
‘My righteous servant will cause many people to be “not guilty”,
because he will take the punishment for all their sins.
12 So, I will put him in a place of honour,
as a great person deserves.
I will give to him the good things that powerful soldiers receive
when they have won a battle.
I will do that because he agreed to die as a sacrifice.
People thought that he was a sinner
when he took away the sins of many people.
He prayed that God would forgive sinners.’
