Objection: We Are Healed of Going Astray Like Sheep, Not Illnesses, in Isaiah’s Context
Divine healing definitely stands or falls on Isaiah’s prophecy, so it is no wonder that so many objections try to go after it from so many different angles. Seriously, when is the last time you heard of being HEALED of going astray like sheep other than in a religious objection? I doubt that you’ve ever heard an actual shepherd say, “One of my 100 sheep is lost so I’m going to leave the 99 for now and try to heal the 100th one of going astray.” But we’ll hear this one out and answer it.
Isaiah 53:5-6:
But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Verse 6 certainly indicates that Jesus bore our sin – our going astray like sheep doing our own thing. No problem so far. The issue is, can we link the end of verse 5 (“and with his stripes we are healed”) with the beginning of verse 6 (“All we like sheep have gone astray”)? The two phrases are right next to each other in the text, so the objector thinks that they’re saying the same thing, but I don’t think so.
Verse 5 contains one thought and verse 6 contains a different thought. In verse 5, Isaiah emphasizes Jesus’ physical punishment for our sins (He was wounded, bruised and chastised; He bore stripes) and the Hebrew word used for healed (rapha) is clearly a word denoting physical healing elsewhere in Scripture (see the separate objections to the word allegedly being ambiguous or meaning pardoned).
Verse 6 is a separate but related thought that Jesus bore punishment for our “going astray.” This verse talks about SIN as opposed to DISEASE. We see the words going astray, turned every one to his own way and iniquity. These are all talking about the same thing – our sin. Verse 6 is connected to the prior two verses, but for the reason that it continues to explain why Jesus had to be physically punished – because of our transgressions and iniquities (verse 5), which are also referred to in different ways the three times listed above in verse 6.
If a sheep goes astray, does that mean that it needs to be healed? Well, if it wandered too near the edge of a drop-off, maybe. It would take extraordinary proof from the context to insist that a word used to mean heal, healed, physician, etc., could apply to a wayward sheep.
Aside from the literal meaning of healed, the issue is that verse 5 makes it clear that Jesus suffered physically and that it is because of the physical torture inflicted upon Him (His stripes) that we are healed. We have words describing explicitly physical situations (wounded, bruised, stripes and healed), and it makes logical sense for physical punishment to bring physical healing. There is just nothing here that would force us to think that the first 3 words (wounded, bruised, stripes) are literal, but the last (healed) must be taken metaphorically because it somehow goes with verse 6 instead of the rest of verse 5.
Actually, if you back up to verse 4, you see more physical issues – he was sick with our sicknesses and in pain with our pains. This fits the idea in verse 5 that the punishment that brought us shalom, which would imply wellness in every area, was upon Him.
“Going astray” is not a physical form of unwellness, so it does not fit the context of verses 4 and 5. We have to assume that it is part of the logical thought of verse 6, but not a continuation of the physical events in the previous 2 verses. Thus, applying the beginning of verse 6 to the end of verse 5 goes astray from reasonable Bible interpretation.