But “the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6). Isaiah compares humanity to a flock of sheep that has turned away from the Shepherd, each animal going its own way-a picture of disharmony and danger. And, in a very real way, the death of Christ effected spiritual healing for those who would believe. Whether there were 39 lashes or 40 or some other number, the scourging was a terrible, painful ordeal. The “stripes” referred to in this prophecy are a direct reference to the lashes Jesus received. The torment He endured was prophesied in Isaiah: “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” (Isaiah 53:5). We hear and refer to the story of Jesus’ death so often that sometimes we fail to stop and think about how evilly He was treated by those He came to save. Worse, the man they sent to be flogged and crucified was the Son of God. Yet the Jewish leaders and Pilate did this very thing, knowing Jesus was innocent. It is hard to imagine the level of hatred necessary to consign an innocent man to such a fate. His death was to be carried out by crucifixion after the scourging. Scourging was the punishment ordered for Jesus by Pontius Pilate: He was to be flogged (Matthew 27:26) but not killed in that way. There is no reason to believe that the Romans would follow a Jewish tradition. The Apostle Paul mentioned this practice in 2 Corinthians 11:24, “five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one.”Īgain, though, Jesus was scourged by the Romans, not by the Jews. In order to avoid possibly accidentally breaking this command, the Jews would only give a criminal 39 lashes. Deuteronomy 25:3 states that a criminal should not receive more than forty lashes. The Bible does not directly indicate how many lashes Jesus received. Just before His crucifixion, Jesus was scourged by the Romans (John 19:1).
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