And we esteemed him not

We esteemed him not;
We did not appreciate his worth;
We didn't value him;
We didn't think about him;
We thought nothing of him;
We didn't even notice him;
We ignored him as if he is were nothing; 
We didn't care;
We held him of no account;
We despised him and said, "He is nobody!".

17/05/20
These are different translations of the same phrase.

And like one ...

We did not want to look
On such a One: He was
An embarrassment; He nettled
Our consciences; He shone on
Place we wished unlit in
Our chambers; He was too close
For comfort; and the reproach
Broke His heart: He was "like one
From whom men hide their faces".

16/05/20

A Man of sorrows ...

He came to His own - 
Their Hope and Messiah 
- And "his own received him not";

He came to a world
Where He, the sinless One,
Was besieged by sin;

He found God's rights
Had been usurped
By the prince of darkness;

He bore the diseases,
The bereavements, the suppressions,
Of His people;

He faced the death
Of the cross; man's rejection
And God's forsaking:

"A man of sorrows
And acquainted with grief".

15/05/20

And left alone of men

Among disciples
Apprenticing fishers of men;

Among disciples
Teaching the way of God's will;

Among disciples
Serving in bondman service;

Among disciples
Looking for comforters,
Looking for watchers,
Looking for prayers.

Without disciples,
"Left alone of men",
"And all left him and fled".

Despised

Among Pharisees,
Upholders of ancient tradition,
Despised.

Among Sadducees,
Dependers on the rational mind,
Despised.

Among Nazarens
Merely "the carpenter", their villager,
Despised.

Among Herodians,
Pomp and state of courtiers,
Despised.

Among Romans,
Sword and cross of state,
Despised.

Amongst us, you and me,
Apart from the divine breath,
Despised.

He hath no form nor lordliness ...

'A seeming Trades-mans sonne of none attended
Save of a few in poverty and need',
"He hath no form nor lordliness",
No designation like 'the Great' or
'The Conqueror'; and when we see Him,
Purblind as Pharisees, Sadducees,
Or publicans, "there is no beauty
That we should desire him". O light
Enlighten; open our vision
To see what God sees in Him!

12/05/2020

The first two lines are a quotation from the poem of Aemilia Lanyer:
Salve Deus
Rex Judaeorum

He shall grow up before Him ...

The Father had not before

Seen a holy Babe, a holy Child

Or a holy Youth, at each stage displaying

Wisdom perfect to His growth.

"He shall grow up before him ..."

In goodness that was perfect, perfection

That was divine.  Straight to the light

The sapling grows; straight too

To its source of moisture, for He

Was "as a root out of dry ground".

Not straight saplings but parts of His creation still! 

11/05/20

And to whom hath the arm of Jehovah been revealed?

Swan on Straiton Pond

And to whom hath the arm of Jehovah 
Been revealed?

To those whom He has redeemed
With a stretched-out arm.

Whose pursuers, by the greatness of His arm,
Are still as stone.

Who have learned that underneath are
The eternal arms.

Who His arm is not shortened
That it cannot save.

10/05/2020