I don’t know how the last moments of my life on this earth will play out. Like all those awaiting the Lord’s return, I hope to experience the rapture or life under Christ’s Millennial Reign. Statistically speaking, however, the odds are death. Christians as passengers on airplanes are no insurance against accidents. But regardless of how it ends, I find these verses comforting. The end lasts only for “a brief moment”, but God’s subsequent compassion for all eternity.
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No, God the Father was not “happy” to see His Son’s suffering and death. His pleasure was in seeing His Son accomplish His will, of seeing His work completed on behalf of all creation. His greatest pleasure was in rewarding His Son for carrying out His Father’s will, to lavish on Him the things that truly mattered and would make an actual difference. It’s the same for us. God desires to see us come into His kingdom having accomplished His will in this life so that we will experience the riches of the next.
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Why do some people focus on signs and miracles as the evidence of a Christ-like faith? No, I don’t dispute that such things wrought in Christ’s life came about except by faith, but these aren’t the only faith examples. What about the times of trial? He also exhibited faith in times of rejection, persecution, and even all the way to death itself. If we’re going to accept Christ as the example by which to live by, we’re going to have to accept His ENTIRE life’s example extending both through times of triumph and times of trial.
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There’s quite a contrast here if we did nothing else but focus on the pronouns, such as “His scourging” versus “our transgressions”. We need to be continually reminded of and drawn to the foot of the cross because it is the single, universal act on behalf of all mankind which simultaneously reaches out to each and every one of us individually. He did it for “all” at the same time He did it specifically for us.
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I found it quite fascinating that a Christian evangelist to the Jews stated that he never begins witnessing to them from the New Testament, but from the Old. He cited Jesus’ own statement to the Jews of His time,

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Understanding biblical prophecy requires an adjustment to learn how to view time as God sees it. He is outside the constraints of our time-space limitations. Think of time as a line whose entirety from beginning to end God can see at a single glance because He’s standing separate from it, able to see it whole all at once. This helps explain how He can speak through the likes of Isaiah, sometimes mentioning many future events that occur at different times within a single thought. He sees their cause and effect on multiple points in history, not necessarily as lone, isolated events. This becomes evident in passages such as this where the verbs quickly change from “will be” to “was” back to “will” again.
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Many terms trace their origins to the Bible, but most now have everyday meanings contrary to their biblical origins. Sometimes it’s purposeful as man tries to avoid accountability by redefining it, and sometimes it’s just because the term gets used in conjunction with other things and obtains some worldly baggage along the way. For instance, take a poll as to what others say are the identifying characteristics of a disciple. Ask them what it means to be “discipled”. How do the answers compare to Scripture? It’s both sad and alarming at how divergent the 21st Century definition has wandered from the original.
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