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| Isaiah had more information for Israel to prepare them for their coming Messiah. Strange as it might seem the majority of Israel would reject God's love gift. The generation of Israelites in 720 BCE heard what Isaiah had to say concerning the coming Messiah. You may look at chapter 53 for more detail. 3 He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. 4 Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows;Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. Some Jewish people claim that Isaiah was talking about Israel here, not the coming Messiah. The more we examine these verses, the more clearly we understand that this is impossible. It is Israel that is speaking when God's people declare, But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. It could hardly be the surrounding nations talking about Messiah being wounded for their transgressions. They would never claim that the suffering of Israel's Messiah would come for their healing. They hated Israel; they were not about to given them credit for such a marvelous deed. The ancient Israelites understood the meaning of an atoning sacrifice. Like the Passover lamb, who was slaughtered so its blood could be spread on the side posts and the upper door posts to spare the first born in Israel, the Messiah would shed His blood to atone for the sins of Israel once and for all. God would make Him our "House of Atonement." Eventually even the Gentiles would be told by the Jewish apostles that as long as anyone put his/her faith in the Messiah, God would cover him/her with the righteousness of His Son, Jesus. Generations have wrongfully blamed the Jewish people for the death of Jesus, called Y'shua in Hebrew. It is true that a few Jewish leaders (not all of them) demanded that he be crucified. Isaiah made it exceedingly clear who wanted this crucifixion, atonement for God's people: He wrote, Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. Isaiah painted an accurate picture of the crucifixion of Jesus, the Messiah even though he wrote this around 720 years before Jesus was born. He was able to do this because God told Isaiah what to write. The innocent Lamb of God would pay the price for the sins of the whole world. 7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth. 8 He was taken from prison and from judgment, And who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; For the transgressions of My people He was stricken. 9 And they made His grave with the wicked—But with the rich at His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was any deceit in His mouth. It is heartbreaking to recognize that God's word had to take on flesh so he could pay the price for our sins. It also makes us hate the sin in our lives that drove Jesus to the cross. It strengthens our faith to know the Bible is God's word. How else could Isaiah know about the wicked ones who would be crucified with Messiah and that he would be placed in the grave of a rich man? (His name was Joseph of Arimathea. (Matthew 27:57-60) God has completed His way of salvation in Jesus; Messiah is risen from the dead as a testimony that His heavenly Father has accepted him as your sacrifice. Now all that is left is for you to accept Jesus, Y'shua, as you Savior and Lord. Contact us if you need to find a place to worship. Prayer: My dearest Lord Jesus, I am sorry for the sins I have committed that drove you to that cross. I ask you to be my atonement, to pay the price for all of my sins. Please allow me to serve you all of my days that I might be able to demonstrate my love for you to all who know me. Amen |
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