The Wednesday Word ~ 06 November, 2024 A.D.

The Gospel According to Isaiah, Part I

See Isaiah ch. 53

by D. G. Miles McKee

Isaiah is primarily a book about Jesus. In fact, Isaiah is quoted more often in the New Testament than any other book from the Old Testament.

On the night of His betrayal, in Luke 22:37, Jesus quoted from Isaiah.

In Paul’s last recorded sermon in Acts 28 he quotes from Isaiah. 

In Paul’s letters he continually quotes from Isaiah. For example, he says in 1 Corinthians 2: 9, “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard neither has it entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for them that love Him.” (Compare with Isaiah 64:4) 

In Revelation 21:4 John talks grandly about the compassionate God wiping away all tears from our eyes.  That once more is quoted from Isaiah! See Isaiah 25:8.

As I have said, Isaiah is primarily a book about Jesus.  In fact, Isaiah saw Christ in His sovereign glory.  He says, “I saw the LORD sitting on a Throne and He was high and lifted up and the train of His robe filled the Temple,” (Isaiah 6: 1).

But someone says, ‘That wasn’t Jesus whom Isaiah saw.’ Well, the New Testament doesn’t agree with them.  For example, John 12 :41 loudly and clearly says “These things saith Isaiah when he saw His glory and spoke of Him.”

Isaiah was a preacher of Christ and is it any wonder that Christ’s first sermon was taken from the pages of Isaiah.  There in the synagogue of Nazareth He unfolded the scroll and read in Isaiah 61:1,  

“The spirit of the LORD is upon Me because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor, He has sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and the recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the LORD.”

Someone asks, “Can you tell us anything about Isaiah the person?  Not really, there is not a lot of detail given about him.  We see he was a man of prayer – he was a prophet – (see his dealings with Hezekiah in II Kings ch. 19 where he pronounces the Judgement of God upon the blasphemous king Sennacherib). 

Then of course there was that day he was in the temple.  But outside of that we know few details about Isaiah.  It’s as if he hides himself behind this great Christ and says, ‘Behold Him. Look at Him.’  Which brings us back to Isaiah ch. 53.  Here we are confronted with a pen portrait of Jesus – its stunning, it is beautiful and its heartbreaking all at the same time. 

In verse 1 it says ‘Who has believed our report' – Isaiah in his vision is shocked to see how few people believe in the Messiah.

He then mentions the arm of the Lord. THE ARM of the Lord stands for the power of the Lord to save. Psalm 19:1 tells us that the heavens are the work of the Lord´s hands but Isaiah 59:16 and Isaiah 63:5, tell us that it took the Lord´s arm to bring salvation.  It is the Lord´s strength that saves not ours.

According to vs. 2, ‘He had no form nor comeliness when we shall see Him. There is no beauty that we should desire Him.’  But wasn’t He a good-looking man?  Well, not according to Isaiah.  Yet, if we go into the average Bible book shop we see pictures of a handsome looking Jesus which defy Isaiah’s description of Him. However, Isaiah was not speaking primarily about physical beauty. He was referring to Christ´s moral beauty. Consider this, the majority of people do not see any beauty in Jesus. So many people who have heard about Him see no beauty in Him.  They don’t think He is wonderful, and they don’t think He is beautiful.  What about us?  Has He possessed us?  Are our days taken up with wonderment?  Can we really say, along with the hymn writer,

 

“I stand amazed in the presence 

Of Jesus the Nazarene, 

And wonder how He could love me, 

A sinner condemned, unclean.

 

How marvellous! How wonderful! 

And my song shall ever be: 

How marvellous! How wonderful!

 Is my Savior’s love for me!”

 

And that´s the Gospel Truth!

To be continued...

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