Mike
Scriptures:
Isaiah 52:13 to Isaiah 53:12. Genesis 22:13 Isaiah 50:6 Isaiah 11:1 Ezekiel 34:29
Take a look at my Servant, He will have great wisdom and will stand in an exalted place, but for many the suffering servant will become a person of horror, His visage marred more than that of any man but nations and kings will see things they were not expecting.
But who will trust in our message, He will be like a root growing in a dry land, a small plant springing forth before the Lord, He will have no special beauty or form to make us notice Him, there will be nothing in His appearance to make us desire Him, He will be hated and rejected by His people, suffer much pain and sorrow and people will not even want to look upon Him.
But He took our suffering upon Himself and felt our pain, we saw His suffering and thought God was punishing Him, but He was wounded for the wrong things we did. He was crushed for the evil things we did.
The punishment, which made us well, was given to Him, we are healed because of His wounds and yet we have all wandered away like sheep, each of us going our own way.
But it was the Lord who put on Him the punishment for all the evil we have done and allowed the innocent Lamb to die in our place. Our Sacrifice with the crown of thorns, seen so clearly by Abraham 2000 years before.
Jesus came at a time when the nation was almost paralyzed, the nation of Israel had become but a “stump” in the dry ground of Israel, compared to its glorious past in the days of King David.
Yet from this apparent deadness, Isaiah spoke of a rod that would spring up out of the stem of Jesse, a branch that would grow out of the root of this stump.
The spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD.
Isaiah 53 is an incredible prophecy regarding Jehovah’s suffering Servant — Jesus Christ.
The prophet declared that the Messiah would grow up under the watchful eye of the Lord, symbolically describing the situation as being like a tender plant, that would grow out of the dry stump of Israel.
He was rejected by the Scribes and Pharisees, by the Roman governor Pilate and eventually by the people in spite of the triumphal entry on a donkey only days before.
He was despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief and they hid their faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.
They flogged Him half to death, but He said, I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting, they nailed His hands and feet to a cross, He said Father forgive them for they know not what they do, they laid Him in a cold draughty borrowed tomb.
Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
His entire life on earth was based on rejection, mockery, abuse and finally death.
But, thank God, He rose from the dead on the third day, as a root out of a dry ground a tender shoot had suddenly appeared after an unexpected rainstorm, death could not hold You, so You sprang forth, victory over the grave “as a root out of a dry ground.”
That very tender plant would one day become the plant of renown. The root out of the dead stump of Jesse would become the Branch of the LORD beautiful and glorious.
ayer: Lord we thank You that You came to this earth, looked out upon us through the eyes of Jesus and spoke to us through His mouth.
You gave Your life for us, redeemed us by your blood and rose victorious from the grave. Amen