The Suffering Messiah
Isaiah 52:14-53:12
"Just as there were many who were appalled at Him— His appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being and His form marred beyond human likeness—so He will sprinkle many nations, and kings will shut their mouths because of Him. For what they were not told, they will see, and what they have not heard, they will understand. Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces He was despised, and we held Him in low esteem. Surely He took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered Him punished by God, stricken by Him, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on Him, and by His wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth. By oppression and judgment He was taken away. Yet who of His generation protested? For He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people He was punished. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death, though He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth. Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer, and though the LORD makes His life an offering for sin, He will see His offspring and prolong His days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in His hand. After He has suffered, He will see the light of life and be satisfied; by His knowledge Hy righteous servant will justify many, and He will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give Him a portion among the great, and He will divide the spoils with the strong, because He poured out His life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors."
"God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God (II Cor 5:21")". Jesus Christ was the suffering Messiah being prophesied here in Isaiah, hundreds of years before the fact. Prophecy is a miracle and so many are not convinced and maintain an unargued philosophical bias against it. But if it is true that these were written long before the events occurred, if it can be established at all scientifically (at least to say that indeed something was written at a certain time accurately predicting events before it happened), then it's a game-changer. In Wikipedia we find "though the book is traditionally ascribed to Daniel himself, modern scholarly consensus considers it pseudonymous, the stories of the first half legendary [sic] in origin, and the visions of the second the product of anonymous authors in the Maccabean period (2nd century BC) (Collins 2002)." However, Haughwout 2003 comments (considers Collins’ et al works, that the reason for such consensus amounts is to nothing more than bias against predictive prophecy, "to say that one cannot know future events before they happen, or that a spiritual realm does not exist, based merely on personal prejudice is simply unscientific. Science observes what has happened and draws a conclusion based on the information. It is unscientific to close one’s eyes to certain data due to a prejudice against it." Much internal and external evidence, linguistic and literary style especially, points to a 6th century date for the book of Daniel not a Maccabean 2nd Century BC, see http://markhaughwout.com/Bible/Dating_Daniel.html During the Easter break, I finally completed my infographic http://bit.ly/EasterSeriously in response to the infographic of online skeptic Jericho Brisance "Taking Easter Seriously" http://bit.ly/BrisanceEaster (2015) bringing up supposed contradictions and unbelievable account in the Gospels, this includes this piece of prophecy about Jesus, our LORD, the suffering Messiah, in Isaiah. I have responded point per point and more. I did not get to use it since no one brought up Brisance's 2015 infographic this time, as you would expect every Easter, something in the media will pop up trying to discredit our message, as this did back in 2015, [like @thetweetofgod (🙄) on Twitter sarcastically saying: “The Easter Bunny is a ridiculous myth that completely detracts from the factual reality of the Son of God rising from the dead”, to which I piblicly replied, “No probs with bunnies & eggs on Easter, dude. 🙃 And yes indeed, “the factual reality of the Son of God rising from the dead”: bit.ly/2uCLYgf 😊”] I share it here for our resource. Let me leave here today with one of the most exciting encounters of our LORD recounted in the Gospel, it is one that which I would be privileged to eavesdrop on, and thankfully, the Apostle Luke (who probably have interviewed St. Cleopas) let’s us in on it: “He said to them, "How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter His glory?" And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning Himself… When He was at the table with them, He took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognised Him, and He disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while He talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us (Luke 24:25-27, 30-32)?” LORD reveal to us mysteries of the past that pertain to You and Your glory through Your Holy Spirit. God You are sovereign over history and have made a way for us in the Christ. Let our hearts burn within us for the furtherance of Your Kingdom. Amen.
"Just as there were many who were appalled at Him— His appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being and His form marred beyond human likeness—so He will sprinkle many nations, and kings will shut their mouths because of Him. For what they were not told, they will see, and what they have not heard, they will understand. Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces He was despised, and we held Him in low esteem. Surely He took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered Him punished by God, stricken by Him, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on Him, and by His wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth. By oppression and judgment He was taken away. Yet who of His generation protested? For He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people He was punished. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death, though He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth. Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer, and though the LORD makes His life an offering for sin, He will see His offspring and prolong His days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in His hand. After He has suffered, He will see the light of life and be satisfied; by His knowledge Hy righteous servant will justify many, and He will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give Him a portion among the great, and He will divide the spoils with the strong, because He poured out His life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors."
"God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God (II Cor 5:21")". Jesus Christ was the suffering Messiah being prophesied here in Isaiah, hundreds of years before the fact. Prophecy is a miracle and so many are not convinced and maintain an unargued philosophical bias against it. But if it is true that these were written long before the events occurred, if it can be established at all scientifically (at least to say that indeed something was written at a certain time accurately predicting events before it happened), then it's a game-changer. In Wikipedia we find "though the book is traditionally ascribed to Daniel himself, modern scholarly consensus considers it pseudonymous, the stories of the first half legendary [sic] in origin, and the visions of the second the product of anonymous authors in the Maccabean period (2nd century BC) (Collins 2002)." However, Haughwout 2003 comments (considers Collins’ et al works, that the reason for such consensus amounts is to nothing more than bias against predictive prophecy, "to say that one cannot know future events before they happen, or that a spiritual realm does not exist, based merely on personal prejudice is simply unscientific. Science observes what has happened and draws a conclusion based on the information. It is unscientific to close one’s eyes to certain data due to a prejudice against it." Much internal and external evidence, linguistic and literary style especially, points to a 6th century date for the book of Daniel not a Maccabean 2nd Century BC, see http://markhaughwout.com/Bible/Dating_Daniel.html During the Easter break, I finally completed my infographic http://bit.ly/EasterSeriously in response to the infographic of online skeptic Jericho Brisance "Taking Easter Seriously" http://bit.ly/BrisanceEaster (2015) bringing up supposed contradictions and unbelievable account in the Gospels, this includes this piece of prophecy about Jesus, our LORD, the suffering Messiah, in Isaiah. I have responded point per point and more. I did not get to use it since no one brought up Brisance's 2015 infographic this time, as you would expect every Easter, something in the media will pop up trying to discredit our message, as this did back in 2015, [like @thetweetofgod (🙄) on Twitter sarcastically saying: “The Easter Bunny is a ridiculous myth that completely detracts from the factual reality of the Son of God rising from the dead”, to which I piblicly replied, “No probs with bunnies & eggs on Easter, dude. 🙃 And yes indeed, “the factual reality of the Son of God rising from the dead”: bit.ly/2uCLYgf 😊”] I share it here for our resource. Let me leave here today with one of the most exciting encounters of our LORD recounted in the Gospel, it is one that which I would be privileged to eavesdrop on, and thankfully, the Apostle Luke (who probably have interviewed St. Cleopas) let’s us in on it: “He said to them, "How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter His glory?" And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning Himself… When He was at the table with them, He took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognised Him, and He disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while He talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us (Luke 24:25-27, 30-32)?” LORD reveal to us mysteries of the past that pertain to You and Your glory through Your Holy Spirit. God You are sovereign over history and have made a way for us in the Christ. Let our hearts burn within us for the furtherance of Your Kingdom. Amen.
Comments
Post a Comment