Yes! There is Good News! April 12, 2019

In Isaiah 53:1 the prophet begins by asking the question, “Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?” Have you ever come face to face with a question straight from the word of God and realized that you had to have an answer for it? If we are serious about the word of God then our answer must be yes!

In the four gospels, for instance, Jesus asks some 300 questions. The use of questions was a rabbinical way of teaching and Jesus was a master at it. He had all the answers to every question posed to Him, after all He is the Son of God! But in these four Gospels, Jesus was asked approximately 180 questions and directly answered very few of them. His answers to these queries sometimes came with a question of His own as He attempted to get people to think for themselves. Sometimes He answered with a scripture.

I opened this article with a quote form Isaiah and he would have us answer his questions; 1) have you believed his message? And 2) has the arm of the LORD been revealed to you? Maybe we should take the time and ponder these questions!!

In the original Hebrew there were no chapter breaks (these were added somewhat recently as an aid for us) and so we may look back a few verses to 52:10, “The LORD will lay bare His holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God.” I believe this is perhaps the answer to both questions. The arm of the LORD has been revealed to all the nations and the message of Isaiah has to do with God’s salvation.

So let’s read on in Isaiah 53, “For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” Who is this of whom Isaiah speaks? Do we know this one?

Let’s read on, “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.” Logically speaking, there is only one who fulfills all of these statements – Jesus Christ!

In our previous article I made reference to a song, “Hallelujah, what a Savior.” The first verse of that song is, “Man of Sorrows, what a name, for the Son of God who came, ruined sinners to reclaim! Hallelujah, what a Savior!”
 
There is more to this 53rd chapter of Isaiah that we shall take a look at. It, along with the final few verses of chapter 52, is arguably the greatest prophecy of the crucifixion of our Savior in the entirety of the Bible and it was written about 730 years before the birth of Jesus.

Do you believe the message? Has the arm of the LORD been revealed to you?