A Prophet for all Time and Every Believer in Christ / Part 4

A Prophet for all Time and Every Believer in Christ / Part 4

Reading through the prophets of the Old Testament we begin to understand how God chose them to warn and extend his mercy to the people of Israel if only they would repent and seek his love.  However, it really takes one like Isaiah to put all this into a perspective that plays like a stage production that opens an understanding as the Suffering Servant Songs.  As we read these Songs we get an impression of the performance that reaches the heights of a story that gives us a thorough picture of how much God really cares for his people; then and now in the 21st century.  We get a taste of the Sacrifice of Christ in the opening verses.

See,  my servant shall prosper, he shall be raised high and greatly exalted.  Even as many were amazed at him - so marred was his look beyond that of man, and his appearance beyond that of mortals - So shall he startle many nations, because of him kings shall stand speechless, for those who have not been told  shall see, those who have not heard shall ponder it.

Who would believe what we have heard?  To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?  He grew up like a sapling before him, like a shoot from the parched earth; There was in him no stately bearing to make us look at him, nor appearance that would attract us to him.  He was spurned and avoided by men, a man of suffering, accustomed to infirmity, one of those whom men hide their faces, spurned, and we held him in no esteem.  

Yet it was our infirmities that he bore, our sufferings that he endured.  While we thought of him as stricken, as one smitten by God and afflicted.  But he was pierced for our offences, crushed for our sins;  upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole, by his stripes we were healed.  We had all gone astray like sheep, each followed his own way.  But the Lord laid upon him the guilt of us all.  Though he was harshly treated, he submitted and opened not his mouth; Like a lamb led to the slaughter or a sheep before the shearers, he was silent and opened not his mouth.  Oppressed and condemned, he was taken away, and who would have thought any more of his destiny?  When he was cut off from the land of the living, and smitten for the sin of his people, A grave was assigned him among the wicked and burial place with evildoer, though he had done no wrong nor spoken any falsehood.  But the Lord was pleased to crush him in infirmity.  

If he gives his life as an offering for sin, he shall see his descendants in a long life, and the willof the Lord shall be accomplished through him.  Because of his affliction he shall see the light in fullness of days; Through his suffering, my servant shall justify many, and their guilt he shall bear.  Therefore I will give him his portion among the great, and he shall divide the spoils with the mighty, because he surrendered himself to death and was counted among the wicked, and he shall take away the sin of many, and win pardon for their offences.  (Is 52: 13 - 15, 53: 1 - 12)

As the curtain closes and the lights dim indicating the show is over, we must take with, us as we exit the arena, that our minds are telling us we not only have lived an hour or two of the Paschal Lamb;s Sacrifice, it now falls on us to emulate this sacrifice in our own mission of belief and evangelization for the Church and God.

Today, in the 21st century of humanity, this scene of such brutality upon one man (God and man) was not for only sinful people, but for all who would exist on this planet for all time As we move into tomorrow or all time, we must know that the sin of the world has corrupted all of us.

 As  we watch the Apostasy occurring presently in the Church, the reality that is upon us now should make us wonder how much longer the patience of God will endure as he sees the reluctance of his chosen people; all of creation.    

Ralph B. Hathaway