The Beginning of the End
Read Chapter 16
2 Kings:17-19; Isaiah 3,6,13-14,49,53


Do You Recognize This Person?

“He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. 3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.

6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 7 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 her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. 8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away . . . . . it was the LORD's will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand . . . . . 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." Isaiah 53:1-12 (NIV) 

This astonishing passage has traditionally been thought to have referred to Israel, herself the “suffering servant”, suffering for the sins of the world. Yet it seems inescapable that Jesus is being described in incredible detail  700 years before his birth, not, by the way, the picture of a handsome, wind-swept, rugged northern European.
 
To Isaiah, who had met the holiness of God face to face and stricken by it (Isaiah 6), is now revealed the humility of this very same God who comes to earth, not in power but in in weakness, giving his life so that the world’s sins are forgiven, opening the door to salvation to all.
 
Whom have you met in your lifetime who has revealed to you even a hint of this combination of greatness and power expressed through self abandoning humility? 

Prayer

Lord, I am thinking of the song we sing in church, “there’s no God like Jehovah”. And today’s passage explains why. Lord, you have reached the world through serving, humility and absorbing sin rather than retaliating. Help me and my life to reflect you.   Amen”