Acts 8:35 Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.

God gave Philip a very easy assignment here, because the passage in question is from Isaiah 53. I enjoy watching Internet videos of Jews who have discovered that Jesus is the Messiah they have heard about, and I’ve completely lost count of how many had their eyes opened by Isaiah 53. I would imagine that some Rabbis are downright afraid of it! As I write frequently, I have high admiration and respect for Dennis Prager, who is writing an extensive commentary on the Torah, the five books of Moses. If he would put that much thought and effort into Isaiah, I don’t see how he could fail to become Messianic! I’m sure it is no accident that Isaiah was the only complete book of the Old Testament that was found in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Scholars are agreed that those scrolls were probably hidden by the Essenes, and also that John the Baptist was probably in that community, so John was fully primed for the Messiah to come in the way that He did. The biggest shock to John was probably that Jesus was a relative of his! The thing is, as several of the Jews in the videos I have watched have testified, the Messiah is found throughout the Old Testament, both the Torah and the Tanach (which is the rest of the Old Testament, after the Books of Moses). Christians today tend to forget that all the sermons of the 1^st Century, at least, quoted only the Old Testament! The Old Testament is the foundation for the New, and the New Testament explains and gives meaning to the Old. Christians who never read anything but the New testament (and I’ve met a few) are depriving themselves of great spiritual riches.

When asked which Old Testament character I’d like to be, I always come up with Isaiah, even though tradition tells us he was martyred by being sawed in two. His book is incredibly rich, and so incredibly prophetic that even my seminary professor grandfather thought it had to have been written by two different men at different times. Whereas that isn’t impossible, that theory discounts to a degree the revelation of God. I don’t like to focus much on predictive prophecy, though I must not ignore it, but I prefer to focus on what God is saying for right now. Isaiah did plenty of both! I am not to shy away from giving predictive prophecy, if that is what God is saying, but I don’t want to say anything, from the pulpit in particular, that God is not saying. I have experienced giving a predictive prophecy that, though I didn’t know it at the time, seemed humanly, medically, impossible, but God fulfilled it in His own way not long after, and the people to whom it was spoken expressed deep appreciation for it. I desire to be God’s spokesman, which may be why I like Isaiah so much! He has given me a gift for words, but my use of that gift has not always been in submission and obedience to Him. I’ve only published one book to this point, though I’m working on my autobiography, but when I feel Christ’s return is imminent, I wonder who will read them. My blog currently has over 1,000 subscribers, both to the blog itself and through Facebook, so I am to be faithful for their sake, as well as for whoever might read my words in the future. If God has martyrdom in His plans for me, as He did for Isaiah, that’s His business. My business is to be true to Him, for as long as He keeps me here and for eternity.

Father, thank You for the countless saints who have gone before, as encouragement on every level. Help me be fully faithful so that all who know me or know of me may likewise be encouraged to cling close to You, for their blessing and Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!