Isaiah 53:1 Who has believed our message
    and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

This chapter is one of the most remarkable, and most important, in the Old Testament, and indeed, in the whole Bible. Only God knows how many people have come to repentance and faith through reading it, starting with the Ethiopian Eunuch that Philip encountered. (Acts 8) Today, organizations like One for Israel and Jews for Jesus consider it their most important Scripture, because it lays out, in remarkable detail, the atoning sacrifice of Christ on the cross, as well as His burial and even resurrection. It is not mere chance that Isaiah is the one book of the Old Testament that was found in its entirety, and not just fragments, among the Dead Sea Scrolls, because that proves that this and the many other Messianic prophecies in it were not written “after the fact,” but were God letting His people know what He was going to do to save them. That, in and of itself, is a powerful testimony of the love and omniscience of God, who is outside of time and so knows the end from the beginning of everything, and He loves us anyway. If that doesn’t blow your mind, then you don’t understand it! However, without the New Testament, this chapter seems cryptic and hard to grasp, which is why Philip had to explain it to the Ethiopian. The man believed that the God of the Jews was indeed the Creator, but he didn’t have the specifics of Jesus’ ministry on earth. Today, the general outlines of Christmas and Easter are well enough known in Western countries, at least, that Jews in Israel, upon having this chapter pointed out to them, often enough exclaim, “That’s Jesus!” There are plenty of videos on the Internet, posted by organizations like I mentioned, that show that happening, and they aren’t staged. The question, for both Jews and Gentiles, becomes, what are you going to do about it? Knowing that God loved us so much as to send His Son to die for us, just as John 3:16 proclaims, demands a response. God has provided salvation, and it is our responsibility to receive it in obedient gratitude.

Verse 6 of this chapter is one of the first verses I remember memorizing as a child, and I’m grateful. I have loved Isaiah, and am deeply blessed by many passages in it. I have long said that of all the characters in the Old Testament, Isaiah is the one I would most like to be, even though tradition tells us he was eventually sawed in two as punishment for speaking truth to power. I know his reward in heaven was absolutely magnificent! My task today is telling others about the Messiah that Isaiah knew only by faith – but then, that’s how I know Him too! I at least have the New Testament record to flesh it all out, but I minister to people who have no Biblical foundation in their lives at all, and that is a major challenge. However, God is up to it, even though I’m totally inadequate! It is a joy to introduce people to the only individual in history who has fulfilled Isaiah 53, and I pray to keep doing it for as long as I am on this earth.

Father, thank You for this glorious reminder. Help me indeed be more and more effective in sharing the Good News of salvation with those who don’t yet know it, and in helping those who know it apply it effectively in their lives, for their blessing and Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!