PREDICTED
December 5, 2010
ISAIAH 40-55
I love surprises, but I don’t let anyone know that. Debbie could buy a present for me, tell me it’s in the next room, and I’ll shrug my shoulders and go about my business and I won’t go looking for that present. Why? Because it’s more fun to be surprised.
This past week I had a few nice surprises. I received a box from Lou Malnati’s. Who and what is Lou’s? It is some of the best Chicago stuffed pizza you will ever eat. What a surprise to find that at my door. I also received some homemade chex mix. The person who gave it to me didn’t know it’s one of my favorite snacks.
Surprises!! They’re great as long as they are positive and good. On this 2nd Sunday of advent, isn’t it surprising that everyone seemed surprised by the event of Jesus’ birth. Nobody expected it, yet it was predicted over and over in the scriptures of the Old Testament. It was great news, a great surprise! Yet, it really wasn’t so much of a surprise, was it?
Joseph and Mary were definitely surprised by the events surrounding the birth of their son. The Jewish leaders weren’t expecting the birth of the Messiah, even though they could quote the Bible about His coming.
The shepherds certainly weren’t anticipating the heavenly announcement of the birth of the Christ. And yet, as we’ve already seen in The Story, God was giving clues of His coming from the beginning of time.
In Genesis 3, God told Adam and Eve that one of their descendants would someday crush satan’s head.
In Deuteronomy 18, God promised to someday raise up another prophet like Moses who would speak the words of God.
In Micah 5, God promised that someday the ruler of his people would be born in Bethlehem.
In Hosea 11, God predicted at some point, His Son would come out of Egypt.
In Isaiah 7, God predicted this Son would be born to a virgin and would be named “Immanuel.”
In Isaiah 11, God promised that out of the root of Jesse (the family tree of King David) a Branch, a leader, would appear, empowered by the Spirit of God.
And in the last chapter of the Old Testament, in Malachi 4, in the very last verses, God promises to send the prophet Elijah, to prepare the way for the day of the Lord, a prediction fulfilled in John the Baptist.
God sent all these signals and more, but the people were still surprised when the Savior was born! And many even rejected Him.
Of all the Old Testament clues, one of my favorite is called “The Servant.”
In Isaiah 40-55, God predicts the coming of His Servant.
This section of Scripture can be a bit confusing because the term “servant” doesn’t always refer to the same person or group. As Isaiah often changes from one identification to another, even within the same paragraph.
He gives 2 vivid portraits of identities of “The Servant”~
In Isaiah 41, the Servant refers to The People of Israel, as we read ~
8 “But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, you descendants of Abraham my friend, 9 I took you from the ends of the earth, from its farthest corners I called you. I said, ‘You are my servant’; I have chosen you and have not rejected you.
10 So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
What a great passage of scripture, it’s comforting and it’s powerful for the Israelites. They are God’s chosen people; as God promises to strengthen and help them. That’s great news!
Yet, the people of Israel failed to carry out God’s mission to teach the nations about the one true God. So, in Isaiah 42:19-20, we read,
19 Who is blind but my servant, and deaf like the messenger I send? Who is blind like the one in covenant with me, blind like the servant of the LORD? 20 You have seen many things, but you pay no attention; your ears are open, but you do not listen.”
These words indicate that the Israelites, the chosen servants of God are being rejected because they refuse to listen and obey God.
The other meaning for servant in Isaiah – comes in a person who is called “The Suffering Servant.” The servant is no longer identified in the plural as “we and us” but in the singular as “he, him, his.”
This individual as “The Suffering Servant.”
Listen to these great words from Isaiah written about 700 years prior to the birth of Christ. This is a long passage, but I want you to follow along, it’s in Isaiah 52-53 -
13 See, my servant will act wisely; he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted. 53:2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. 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 mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. 4 Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken 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 on him, and by his wounds we are healed. 6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our 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 its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished.
9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.
11 After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because 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.
What a great passage, very clearly foretelling the coming of Christ, His life, and His mission.
Because Israel failed to carry out God’s great commission, God sends his son, Jesus, the Christ, as the Suffering Servant to fulfill His mission.
And what is that mission? Isaiah 49 helps us see what that mission is ~
6 God says: “It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”
His mission is to bring the good news of salvation to the Jews and the Gentiles. This sounds a lot like the Great Commission given to us by Jesus! When Jesus tells us “to go into the world and make disciples of all people!”
What the People of Israel failed to do, the Church, under the leadership of The Servant, the Suffering Servant, Jesus Christ, now we must accomplish this.
Again, remember, this was all predicted 700 years before the birth of Christ!
What is the call for us today? Just as the call was back then, the call is the same today . . . We must accept The Messenger.
Jesus is the long awaited Suffering Servant of God. He spent three years proclaiming the Good News of salvation to Jews and Gentiles alike. Do we know the Messenger? Do we know Christ? I mean do we really know Him, or do we just go through the motions?
He is the Servant, the Messiah, the Savior of the World.
So, not only are we to accept the Messenger, we must accept The Message the Messenger gives us.
The message has never changed. God has always been in the saving business.
Isaiah 42:6-7 tells us ~
6 I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, 7 to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.
God wants all people to accept the liberating message of salvation.
So, we accept the Messenger, we accept the message of the Messenger, and we must accept the mission mandated to us by the Messenger.
The world-wide mission has now been entrusted to us. We are God’s servants to the world. We hold to the words of Isaiah 45:22 ~
Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.
This is our mandate, our mission, to witness to a world which is lost and hurting.
The point of the story of Jesus is that He is the only hope in the world! He’s it! There is no other name whom Kings will bow down to.
Do we accept Him and His message and His mission? The birth of Jesus really is The Greatest Story Ever Told.
But it should come as no surprise. God’s been dropping clues for thousands of years.
The Savior, the Messiah, the Suffering Servant, Jesus Christ, has come. It was all predicted by the prophets. The question is, “Have you accepted Him, not with lip service, but have you accepted Him as your Lord and Savior . . . in your heart? Don’t be surprised, because He’s knocking at your life. He’s knocking for everyone of us. We all have growing up to do, and he’s there, waiting, watching, wanting you to embrace Him. Have you?
