JANUARY 17

 Isaiah 52:6 ~ ~ “Therefore My people shall know My name; Therefore they shall know in that day  that I am He who speaks:  ‘Behold, it is I.’ ”

We’re starting a new chapter in the book where we’re seeing the pattern of the Bible.   PART FIVE ~ ~ THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND THE NEW COVENANT.  

What were shadows in the Old Testament have become brilliantly illuminated in the New Testament.  The unnamed Messiah of the Old Testament is revealed to be Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of the Living God.  The old fallen kingdom of Israel has been exchanged for the new and eternal Kingdom of God.  The Old Covenant that was powerless to save has been exchanged for the New Covenant in Christ’s saving blood.  Old things have passed away.  Behold, all things have become new.

CHAPTER 14 ~ ~THE SUFFERING SERVANT AND THE KINGDOM

Oliver Cromwell was a military and political leader in Great Britain who experienced a dramatic conversion in his late twenties and became a devoted Christian.  He once wrote in a letter, “Blessed be His Name for shining upon so dark a heart as mine!!!….., the riches of His mercy!!!”

Cromwell believed God had called him to be a godly leader, and he served as Lord Protector of Great Britain from 1653 until his death on September 3, 1658.  Lying on his deathbed at age fifty-nine, Cromwell called his wife and grown children around him and told them that the Covenant of God “is holy and true….Love not the world.  No, my children, live like Christians.  I leave you the covenant to feed upon.”  Cromwell’s last thoughts and dying words were about the New Covenant of the blood of Jesus. 

As we transition from the Old Testament to the New, it’s as if someone flicks on a dazzling halogen lamp.  Suddenly, everything that was dark and shadowy in the Old Testament comes into brilliant focus.  The mysterious Old Testament prophecies of a coming Kingdom and a New Covenant are embodied in a Person.

And the name of that Person is Jesus of Nazareth.

THE SUFFERING SERVANT IN THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS

Jewish scribes and teachers in  Old Testament times admitted being baffled by the prophecies of Isaiah 53, which described a “Suffering servant” who would be “despised and rejected by mankind” and “pierced for our transgressions” (sins), and “led like a lamb to the slaughter.”  Finally, Isaiah says that the Suffering servant would be raised from the dead:  “After He has suffered, He will see the light of life and be satisfied”  (Isaiah 53:11).  These prophecies are so detailed and precise, it’s as if Isaiah wrote a biography of Jesus some seven hundred years before He came and lived it.

The prophecy of the suffering Servant in Isaiah highlights the truly unexpected, even paradoxical nature of the Kingdom of God.  It’s not an earthly kingdom established on military triumphs, like the Roman  empire or the Persian empire, or Alexander the Great’s kingdom of Macedon.  No, the Kingdom of God is established through the humiliation, suffering, and death of its King.  God confounds human expectations by establishing His Kingdom through the Suffering Servant.

But the suffering of the Messiah is only the beginning of the establishment of the Kingdom.  The pathway to His triumph leads through suffering.  Both the suffering and the victory are foretold throughout the Old Testament.

Isaiah describes this Servant in many passages.  He will bring light and liberty to the Gentiles (Isaiah 42:6-7).  He will intercede with God’s own Spirit (Isaiah 42:1).  He will proclaim the good tidings of God’s redemption (Isaiah 61:1-3).   He intercedes with God day and night for the victory of His purpose (Isaiah 62:1 and 6).  He willingly accepts His mission, though it is certain to bring Him suffering (Isaiah 50:4-5)

This was a strange and troubling concept to the Jews, who associated suffering and death with the curse of sin.  How could the Messiah suffer and die like a common sinner?

Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Isaiah gazed into the very mystery of the Godhead to receive the answer:  God does not save the human race through ritual atonement or the strict observance of the Law, (nor yet through sacraments, repetitive prayers and church rituals and rules). NO.  He redeems the human race through the suffering of His Servant.  In the prophecies of Isaiah, the Old Testament leaps forward in time and links arms with the New Testament.

The Servant is the personification of the true Israel.  Though the nation of Israel was rebellious, the Servant, the true Israel, will be obedient to God’s calling (see Isaiah 49:1-6).  All that the true Israel was and is converges in Him.

The Suffering servant is the “new Moses” that God promised through Moses in Deuteronomy 18:15:  “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites.  You must listen to Him.”  This new Moses will be the true and loyal Israel and the leader of His people.  All of these promises are fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth.

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1 Corinthians 1:20

Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?

1 Corinthians 3:19

For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their own craftiness”;

1 Corinthians 3:11

 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Joel 2:32

And it shall come to pass  that whoever calls on the name of the Lord  shall be saved….

Ps 68:19

He daily carries our burdens.

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