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In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
“Look at My servant, whom I strengthen. He is My chosen one,
who pleases Me. I have put My Spirit upon Him. He will bring justice to the
nations. He will not shout or raise his voice in public. He will not crush the
weakest reed or put out a flickering candle. He will bring justice to all who
have been wronged. He will not falter or lose heart until justice prevails
throughout the earth. Even distant lands beyond the sea will wait for His
instruction.”
“God, the Lord, created the heavens and stretched them out. He
created the earth and everything in it. He gives breath to everyone, life to
everyone who walks the earth. And it is He who says, ‘I, the Lord, have called
You to demonstrate My righteousness. I will take You by the hand and guard You,
and I will give You to My people, Israel, as a symbol of My covenant with them.
And You will be a light to guide the nations. You will open the eyes of the
blind. You will free the captives from prison, releasing those who sit in dark
dungeons.’”
“I am the Lord; that is My name! I
will not give My glory to anyone else, nor share My praise with carved idols. Everything
I prophesied has come true, and now I will prophesy again. I will tell you the
future before it happens.”
Isaiah 42:1-9 (NLT)
This ends today’s
reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Starting today and through the Christmas holiday, I will
take a break from writing from the Book of Amos to bring you a series of
devotions centered on the coming of Jesus, our Savior who is the real reason
for the season. We’ll begin by seeing how His coming was predicted well before
it actually happened, looking at the words of the prophet Isaiah. Look again at
these words here:
“Look at My servant,
whom I strengthen. He is My chosen one, who pleases Me. I have put My Spirit
upon Him. He will bring justice to the nations. He will not shout or raise his
voice in public. He will not crush the weakest reed or put out a flickering
candle. He will bring justice to all who have been wronged. He will not falter
or lose heart until justice prevails throughout the earth. Even distant lands
beyond the sea will wait for His instruction.”
“God, the Lord,
created the heavens and stretched them out. He created the earth and everything
in it. He gives breath to everyone, life to everyone who walks the earth. And
it is He who says, ‘I, the Lord, have called You to demonstrate My
righteousness. I will take You by the hand and guard You, and I will give You
to My people, Israel, as a symbol of My covenant with them. And You will be a
light to guide the nations. You will open the eyes of the blind. You will free
the captives from prison, releasing those who sit in dark dungeons.’”
“I am the Lord; that is My name! I will not give My glory to anyone
else, nor share My praise with carved idols. Everything I prophesied has come
true, and now I will prophesy again. I will tell you the future before it
happens.” Isaiah
42:1-9 (NLT)
Note here that Isaiah, God’s messenger to His people, was
speaking largely about things that were yet to occur, about the future before it
would happen. The prophecy was centered on the Messiah’s coming, the awaited
rescuer and deliverer of God’s people, the One God had earmarked to bring His
people salvation. And lest anyone doubt the validity of the prophet’s words, Isaiah
reminds them that everything he had prophesied before had come true and as we
know, the same would apply to his prediction about God’s coming Savior.
So what do we find God telling the Israelites (and us today)
about His Son who was to come?
Through His words, we learn the following:
1. Jesus was coming to be the servant of His Father.
“Look at My servant,
whom I strengthen.”
You may recall Jesus at the young age of 12 saying these
words to His parents who frantically returned to Jerusalem to find Him after
leaving the city without Him:
“Why
did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?”
Luke 2:49 (NKJV)
Indeed, from that point forward, Jesus was empowered by God
to carry out His business, a divine servant of the highest order who was, is,
and will always be the model of self sacrifice and dedication to a life defined
by mercy, love, and compassion.
2. Jesus was God’s chosen One, the One who was His delight.
“He is My chosen one,
who pleases Me.”
When Jesus was beginning His adult ministry, what did God
say about Him as He was baptized?
“This is my Son, whom
I love; with Him I am well pleased.” Matthew 3:17
Jesus was the One God chose to bring salvation to all
mankind, to the Jew and to the Gentile. He was God’s only Son and He was
cherished as such, pleasing His Father as He went about doing His business.
3. Jesus had God’s Spirit within Him.
“I have put My Spirit
upon Him.”
Go back to the account of Jesus’ baptism in Matthew 3 where
we are told of this happening:
“As soon as Jesus was
baptized, He went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and He
saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on Him.” Matthew
3:16
God chose Jesus to be one in Spirit with Him and thus all
the business Jesus engaged in with others was done in perfect harmony with His
Father. In other words, everything that Jesus did in ministry was linked to the
will of God.
4. Jesus was coming to bring justice to all.
“He will bring
justice to the nations.”
“He will bring
justice to all who have been wronged. He will not falter or lose heart until
justice prevails throughout the earth.”
God wanted to bring equity to the world and His people
abiding in it and so He sent His Son to ensure justice would be served, to
ensure that those who were wronged would have an advocate and deliverer.
Indeed, Jesus did show equity during all His ministry work
while on earth, ensuring even those marginalized or excluded by society in
biblical days were cared for and represented. And even after His death,
resurrection, and ascension, Jesus reigns supreme in all authority over
creation ensuring justice, placed in that position by God Himself (Matthew
28:18). One day, Jesus will return to earth but not as much as the Savior as
the Supreme Judge and every person will receive a verdict, the righteous who
accepted Jesus as Savior receiving eternal life while the wicked, those who
rejected Him, receiving eternal damnation (Matthew 25:31-46).
5. Although empowered with God’s power, Jesus would be
gentle in the way He dealt with others.
“He will not shout or
raise his voice in public. He will not crush the weakest reed or put out a
flickering candle.”
Jesus was the model of tender compassion and understanding.
He was a champion of the underprivileged and the weak. And He could speak eloquently
with full authority and power without having to raise His voice in public.
People who came to Him were silent and eager to listen to His instruction and
that leads to the next thing about Jesus.
6. People hungered for Jesus’ teaching.
“Even distant lands
beyond the sea will wait for His instruction.”
In His first formal teaching (what is known as the Sermon on
the Mount), Jesus opens with a set of assurances often referred to as the Beatitudes
and one of those assurances simply states this truth:
“Blessed are those
who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” Matthew 5:6
Over and over again, these words came to life in the hearts
of all who came to hear Jesus’ instruction. No one came away without being
filled with wisdom and guidance pertaining to the way God expected them to
live. This is why Jesus drew large crowds of people wherever He went for many
hungered and thirsted for His direction and guidance and no one went away
unsatisfied. The same happens today for anyone who reads any of the Gospels and
receive His teaching.
7. Jesus came to demonstrate the righteousness of God.
“I, the Lord, have
called You to demonstrate My righteousness.”
When we look at the life of Jesus, we see a life that was
lived perfectly right, a life lived without error. We know the Spirit of God
was in His Son and so Jesus, in carrying out His Father’s business, would
always be doing what was right and righteous. As we read the accounts of Jesus’
ministry, we find complete validation of this truth.
8. God’s protection and covering was on Jesus.
“I will take You by
the hand and guard You.”
As Jesus was carrying out the will of God, there were more
than one occasion when people wanted to do Him harm but none were successful
until such time as God allowed, the time when Jesus had to suffer and die to
pay the penalty for the sins of all mankind.
9. Jesus came to establish a new covenant with God’s people.
“I will give you to My people, Israel, as a symbol of My
covenant with them.”
At the event known as the Last Supper, Jesus spoke these
words:
“In the same way,
after the supper He took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My
blood, which is poured out for you.” Luke 22:20
The blood shed on Calvary’s cross by Jesus, the Lamb of God,
is the blood that washes every sinner clean and leaves them white as snow,
justified before God the Father by the Son who bore the punishment in their
place. All one needs to do is to accept Jesus as Savior and receive the
salvation promise offered by God through Him, the salvation promise available
to anyone, Jew and Gentile in referring back to biblical days.
Today, this new covenant is still in effect and sinners
still find themselves saved by placing their belief and trust in Jesus and
receiving God’s pardon of condemnation through Him (Romans 8:1).
10. Jesus was sent by God to be the Light of the world and
all the nations therein.
“You will be a light
to guide the nations. You will open the eyes of the blind. You will free the
captives from prison, releasing those who sit in dark dungeons.”
God told Jesus He would be a light for all and that’s
exactly what He was and still is to those who would turn to Him for truth. For
Jesus opened (and still opens) the eyes of those who had been blinded to the
truth and He freed people from the dark recesses of sin’s captivity. He
proclaimed Himself as the Way and the Truth and the Life, the only One who
could bring someone to God the Father, and He made good (and still makes good)
on that proclamation.
Through the words of God in Isaiah’s Old Testament time, we
are told of a coming salvation unlike anything that had been known before, a
salvation that would come in the way of a Messiah, a Savior who would be the
perfect Servant, the chosen One of God filled with His Spirit, the great
Administrator of perfect judgment, the compassionate Conveyor of instruction
who was protected by God, and the Advent of the new covenant between God and His
people, the Light who offered a way to bring all mankind out of the doom of sin’s
darkness into the radiance of God’s salvation and the promise of eternal life.
This predicted instrument of salvation was none other than
Jesus and tomorrow, we look at how this promise from God was conceived.
Amen
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
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