SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/30/2013
5:46 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Humiliation: The Sorrowing Servant
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Isaiah 53:1-3
Message of the
verses: We are going to look at the
second stanza of this forth of the Servant’s songs, and as the first stanza
this will help us understand what the Servant did for us.
“1 Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm
of the LORD been revealed? 2 For He grew
up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of parched ground; He
has no stately form or majesty That we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that
we should be attracted to Him. 3 He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of
sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.”
As we begin to look at this 53rd chapter of
Isaiah we need to know that this chapter is all about the Lord Jesus Christ, as
the first four verses describe His life and ministry, and His death is seen in
verses 5-8, the burial is seen in verse nine, and then His resurrection and
exaltation are seen in verses 10-12. Dr.
Wiersbe writes “The theme that ties the chapter together is that the innocent
Servant died in the place of the guilty.
When theologians speak about ‘the vicarious atonement,’ that is what
they mean. We cannot explain everything
about the Cross, but this much seems clear:
Jesus took the place of guilty sinners and paid the price for their
salvation.”
In verse one we see these words “the arm of the Lord,”
and this speaks of His power. In Psalm
8:3a we read “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,” and this
shows that it was the fingers of the Lord that made the universe. Then in Exodus 13:3a we read “Moses said to
the people, "Remember this day in which you went out from Egypt, from the
house of slavery; for by a powerful hand the LORD brought you out from this
place.” This verse shows that it was by
the power of the hand of the Lord that was used to bring the children of Israel
out of Egypt. When we look again at
verse one of Isaiah 53, and this time looking at it from the NLT we read “To
whom has the LORD revealed his powerful arm?”
(Isaiah 53b) It took the powerful
or mighty arm of the Lord to save lost sinners.
Now we contrast this statement with verse two which speaks of the
Servant’s humiliation and weakness when it says “a root out of parched ground.” Paul writes to the Philippians about the
humility of Jesus Christ as He laid aside His glory to become a man and then to
die, die on the cross: “7 but emptied Himself, taking
the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being
found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
The following paragraph comes from the pen of Dr. Wiersbe
as he explains more about Isaiah’s writings about the Lord Jesus Christ. “The Servant is God, and yet He becomes human
and grows up! The Child is born—that is
His humanity; the Son is given—that is His deity (Isaiah 9:6). In writing about Israel’s future, Isaiah has
already used the image of a tree:
Messiah is the Branch of the Lord (4:2); the remnant is like the stumps
of tress chopped down (6:13); the proud nations will be hewn down like trees,
but out of David’s seemingly dead stump, the ‘rod of Jesse’ will come
(10:33-11:1). Because Jesus Christ is
God He is the ‘root of David,’ but because He is man, He is the ‘offspring of
David’ (Rev. 22:16).”
Now as we look back into the world that the Lord Jesus
Christ was born into we realize that Israel was no paradise, for the political
and the spiritual could be described as “dry ground.” Jesus did not come as a great plant (so to
speak), but as a “tender plant.” Jesus
was born into poverty in Bethlehem and grew up in a carpenter’s shop in
Nazareth. He was nothing special to look
at as Isaiah describes, but is was because of His words and works that people
were attracted to Him.
When people learned what He demanded of Him, and we can
see some of that in John chapter six where we read: “26 Jesus answered them and said,
"Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but
because you ate of the loaves and were filled. 27 “Do not work for the food
which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son
of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal.’” A little later in this chapter we read “51 "I am the living bread that came down
out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the
bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.’” Then we read at the end of chapter six these
words: “66 As a result of this many of
His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore.” Jesus asks those who remained with Him “"You
do not want to go away also, do you?’” Peter answered “"Lord, to whom shall we
go? You have words of eternal life. 69
"We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One
of God.’” This section shows that many
of the people who were following Jesus were doing it for the wrong reasons,
they were not looking for the bread that did not perish, but for the bread that
did perish. Jesus demanded a person to
take up their cross and follow Him, and yet few did, but we can rest assured
that they did not follow Him because He was some handsome person that attracted
people because of His looks or physical features. When Israel chose their first King God gave
them Saul and there is much to say about his features how he was very tall and
handsome. This is what the people
wanted, but David who was a man after God’s heart was not a good looking man,
and he was not tall like Saul. Jesus
seems to fit into that category to according to what Isaiah writes about Him in
this section of Isaiah 53.
People treated Jesus like a slave as He was sold for
thirty pieces of silver. People looked
the other way when He went by them. The
people were ashamed of Him for He did not represent the things that were
important to them, things like great material wealth, as seen in Luke 16:14,
and social prestige as seen in Luke 14:7-14, and reputation as seen in Luke
18:9-14, and also being served by others (Luke 22:24-27. Today Jesus is rejected for the very same
reasons.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: It is my desire
to follow Jesus for the right reasons, and not for the wrong reasons. I want to desire the bread that does not
parish as opposed to the bread that does perish. The passage in John six is kind of difficult
to understand, but it is not speaking of “The Lord’s Supper,” but about walking
with Jesus for the right reasons, for as the passage says “He has the words of
eternal life.”
My Steps of Faith for Today: Follow the Lord for the right reasons.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
Question: “The return of Jesus Christ”
(Titus 2:13).
Today’s Bible Question “What
was in the ark of the covenant?”
Answer in our next SD.
11/30/2013 6:59 AM
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