Obvious

Obvious

     One of the pastors I met had a neighbor who was Jewish. This Jewish man vehemently rejected Jesus being the prophesied Messiah. One day while he was visiting the pastor, and they were having their usual theological discussion, the pastor opened his Bible and said, “I am going to read something from God’s word. Tell me if it is from the Old Testament, or the New."
      The pastor read him the fifty-third chapter from the book of Isaiah in the Old Testament. When he was finished, the Jewish man promptly exclaimed. “That’s obvious. It’s from the New Testament. It’s all about Jesus.” Then the pastor showed him that what he had read was actually from the Old Testament.
      The pastor told me that the man’s face turned as red as the carpet and he quickly fled the house.
      It was sad that he could not remain to honestly and humbly admit that what he had been shown was an accurate prophetic declaration that Jesus was the promised Messiah, the Redeemer of mankind.
      I can picture the prophet Isaiah standing with the pastor, and I can hear Isaiah respond to this incident with a question, “Who has believed our report? And to whom is the Arm of the Lord revealed?” – Isaiah 53:1.
The Arm that rules before Him – Isaiah 40:10,
The Arm that gathers His Lambs – Isaiah 40:11;
For - The LORD has made bare His Holy Arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God – Isaiah 52:10.

For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant – Isaiah 53:2
And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: - Isaiah 11:1.

And we shall see the rod that God has chosen blossom – Numbers 17:5. –
The miracle budding of –
a root out of dry ground – Isaiah 53:2.
And the Messiah would be born in a time of spiritual drought;
a miracle birth for a plant cannot grow when there is no water.

Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel – Isaiah 7:14.
For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6).

For God was in Messiah reconciling the world to Himself – II Corinthians 5:19.

He has no form nor comliness; and when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him, - Isaiah 53:2.

He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. – Isaiah 53:3

      We can see Jesus standing over Jerusalem. We watch as the love in His heart rises up into His eyes and pours out in rivers upon His cheeks. He calls to ears that are dull of hearing – “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you that kills the prophets, and stone them which are sent to you, how often I would have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and you would not!” – Matthew 23:37.

Surely He has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions; He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed - Isaiah 53:4, 5.

      The people had sinned again by complaining bitterly against Moses and their God. The negative rise of their voices drove vipers from the ground and the multitude of deaths from the consequences of their sin, propelled the people to repentance. God saw their hearts and commanded Moses to make a serpent of brass and raise it up on a pole.
      “Tell them to look upon it when the serpent bites and they will be made whole.” – Numbers 21: 5- 9.

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all - Isaiah 53:6.

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth: He is brought as
a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opens not His mouth. - Isaiah 53:7.

And the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, -
Take an unblemished lamb, a male of the first year,
Eat it in haste for this blood will being your liberty.
Then take its blood and put it upon the doorposts of your houses,
for I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land
of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am
the LORD.
And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the
blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite
the land of Egypt – Exodus 12: 1-13.

He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare His generation?
for He was cut off out of the land of the living: - Isaiah 53:8.
And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, - Daniel 9:26.
for the transgression of My people was He stricken - Isaiah 53:8.

And He made His grave with the wicked and with the rich in His death; because He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth. - Isaiah 53:9.

An innocent lamb, crucified with sinners and buried in a rich man’s tomb – Matthew 27:57-60 – was Isaiah’s declaration as He gazed into the future, when His prophecy would be fulfilled.

Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief: when Thou shall make His soul an offering for sin, - Isaiah 53:10.

“For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that makes an atonement for the soul.” – Leviticus 17:11.

Moses heard the words as he held the shattered stone of laws defied,
that had been written with the finger of God – Exodus 31:18
and he watched his people dance around the works of their own hands.
The first commandment was broken, - Exodus 32:8, 19.
But they could be forgiven.
And Moses followed the plan. - Exodus 25:9.
In the tabernacle the priest sprinkled the blood upon the altar
to make atonement for himself and all the rebellious ones
who had worshipped a calf of gold above their God.
For the law that was written in cold hard stone,
was designed to be read along with
the warm sacrifice of the blood of forgiveness.
A foreshadow of the
loving sacrifice to come…

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life.
For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved – John 3:16, 17.

God shall see His seed, - Isaiah 53:10;
The fruit of Messiah’s life in those who believed.

He shall prolong His days, - Isaiah 53:10,

and His Holy Spirit lives in each generation of believer's and they shall live forever.

and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand. – Isaiah 53:10
He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied: - Isaiah 53:11 -
My God, My God why have You forsaken Me – Psalm 22:1 and Matthew 27:46,
by His knowledge shall My righteous servant justify many; - Isaiah 53:11.

So by the obedience of One many are made righteous – Romans 5:19.
Whoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved – Romans 10:13.
Much more then, being now justified by His blood,
we shall be saved from wrath through Him. – Romans 5:9 -

For He shall bear their iniquities – Isaiah 53:11.
Therefore will I divide Him a portion with the great ...Isaiah 53:12

The whole world will know the name of Jesus –

And He shall divide the spoil with the strong – Isaiah 53:12 -

This One who was dead and lives again to rule and reign
with all those who have embraced His holy name.
He gives His kingdom to the saints – Daniel 7:18,22 -
Because He has poured out His
Soul unto death
And He was number with the transgressors, - Isaiah 53:12
This One who was crucified with sinners – Matthew 27:38;
He bore the sin of many –
And lived again to make intercession for the transgressors. – Isaiah 53:12,
At the right hand of the Father –
Who is he that condemns? It is Christ that died, yes rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us - Romans 8:34.

We are loved.

But who shall believe our report, and to whom is the Arm of the Lord revealed? -
Those who have eyes to see and ears to hear the
obvious.

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