During our Advent preparation, I want to show Jesus through the eyes of Isaiah, who saw it all, from Christ's birth to his life to his death to the reign of the Messianic age.
Isaiah 53:3-9 He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. 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. 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.
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. 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. 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.
It may seem strange to observe Jesus's death during the season of his birth. But to Isaiah, Jesus's death was part of a larger panorama started at birth. He could not see the baby Jesus without seeing the buried Jesus.
This prophecy is striking in its explanation of Jesus's sacrifice for us, making a clear connection between our sin and his suffering. We should be somber to think of the innocent baby in the manger growing up to bear our transgressions, suffer, and die.
Also striking is the difference in behavior from the last devotional in which Isaiah prophesied of Jesus's life. In that devotional, we saw Jesus gentle with the common people and feisty with his accusers. But now, at the moment of his ultimate offering, Jesus does not open his mouth to rebut the charges, going willingly as a lamb to the sacrificial slaughter. It strikes me that Christ considered the sin of his people and his future followers enough for him to be condemned, whatever the merits of arguing for himself personally might be. He cannot argue the guilt with which he is willingly afflicted.
And so Jesus dies. But Isaiah sees yet one more level, the wonderful Messianic age, which I'll present on Christmas Day.
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