The book of Isaiah was written by the Prophet Isaiah who lived during the reign of multiple Kings of Judah. Isaiah shared the words of God with these three Kings in Judah. Uzziah, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. Many of the prophecies in this book directly relate to the situation about to happen to Judah. Judah will be destroyed by the Babylonians. But I noticed that Isaiah also has a great number of prophecies about someone coming later. I will share some of those verses and maybe you will see who Isaiah prophesied about.
Come now, let’s settle this,
says the Lord.
Though your sins are like scarlet,
I will make them as white as snow.
Though they are red like crimson,
I will make them as white as wool.
– Isaiah 1:18
All right then, the Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means God is with us).
– Isaiah 7:14
For a child is born to us,
a son is given to us.
The government will rest on his shoulders.
And he will be called:
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
– Isaiah 9:6
Who has believed our message?
To whom has the Lord revealed his powerful arm?
My servant grew up in the Lord’s presence like a tender green shoot,
like a root in dry ground.
There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance,
nothing to attract us to him.
He was despised and rejected
a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief.
We turned our backs on him and looked the other way.
He was despised, and we did not care.
Yet it was our weaknesses he carried;
it was our sorrows[a] that weighed him down.
And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God,
a punishment for his own sins!
But he was pierced for our rebellion,
crushed for our sins.
He was beaten so we could be whole.
He was whipped so we could be healed.
All of us, like sheep, have strayed away.
We have left God’s paths to follow our own.
Yet the Lord laid on him
the sins of us all.
He was oppressed and treated harshly,
yet he never said a word.
He was led like a lamb to the slaughter.
And as a sheep is silent before the shearers,
he did not open his mouth.
Unjustly condemned,
he was led away.[b]
No one cared that he died without descendants,
that his life was cut short in midstream.[c]
But he was struck down
for the rebellion of my people.
He had done no wrong
and had never deceived anyone.
But he was buried like a criminal;
he was put in a rich man’s grave.
But it was the Lord’s good plan to crush him
and cause him grief.
Yet when his life is made an offering for sin,
he will have many descendants.
He will enjoy a long life,
and the Lord’s good plan will prosper in his hands.
When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish,
he will be satisfied.
And because of his experience,
my righteous servant will make it possible
for many to be counted righteous,
for he will bear all their sins.
I will give him the honors of a victorious soldier,
because he exposed himself to death.
He was counted among the rebels.
He bore the sins of many and interceded for rebels.
– Isaiah 53
There are more statements in Isaiah that are about someone coming later. Someone coming who will ‘bore the sins of many and intercede for rebels’. But who could this be? Has this person come yet? Isaiah lived around 740-680 BC and wrote this book during that time. There are many who are still waiting for this person Isaiah describes to come. But there is good news. This person has already come. He is Jesus. Over 500 years before Jesus Isaiah wrote about him, describing what Jesus would do so that God’s people would believe. Verses like these always have me surprised and saddened that the Jewish people do not see that the one they are still waiting for has already come. So I pray for Israel that their eyes would be opened and that they will see their Messiah.
But enjoying my work that is tough for me.
http://www.thebristows.com is an OpenID for Jeff Bristow
