Reflective Bible Study

Periodically throughout this year looking at connection points and prophecies that are connected with Jesus and His ministry, we have pulled verses and excerpts out of one chapter in Isaiah. This is because, as we moved through Jesus’ ministry, and the Old Testament prophecies overlaid on Jesus’ ministry, this single chapter referenced events that occurred throughout Jesus’ ministry. Actually, when looking at this prophecy, it contains a much bigger picture of Jesus’ ministry than what the gospels include in the first century.

Since this prophecy is so powerful when looked at as a whole, while we looked at a few parts of it earlier in our year, I intentionally saved the bulk of this prophecy and passage for this episode. This prophecy summarizes Jesus’ ministry in a way that is especially powerful and in a way that nicely concludes this year’s focus for our podcast episodes.

With this said, let’s read our passage and discover what Isaiah draws our attention to regarding the Messiah. Our passage is found in the Old Testament book of Isaiah, chapter 53, and we will read it using the New American Standard Bible translation. Starting in verse 1, Isaiah writes:

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.

⁴ Surely our griefs He Himself bore,
And our sorrows He carried;
Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten of God, and afflicted.
⁵ But He was pierced through for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him,
And by His scourging we are healed.
⁶ All of us like sheep have gone astray,
Each of us has turned to his own way;
But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all
To fall on Him.

⁷ He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He did not open His mouth;
Like a lamb that is led to slaughter,
And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers,
So He did not open His mouth.
⁸ By oppression and judgment He was taken away;
And as for His generation, who considered
That He was cut off out of the land of the living
For the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due?
⁹ His grave was assigned with wicked men,
Yet He was with a rich man in His death,
Because He had done no violence,
Nor was there any deceit in His mouth.

¹⁰ But the Lord was pleased
To crush Him, putting Him to grief;
If He would render Himself as a guilt offering,
He will see His offspring,
He will prolong His days,
And the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand.
¹¹ As a result of the anguish of His soul,
He will see it and be satisfied;
By His knowledge the Righteous One,
My Servant, will justify the many,
As He will bear their iniquities.
¹² Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great,
And He will divide the booty with the strong;
Because He poured out Himself to death,
And was numbered with the transgressors;
Yet He Himself bore the sin of many,
And interceded for the transgressors.

Overall, in my mind, this prophecy is amazing. Not only does this prophecy give us a picture of Jesus during His early years, specifically that there wasn’t anything about Jesus’ appearance that would be abnormal or extraordinary, this prophecy also describes how Jesus would experience suffering in a way that would be difficult to comprehend. To top it off, this prophecy strongly hints at resurrection, and it gives us a picture of Jesus’ ministry following His return to Heaven.

Let’s move through some of these details together.

In verse 2, Isaiah describes what Jesus’ appearance would be:

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. (v. 2)

Everything in Jesus’ appearance was to be normal or average. Jesus would not be overly good looking, or overly repulsive. While Jesus would act in a unique way, and while Jesus would speak powerfully, by all appearances, He was to be very average. I suspect this detail is true when those in the Nazareth synagogue get into a disagreement about Jesus because they are familiar with His very normal and generic childhood – that is, following Jesus’ return from Egypt.

The impression I receive from this part of the prophecy is that every physical detail about our Messiah was to be relatable for us. It would do God no good if Jesus appeared to be physically superior to humanity in every way, and it would also open a case against God regarding Jesus being given an unfair advantage in the fight against sin. Instead, I suspect that the deck was clearly stacked against Jesus in as many ways as possible, if for no other reason than making His ministry and sacrifice credible to the on looking universe.

Next, Isaiah’s prophecy describes Jesus’ rejection and His grief. While we don’t get the picture that Jesus was overly emotional, there are a number of places where Jesus does display emotion. Twice, Jesus is recorded as shedding tears, and twice, Jesus appears angry and clears the temple. John’s gospel shares Jesus’ rampage through the temple near the beginning of His ministry, and several of the other gospels describe Jesus’ emotion and anger towards the commerce and dishonesty happening in the temple during the week leading up to His arrest and crucifixion.

Isaiah describes our Messiah stepping in and bearing our griefs and our sorrows on Himself, even if there were those in that culture, and at times throughout history, who believed Jesus’ death was a result of God punishing Him.

According to Isaiah in verse 5, it was for our sake that Jesus faced ridicule and death:

But He was pierced through for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him,
And by His scourging we are healed. (v. 5)

Moving forward to the second half of this prophecy, we see a picture described of the Messiah staying silent when being accused, and accepting the punishment meant for others.

However, it is how this prophecy ends that is the most amazing in my mind.

In the second part of verse 10, Isaiah writes the following phrases:

If He would render Himself as a guilt offering,
He will see His offspring,
He will prolong His days,
And the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand. (v. 10b)

In these phrases, we discover hinted at the truth that following Jesus’ sacrifice, there would be a resurrection. The truth of Jesus is that because Jesus gave His life as a guilt offering for each of us, He is able to see the results of this decision, He will last forever, and God’s pleasure, or we might say God’s favor, will rest on Jesus.

To finish off this prophecy, in verse 12, Isaiah writes:

Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great,
And He will divide the booty with the strong;
Because He poured out Himself to death,
And was numbered with the transgressors;
Yet He Himself bore the sin of many,
And interceded for the transgressors. (v. 12)

Because Jesus gave His life for us, God gives Him a portion with the great. Because Jesus stayed silent when He was accused, He is able to speak up and intercede on behalf of all who have sinned. Because Jesus poured out Himself to death, all of God’s people are able to receive new life.

This is the great news about Jesus, and it is the amazing gift God’s people look forward to receiving when Jesus returns to bring us home!

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life. Purposefully choose to place your faith, hope, trust, and belief in Jesus’ sacrifice to cover your sins and move forward in life with the knowledge that when we have allied ourselves with Jesus, He is actively interceding on our behalf.

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself to grow personally closer to God each and every day. Through prayer and Bible study, open your heart to God’s Holy Spirit and let Him transform your life into the life He created you to live.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or deviate away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

As we come to the climax of Luke’s gospel, and the event Jesus’ life has been moving forward to from His birth, we discover several powerful details that are easily overlooked when reading this event, and a powerful promise Jesus makes that is easy to spend too much time focusing on.

For the past several episodes, we have been moving through key points in the twelve hours leading up to His death, and we now come to the point in Luke’s gospel that Jesus is hung on the cross to die. Let’s read what Luke tells us happened during the time Jesus was hanging on the cross, and what we can learn from this event.

Our passage is found in Luke’s gospel, chapter 23, and we will read it from the New International Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 33, Luke tells us:

³³ When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. ³⁴ Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.

³⁵ The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.”

³⁶ The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar ³⁷ and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.”

³⁸ There was a written notice above him, which read: this is the king of the jews.

³⁹ One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”

⁴⁰ But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? ⁴¹ We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”

⁴² Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

⁴³ Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

⁴⁴ It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, ⁴⁵ for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. ⁴⁶ Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last.

⁴⁷ The centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God and said, “Surely this was a righteous man.” ⁴⁸ When all the people who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took place, they beat their breasts and went away. ⁴⁹ But all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.

In the darkest part of human history, we discover an amazing truth: God loved us through Jesus to and through the point of death.

Through how Jesus responds in each part of this event, we discover a powerful set of truths that form the foundation of Jesus’ life. In Luke’s gospel, Jesus speaks three different times. When we put these three times together, we discover something amazing. Verses 34, 43, and 46 include Jesus’ three individual messages: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.” And lastly, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”

Placing these three statements together builds a powerful truth: Jesus lived a life of forgiveness. Jesus offers sinners paradise, and Jesus’ spirit belongs to the Father. These themes even form a subtle progression that says: Forgiveness leads to salvation, and salvation leads us to the Father!

However, this isn’t the only amazing thing we can learn when focusing on the words spoken during Jesus’ time on the cross.

When we look at all other statements made in this event, we discover a powerful, chiastic-like progression that hinges on the words of two criminals.

This progression begins in verse 45, which tells us that the people and rulers mocked Jesus saying, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.”

The next step in this progression is the soldiers, who also mocked Jesus saying in verse 36, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.”

The third step in this progression is found in verse 39, when one of the criminals hanging next to Jesus challenges Him by saying, “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”

All three of these statements challenge Jesus regarding His divinity, and His role as the Messiah.

However, since a chiastic structure progresses one way before walking back in reverse order, we start the second half of this pattern looking at the other criminal. The other criminal hanging with Jesus first rebukes the first criminal, before stating Jesus’ innocence and a request in verses 40 through 42. Speaking to the other criminal, this second criminal says “Don’t you fear God, since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” Then to Jesus, this second criminal makes the request, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

This second criminal completely reverses the tone of the entire crucifixion. While all the statements hurled at Jesus up to this point challenge Jesus regarding His role as the Messiah and His divinity, this criminal reverses the tone by acknowledging Jesus as the Messiah and affirming His divinity.

Regardless of the immediate or not immediate sounding nature of Jesus’ reply, what this criminal says might be even more powerful than Jesus’ response.

Next, we move to what Luke records immediately following Jesus taking His last breath. In verse 47, we read a centurion, representing the soldiers who mocked Jesus not long before saying, “Surely this was a righteous man.” We discover the soldiers turn their attitude around and acknowledge Jesus’ righteousness.

But what about the crowd? While the crowd doesn’t have a representative to say something to finish out this chiasm, verse 48 summarizes the crowd’s response to Jesus’ death saying, “When all the people who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took place, they beat their breasts and went away.”

While the phrase beating their breasts doesn’t mean much to us today, this was a sign of sorrow, of morning, and of humility. The crowd’s response, after mocking Jesus while He was alive, realized that His death was more significant than they could ever have realized.

When we look at the statements people make during Jesus’ crucifixion we are able to see a powerful truth: Jesus came to die for each of us, to forgive our sins, to offer us the gift of paradise, and to show us God’s love and His character. While Jesus was misunderstood throughout His entire ministry, including during the first portion of His time on the cross, starting with the words of a criminal, those present for the crucifixion began to realize who exactly Jesus was and the ultimate Messiah He came to be!

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As I always challenge you to do, intentionally seek God first in your life and choose to place your hope, your faith, your trust, and your belief in Jesus. Trust in the sacrifice Jesus made for each of us on the cross and what this ultimately means for each of us when we accept God’s forgiveness for our sins!

Also, continue to pray and study the Bible for yourself to learn and grow closer to God each and every day. Through the pages of the Bible, discover a God who loves you more than you can even imagine, and a God who is willing to go farther than we can imagine to redeem us from sin! Learn to fall in love with Jesus through the truth the Bible teaches!

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or abandon where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!