The Apostle Peter tells us that the sufferings of Christ were told beforehand by the prophets for our benefit, not theirs.
Isaiah describes how the Lord Jesus would not gather Israel back to God, but rather, His salvation would run to the ends of the world!
He would be faithful and obedient in the face of vicious attacks against His body and His face, but He would never be deterred, because He knew He would never be ashamed.
Christ's sacrifice would be a victorious salvation to His people, and it is! There would be nothing to be ashamed of, no matter how much shame wicked men heaped upon Jesus!
In Isaiah 51 and 52, God promises a great salvation by His mighty power and outstretched Arm. That salvation would be glorious, complete, and satisfying, and render His people happy and safe forever.
Israel was yet under the judgment of God for its sinning. But the message of the Gospel is beautiful, for it brings peace and promised salvation.
God will comfort His people, redeem Jerusalem, and fill them with joy and singing.
Messiah will be exalted as God's Arm before all the nations.
And yet, He will have an astonishing visage, because His face will be marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of man.
This disfigurement of Messiah will shock the nations and their kings! But it was foretold in Isaiah 50, where the abuse of Christ's face is particularly foretold.
How can it be that the strong Arm of the Lord's salvation is so mistreated? How can the strength and power of salvation be consistent with the rejection and abuse of the Redeemer?
So extreme is the contrast, that Isaiah lamented that nobody would believe his report.
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John Pittman Hey was born in 1961 in Jackson, Mississippi, to Godly parents who from the beginning raised him in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. With child-like faith he came to Christ on his fourth birthday at his mother's knee. He received his education at church...