Today's Reading:

Isaiah 50
Isaiah 51
Isaiah 52
Isaiah 53

When Israel comes home from exile, God will lead His people. He made them a promise:  “You shall not go out in haste, and you shall not go in flight, for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard” (Isaiah 52:12).
Just like in the Exodus when he led them as a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night, God Himself will be in front to lead and behind to protect them. He is both your guide and your guard. 

When you have a transition in life- a new job, you are moving, a loss, or going through a new season of life- do you rush in with fear and panic? Or do you walk more calmly, believing that the Lord is going before you to lead the way and guarding you from behind? What would it look like to live with that kind of peace and confidence today?

God challenges Israel. He never gave them a “certificate of divorce” to let them go. He has not abandoned them. They sinned, and when He came to help, they did not respond. He reached out through prophets for generations, and everyone was silent. God reminded them of the Exodus and how He is omnipotent and has control over everything.

This is the third servant story. His servant will have a well-instructed tongue to speak timely and encouragingly. We can relate this to Jesus’s prayer life (Mark 1:35). He would rise early to listen to the Father. He obeyed and was not rebellious. The Messiah rose early to listen even though He knew it would bring suffering.

The prophecies from Isaiah and the suffering Messiah should bring a feeling and lump to your throat. He did this for YOU! Just as written, His back was beaten beyond recognition, His beard was pulled out as a sign of humiliation, He was mocked, and He was spit on. This is exactly how the crucifixion went. Despite His suffering, the Servant knows God helps. The world condemns and rejects Him (the Servant), but God the Father stands with Him. The Father declares Him innocent. The Servant turns His suffering into salvation for us. Because Jesus was helped, you and I are now helped. Our guilt has been removed.

There are two types of people Isaiah wrote: Those who fear and obey, or those who make their own way and create their own light. You either walk in the dark with faith or choose your own path. God said if you want to make your own way, then go ahead, but just know that you will lie down in the torment of your own flames that you created. This is self-inflicted suffering and misery in this life.

God tells His people to look in three directions for hope. Look back to Abraham and Sarah; remember how God took one old, childless couple and turned them into a great nation. Look around at the current desert wasteland; He is able to change it into a garden as beautiful as Eden. Look forward to the future; His salvation will last forever.

In desperation, they cry out, “Awake, awake, O arm of the Lord!” They remind God of His mighty acts and reputation at the Red Sea. Rahab (a name for Egypt) and the Dragon/Leviathan (the sea monster representing chaotic evil and oppression) symbolize the powerful enemy God crushed when He delivered Israel back then. They are pleading to the Lord, You defeated Egypt and split the sea before, do it again!

When you fear your oppressors, do not forget how powerful God is. God disciplines His people but now switches, and the cup of wrath they drank (judgment) is turned and given to their oppressors (Egypt). He punishes, defends, and restores His people. This foreshadows Jesus, who drank the cup of wrath on the cross, so we never have to drink it.

Call Jerusalem, it is time to shake off the past, dress up, and rise from the foreign humiliation. It is time to get back their dignity. They will be redeemed for free, which is pure grace. They did not earn this. Egypt and Assyria had oppressed them then, and God sees it now. The messengers will run around the mountains proclaiming the good news. This was a shift from mourning to joy. They will come back, but not in haste like the Exodus; it will be purposeful, calm, and dignified.

Chapter 53 of Isaiah is sometimes referred to as the “Fifth Gospel”. This is pure prophecy about the suffering Messiah and full of details. The Servant (Jesus) was rejected and is shocked at how few believed the report. Scripture lists He grew up ordinary “like a young plant… out of dry ground” (Isaiah 53:2). So ordinary looking that in the New Testament, Judas had to kiss Him so He could be identified to the soldiers. He was hated by men, like the least popular to be picked in a game. He bore our griefs and substituted Himself for us.

He was not suffering for His own sins. He was pierced for our transgressions. God did not overlook our sins; He laid them on His Son, Jesus. Jesus was silent before His accusers. He was killed unjustly and died without descendants. He did not open His mouth and was silent when led to the cross. The Messiah suffered for us, not His own sins. He was rejected, silent, and pierced. His suffering brings peace, healing, and justification.

This was always the plan. From the beginning of creation. God the Father made the plan; the Son and the Spirit worked together to fulfill the plan. Jesus’s punishment gives us peace and healing. He died willingly; He poured out His soul to death so that we could be forgiven, healed, and made righteous. The Trinity worked together on the same plan. Because He was crushed, He will see the reward of His suffering, which is the redeemed people from all nations. Knowing that Jesus willingly endured all of that for YOU. The rejection, the beating, the piercing, the crushing- think about how you view your own worth and failures. Think of the weight He bore for your sins.
 

Today's Discussion question:

When you have a transition in life, a new job, you are moving, a loss, or going through a new season of life, do you rush in with fear and panic? Or do you walk more calmly, believing that the Lord is going before you to lead the way and guarding you from behind? What would it look like to live with that kind of peace and confidence today?

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