Isaiah 53 is one of the most extraordinary prophetic and messianic texts of the Bible foretelling by about 700 years the amazing vicarious suffering of Christ the Messiah. I remember memorizing this chapter as a boy at Sunday School in London. The Messiah, opposite to what many might have expected, would be "despised and rejected... has no beauty or majesty to attract us to him... one from whom men hide their faces". The Messiah suffers not for anything he did but for our transgressions... for our iniquities... for the iniquity of us all. However the servant messiah was led to his death like a lamb led to its slaughter, yet he never contested it at all. Yet all was God's plan to redeem us and the suffering servant was exalted after his sacrificial atonement.
Monday, 11 May 2026
Isaiah 52 (résumé):Awake, awake, O Zion!
Isaiah 52 brings a message of hope and restoration exhorting Jerusalem to awake and prepare for release from Babylonian captivity. "Awake, O Zion... free yourself from the chains round your neck, O captive daughter of Zion"! The text then proclaims: "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news... of salvation... who say to Zion your God reigns... when the Lord returns to Zion they will see it with their own eyes". Then the people are told to depart from Babylon purifying themselves from it. And the Lord will go before his people and be their rearguard. Then the chapter concludes presenting the servant of the Lord who would suffer extraordinarily prior to being "raised and lifted up and highly exalted".
Isaiah 51 (résumé): Everlasting salvation for Zion
Isaiah 51 brings a message of comfort to Judah: "The Lord will surely comfort Zion... and make her deserts like Eden... my salvation is on the way... my arm will bring justice to the nations... my salvation will last forever... my righteousness will last through all generations". Then comes a cry for God to reveal his power like at the Red Sea so that his people enter Zion with singing. God then exhorts people not to fear men because he is the Lord their God and says to Zion "You are my people". Finally Jerusalem is exhorted to awake from the effects of God's judgement... and from the goblet of my wrath you will never drink again.
Isaiah 50 (résumé): Israel's sin and the Servant's obedience
Isaiah 50 shows that Israel's exile is not due to lack of strength on God's behalf or of God's lack of care, but it was due to Israel's sin. The messianic servant is attentive to God's teaching: "He wakens me morning by morning wakening my ear to listen like one being taught". The servant is submissive: "I offered by back to those who beat me... I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting". However the servant has set his face like flint and feels sure he will not be shamed. "It is the Sovereign Lord who helps me". The chapter concludes challenging people to trust the Lord even if they walk in darkness, but warns that those who create their own light will be judged.
Isaiah 49 (résumé): The Servant of the Lord
Isaiah 49 is a triumphant all-embracing servant song prophesying restoration of Israel and the taking of salvation to the gentiles. The servant's messianic mission was based on preexistent calling "to bring back Jacob to him and gather Israel to himself... I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth... the Holy One of Israel has chosen you." God promises to restore Israel: "in the day of salvation I will help you... be free!... I will turn all my mountains into roads... they will come from afar... and shout for joy!" God goes on to assure Israel that he will not forget them... as he has tattooed them on the palm of his hand... and will restore them... and God says he will also beckon to the Gentiles and lift up his banner to the peoples... "then all mankind will know that I, the Lord, am your Saviour, your Redeemer".
Isaiah 48 (résumé): Stubborn Israel
Isaiah 48 rebukes Israel for its stubbornness: "I knew how stubborn you were with sinews of your neck like iron and your forehead of bronze". Hence God tested Israel in the Babylonian furnace of affliction and "have refined you though not as silver". God says that he predicted things far ahead of time so that it couldn't be claimed that idols had brought them to pass! God goes on to say that "for my own name's sake I delay my wrath... for my own sake I do this... I will not yield my glory to another.. I am the first and the last... I am the Lord God who teaches what is best for you... Leave Babylon, flee from the Babylonians! Announce this with shouts of joy!"
Flown the nest
A pair of Ruddy Ground-Doves made a nest in our Moringa Tree in our back garden and we have observed them rearing their 2 offspring which have finally flown from the nest. They come inside our house where we have a small clay bowl of food and another of water for them. House Sparrows feed there too.
I preached last night at the Mother's Day special service and Sacha led. The children, teens and adults had special participations, and then all the mums received a little gift. It was a lovely service.
Yesterday it snowed in the extreme south of Brazil! Meanwhile here in the north-east it was 32 degrees.