Isaiah's Story

(Part 5 of 5 advent stories)

Isaiah's Story

…the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully…(1 Peter 1:10).

That’s an understatement! You can be sure I searched intently for understanding of the very prophecy I was given to write. A child called Immanuel born of a virgin? I was angry with Ahaz when I made that prophecy. People say strange things when they are upset. Was that from me or God? 

I longed for the Messiah! And how I hoped with all my heart that I was speaking of things that would take place in my lifetime. I wanted my people to see that great light breaking the darkness in our land. I wanted to see that child born who would take the kingdom of God upon his shoulders and make Israel the great holy nation she had been intended to be. I wanted to see David’s son rule on the throne with righteousness and power as befitting God’s anointed king.

What the Spirit of God said to me and through me filled me with excitement and anticipation. These titles: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace – why these are the titles for God himself! How great and mighty must this Messiah be that God would deign to give him such honorable tribute.

I think my favorite passage of what was given me were these words:

^And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,

          the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,

          the Spirit of counsel and might,

          the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.

And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.

Now those are the attributes of a real king! The Spirit of Yahweh will rest on him. He will be Spirit-filled. By the Spirit, he will be wise, powerful, and godly. No wonder he would be as a banner flying high drawing all nations to him. I had this vision of people from every nation coming to Jerusalem, to the temple itself to worship God so that God’s holy temple would become a house of prayer for all the nations. 

The Messiah was going to be a messiah for everyone, a covenant for God’s people and a light even for the pagan Gentiles! Glory! That is what I envisioned for the Messiah and his kingdom. And peace! Every warrior would lay down his arms, and enemies would be a peace with one another. There would be justice throughout the earth. People in exile would return home. Yes, I searched intently to know when this would be fulfilled. Yes, I desired ardently that I would live to see it happen.

But it was not to be. The child would not be born in my lifetime. The Spirit revealed to me that my message was for another people in another time. It was for you. I was serving you. So be it. God has his purpose which he carries out when he pleases.

I think I could have been content, knowing that I was serving God as his prophet. Living with a vision for a glorious future is the next best thing to the glory itself. It was the other prophecy that perplexed and disturbed me. It was the prophecy of the Suffering Servant. I tell you I trembled as I wrote those words.

      Who has believed what they heard from us?

          And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

     For he grew up before him like a young plant,

          and like a root out of dry ground;

     he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,

          and no beauty that we should desire him.

    He was despised and rejected by men;

          a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;

     and as one from whom men hide their faces

          he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

    Surely he has borne our griefs

          and carried our sorrows;

     yet we esteemed him stricken,

          smitten by God, and afflicted.

    But he was wounded for our transgressions;

          he was crushed for our iniquities;

     upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

          and with his stripes we are healed.

   All we like sheep have gone astray;

          we have turned every one to his own way;

     and the Lord has laid on him

          the iniquity of us all.

  He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,

          yet he opened not his mouth;

     like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,

          and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,

          so he opened not his mouth.

  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,

          stricken for the transgression of my people?

  And they made his grave with the wicked

          and with a rich man in his death,

     although he had done no violence,

          and there was no deceit in his mouth.

  Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;

          he has put him to grief;

     when his soul makes an offering for sin,

          he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;

     the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

  Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;

     by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,

          make many to be accounted righteous,

          and he shall bear their iniquities.

    Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,

          and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,

     because he poured out his soul to death

          and was numbered with the transgressors;

     yet he bore the sin of many,

          and makes intercession for the transgressors.

The most terrifying experience I’ve ever had in my life was the vision of standing in the temple in the presence of God. I, literally, thought that I would die, because I was a sinful mortal who ought not stand in the presence of holiness. God commanded an angel to touch my lips with a hot coal from the altar, and then he said, “Your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.” If sin could so easily be atoned for! 

Such salvation, such grace from God would come, must come, through the King becoming the Servant. The glory I envisioned for my Messiah would come, yes, but not before the suffering. The glory could not come without the suffering.

Do you believe that? Do you understand what the peace of Christmas is really about – peace with God? And can you grasp the necessity of the Messiah King becoming the Suffering Servant? I doubt I could have if I had not had that vision. May the Spirit give to each of us the vision we need to see.