{"id":6250,"date":"2015-03-24T01:21:16","date_gmt":"2015-03-24T01:21:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=6250"},"modified":"2015-03-24T01:21:16","modified_gmt":"2015-03-24T01:21:16","slug":"the-suffering-servant-easter-series-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=6250","title":{"rendered":"The Suffering Servant\u2014Easter Series Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Behold, My servant will prosper, He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted. Just as many were astonished at you, My people, so His appearance was marred more than any man and His form more than the sons of men. Thus He will sprinkle many nations, kings will shut their mouths on account of Him; for what had not been told them they will see, and what they had not heard they will understand.<\/em> Isaiah 52:13-15<\/p>\n<p>As I was researching the prophecy in Isaiah about the sufferings of the Messiah on behalf of mankind, I discovered something I never knew before. I learned that there are four sections in the book of Isaiah commonly known as \u201cThe Servant\u2019s Songs\u201d. They are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Isaiah 42:1-4 about the chosen Servant<\/li>\n<li>Isaiah 49:1-6 about the mission of the Servant<\/li>\n<li>Isaiah 50:4-9 about the steadfast, obedient Servant<\/li>\n<li>Isaiah 52:13-15 through Isaiah 53:1-12 about the suffering Servant<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Jesus was that Servant. He was the chosen Servant (see Isaiah 42:1). He was the Servant given the mission to redeem Israel and all the nations of the earth (see Isaiah 49:6). He was the obedient Servant even in the face of being struck and having His beard pulled out (see Isaiah 50:5-6). And He was the suffering Servant, submitting unto death, even the death of the cross (see Philippians 2:8).<\/p>\n<p><em>Behold, My servant will prosper\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n<p>God\u2019s Servant would prosper. This kind of prosperity had far more to do with prudence, wisdom, and\u00a0spiritual impact\u00a0than it did with acquiring great wealth. However, as you view the span of twenty centuries since Jesus\u2019 death and resurrection and consider all of the souls He has since rescued from a fiery, destitute eternity\u2014millions upon millions of us\u2014possibly billions\u2014each one of us is a bounty credited to His account. His scale tipped over a long time ago, and more and more souls are still being heaped up upon it every day. He has indeed prospered.<\/p>\n<p><em>He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>This verse speaks of the honor and exaltation this Servant would so richly deserve. Ironically, it also speaks of the manner by which He would die\u2014high and lifted up on the cross at Calvary. \u201c<em>As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up<\/em>\u201d (John 3:14; see also Numbers 21:8-9).<\/p>\n<p><em>Just as many were astonished at you, My people\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n<p>This indicates both the historical hatred toward the nation of Israel <em>and<\/em> God\u2019s miraculous intervention time and again\u2014in the face of that hatred\u2014on their behalf.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u2026so His appearance was marred more than any man and His form more than the sons of men.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Like the race to which He was born, Jesus would be hated. His appearance, or visage, would be marred more than any man to the utter disfigurement of His face. His form\u2014His shape, outline, or figure (see <a href=\"http:\/\/www.blueletterbible.org\/lang\/Lexicon\/Lexicon.cfm?strongs=H8389&amp;t=KJV\">http:\/\/www.blueletterbible.org\/lang\/Lexicon\/Lexicon.cfm?strongs=H8389&amp;t=KJV<\/a>)\u2014would likewise experience disfiguring beatings to a far greater extent than that sustained by any man. And all of this took place after His arrest and before He even reached the cross.<\/p>\n<p><em>Thus He will sprinkle many nations\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n<p>This was His mission. His blood was shed on behalf of many nations\u2014for Israel first and for the rest of the world as well\u2014for whosoever would believe on Him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSprinkle\u201d is an interesting word. The word used here is not a gentle, delicate thing such as I received when I was \u201cbaptized\u201d as a seven-month-old\u2014a bit of water was sprinkled on my forehead as I grabbed at the minister\u2019s black-rimmed glasses. No, the Hebrew word is <em>nazah <\/em>and means to spurt and spatter as well as to sprinkle (see <a href=\"http:\/\/www.blueletterbible.org\/lang\/Lexicon\/Lexicon.cfm?strongs=H5137&amp;t=KJV\">http:\/\/www.blueletterbible.org\/lang\/Lexicon\/Lexicon.cfm?strongs=H5137&amp;t=KJV<\/a>). Think opened arteries. They don\u2019t sprinkle. They spurt. Opened veins ooze\u2014not a little, but copious amounts of blood.<\/p>\n<p>As Jesus\u2019 blood spurted and spattered throughout His agonizing trial and crucifixion, nations were being sprinkled by His blood. The way was being inaugurated for whosoever would believe in Him to enter through the veil\u2014that is, His torn flesh\u2014to be cleansed from their sin and receive everlasting life (see Hebrews 10:19-20).<\/p>\n<p><em>\u2026kings will shut their mouths on account of Him\u2026 <\/em><\/p>\n<p>The day will come when <em>every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father<\/em> (see Philippians 2:10-11). On that day, man\u2019s agendas will cease; man\u2019s wisdom will be silenced; kings will shut their mouths. Everything will be summed up in Christ (see Ephesians 1:10).<\/p>\n<p>\u2026<em> for what had not been told them they will see, and what they had not heard they will understand.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>This gospel must be preached to all the nations<\/em> (see Mark 13:10). There may be individuals among the nations who never hear; others will be among those of whom Jesus spoke: \u201c<em>Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand<\/em>\u201d (Matthew 13:13, NIV); the truth just doesn&#8217;t register with them. But a third category of humanity is the group spotlighted in this verse\u2014those who did <em>not<\/em> know the gospel, but upon its entrance into their lives, they both see and understand the good news of salvation. Many of us are in that group.<\/p>\n<p>Every man, woman, and child who has ever lived throughout the earth&#8217;s long, rolling generations, <em>will<\/em> one day see and understand the truth about the Servant who came to suffer and die for them.<\/p>\n<p>May God help those of us who <em>are<\/em> privileged to know this truth to live our lives with one main purpose in mind\u2014that multitudes <em>more<\/em> will see and understand the message of the Suffering Servant\u2014Jesus\u2014on <em>this<\/em> side of eternity.<\/p>\n<p>Dorothy<\/p>\n<p><em>As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.<\/em> John 3:14-15<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Behold, My servant will prosper, He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted. Just as many were astonished at you, My people, so His appearance was marred more than any man and His form more than the sons of men. Thus He will sprinkle many nations, kings will shut their mouths on account [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[83,82,81],"class_list":["post-6250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prayerperspective","tag-appearance-marred-more-than-any-man","tag-high-and-lifted-up","tag-suffering-servant"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6250"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6254,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6250\/revisions\/6254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}