Daily Bible Encouragement

Psalm 33:21 In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. How does the idea of ‘trusting God’ make you feel? Totally secure, in the arms of an all-powerful, all-loving heavenly Father? Or dangerously at sea, all out of your own ideas and resources, and forced to reluctantly fall back on Plan B, at least until you can get Plan A up and running again?  I have to admit, sometimes ‘trusting God’ feels more like a negative, rather than a positive. When our situation is hard we may say, through clenched teeth, “I suppose I just need to trust God more.” But what we really want is for things to be easier, for the pain to go away, for life to go back to ‘how it ought to be’, so that we don’t have to trust God quite so desperately. That’s not what the psalmist has in mind when he thinks about trusting God.  The psalmist’s experience of trust isn’t a grim, clenched-teeth, last-resort thing. It’s joyful. God’s people’s hearts rejoice because they trust in God. Why is that? It’s because of what they know about God – his name, in other words his character. As we’ve seen from this psalm, our God is faithful, righteous, just, loving and awesomely powerful. So, to trust in this God is to put ourselves utterly in the hands of one who is totally committed to doing what is good and right. However hard our situation, we have no need to fear the outcome with a God like this in charge. Trusting him is the first and best choice we can make, not a reluctant fall-back plan when all else fails. Let’s praise God for his holy name and righteous character, which make trusting in him such a blessing. And let’s ask him to deepen and strengthen our trust in him, so that our hearts might rejoice in him more and more.

Isaiah 42:3a A bruised reed he will not break, and a smouldering wick he will not snuff out. We thought yesterday about how we often associate loudness with power. In a similar way, the world often expects an effective leader to be somewhat ruthless, interested only in strength and achievement and dismissing the weak and needy. In Isaiah’s time, God’s people were a tiny nation, helpless in comparison with the likes of Assyria, Bablyon and Egypt. Surely they needed God to send them a mighty, victorious king to lead them, like the great King David? Someone to bring them military success, marking them out as a force to be reckoned with. But God’s plan is different. He promises them a gentle, quiet leader who will protect life rather than destroy it. One who will value the weak and vulnerable rather than the strong and successful. I wonder if Isaiah’s first hearers struggled to get excited about the prospect - perhaps they’d have preferred a more-impressive sounding solution to their problems. Similarly today, those who preach a message of ‘health, wealth and happiness’ sound far more appealing than those who invite us to follow a crucified outcast. If we like to think we are powerful and success, a gentle leader who keeps stopping to gather up the broken won’t be very attractive. We’d much rather live under a system that promises to reward our achievements and ignores those who don’t make the grade. But once we admit that we ourselves are weak and helpless, it’s a different story. When we know that we’re more like a smouldering wick, barely flickering, than a blazing fire, ready to set the world alight, then we will welcome the one who breathes gently on us to sustain us, rather than snuffing us out. When we acknowledge that we are dead in sin we will long for a rescuer who helps the helpless, rather than one who rewards those who help themselves. There will come a day when this servant will return in blazing glory to crush his enemies forever, but how gracious of him to come first in gentleness and humility, to heal and help and forgive. Let’s thank him for that today and come to him honestly, in all our frailty and need, trusting that he welcomes, not despises, those who know that they are weak.

Isaiah 53:11-12 After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. As we saw yesterday, so much of God’s salvation plan has already been accomplished that we can be confident that what still needs to happen will also be fulfilled. And here, in our final verses, we find out what that final stage of the salvation plan, which we are still waiting for, looks like. Because we know that our eternal future is already secure, we might not think very much about what will happen when Jesus returns to judge. Perhaps we’re so used to the idea that the cross and resurrection of Jesus are the high point of history (which they are!) that we assume that everything that is still to come is going to be a bit of an anti-climax (which it isn’t!)  The victory of Jesus over sin and death is already won. But we can still look forward to the victory parade, where we get to join in the rejoicing as Jesus is displayed as victorious king over all of creation. I’m not much of a football fan, but even I know that when a team wins a really significant victory, there is often a celebratory parade in their hometown. Open top busses, cheering crowds lining the streets, the cup held high for everyone to see. The victory is won on the pitch, but the celebrations aren’t complete until everyone has welcomed their heroes home to receive the praise of their fans. Jesus’ victory was won at the cross, but the victory parade will reach his climax when he gathers his people from every tribe and language and nation to sing his praises and declare his glory. On that day, he will get to show off ‘the spoils’ which he has snatched from the hands of his enemies – that is, his people who he has rescued from the grip of sin and death and the devil. So great is the glory due to Jesus that it will take all eternity to adequately praise him for what he has done for us. We live in a world that wants us to believe that we are the heroes, that the spotlight of my life should be firmly fixed on ME. But the victory on which my whole life depends is not mine, but Jesus’.  The whole purpose of my life, now and forever, is to sing HIS praises and declare HIS greatness. So, as we reach the end of our time in Isaiah, let’s do that today. And let’s ask for God’s help to be people who continue to sing his praises and live for his glory every single day, both in this world and in the life to come, which he has won for us.

Isaiah 53:10 Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. For the past 6 and a half weeks, we’ve listened to Isaiah, and God himself, introducing us to the figure of the Servant. We’ve seen that the Servant will come to rescue wayward people, reconciling them to their loving, holy Lord. We’ve seen that this rescue will be achieved through the willing suffering of the Servant. And we’ve seen how all these promises are fulfilled in the coming of Jesus, who fleshes out and makes real what the people of Isaiah’s time must have been longing and hoping for. There was a tension for Isaiah and his generation. Even as they trusted in the promises of the Servant to come, they still had to live through the experience of the coming exile which Isaiah also foretold. Similarly, we who live after the coming of Jesus have a much clearer understanding of the life and work of this promised Servant. Much of what was ‘future’ for Isaiah is now ‘history’ for us. We have seen (in the pages of the gospels, if not with our own eyes) Jesus be born, live, die and rise again. But we are still caught in the tension between the ‘now’ of life in a fallen world, where sin still entangles us, and the ‘not yet’ of the heavenly kingdom which we are still waiting to experience. And so today and tomorrow, as we end our time together in this book, these verses turn our attention to what is still to come. The Servant who suffered and died is already alive again – he is already ‘seeing his offspring’ (those who are born into God’s family because of him) and ‘prolonging his days’ in the present. Today and every day stretching on into eternity, the will of the Lord continues to prosper in his hand. And so, even as we continue to battle with our sin, and struggle with our brokenness, we can do it with hope. So much of what God promised through Isaiah has already been fulfilled that we can trust he will finish what he has started. The Lord Jesus, who suffered and died and is now risen and reigning in glory, WILL come back and take us to be with him forever. The ‘will of the Lord’ will continue to be done, on earth as it is in heaven, every day of our lives and beyond. Let’s pray that we would continue to trust in that great promise today.

Isaiah 53:9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. There’s a lot of talk about ‘identity’ in our society at the moment. Whilst we might take issue with where some people now draw the line between which aspects of identity are fixed and which can be chosen, we all recognise the frustration that comes from being wrongly-identified. The passionate football supporter doesn’t take kindly to being thought of as supporting an opposing team. If someone makes a wrong assumption about our political affiliations, we may well be offended. From time to time I get emails intended for a woman in America who must have an email address that’s easily confused with mine. I find it easy to ignore the marketing emails from companies that she has signed up to, giving my email address by mistake. But I mind much more when I get email reminders in her name from a debt management company. I feel like I’ve been wrongly assigned to the category ‘debtor’ and I don’t like it. At least until I remember that it isn’t really me that they’re talking to. So imagine how it felt for Jesus to be wrongly assigned to the category ‘wicked’.  There could be no greater miscarriage of justice than to identify the perfect and holy Son of God as belonging ‘with the wicked’.  In our society, we might think that being identified with ‘the rich’ was a compliment, but from the context of these verses it’s clear that being buried with the rich somehow implies an involvement with violence and deceit. His grave ought rightly to have been labelled ‘Here lies the best man who ever lived’. But instead it’s in the section marked ‘Here lie the criminals’. Yet this wasn’t the first time in his life Jesus had been wrongly-labelled. Throughout his earthly ministry, the Pharisees repeatedly assigned him to an incorrect category. As Jesus himself put it, “The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, “Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.”” The implication is clear – to be a ‘friend of sinners’ must mean that he himself is a sinner.  Yet they are only half-wrong. He is certainly not a glutton, nor a drunkard, nor a sinner. But he is the ultimate ‘friend of sinners’. The Servant was willing to be mislabelled, misunderstood and misrepresented, in order that we might be assigned to a category we could never have expected to belong to. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21) Let’s praise him for that today.

Isaiah 53:8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished. I rather like this phrase ‘the land of the living’. It’s got a much more poetic ring to it than simply saying ‘life’. And the idea of being ‘cut off from the land of the living’ is much more striking than if this verse simply said ‘he was killed’.  The whole verse seems to underline the separation that took place between Jesus and everyone else. He was ‘taken away’ and ‘cut off’. The lonely figure of Jesus walks to his death whilst the whole of the rest of his generation stand idly by, doing nothing and saying nothing to stop it.  He was cut off from the land of the living. Cut off from fellowship with others. Cut off from all that is good, enjoyable, nourishing and happy. That would be bad enough. But we know that it was, in fact, even worse. When he was punished for our transgressions, Jesus was also cut off from his heavenly Father. Cut off from the very source of life itself. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” he cried out on the cross. But why? Surely God, who sent him to the cross, could at least have hung around to comfort and encourage the Servant during his darkest hour? Why all this loneliness and abandonment? Sin is the ultimate separating force. It cuts us off from a Holy God, and from the life which he gives. And it also cuts us off from fellowship with one another, undermining love and trust and loyalty. Abandoned by his followers and his friends, alienated from his father as he had never been before or since, Jesus was experiencing the separating power of our sin.  It’s hard to imagine the strength of a force that could turn the Father’s face away from his beloved son in the moment of his greatest suffering. And yet, there is an even stronger force at work in the world. The gracious, forgiving, redeeming love of God, expressed in the Servant’s sacrificial death, reconciles us with a power much greater than the separating power of sin. Because he was cut off, we have been brought near. Because he was excluded from the land of the living, we have been welcomed into an abundant and eternal life that is better than anything this world can even begin to imagine. Let’s praise him for that today.

Isaiah 53:7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. One of the things I find most remarkable about the behaviour of Jesus during his arrest and trial is the fact that he remains silent when facing unjust accusations. I realise that his physical suffering and the experience of being separated from his Father on the cross, are in many ways worse things to experience. But they feel very far removed from our everyday lives, whereas the experience of being falsely accused, or misrepresented, or wrongly blamed is something that we probably all know a little of. And I know how much I hate it when it happens to me. I might, perhaps, be willing to bear some small consequence for something that wasn’t actually my fault. But when that does happen, I want to make very sure that everyone knows how undeserved it is! I can’t really imagine being able to bear it silently. Letting go of the opportunity to vindicate myself. I want it clearly on the record that I am innocent. If I have to experience unjust suffering, I want the injustice to be publically noted!  The arguments spring easily to mind: “Justice matters. Injustice isn’t OK. It would reflect badly on God if a Christian was thought to have said this or done that.” When really I’m motivated by the desire to vindicate myself. I care much less about justice, or God’s honour, than I care about what people think of me.  And in any case, even if I am largely innocent of the particular thing of which I am accused, I can never claim to be totally blameless. Yet Jesus was. If ever anyone had the right to protest against injustice, it was him. Yet he remains silent.  Why? Doesn’t he care about injustice? Doesn’t he care that God was mocked because of the verdict of ‘guilty’ which his Servant received?  Of course he does. But he was motivated by a deeper concern for justice and God’s honour than I will ever be.  His desire to see justice done, whilst justly forgiving sinners was what kept him quiet. His concern for God to be glorified as the one who defeats sin and evil and death at the cross is what sustained his silence. Let’s praise him for that today.

Isaiah 53:6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. When our girls were younger we were all great fans of the Australian Christian musician, Colin Buchanan. A significant number of the Bible verses I know by heart are cemented in my memory because of his catchy tunes. So much so that I can’t read or think about today’s verse without mentally adding in the ‘Bah Bah Doo Bah Bah’s at the end of every clause! (If you have no idea what I’m talking about, stick Colin Buchanan Isaiah 53:6 into your search engine of choice and have a listen) Sheep noises aside, this is a verse that deserves to be in the mind and heart of every Christian. If you were only ever going to learn half a dozen Bible verses in your whole life, I’d suggest that this ought to be one of them. In this one sentence we have the heart of the gospel. We have each chosen to wander away from the Lord. And what has he done in response? Sent a sheepdog to fetch us back to face our punishment? Turned us loose to fend for ourselves in a world of thorns and wolves? No. He laid all our wrongdoing on the Servant, Jesus, so that we don’t have to live under the penalty it rightly deserves. How could this be anything other than wonderful news? Yet it is only good news for those who know themselves to be wandering sheep. Perhaps for city-dwellers, being considered a sheep doesn’t seem so bad. If our ideas about sheep are drawn from children’s picture books and model farms, we might not mind the comparison. Surely they are cute, clean, cuddly and harmless? But if you’ve had dealings with real live sheep, you may feel differently. My grandparents were farmers on the Welsh border. I remember when we visited, my brother and I having to join in when sheep were being moved from place to place. Stationed in a gateway or on the yard, we would shout and wave our arms around, attempting to head the sheep towards where they ought to go, and deflect them from where they wanted to go … which was generally anywhere other than the direction intended!  Clean, cute and cuddly they were not! In fact, they were often muddy, infuriating and apparently very stupid. Why would you want to go and wedge yourself between a Land Rover and a gatepost, when we’re offering you a huge field full of grass to enjoy? If that’s your experience of sheep, this verse is not so flattering. We all, like mucky, stubborn sheep who have no idea what is good for us, have gone astray. So how wonderfully surprising that the Lord has provided a way for our punishment to fall not on us but on the Servant instead. However familiar these words are, let’s thank him again for that today, and pray that in our gratitude we would increasingly learn to follow the good shepherd instead of turning away from him.

Isaiah 53:4-5 Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities;the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. Yesterday we saw that the Servant was ‘a man of suffering and familiar with pain’.  Today we discover that this wasn’t simply a description of what happened to occur in his life. He wasn’t just a bit unfortunate, someone who attracted more than his share of bad luck. He willingly chose this path. He took up the pain and bore the suffering. Much of the time we endure pain and suffering because we have no other choice. We didn’t ask for the chronic illness, or the depression, or the accident that leaves us in plaster for months. But sometimes our suffering is chosen willingly – the discomfort of recovering from an operation to donate a kidney to a loved one, choosing to marry someone who already lives with suffering, knowing that something of their pain will become ours, too, or giving up comfort and security to move to a deprived area on a low salary to care for the needy. In those cases, the sacrifice will – we hope – be worth it, because it eases someone else’s pain. We share their sufferings with them, lightening their load. But I can’t think of a single example of a way in which any of us could bear someone else’s pain and suffering so completely that it was totally taken away from the other person. Only the Servant has ever done that. He has completely taken the pain and suffering that our transgressions deserved. Yes, we still experience the pain and suffering that come from living in a broken world (until he takes us to be with him in the place where there will be no more tears). But those of us who are united to Jesus by faith are completely spared all of the pain of the judgement of our sin. Jesus hasn’t just shared it with us. He has taken it from us. Fully and completely. In place of punishment we have peace with God. And this was no mere transaction on a balance sheet. Not a nice, neat, clean solution to a theoretical problem. It was real, and physical and brutal. He was punished, stricken, pierced, crushed and wounded.  And he did it willingly. For us. Let’s thank him for that today.

Isaiah 53:2b-3 He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.  He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. When we were reading Chapter 49 I said that the Servant was visually unimpressive – if you’d walked past him in the street in 1st Century Palestine you wouldn’t have given him a second look. But actually, it’s worse than that. Today’s verse tells us that rather than being merely ignored, the Servant would be despised and looked down on. Why? Two reasons. Firstly, because he was not beautiful, and secondly, because he suffered pain. Both of those things made him uncomfortable to be around, in his own day. And both of those things are still, at the very least, awkward today. We live in a society that worships physical beauty.    Yes, there’s a lot of talk about loving yourself and your body, whatever your shape or size, but that doesn’t stop us being bombarded by messages encouraging us to pursue greater physical beauty. There’s the occasional marketing campaign that features ‘real women’ rather than airbrushed models, or models which a visible disability, but they’re still treated as revolutionary, rather than being the norm. Even though we know it’s not really true, we’re still shaped by the assumption that physical beauty matters. That life would be better if I was more attractive.    And we easily assume that the effective, successful life, is marked by health and wholeness, rather than pain and suffering. So, if we were in charge of selecting a man for this role of Servant, wouldn’t be want to pick someone who looks … well, attractive? Yet God very deliberately doesn’t do that. Jesus’ conception was utterly miraculous, so his appearance can’t have been the inevitable consequence of the combination of Mary and Joseph’s genes. However God did it, he created Jesus’ body deliberately and intentionally. If he’d wanted to make Jesus the most handsome man ever born, he could have done. Similarly, when preparing the way for the Servant, surely God would want to remove every obstacle and difficulty that might interfere with his mission? Yet it turns out that the suffering and pain are essential to his mission. The coming of this Servant makes clear that - God’s eyes at least - physical beauty doesn’t count for much. And pain and suffering can accomplish things that health, wealth and happiness can’t.  God values the obedience of the Servant more than his physique. The suffering and death of the Servant bring more lasting good into the world than the exams he might have passed, the certificates he might have received, or his contribution to his country’s GDP. What a complete reversal of the values of our world! How wrong must our value judgements be, for us to look at the Servant and despise him. Let’s pray that God would be teaching us more and more to value what he values, and to worship and honour the Servant who so many looked down on.

Isaiah 53:1-2a Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. In yesterday’s verse, we read the promise of a day to come when all people will see and understand who Jesus is and why he came. But in the meantime - in Isaiah’s time and today – the message of a suffering, saving servant, sent by God to rescue his people, will not be widely believed. Isaiah knows that this message is true, but hardly anyone is listening. He knows that God’s arm is active, accomplishing his plans, but hardly anyone can see it. Why not? Because what God is doing is - at first glance – very small and insignificant. The Servant didn’t come in a flash of blinding lights, surrounded by fireworks and serenaded by angels everywhere he went. Rather, he grew up like a tender shoot. Slowly, gradually, unimpressively. Weak and vulnerable. Not a precious sapling that’s been given a good dose of fertiliser, surrounded by protective fencing and watered regularly. But a seedling that’s appeared against all the odds, in a harsh climate. More like the stray flower that emerges from a crack in the pavement than the plant that flourishes in a well-kept garden. It’s so small. So ordinary. So unimpressive. For a people who were facing the prospect of being overrun by their hostile neighbours, this wouldn’t have seemed like the great salvation they needed. It certainly doesn’t seem like a plan that could defeat sin, death, the world and even the devil himself. But, as the Servant himself would one day explain, the Kingdom of God doesn’t look impressive on the outside. Rather, it’s like a mustard seed. The smallest of all seeds that – remarkably - grows into something big and strong and flourishing, out of all proportion to what you would have expected. “God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong”, Paul writes, in 1 Corinthians. And so we can be confident that God’s purposes WILL succeed, however unlikely that might seem. Even when others ridicule our faith, and write Jesus off as irrelevant or ineffective. Even when we look at ourselves and wonder how on earth God could possibly use us to bring others to Jesus. Even when we look at our world, and wonder if there is any power great enough to mend everything that is broken. Let’s praise God that this tender shoot is stronger and more powerful than we can imagine, and ask for his help to keep believing in Jesus while we wait for the full extent of his glory and greatness to be finally revealed.

Isaiah 52:15b For what they were not told, they will see, and what they have not heard, they will understand. The ‘they’ in this verse are the kings we thought about yesterday – those people who will stand silent as they face the final judgement, realising that the Servant who they rejected as worthless is in fact the exalted ruler and judge. At that moment, everything that wasn’t obvious about the Servant during his lifetime will become clear. He may have looked unimpressive but he is in fact the Lord of all creation. He may have seemed powerless in the face of an unjust trial, but he is in fact the righteous judge of all people. This final day judgement is not just about the punishing of wrongdoing. It’s about the putting right of everything that is wrong or broken, everywhere in the universe. Everything will be made as it should be. And so truth will be clear, hidden things will be revealed, foolishness will be replaced by understanding. This is a complete contrast to the world we find ourselves in right now. We still live in a fallen world, where we can’t even trust our own thinking because it has been warped by sin. Left to our own devices, we don’t just prefer darkness, we actually think it is light. We not only think and act foolishly, but we pride ourselves on how clever we are.  The people of Isaiah’s time were just the same. When God commissions Isaiah to be a prophet, back in Chapter 6, he warns him that the people will “be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.” They have proved so determined to ignore what God has said to them that God himself will harden their hearts so that they cannot see or hear or understand. “How long will this last?” Isaiah asks. And God explains that it will continue until the promised judgement is complete. But there’s a glimmer of hope that when the Servant comes, things might change. Here, we see that glimmer become clearer. Here we are promised that there will be a day when people WILL see and hear and understand what is really true – about God, and themselves, and the salvation which Jesus offers. In God’s kindness, we don’t need to wait until the final judgement for those things to become clear. All of us who have put our faith in Jesus have only done so because he has already opened our blind eyes and softened our hard hearts so that we could hear and understand and believe the good news of the gospel. Let’s thank him for that today, and let’s pray that his Spirit would continue to be at work in the lives of those who don’t yet know him, so that they too might see, understand, repent, believe and be saved, before it is too late.

Isaiah 52:14-15a Just as there were many who were appalled at him - his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being and his form marred beyond human likeness – so he will sprinkle many nations, and kings will shut their mouths because of him. Have you ever found yourself in a situation where whatever you say is only going to make things worse? Any excuse, or attempt to explain yourself will only underline your guilt and foolishness, and so you realise that the best thing to say is nothing at all. Today’s verse reminds me of the scene in John’s gospel where Jesus appears before Pilate in John. Jesus is helpless and Pilate holds all the cards. In that moment, many were appalled by Jesus. He was literally marred and disfigured by the intensity of the beating and whipping he received at the hands of the soldiers. And he was, as we will see next week, in v.7, silent in the face of Pilate’s questioning. The last time Pilate set eyes on Jesus, it was pretty clear that Pilate was the powerful one, and Jesus’ time was up. But that won’t be the last Pilate ever sees of him. There will come a day when he – and every other human ruler who has ever opposed God’s plans or mistreated God’s people – will again find themselves face to face with Jesus. But next time, the tables will be turned. Jesus will then be lifted up and exalted, glorious in splendor and majesty. And Pilate will be the silent one. His mouth will be shut because there will be nothing he can possibly say in his own defence. What valid excuse is there for sentencing your creator to death? What do you say when you have presided over a miscarriage of justice, designed to get rid of the one who judges justly? This verse tells us that kings will shut their mouths on that final day when they face Jesus. But they won’t be the only ones. All of us have, in our own ways, tried to silence Jesus’ voice in our lives and live as our own rulers instead. All of us ought to stand silent before God on the day of judgement, without defence or excuse. Our only hope is in the sprinkled blood of the Servant who suffered and died in our place. Because of him, we – and those from many nations – will face that final day not silenced by guilt and terror, but singing the praises of our savior. Let open our mouths to praise him for our great salvation today.

Isaiah 52:13 See, my servant will act wisely; he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted. Last week, in Isaiah 50, we saw that the Servant was utterly obedient to his Lord, even when that led to painful suffering. In contrast to God’s people, who are facing his judgement because of their rebellious disobedience. Now, in chapters 52-53 we get much more detail about the suffering which the Servant will experience, and why he is willing to endure it. But before we get into the details, we are given a quick glimpse of the end of the story. My mum has a habit of reading the final chapter of a book first, before starting again at the beginning. I don’t really understand it(!) but I think at least part of the reason is to check whether the book is worth investing time in – if the ending’s unsatisfactory, why bother reading the rest?! If any of Isaiah’s readers were tempted to do the same thing, this verse saves them the trouble. We don’t need to wait for the end of the story to find out what happens – the outcome of the Servant’s work is guaranteed before it begins. He will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted. But that ending will be a great contrast to the rest of the story. For the next few days, our verses will be long on suffering and short on victory. Perhaps that’s why we’re told the ending in advance. We will need some hope to sustain us through the suffering. And if we – as readers - need that, how much more did the Servant need it himself, to endure what we only read about. Hebrews tells that that ‘for the joy that was set before him he endured the cross’. He, too, knew the ending before he began.  The one who set aside the glory of heaven to be born as a human baby knew that one day he would be returned to his rightful place, ruling at his Father’s right hand.  There were plenty of moments in his life when that looked – humanly speaking – impossible. We may have days now when it seems impossible that we will ever keep going till the day when we get to join him there. But the ending is certain. He has already been raised and lifted up and highly exalted, and one day we will see that with our own eyes. Let’s praise him for that today, and ask for his help to persevere through the suffering and struggles of this world, until we join him in glory.

Isaiah 50:8-9 He who vindicates me is near. Who then will bring charges against me? Let us face each other! Who is my accuser? Let him confront me! It is the Sovereign Lord who helps me. Who will condemn me? They will all wear out like a garment; the moths will eat them up. In October 1987, at the age of 15, I was baptised as a Christian believer, alongside 6 of my friends. Each of us chose a short Bible passage to read, as we explained how we had come to put our faith in Jesus. My reading was from Romans 8: “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all – how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one.” Thirty-three years later, I’m every bit as grateful now as I was then that this is true. I was, and still am, a sinner who deserved nothing but condemnation from God. Yet he has acted graciously to justify me because of Jesus’ death in my place. Therefore, all charges against me are dismissed. If God says I’m acceptable to him, who can possibly argue? No one. If the one who I have wronged declares me forgiven, what right does anyone else have to disagree? Absolutely none. What I’ve only just discovered is that the Apostle Paul wasn’t the first Bible-writer to use this argument. Centuries earlier, the Servant says pretty much the same thing …. “Who will bring charges against me? ... It is the Sovereign Lord who helps me … Who will condemn me?” He’s expecting the same answer. No one. No one can condemn the one who God has chosen. No one can accuse the one whom God declares innocent. The Servant doesn’t fear anyone else’s verdict. Not even the verdict of those who condemned him to death. God’s decision is the only one that matters. And because of this Servant’s sacrificial life and death, all of us who trust in him can confidently say along with him “Who will bring charges against me? No one.”  As my reading from Romans 8 concluded …. “I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Let’s thank and praise him for that today.

Isaiah 50:7 Because the Sovereign Lord helps me, I will not be disgraced. Therefore have I set my face like flint,     and I know I will not be put to shame. This is a strange verse, isn’t it? Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been using words like ‘humiliated’ to describe the Servant. God himself has said that the Servant will be ‘despised’ and ‘abhorred’. So how can the Servant say here ‘I will not be disgraced’ and ‘I will not be put to shame’? It makes more sense when we realise that this idea of ‘being put to shame’ has appeared before, earlier in the book of Isaiah. In chapters 20-45 there are 7 verses where we read of people being put to shame. Each time, the people who face disgrace are the ones who are opposing God. The people who put their trust in other nations, instead of relying on God’s promises to them. The people who make and worship idols instead of worshipping the one true God. The wicked. Those who do evil. Those who blaspheme against the Lord. In those chapters, God makes it clear that those who oppose him will ultimately be put to shame. But he also promises that the people who he saves will never be put to shame. It’s clear which group the Servant belongs in, isn’t it? He is perfectly obedient to the Lord. He has never rebelled. And so he knows what God’s verdict on him will be. He will never be put to shame. Yes, he will be despised and rejected and humiliated by men, but that will only be temporary. When it comes to God’s final, lasting verdict, the only one that counts, he will be vindicated and honoured. Knowing that, he is able to set his face firmly in the direction of costly obedience, not deflected by any human opinion. So let’s praise him today for his steadfast obedience, and give him the honour and glory that he rightly deserves.

Isaiah 50:6 I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting. Yesterday we thought about the Servant’s obedience to the Lord, and how he alone of all people could truthfully say “I have not been rebellious”.  Which is a remarkable thing under any circumstances, but is even more amazing when we remember what obedience to the Lord’s will involved for him. The instructions which he was given didn’t lead him down a path of comfortable satisfaction. Instead, they set him on a collision course with the religious leaders of his day which ended in a shameful, agonising public death. Today’s verse is not just a metaphor, to tell us that his obedience would be painful. It’s a literal account of the physical pain and humiliation which Jesus endured at the hands of the soldiers who tortured him before his crucifixion. Yet even then, he did not turn away. He didn’t shrink back from the cost of his God-given mission. He does more than simply endure it, like someone resigned to their fate because they have no option to escape. His is a willing, active obedience. He offers his back, his cheeks, his whole body, when he could have escaped in the blink of an eye.  As he took his dying breaths he was taunted by the crowd – “If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” He stayed where he was, not because he had no choice, but because we willingly accepted his role as our sacrificial substitute. This is how we know that the cross is not just a tragic accident. An unfortunate end to a promising life. Jesus knew exactly what he was doing when we went to his death in our place. It was all agreed within the Trinity long before anyone laid a hand on Jesus’s body. Long before he even had a body. From before the creation of the world, God knew exactly, to the last blow, what our redemption would cost. And so we get given just a glimpse of it here, written on Isaiah’s scroll, to reassure us of both the Lord’s complete sovereignty and the Servant’s complete, willing obedience. Let’s give thanks for those things today.

Isaiah 50:5b I have not been rebellious, I have not turned away. Yesterday, we saw how the Lord speaks daily to the Servant. Today, we see how the Servant responds to those words. They are not merely background noise to him, or one voice among many others, which he can pick and choose between. Rather, the Lord’s voice is what the Servant listens to AND obeys. When he hears God’s instructions, he is obedient rather than rebellious. This is particularly striking when we remember that Isaiah’s ministry is all about warning God’s people of the judgement that is coming because they have been disobedient. Everywhere we look, in the earlier chapters of the book, we see a people turning their backs on God’s words and doing their own thing instead. And so the obedience of the Servant stands out in complete contrast. But he’s not just unique amongst the people of Israel in the time of Isaiah. He is uniquely obedient, compared to every person who has ever lived. From Adam and Eve onwards, human history is the story of God speaking, and people turning away. And we’re no different. We too have the privilege of hearing God speak wonderful words of wisdom and grace and compassion to us daily. Indeed, we are more blessed than many previous generations, since we have these words written for us to refer to for ourselves, in a language we can understand. It’s on our bookcases, and – probably – electronically in our pockets.  An ocean’s-worth of ink has been used to write commentaries and devotions and bible study guides so that we can know and understand these words better. And yet none of that makes us any more obedient than those who didn’t have such advantages! Only the Servant can say “I have not been rebellious. I have not turned away.” As we look at his life of perfect obedience, it highlights more clearly for us our failure to live like that. Our failure to love the Lord with all our heart and soul and mind and strength, and to love our neighbour as ourself, as Jesus did. How wonderfully gracious of Jesus, therefore, that he didn’t come into the world to condemn us – “See, this is what your life ought to look like!” but to save us, by transferring his perfect obedience to us at the cross. Let’s praise him for that today.

Isaiah 50:4a The Sovereign Lord has given me a well-instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. In our household at the moment there’s a lot of discussion about Christmas presents. The extended family have been asking ‘What would the girls like for Christmas?’ and so lists are being prepared! As far as I know, no-one’s requested ‘a well-instructed tongue’ but now that I’ve read this verse, I think I’d quite like one! Imagine never being at a loss for what to say … Always ready with the right word in a tricky situation. Able to speak in a way that sustains the weary. Able to unravel a complicated situation so that the way-ahead is clear. Able to speak the truth gently. Imagine never having to apologise because you spoke harshly, or got the wrong end of the stick, or said the right thing in the wrong way or at the wrong time. “No human being can tame the tongue”, writes James, in his New Testament letter.  “Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect.” We all need a well-instructed tongue. Yet none of us has one, and none of us is likely to find out underneath the Christmas tree! Only Jesus can claim to speak perfectly. His is the only well-instructed tongue the world has ever heard.  And what did he do with it? He used it to announce the good news of the coming kingdom of God. To call people to repent of their sin and follow him. To pronounce forgiveness for sinners and healing for sufferers. To teach his followers how to come to the Father in prayer. We know that his words had sufficient authority to cast out demons and raise the dead. If he’d wanted to, he could absolutely have used his words to raise up a powerful following, entirely devoted to his own comfort and satisfaction. He could have used his words to serve himself, rather than serving others. But he didn’t. Instead, he used his words to sustain the weary. Let’s praise him for that today. And let’s pray that we would be those who listen carefully to his words so that our tongues might learn more and more to speak in a way that honours him.

Isaiah 49:7c This is what the Lord says – the Redeemer and Holy One of Israel – to him who was despised and abhorred by the nation, to the servant of rulers: ‘Kings will see you and stand up, princes will see and bow down, because of the Lord, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.’ Are you bored of Covid yet? Or maybe it’s something else that is sapping your energy and joy – a long-term medical condition, or some other difficulty that seems to have become a permanent feature of your life rather than just a temporary interruption. Many things in life are hard to experience, but I think we probably struggle most with the ones that drag on without any end in sight. Persevering when there seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel is incredibly tough. That’s why we need to be reminded that the Lord is faithful. He doesn’t give up. He will never abandon either his purposes or his people. As we were reminded yesterday, there IS always light at the end of the tunnel. Ultimately, the story ends with Jesus exalted and victorious, and all evil and suffering done away with completely and forever. We don’t know how soon that day will come, and it’s entirely possible that it could be today! But if it isn’t, then we may need to wait for months or years or decades or generations to see God’s plans fully and finally fulfilled.  If that’s the case, what can keep us waiting for it in hope, rather than giving up in despair? What was it that enabled the Servant to keep going through all the days when he was despised and rejected? This verse tells us. It’s “because of the Lord, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel who has chosen you.”  If God was simply a great innovator, known for starting remarkable things, that would have been little comfort to the Servant in his suffering. His hope came from knowing that God is a completer-finisher. God’s plan was that he would enjoy glory, through suffering. One day there would be a cross, but beyond that there would be a crown. God’s faithfulness guaranteed that the glory, and the crown, would be given him in the end. God wasn’t going to abandon the plan half-way through. But nor was he going to leave the servant to persevere alone. Faithfulness is more than a dogged commitment to finish the job, come what may. God’s faithfulness is relational. He’s not simply committed to his plans, he’s committed in love to his people. He is faithful to his people in the way that the best imaginable husband is faithful to his wife. To be properly faithful in marriage means far more than simply not committing adultery! It means consistent, daily, self-giving, generous love.  That’s what God’s faithfulness to his people looks like.  Even when life is hard, God is faithful. He will bring us through it, into eternal joy and rest, as he has promised. And in the meantime he is faithfully with us, loving us, protecting us, guiding us and strengthening us to persevere. Let’s thank him for that today.