Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Jesus' Death Foretold in the Old Testament

Jesus says, "search the Scriptures for...they are they which testify of Me." And starting with Moses and the prophets He explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning Himself.

The Lord God has spoken to Me and I have listened. I did not rebel nor turn away. I gave My back to the whip, and My cheeks to those who pulled out My beard. I did not hide from shame. They spit in My face. Because the Lord God helps Me you will not be dismayed. They gave Me gall for My meat and vinegar to drink. They bargained for My price thirty pieces of silver.

The Father says, "See, My Servant will prosper, He will be highly exalted. Yet many will be amazed when they see Him...they will see My Servant beaten and bloodied, so disfigured one would scarcely know He was a human. So shall He cleanse many nations."

The Son says, "My God! My God! Why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me, and from the words of My roaring? But I am a worm...a reproach of men and despised by the people. All they that see Me laugh with scorn. They stick out their lips and shake their heads saying, `He trusted in the Lord that He would deliver Him, let God deliver Him, seeing He delights in Him.' They gape at Me with their mouths as a hungry and roaring lion. For dogs have encircled Me. The assembly of the wicked have enclosed Me. They pierce My hands and feet. They part My garments among them, and cast lots for My vesture."

"Into Thine hand I commit My spirit. For God will not leave Me in the grave, neither will You allow Your Holy One to decay." He keeps all His bones, not one of them is broken. He will see the results of His sufferings and will be satisfied. Because what My Righteous Servant has experienced many will have faith and be counted righteous before God, for He will bear all their sins. I call Him Mighty and Great because He died for our salvation. He was counted a sinner and He bore the sins of many and pled with God for sinners.

But, oh, how few believe it! Who will listen? To whom will God reveal His saving power? Before God He was a tender shoot, sprouting from a root in dry, sterile soil. But in our eyes there was no attractiveness about Him, nothing to make us want Him. We despised and rejected Him - a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with bitter grief. We turned our backs on Him and looked the other way when He went by. He was despised and we didn't care. Yet it was our grief He bore, our sorrows that weighed Him down. And we thought His trials were a punishment from God for His own sins!

But He was wounded and bruised for our sins! He was chastised that we might have peace. He was lashed and we were healed. We are the ones that strayed away like sheep. We left God's path to follow our own. Yet God laid on Him the guilt and sins of every one of us! He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He never said a word. He was brought as a sacrificial Lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep is silent, so He stood silent before those condemning Him.

From prison and trial they led Him away to His death, but who among the people of that day realized it was their sins that He was dying for? That He was suffering their punishment. He was buried like a criminal in a rich man's grave, but He had done no wrong and had never spoken an evil word! Yet it was the Lord's good plan to bruise Him and give Him grief. But when His whole being had been made an offering for sin, then He will have many heirs. He will live again and God's plan shall advance.

Jesus says, "I will not forget you. See, I have engraved your name upon the palms of My hands. I will always remember you.”

The above quotes are from these Bible texts: John 5:39/ Luke 24:27/ Isaiah 50:5-7/ Psalm 69:21/ Zechariah 11:12/ Isaiah 52:13-15/ Psalm 22:1-8,13,16-18;34:20;16:10/ Isaiah 53:11,12;53:1-10;49:15-16

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