Reading Isaiah and Finding Messiah

By Debra DuPree Williams @DDuPreeWilliams

As I write this, my husband and I are on our 210^th day of reading through our Bibles chronologically this year. This is our second time through. I still marvel at finding new things each time I read even the most familiar of passages.

I shouldn’t be surprised. After all, God’s Word should sound fresh and new to us with each reading. Hopefully, we are growing and learning and are being transformed by the reading of the Word. What I didn’t understand as a child when I heard a certain verse, I have the intellectual capacity to understand today. But even more so, I now have spiritual discernment and understanding.

We are in the book of Isaiah and we’re actually moving along at quite a fast clip, some days reading four to five chapters. It’s amazing.

Reading Isaiah and Finding Messiah @DDuPreeWilliams #faith #BibleStudy Share on X

FINDING MESSIAH IN ISAIAH

Today we read chapters 49 through 53. These contain some of the most familiar (to us and perhaps to you, too) words in the Hebrew Bible. Chapters 52 and 53 are known as the Suffering Servant chapters. They tell of the crucifixion of Jesus that is yet to be. But here it is, in minute detail in the book of Isaiah, 700 years before the birth of Christ.

PROPHECIES AND STATISTICS

Some scholars believe Jesus fulfilled about 300 of about 500 prophecies in the entire Old Testament. That is staggering when you consider the work done by Peter Stoner and Robert Newman. In the book Science Speaks, they discuss the statistical improbability of one man whether accidentally or deliberately, fulfilling just eight of the prophecies Jesus fulfilled. The chance of this happening, they say, is 1 in 10 to the 17^th power. Stoner presents a scenario that illustrates the magnitude of such odds:

Suppose that we take 10 to the 17^th power silver dollars and lay them on the face of Texas. They will cover the state two feet deep. Now mark one of these silver dollars and stir the whole mass thoroughly, all over the state. Blindfold a man and tell him that he can travel as far as he wishes, but he must pick up one silver dollar and say that this is the right one. What chance would he have of picking up the right one? Just the same chance that the prophets would have had of writing these eight prophecies and having them all come true in any one man, from their day to the present time, providing they wrote using their own wisdom.  (Fairchild, Mary. “Old Testament Prophecies of Jesus.” Learn Religions, Feb. 8, 2021, learnreligions.com/prophecies-of-jesus-fulfilled-700159.)

HANDEL’S MESSIAH AND THE SUFFERING SERVANT

Many of the words in all of Isaiah but especially so here in chapters 52 and 53 are included in the libretto of Handel’s Messiah. J and I have sung this entire work many, many times. The words we read today were very familiar to us. Yet, they seemed fresh and new as we were both seeing them with new, spiritual eyes. That makes all the difference.

Chapters 52 and 53 are known as the “Suffering Servant” chapters. They clearly state all the things that did, indeed, happen to Yeshua. Some people say chapter 53 isn’t read or even included in the Hebrew Bible. But my research has led me to believe this simply isn’t true. It sounded a bit odd to me so I researched it to my satisfaction. They may study this chapter as well as any other books included in the Hebrew Bible. You will have to form your own opinion.

We’ve been blessed by spending daily time in God’s Word. I know you will be, too. If you’d like to know how we read and study and what we use, please see my blog posts in the archives on my website.

We’re learning and growing in our faith and that is the bottom line for us.

Blessings, y’all.

This is a selection from the Easter portion of Handel’s Messiah. It comes from Isaiah 53:4-5. I hope it blesses you. Perhaps it will get you into God’s Word this week.