January 17, 2011 – Isaiah 53-54

Men hide from association with Him. 

It is hard for us to read this and not think of Christ.  Chapter 53 almost sounds as if it were written by someone after Christ died, describing His death to people and the reason for it.  If you can, try to remove everything you know about Christ and try to read this from the view of Israel during Isaiah’s time.  What did they think he was talking about.  Who was this person that was coming.  It is right there that He was going to suffer and die for the sins of all and that God would be pleased with this. 

54:15 – I was trying to think back through history of the times when Christians might have been attacked.  In the Old Testament, we will see, that God uses the armies of Gentile nations to teach Israel a lesson.  But it appears that God promises that He will not use that method after Christ comes to teach Christ followers lessons.  Any attack on Christians is not from God.  And we are also told that they will not succeed, unlike attacks of the Babylonians or Assyrians when God was using them.  We have the examples of Christian Europe being attacked, but they were never completely successful in destroying the Church.  God may use other ways to help guide the Church, but it appears that, like His promise to not flood the world, He will not use attacks of armies as a method of teaching after Christ comes.