Christmas 2019: Behold My Son, in Whom I am well pleased, part 18

The second Servant Song in Isaiah is in Isa 49:1-6.

Isa 49:1 Listen to Me, O islands,

And pay attention, you peoples from afar.

The Lord called Me from the womb;

From the body of My mother He named Me.

Isa 49:2 And He has made My mouth like a sharp sword [near];

In the shadow of His hand He has concealed Me,

And He has also made Me a select arrow [far];

He has hidden Me in His quiver [only revealed at the proper time].

Isa 49:3 And He said to Me, "You are My Servant, Israel,

In Whom I will show My glory."

Isa 49:4 But I said, "I have toiled in vain,

I have spent My strength for nothing and vanity;

Yet surely the justice due to Me is with the Lord,

And My reward with My God."

Jesus’ instructions in the upper room were not given as in a one man show with twelve in the audience. In the upper room as He established His communion supper with the disciples He bid them to participate in it. He took the bread and the cup, blessed them, meaning He gave thanks for them, and as He explained their meaning, He told His disciples to eat and drink. Thus they were not just spectators but participants in it. They can hardly have failed to get the message. Jesus was not to do all that He did just to show the world what a Servant He was, though that happened, but what He did was to bear fruit. His rejection and the lack of faith and misunderstandings by His disciples had pressed upon Him the thought that perhaps no one would participate with Him, or perhaps His heart was broken because He thought that there might be so few who would. He knew that He had to bear fruit, meaning scores of men who would be cast in His image; His likeness.

Joh 12:23-24

"The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

I was not just Him dying that was the entire purpose, but that we would appropriate the benefits of His death personally. A vine with no branches could not have been the view that the Creator of the vineyard had in mind.

Joh 6:53-56

Jesus therefore said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. 54 "He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. 55 "For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. 56 "He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.

What He said that day on the shores of the Sea of Galilee was enacted ceremonially in the upper room and given literally after His death. For Him to give Himself in death had the purpose of us receiving it as the greatest blessing.

We can safely conclude that the more we understand, we will face what are the real temptations to disaster, and not our petty made up ones.

The real temptations are overcoming ourselves, the world, and Satan rather than hoping to change all of these to fit our desires or make our lives easier as we imagine a changed world might. “If only we could make our lives a utopia,” we think, but changing circumstances or our world is not the problem. The problem is overcoming whatever we face through faith. “The justice due to Me is with the Lord, And My reward with My God.”

1Jo 5:4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world — our faith.

1Jo 5:5 And who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

Psa 36:7-9

How precious is Thy lovingkindness, O God!

And the children of men take refuge in the shadow of Thy wings.

They drink their fill of the abundance of Thy house;

And Thou dost give them to drink of the river of Thy delights.

For with Thee is the fountain of life;

In Thy light we see light.

All believers have overcome the world because Christ overcame the world for them. The issue is to walk in this truth, which is nothing more than faith in its reality.

This same experience, that His work would amount to nothing, was certainly diffused throughout our Lord’s entire life. Isaiah encapsulates it in one moment, and we must learn the lesson well, we must be faithful in labor and in sacrificing as servants of the Lord, but it is the Lord’s decision as to what fruit will be brought from it, and we rest in Him. Resting faith is the answer to despondency.

Thus Isaiah saw a Servant with a real human nature, tested like we are and proving Himself to be the author and perfecter of the way of faith, a real, personal faith that can still say “My God” when nothing seems to be worthwhile.

Isa 49:4 But I said, "I have toiled in vain,

I have spent My strength for nothing and vanity;

Yet surely the justice due to Me is with the Lord,

And My reward with My God."

Three sayings from the cross were each from Psalms that describe the deep anguish of an innocent victim who is suffering at the hands of his enemies, but at the same time trusts in the Lord.

Psa 22:1

My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?

Psa 69:21

They also gave me gall for my food,

And for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

Psa 31:5

Into Thy hand I commit my spirit;

Isa 53:3

He was despised and forsaken of men,

A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;

And like one from whom men hide their face,

He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

Isa 49:5 And now says the Lord, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant,

To bring Jacob back to Him, in order that Israel might be gathered to Him

(For I am honored in the sight of the Lord,

And My God is My strength),