{"id":25779,"date":"2023-04-02T22:00:19","date_gmt":"2023-04-03T05:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/isaiah-48-copy\/"},"modified":"2023-03-21T19:55:19","modified_gmt":"2023-03-22T02:55:19","slug":"isaiah-49_1-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/isaiah-49_1-13\/","title":{"rendered":"Enter The Servant"},"content":{"rendered":"

Isaiah 49:1-13 \u00a0 Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Isaiah 49:1-13.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Isaiah 49:1-12 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n1\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Listen to me, you islands; hear this, you distant nations: Before I was born the\u00a0LORD\u00a0called me; from my birth he has made mention of my name.
\n2\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0He made my mouth like a sharpened sword, in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me into a polished arrow and concealed me in his quiver.
\n3\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0He said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will display my splendor.”
\n4\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But I said, “I have labored to no purpose; I have spent my strength in vain and for nothing. Yet what is due me is in the\u00a0LORD’s hand, and my reward is with my God.”
\n5\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0And now the\u00a0LORD\u00a0says– he who formed me in the womb to be his servant to bring Jacob back to him and gather Israel to himself, for I am honored in the eyes of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0and my God has been my strength–
\n6\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0he says: “It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.”
\n7\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0This is what the\u00a0LORD\u00a0says– 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 rise up, princes will see and bow down, because of the\u00a0LORD, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”
\n8\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0This is what the\u00a0LORD\u00a0says: “In the time of my favor I will answer you, and in the day of salvation I will help you; I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people, to restore the land and to reassign its desolate inheritances,
\n9\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0to say to the captives, ‘Come out,’ and to those in darkness, ‘Be free!’ “They will feed beside the roads and find pasture on every barren hill.
\n10\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0They will neither hunger nor thirst, nor will the desert heat or the sun beat upon them. He who has compassion on them will guide them and lead them beside springs of water.
\n11\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0I will turn all my mountains into roads, and my highways will be raised up.
\n12\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0See, they will come from afar– some from the north, some from the west, some from the region of Aswan.” \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 1-12: After speaking repeatedly in chapters 41-48 about how the Jewish people would be delivered from captivity in Babylon by a man called Cyrus, suddenly starting in chapter 49 Isaiah stops referring to Babylon and Cyrus.\u00a0 Instead, he turns his focus to someone he calls \u201cthe Servant\u201d.\u00a0 This servant would have an impact not only on the Jewish people, but on the nations, bringing \u201clight for the Gentiles\u201d and \u201csalvation to the ends of the earth\u201d (v6).<\/p>\n

So these verses are all about this servant that God will raise up.\u00a0 Verses 1-6 picture the servant himself speaking.\u00a0 Verse 7-12 are God speaking about this servant.\u00a0 Before I used to think that maybe this servant was Isaiah and that in Isaiah 49 God was expanding Isaiah\u2019s mission from focusing only on the Jewish people to reaching the nations.\u00a0 But as I read various descriptions that Isaiah gives of this servant, both here in chapter 49 and in subsequent chapters, it becomes clearer and clearer to me that this servant whom Isaiah is referring to is not himself, but Jesus Christ.\u00a0 No one comes close to fulfilling this servant\u2019s job description the way that Jesus does \u2013 not Israel, not Isaiah, no one else.<\/p>\n

Verse 1 describes how this servant will be called by God even before birth.<\/p>\n

Verse 2 describes how this servant\u2019s words will be like a sword that cuts to the depths of people\u2019s hearts.<\/p>\n

Verse 3 says that this servant will display God\u2019s splendour.\u00a0 \u00a0Now you may be wondering, \u201cIf this servant is Jesus, why in verse 3 is this servant called \u2018Israel\u2019?\u201d\u00a0 That is because Jesus is prototype Israel, the one who fulfilled all of God\u2019s requirements whereas the nation of Israel had failed.\u00a0 As Pastor David Pawson would say, Jesus is Israel as Israel was always meant to be.<\/p>\n

Verse 4 describes the rejection and discouragement this servant would encounter.\u00a0 Still this servant will choose to trust in God.<\/p>\n

Verses 5-6 describe the mission of this servant: not only to bring Judah and Israel back to God (v5) but to light the way for nations around the world to come to know God as well (v6).<\/p>\n

Verse 7 says that the servant will be despised by the nations (for example, what name is used more as a curse word in our world today than the name of Jesus?).\u00a0 Yet one day kings of nations will bow down before him.<\/p>\n

Verse 8 says that this servant will become \u201ca covenant for the people\u201d, that is, the centrepiece of a new relationship between God and people (see also Isaiah 42:6; Luke 22:20; 1 Corinthians 11:25).<\/p>\n

Verses 8-10 also say that because of this servant captives will be set free.\u00a0 They will no longer hunger, thirst or suffer under the desert heat because this servant will compassionately lead them to springs of water.\u00a0 Later on Revelation 7 will quote this verse in Isaiah 49:10 when speaking about Jesus the Lamb.<\/p>\n

Verses 11-12 are two of my favourite verses in this chapter because they describe how because of this servant, instead of mountains (obstacles), there will be roads and highways being raised up, allowing people from the ends of the earth to come and experience the freedom, hope and refreshing that this servant will bring (v12).\u00a0 Jesus is the one who will break down barriers and build bridges to God.<\/p>\n

Isaiah 49:13 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n13\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Shout for joy, O heavens; rejoice, O earth; burst into song, O mountains! For the\u00a0LORD\u00a0comforts his people and will have compassion on his afflicted ones.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verse 13:\u00a0 Through the sending of this servant, God is giving all of creation \u2013 both the heavens and the earth \u2013 reason to rejoice.\u00a0 For God will comfort His people and have compassion on them through this servant.<\/p>\n

Thank You Jesus for the freedom and the refreshing that You brought to a captive like me, a freedom and refreshing that I still get to enjoy every day, especially when I come to You.\u00a0 Thank You that, as the most amazing Servant, You make this freedom and refreshing available to everyone on this planet, and that You paid the highest price to make it available to us.\u00a0 Thank You for giving all of creation so many reasons to rejoice.\u00a0 In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Isaiah 49:1-13.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!
\n\u00a0
\nIsaiah 49:1-12 (NIV)
\n1\u00a0\u00a0Listen to me, you islands; hear this, you distant nations: Before I was born the\u00a0LORD\u00a0called me; from my birth he has made mention of my name.
\n2\u00a0\u00a0He made my mouth like a sharpened sword, in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me into a polished arrow and concealed me in his quiver.
\n3\u00a0\u00a0He said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will display my splendor.”<\/p>\n

On verses 1-12: After speaking repeatedly in chapters 41-48 about how the Jewish people would be delivered from captivity in Babylon by a man called Cyrus, suddenly starting in chapter 49 Isaiah stops referring to Babylon and Cyrus.\u00a0 Instead, he turns his focus to someone he calls \u201cthe Servant\u201d.\u00a0 This servant would have an impact not only on the Jewish people, but on the nations, bringing \u201clight for the Gentiles\u201d and \u201csalvation to the ends of the earth\u201d (v6).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25781,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25779"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25779\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25782,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25779\/revisions\/25782"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}