Good Thursday to you my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Christmas is getting much closer now isn’t it, only four days remain ’till Christmas Day. But may I ask… does it FEEL like Christmas to you this December? As the news sound bites from around the world shock our ears, do they awaken Christmas or discouragement, fear or maybe even despair in your heart? Did you know the prophets who predicted Christmas were writing in times very much like our day?
And so, the big questions then and even now were these:
IF God will send His Messiah to rescue the human race from self-destruction… HOW will we recognize this God sent Messiah when finally, He comes? What family lineage will he be born into? What town will become famous because of his birth? How will his birth be announced so the world notices? And decade after decade, century after century the world watched, waited, and nearly gave up hope Messiah would ever come.
Once again let’s consider some amazing statements made by the prophet Isaiah spoken about 7 centuries, that’s 700 years, before Jesus was born! Isaiah 11:1 says “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him – the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD – and He will delight in the fear of the LORD.” (Is. 11:1,2) To Jewish ears who knew the history of Israel well, Isaiah was giving some very specific identifiers for recognizing the Messiah:
1. First, the God sent Messiah would be born into the royal family line of King David, the most famous son of Jesse. (1 Samuel 16:1)
2. Second, the hometown of Jesse’s family, Bethlehem, would be the place of Messiah’s birth. (1 Samuel 16:1)
This prophecy was repeated by another prophet Micah, about 200 years later when Micah wrote: ‘But you Bethlehem, Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for Me One who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are of old, from ancient times.” (Micah 5:2)
3. Isaiah was predicting that the Holy Spirit of God would anoint, empower, fill and give great wisdom to this Messiah even more than He did king David. (1 Samuel 16:13)
Furthermore, Isaiah’s prophecy continued with a strong statement about the global influence of this Jewish Messiah sent by God: “…the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the LORD… In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to Him, and His place of rest will be glorious. In that day the Lord will reach out His hand a second time to reclaim the remnant that is left of His scattered people… He will raise a banner for the nations and gather the exiles of Israel; He will assemble the scattered people of Judah from the four quarters of the earth.” (Isaiah 11:10-12) From our perspective, looking back over Israel’s history, can we see how Jesus uniquely has fulfilled these prophecies? Look carefully at Isaiah’s statements…
1. Yes, the earth has been filled with the knowledge of the LORD because the life and words of Jesus, and the Bible, have been translated into almost every language spoken anywhere in the world!
I’ve known many missionaries who have gone and lived among a tribe or people group who had never heard of Jesus or the Gospel and whose language was unknown outside that tribe, and also unwritten. Those missionaries spent their lives learning those unknown languages, then taught those unreached tribes about God and both wrote and explained the gospel of Jesus Christ in their language!
Now in 2023 with the addition of technology, including internet and satellite-based cell phone communication, even advancements such as “Google Translate”, there is virtually no place in the world where the knowledge of the LORD is unavailable!
2. Yes, it is true, while Jesus came as the Jewish Messiah, He also came as God’s Redeemer from sin bondage and sin condemnation for ANY person of ANY ethnicity or nationality, ANY where in the world!
Jesus repeatedly said He had come for ANYONE who would believe in Him. (John 3:16) Especially in the past 200 years we’ve seen the nations have responded and rallied to Jesus and Jesus followers are found today in every nation of the world!
3. Now my friends, this third promise of Isaiah, is a very fascinating one. When Isaiah wrote these words “reclaim the remnant that is left of His scattered people… and gather the exiles of Israel…: it must have seemed impossible in Isaiah’s day, for the northern kingdom Israel was as devastated as the Gaza Strip is today, and hundreds of thousands of northern kingdom Jews had been deported to the far reaches of the Assyrian Empire. And then it happened again in 586bc when Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem and thousands of Jews were taken captive to Babylon.
Yet the first miracle of ‘gathering of the Jewish exiles’ happened in 538bc when King Cyrus, the Persian Emperor granted all Jewish captives the freedom to return to Jerusalem and rebuild both their city and their Temple. While many did, another great scattering of Jews occurred when Jerusalem was again demolished by the Roman army almost 600 years later in 70ad. Once again Jews ran for their lives to the far corners of the known world, the Roman empire. And for nearly 2000 years relatively very few Jews lived in the region known as Palestine.
But then in 1948, as the UN declared the re-establishment of modern-day Israel, Jews from all around the world began returning to their ancient homeland in fulfillment of Isaiah’s words: “He will assemble the scattered people of Judah from the four quarters of the earth.” In a very short time, there were far more foreign-born Jews in Israel, than middle eastern born Jews.
But friends, would you please consider that it was in the 1960’s and 70’s that these miracle words of Isaiah really began to become fulfilled: “In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to Him, and His place of rest will be glorious.” Five times I’ve led tours of Biblical pilgrims to visit the land of the Bible. Each time I’ve been amazed at the thousands of other pilgrims from all over the world, who come to Israel not because they are Jewish, but because they are followers of Jesus Christ their Savior! No other place in the world receives so many Christians, coming on Christian pilgrimages, drawn to Israel by Jesus.
You see my friends, Isaiah’s prophecies were fulfilled in Jesus when Jesus was born, and as He lived His earthly life, and gave His life as the ransom for all sinners of the world. But it has really been in recent decades that Isaiah’s prophecies about Jesus have been fulfilled all around the world! You and I, my friends, who have been alive in recent years, are the fortunate generations that have seen with our own eyes, the full fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecies about the global Messiah!
And of course, there will yet be two more great fulfillments of Isaiah’s words… when Jesus returns to resurrect and rapture up to be with Him ALL believers in Jesus from ALL time. (1 Thess. 4:13-18) And then again when Jesus returns in triumph to establish His earthly kingdom of 1000 years! (Rev. 20:6)
Oh, my friends, with four days remaining till Christmas, let’s celebrate how fully God has fulfilled the prophecies His Holy Spirit gave to Isaiah 2700 years ago and here’s a wonderful worship song to help us praise Jesus our Lord!
Today’s Scripture is Isaiah 11.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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