Daily Bible Encouragement

Isaiah 53:11-12 After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made...

Isaiah 53:10 Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. For the past 6 and a half weeks, we’ve listened to Isaiah, and God himself, introducing us to the figure of the Servant. We’ve seen that the Servant will come to rescu...

Isaiah 53:9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. There’s a lot of talk about ‘identity’ in our society at the moment. Whilst we might take issue with where some people now draw the line between which aspects of identity are fixed and which can be chosen, we all recognise the frustration that comes...

Isaiah 53:8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished. I rather like this phrase ‘the land of the living’. It’s got a much more poetic ring to it than simply saying ‘life’. And the idea of being ‘cut off from the land of the living’ is much more striking than...

Isaiah 53:7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. One of the things I find most remarkable about the behaviour of Jesus during his arrest and trial is the fact that he remains silent when facing unjust accusations. I realise that his physical suffering and t...

Isaiah 53:6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. When our girls were younger we were all great fans of the Australian Christian musician, Colin Buchanan. A significant number of the Bible verses I know by heart are cemented in my memory because of his catchy tunes. So much so that I can’t read or think abou...

Isaiah 53:4-5 Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. Yesterday we saw that the Servant was ‘a man of suffering and familiar with pain’.  Today we discover th...

Isaiah 53:2b-3 He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.   He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. When we were reading Chapter 49 I said that the Servant was visually unimpressive – if you’d walked past...

Isaiah 53:1-2a Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?   He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. In yesterday’s verse, we read the promise of a day to come when all people will see and understand who Jesus is and why he came. But in the meantime - in Isaiah’s time and today – the message of a suffering, saving servant, s...

Isaiah 52:15b For what they were not told, they will see, and what they have not heard, they will understand. The ‘they’ in this verse are the kings we thought about yesterday – those people who will stand silent as they face the final judgement, realising that the Servant who they rejected as worthless is in fact the exalted ruler and judge. At that moment, everything that wasn’t obvious about th...

Isaiah 52:14-15a Just as there were many who were appalled at him - his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being and his form marred beyond human likeness – so he will sprinkle many nations, and kings will shut their mouths because of him. Have you ever found yourself in a situation where whatever you say is only going to make things worse? Any excuse, or attempt to explain your...

Isaiah 52:13 See, my servant will act wisely; he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted. Last week, in Isaiah 50, we saw that the Servant was utterly obedient to his Lord, even when that led to painful suffering. In contrast to God’s people, who are facing his judgement because of their rebellious disobedience. Now, in chapters 52-53 we get much more detail about the suffering which the S...

Isaiah 50:8-9 He who vindicates me is near. Who then will bring charges against me? Let us face each other! Who is my accuser? Let him confront me! It is the Sovereign Lord who helps me. Who will condemn me? They will all wear out like a garment; the moths will eat them up. In October 1987, at the age of 15, I was baptised as a Christian believer, alongside 6 of my friends. Each of us chose a shor...

Isaiah 50:7 Because the Sovereign Lord helps me, I will not be disgraced. Therefore have I set my face like flint,     and I know I will not be put to shame. This is a strange verse, isn’t it? Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been using words like ‘humiliated’ to describe the Servant. God himself has said that the Servant will be ‘despised’ and ‘abhorred’. So how can the Servant say here ‘I wil...

Isaiah 50:6 I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting. Yesterday we thought about the Servant’s obedience to the Lord, and how he alone of all people could truthfully say “I have not been rebellious”.  Which is a remarkable thing under any circumstances, but is even more amazing when we remember what obedien...

Isaiah 50:5b I have not been rebellious, I have not turned away. Yesterday, we saw how the Lord speaks daily to the Servant. Today, we see how the Servant responds to those words. They are not merely background noise to him, or one voice among many others, which he can pick and choose between. Rather, the Lord’s voice is what the Servant listens to AND obeys. When he hears God’s instructions, he i...

Isaiah 50:4b-5a He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being instructed. The Sovereign Lord has opened my ears; Yesterday we heard about the Servant’s well-instructed tongue. Today we find that his ears are equally well-trained! At first glance, we might not be surprised by this verse. We know that the Servant, who is speaking here, has been appointed by God to bring God...

Isaiah 50:4a The Sovereign Lord has given me a well-instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. In our household at the moment there’s a lot of discussion about Christmas presents. The extended family have been asking ‘What would the girls like for Christmas?’ and so lists are being prepared! As far as I know, no-one’s requested ‘a well-instructed tongue’ but now that I’ve read th...

Isaiah 49:7c This is what the Lord says – 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 stand up, princes will see and bow down, because of the Lord, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.’ Are you bored of Covid yet? Or maybe it’s something else that is sapping your energy and joy –...

Isaiah 49:7b This is what the Lord says – 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 stand up, princes will see and bow down, Back in verse 4, we got our first hint that even though the Servant has been called by the God who rules the universe, his work looks more energy-sapping than epically-successfu...

Isaiah 49:7a This is what the Lord says – the Redeemer and Holy One of Israel – Did you notice what Isaiah does in this verse? Just as he’s about to report to the people something that God has said to the Servant, he interrupts himself to tell them something important about who God is. That may not seem very significant on its own, but if we were to read through the whole of chapters 42-49 togethe...

Isaiah 49:6 he 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 my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.’ As we saw in verse 5, the job of the Servant is to restore God’s people back into right relationship with him. This is not going to be an easy task – it...

Isaiah 49:5b for I am honoured in the eyes of the Lord and my God has been my strength – Whose opinion matters most to you? Some of us feel almost paralysed by the weight of other people’s expectations, and our desire for them to approve of what we do, say and think. Others of us think less about other people’s opinions. But for all of us, there will be some people whose opinions carry particular...

Isaiah 49:5a And now the Lord says – he who formed me in the womb to be his servant to bring Jacob back to him and gather Israel to himself, From Genesis 12 onwards, God committed himself especially to lead and guide and bless one particular family – Abraham’s descendants - that grew into one particular nation – the people of Israel. Even though God always was and continues to be the creator and s...

Isaiah 49:4b Yet what is due to me is in the Lord’s hand, and my reward is with my God.’ As we saw yesterday, the Servant’s mission to save God’s people is going to cost him everything he has, and will end in pain, weakness, humiliation and death.  That’s not a mission that would immediately appeal to most of us! Perhaps it’s no surprise, then, that when Jesus begins his adult ministry, the Devil...