Day 210 – Isaiah 49-53

Talking Points

• This section begins with the Servant explaining that even in the Jews’ rejection of Him, God’s salvation will be offered to the Gentiles.
• Israel hears that God’s promise to them still stands. He has not forgotten or forsaken them. He never could. He is a faithful and compassionate God! He tells them that “those who hopefully wait for [Him] will not be put to shame” (Isaiah 49:23).
• God encourages the faithful to remember how He brought a nation out of two people who were barren — there’s nothing out of His reach. He reminds them not to fear man, but to remember their Maker and what He has done.
• “How lovely on the mountains Are the feet of him who brings good news, Who announces peace And brings good news of happiness, Who announces salvation…” (52:7). In context, this is referring to the one who delivers the good news of God’s deliverance and salvation to the nation of Israel. In Romans, God uses it to refer to those who bring good news of God’s ultimate deliverance and salvation through Jesus! Do you remember the person (or people) who led you to Jesus?
• Again revealing His elaborate plan for the redemption of sinners, 700 years before Christ, God describes the Savior as the Suffering Servant. It is no surprise to God — through His suffering comes our salvation. The One who comes to save is scorned and rejected. And, in His sacrifice, we are healed.

Thoughts

His salvation was always meant to be for the nations. Just think about that for a minute. A chosen people — yes — who would be priests and prophets and kings. A chosen people — yes — who would implement the sacrificial system God set into place, teaching them always to look to the Lamb. A chosen people — yes — from whom would come the Prophet, the Great High Priest, the King of Kings, Jesus, the final Lamb of God.

His plan for a chosen people was never meant to limit His salvation to a select group of people. It was always universal in scope. Through His chosen people would come His Servant. “He says, ‘It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also make You a light of the nations So that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth‘” (49:6).

Hundreds of years later, a man named Simeon stood in the temple, holding the child Jesus in his arms. He “blessed God and said, ‘…my eyes have seen Your salvation, Which You have prepared in the presence of all peoples, A LIGHT OF REVELATION TO THE GENTILES, And the glory of Your people Israel‘” (Luke 2:30-32).

What a beautiful plan of redemption! A faithful, beautiful plan that reaches to even me!