Rom. 11:11-15; 2 Cor. 6:1-2, God’s Acceptable Time

We need to conclude Song #2 as there are additional truths to be noted.  For example, note in 49:7 that the nation (singular, thus Israel) despised and abhorred the Redeemer while kings and princes (plural, thus the nations) will worship Him.  This rejection by Israel that resulted in the great opportunity for the nations to receive the gospel is the subject of today’s passage from Romans.  I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles (11:11).  The LORD promised Abraham that through him all the nations would be blessed (Gen. 12:3); but Abraham had no idea how that would play out.  Isaiah spoke of it in this Song and then the Apostle Paul explained it in detail.

In 49:8-12 there is a description of what the Messiah Servant’s reward will be.  He will rule in His Kingdom where all will prosper and rejoice.   In terms of the future picture, perhaps the key words are that the LORD will bring this about “in an acceptable time.”  The struggle that the Messiah mentioned in v4, about laboring in vain, will be a part of the story but not the end of the story.  And the end with it’s successes will come at an acceptable time, a time of the LORD’s choosing. 

I am reminded of Acts 1:7, when Jesus disciples asked Him if He was going to restore the kingdom to Israel at that time.  The answer was: It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. It was an acceptable time for Jesus when He came to earth for His first advent.  As Paul said, But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons (Gal. 4:4-5).  “Fullness of the time” simple means it was the time for all to be fulfilled concerning Messiah that had been prophesied. 

But Paul also said, in Eph. 1:10, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He would gather together all things in Christ.  The part about Israel rejecting and abhorring the Servant is still in operation.  But the time will come when the Servant has received His reward for His ministry.  Until that time, the Lord Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father, waiting for the acceptable time (Psalm 110).

You might remember that Paul said something about the “acceptable time” in 2 Cor. 6:1-2.  He quoted from Isa. 49:8 and then added, for the Corinthians, these words: Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.  From verse 1 he was saying that now is the time to receive God’s grace for salvation.  And it is still that time today. 

Isa. 49:1-13, Servant Song #2

Servant Song #2, Isa. 49:1-13

This second song is packed with insight concerning the Servant (Messiah): His nature, His ministry and His reward.  First, the Servant is speaking at the beginning of the Song and note that He is addressing the “coastlands (49:1a),” which we have noted is a reference to the Gentiles.  What does He say to the peoples?  He tells them of their wonderful Savior (v1b-2).  He was called while in the womb and the LORD has made Him to be an effective weapon. 

This brings to mind a couple of NT passages.  First is Luke 1:31-33, when Gabriel told Mary about the Child she was going to bear.  Second is Heb. 10:5-10 which is built on a prophecy in Ps. 40:6-8.  Again, Jesus the Messiah is speaking and says “sacrifices and offerings You did not desire but a body you have prepared for Me.”  Jesus did not come to take over the priestly duties in the temple of Jerusalem.  Instead, His Father had another plan, and He provided the body that Jesus would need to accomplish that plan.  Jesus “became” flesh, coming in the likeness of man. 

The next two verses are profound.  It seems that the LORD now is speaking to the Messiah, and says ‘You are My servant, O Israel, In whom I will be glorified.’  You have two possibilities here.  Some might think the LORD is not talking to Messiah but to Israel.  In Isaiah the nation of Israel is also referred to as God’s servant.  But it is consistent with Scripture that the LORD is still speaking to Messiah (that fits the flow of the passage) and that the LORD is calling Messiah “Israel.” 

As I said, this is consistent with Scripture.  There is a strong identification between Israel and the Messiah.  An example of this is in Matt. 2:15 where we read, “Out of Egypt I called My Son.”  Clearly in Matthew this refers to Jesus coming out of Egypt with Mary and Joseph when they had fled from Herod.  But these words are actually a quote from Hosea 11:1 where God’s “son” is Israel.  In Exodus 4:22-23 the LORD told Moses to tell Pharaoh that Israel was His “firstborn son,” and that he was to let them go from Egypt.  The Messiah is the LORD’s Servant that Israel failed to be. 

As evidence of this, look at the Messiah’s response 49:4.  In essence He says, “If Israel is my reward then I have labored in vain.  Nevertheless, I will trust the LORD for My reward.”  And immediately the LORD assures Messiah in 49:5 that His mission will be, To bring Jacob back to Him, So that Israel is gathered to Him.  And then, in 49:6, the LORD adds to the reward of His Servant: not only will He rule over Jacob; He will also bring salvation to the nations. 

If, like me, you are a Gentile, these words should bring joy to your heart.  If, unlike me, you are Jewish, these words should also bring joy to your heart.  Your being set aside by the LORD (Rom. 11:25-27) is not the end of the story.  Even today, to all, the good news of the gospel of Jesus is offered.  Through the cross and the empty tomb of Jesus there is forgiveness for sin and the promise of eternal life.

Psalm 95

What a wonderful Psalm again we have for meditation.  Let us consider the movements of this Song.

·         95:1-5 are a call to loud, joyful praise.  The people are to come and with great energy to worship the great God … the great King above all gods.  How great is our God?  The deepest valleys and highest hills of earth are His.  The sea and the dry land are His.  It is His for He made it!  And it is all His because He had no help.  He shares His glory with no one else.

·         95:6-7a are a call to humble submission before our God.  He is the same One: the One who made us.  We bow before Him because He is the great King.  We graze in His pasture and we are fed from His hand.  What a great King He is when we realize how blest we are to be in His kingdom/flock.

Before we note the last part of the Song let us remember Jesus Christ.  Everything said about the Lord in the opening verses (v1-7) is true of our Lord Jesus Christ.  The Bible makes it clear.  He is the Creator.  Everything was made by Him, through Him and for Him (Col. 1:19).  No one helped Him; without Him nothing was made that was made (John 1:3).  He is the King whose every enemy will bow (Phil. 2:9-11).  He is our great God and Savior (Titus 2:13).

It is no surprise then that the writer of Hebrews referred to the admonition at the close of this great Hymn.  Ps. 95:7b-11 are quoted in its entirety in Heb. 3:7-11.  The concern in Hebrews is that people who seemed to have come to trust or rest in Christ will turn from Him and go back to that which never did nor ever could give them rest.  Through our great Savior, a great salvation has been provided (Heb. 2:3).  To turn away from that salvation is to denigrate the great One who provided it, to trample the Son of God underfoot (Heb. 10:29).

·         95:7b-11 is a warning not to harden our hearts against God.  The illustration of how one might do this is a story from the Old Testament.  It is the first occasion when the people of Israel came to the edge of Canaan.  Twelve spies were sent in, 2 came back ready to take possession of what God promised, but 10 feared the giants in the land.  The 10 carried the day; the people rebelled even though they had seen God’s great works in Egypt and in the wilderness. 

Do you see the connection?  In our own lives, in the testimonies of others, and especially in the record of Scripture, we know the God of the Bible is a great God.  There is no other God, none like Him.  And to fail to trust Him today, in light of what we know from previous days, is to treat Him as nothing, to make light of Him, to consider Him ordinary. 

Friends, today, in your day of trial, come joyfully into God’s presence because He is a great God.  Bow before Him because He is a great King.  Do not harden your heart.  Trust Him, rest in Him.  He is no different this day than He was yesterday.

Isaiah 42:1-13, Servant Song #1

We tried to lay out the basic idea of the Servant Songs of Isaiah: the Messiah came according to the will of God and to be the Servant of God.  What do we see of Jesus of Nazareth in this first song?

·       Isa. 42:1 is fulfilled in the opening event of Jesus’ earthly ministry.  At His baptism, the Father proclaimed Jesus to be His “Elect One in whom My soul delights” (“this is My Son in whom I am well pleased), and the Father “put My Spirit upon Him” (John saw the Spirit descend as a dove).

·       Also in 42:1 we see the “long term” effect of the ministry of God’s Servant.  “He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles.”  God had promised Abraham that through him “all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 12:3).  This was always the loving plan of God.  He chose one nation through whom the Savior would come.  But that Savior was always “the Savior of the world” (Jn. 1:29; 3:17; 4:42; 1 Tim. 4:10; 1 Jn. 4:14).  This emphasis is strong in the Servant Songs.  The frequent references to the “coastlands” (42:4,10-13) are speaking of those nations around the Mediterranean occupied by the Gentiles.

·       In 42:2-4 describe the personality of the Servant, and it fits Christ perfectly.  The Servant will not come to bully or push His way to rule the nations.  Rather, it will be Jesus the “meek and lowly” (Mt. 11:29).  Again, as Phil. 2 says, “being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself” (2:8).  Yet, in His meekness He was not weak or ineffective.  “He will not fail nor be discouraged.”  What a great description of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

·       In 42:5-6 that “endurance” is coupled with the fact that “God the LORD,” the Creator who called the Son, will keep Him until He finished the work.  The “work” mentioned in v6 is the New Covenant, made with Israel (“to the people”) and extended to the Gentiles.  Through this covenant, and it’s “circumcision of the heart” promised in Deut. 30:6, blind eyes will be opened, prisoners delivered, and a light turned on for those in darkness (42:7).

·       42:8-9 reminds us that in all this God will be known and glorified.  Even in Isaiah’s day, this prophecy of the Incarnation of the Son was something alluded to in the past (a “former thing”) but will be something new.

Sometimes 42:10-13 is included in the Servant Song.  It seems in v10 He is not telling the Servant to sing (although He could be) but rather all peoples to be singing the new song that has made it to Kedar (fierce, nomadic Ishmaelite tribe in the Arabian desert) and Sela (a “rock” city, perhaps a reference to Petra) and the coastlands.  “Oh for a thousand tongues to sing our great Redeemer’s praise; the glories of our God and King, the triumphs of His grace.”

Isaiah 42:1-4; Phil. 2:5-8, Jesus Served His Father

As we have been working our way through the 24 hours leading to Jesus’ death, an underlying theme has been this line from Mk. 14:21: The Son of Man indeed goes just as it is written of Him.  In light of this we take the next few posts to review the “Servant Songs” of Isaiah.  These songs in a very special way reveal the relationship of the Father and Son, and their arrangement involving the Incarnation.

The “mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ” (Col. 2:2) was established in eternity past as we read briefly in Psalm 2:6-9.  But these songs give additional detail to that short passage, and thus are a real centerpiece of what was written of Christ in the OT.

Servant Song #1, Isa. 42:1-9

The Servant is not our servant but God’s Servant.  (The fact that it is Christ and not Israel – both are spoken of as God’s servant in Isaiah – will be noted in the second song.)  In my view we make the story of the cross of Jesus too much about “us.”  It’s as if Christ was our servant.  There’s a line in a gospel song, “when He was on the cross I was on His mind.”  I often hear the argument, that we must be special given the price that Christ paid for our sins. 

You may be wondering, “what is wrong with these things?”  So note that I said: we make it “too much” about us.  Jesus was the Servant of His Father.  His struggle in the Garden was not, “Father, help me to love the sinner.”  It was, “Father, not what I will but what You will.”  I’m sure when you stop and think about it you will agree that the burning passion of Jesus’ life was to do what the Father gave Him to do, to finish the work His Father commanded (John 4:34; 5:30; 6:38; 17:4; Lk. 4:43). 

Let me remind you of the “7 Steps in Christ’s Humiliation” in Phil. 2:5-8.  1) He was God.  2) He emptied Himself (did not give up His deity but rather all the prerogatives of deity).  3) Took on the form of a bond-servant.  4) Came in the likeness of men.  5) He humbled Himself (took on the lifestyle of a humble person.)  6) Became obedient to death.  7) Became obedient to death on a cross.  I know we are talking about the Trinity, One God in Three Persons, all equal in everything that it means to be “God.”  But in that magnificent relationship, Jesus became the bond-servant to the Father.  The Father’s plan was: become a Man, a humble Man, and die the death of a criminal. 

The plan of the Father was borne out of the love of God for sinners.  “For God so loved the world! that He gave His only begotten Son.”  “In this the love of God was manifest, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him” (1 Jn. 4:9).  The end result is that, yes, of course, Jesus had a great love for the sinner.  He said, “Greater love has no man but that he lay down his life for his friends” (Jn. 15:13).  But Jesus came to be the Servant to carry out the Father’s will.

Mark 15:6-16, Vicarious Atonement

We are still thinking about the silence of Christ.  He disregarded any legal attempts to win His case.  He did not seek to challenge the people to take up His cause.  He did not call twelve legions of angels to deliver Him.  He endured the cross, for the joy that was set before Him!  He submitted to the will of Abba Father!

While Jesus was amazingly silent, He did speak on certain occasions.  Caiaphas asked, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?”  Jesus spoke clearly: I AM!  “Ego eimi!”  Two simple words He used often to declare who He was and why He had come and what He would mean to you if you were to receive Him!  I AM the Bread of Life!  I AM the door!  Before Abraham was, I AM!  Caiaphas knew the question to ask Jesus by which He would have no choice but to “self-incriminate.”

It was the Father’s will.  But Jesus embraced the cross because, THERE WAS NO ONE ELSE!  He was the One and the only One to do the Father’s will.  And what was the Father doing that required such from His Son?  The Father was loving the world!  The world of sin and sinners.  The world ruled by the prince of darkness.  That evil one had to have his hour (Lk. 22:53).  And we had to have Someone who had no sin to become sin for us become the righteousness God IN HIM (2 Cor. 5:21).

What we are talking about is “vicarious atonement.”  “Vicarious” refers to something endured or done by one person substituting for another.  An example is “vicarious punishment” where one person pays the penalty for another.  That is not just an example; it is what Jesus did!

Abraham knew God would provide another to take the place of his son Isaac to Mt. Moriah (Gen. 22).  Isaac asked, “Where is the lamb?”  Dad answered, “God Himself will provide the lamb.”  And God did.  A ram, caught in the bushes, died in the place of Isaac, and Abraham knew he needed a substitute, as did Moses (22:14).

The Suffering Servant was the substitute (Isa. 53): “… wounded for our transgressions … bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed … all we like sheep have gone astray, and the LORD has laid on Him (the silent lamb led to the slaughter) the iniquities of us all.”

Lest we fail to understand, God provided a live example of “vicarious atonement” the day Christ died.  His name was Barabbas, a terrorist we would say, a murderer.  As for Pilate, how pathetic a man.  Everything was a game and everyone a game piece he could arrange.  “So Pilate, wanting to gratify the crowd, released Barabbas to them, and he delivered Jesus, after he had scourged Him, to be crucified.”  As evil as these two men were, God used them to show us what He was doing, what required the only begotten Son of God to give His life on the cruel cross.  I am Barabbas.  Christ’s righteous life was given in exchange for mine, bearing shame and scoffing rude, in my place condemned He stood!  “There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Ac. 4:12).  There is no one to save us from sin but Jesus Christ.  “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.”

John 7:25-31, What time is it?

Why did Jesus maintain His silence?  Because He was committed to the will of His Father.  He had settled this in the Garden of Gethsemane.  He had “assumed” this from before the foundation of the world (Psalm 2:6-9).  His life goal was to fully do the will of His Father.  He knew that His hour had come, and while Gethsemane makes it clear that this was not something He embraced without understanding the difficulty of the cross, He nevertheless embraced the cross! 

John Calvin said it like this: “It is certain that Christ was silent when false witnesses pressed hard upon him, not only because they did not deserve a reply, but because he did not seek to be now acquitted, knowing that his hour was come.”  Jesus didn’t even try to correct the false witnesses by explaining what He had meant about “rebuilding the temple in three days.”  He confidently embraced the cross!

It is not a sin for a servant of the Lord to seek to preserve his life when under attack.  David ran from King Saul for seven years.  I heard a “teacher” criticize David for going over to the Philistines because he feared for his life.  The argument was that David knew God’s promise, that he would be king, and that he should have just trusted God.  The Bible does not paint the situation like that. 

On the other hand, why was David convinced he should stand up to Goliath.  He didn’t have to.  He was taking a potentially fatal approach.  Except that David was convinced that the glory of God required someone to do it and no one else seemed willing.  What’s the difference between these two events in David’s life?

Paul, fled Damascus in a basket.  He fled from Antioch to Iconium to Lystra to Derbe.  Paul let local believer talk him out of going before the riotous mob at Ephesus.  Yet, there came a day when he took a legal step to keep himself in prison so he could stand before the emperor.

In Jesus’ case, His life was in danger long before the cross.  “Therefore they sought again to seize Him, but He escaped out of their hand” (Jn. 10:39).  Later, “Jesus no longer walked openly among the Jews” but fled to Ephraim for safety (Jn. 11:53-54). Jesus did not intentionally put Himself in a situation where the Father had to bail Him out so to speak: “Thou shall not tempt the Lord thy God” (Mt. 4:7).  But now, before Caiaphas and Pilate He was unwilling to flee, even though there might have been a way of escape.  Previously “they sought to take Him; but no one laid a hand on Him, because His hour had not come” (Jn. 7:30).  Something about an encounter with certain Greeks told Him, through the Spirit, that “the hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified” (Jn. 12:23).  It was Passover (Jn. 13:1), He was in Jerusalem (Lk. 13:32f), and there would be no escape!  He knew His Bible.  He was filled with the Spirit.  So He embraced the cross!  That is how we will know what hour it is in which we are living!