Who Is Isaiah 53 About? S5e53 Acts8:34

If you read the book of Isaiah, you likely will get to a few sections where the writer refers to a person not HISTORICALLY, but in a future PROPHETICALLY.  He wrote this stuff down in 740BC that was to come true in 33AD.  Today we see a real guy, making a real inquiry of Phillip who the Lord sent to answer his questions.  He is reading Isaiah and in in one of the sections that points forward to the "Suffering Servant". Any diligent reader of Isaiah 53 should be asking his question:  "Who is this about?"

Gotta love the Old Testament.  In many ways, God reveals Himself more clearly there than anywhere.  Here we see it play out in real time.  

God WANTS to be understood.  He has gone to great trouble to be understood.  He planned out His revelation and unfolded it for thousands of years.  

I pray you too are STUCK on the Old Testament.  I pray you too ask: WHO IS THIS ABOUT.?Then subscribe on Spotify. or Bewithme.us@gmail.com or bewithme.us

Transcript

Unknown: 0:01

Good morning, my brothers and sisters Welcome to Episode 53 of be with me. We're in the book of Acts and we're hearing an amazing story. Yesterday, we looked at a story where the Lord was seeing this Ethiopian eunuch. And why so that he can eventually see the Lord and then eventually be baptized and others can see him have the Lord. So it's about a specific person, a worshipper of God, a fear of God who's on a 5000 mile pilgrimage 2500 there and back each way to Jerusalem, basically, at least an eight month trip, by my calculations. It's a man who's had some loss in his life, some loss of his anatomy, probably an inability to have a family and probably some stuff that was done against his will. So he's a man of familiar with pain. And we see the Lord orchestrating a location of a chariot and an angel, messenger and a human messenger in his message, in His Word, all to get this guy to to point his heart towards the Lord. All right, so here it is, in Acts chapter eight. Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip Rise and go toward the south to a road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is a desert place, and he rose and went, and there was an Ethiopian, a UNIQ accord official of Canada's queen of the Ethiopians who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship, and was returning seated in his chariot. And he was reading the prophet Isaiah, and this is so significant. And the Spirit said to Philip, go over and join his chariot. And then I love this part. So Philip random, he runs to the battle, and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, Do you understand what you were reading? And he said, How can I unless someone guides me, and he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the passage of scripture that he was reading was this this is from Isaiah chapter 53. Like a sheep that was led to slaughter like a lamb before sheer his silence, so he opens not his mouth. In his humiliation justice was denied him, who can describe his generation, for his life is taken away from the earth. And the Unix said to Philip, about whom I asked you, does the Prophet say this? about himself? Or about someone else? It's a fantastic question. So let me stop there. This is a question that the unique is asking Phillip referring to Isaiah chapter 53. So just a couple things before we get to i z. I love that Phillip runs to the chariot, right? He runs to the battle, he runs to this rescue Miss mission. And I love that he is the guide that is inquired about like, Can Can you help me understand this? And that I just love the question to that the unic asked, Who is this about? Like, if you read the book of Isaiah, which is written in about 740 BC. If you read the book, like, if you read the book of Isaiah, you're going to find that it's a lot about stuff that happens in 740 BC. However, there are sections there's five sections in there, where it points to Jesus that's called they're called the suffering servant. Sections. I think there are five of them, there might be six. And you clearly as you read this, you say, this is not about that moment in time in 740 bc it but pushes you forward and says this is about someone else. This is about the suffering servant. And so it's interesting and prophetic that that Philip is there to help the unit understand who the suffering servant is about? And of course, it's about Jesus. And remember Matthew 13, Jesus said that many prophets longed to see what the people in that moment were seeing that is to see Jesus. Then I think we could say the same thing about Isaiah back there in Isaiah chapter 53. Remember, that's the chapter. It's 100% worth reading. Oh my goodness. It's a chapter where it says that Jesus was despised and rejected a man of sorrows acquainted with grief. He was wounded for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities, by his stripes we are healed. That's just I mean, then and there's tons more in there clearly pointing towards Jesus. It speaks of our liability of sin of a substitutionary payment or an atonement. It talks about the suffering that is going to take place that is going to need to take place to assuage a righteous God. So I think the UNIQ sitting in his chair is asking an incredibly appropriate question, which is, who is this guy? You can't read Isaiah without getting stuck in certain portions of it saying, Who is this referring to? Because it's not referring to anybody historically, it's referring to forward. So it's a prophetic, messianic, specific, conflict convicting message from the Old Testament? It's a great question that is asked, it's an appropriate question that the eunuch asked after reading, specifically, this section. Alright, so a couple of teaching points, final teaching points. Number one, do you understand the Bible, if not, get a guide, and get a system and get a habit and get the Holy Spirit. The Lord wants to be known. He wants to be understood. And you can see how the Lord is being understood by this man who doesn't quite get it all yet, but wants to be in relationship with them. Second point is that God reveals himself in the Old Testament, oh, my goodness, I would even say that God sometimes reveals himself better in the Old Testament than in the New Testament. And if not go ahead and prove me wrong. This is a great example of it, where it's not really referring to something that's in 740 BC, it's referring to something 773 years later in 3334. Ad. Number three, ask a question. And if you can help it ask a great question like the unit does, which is, who is this Old Testament referring to? Who is this Old Testament passage referring to? You may be stuck on the Old Testament, you may be like him disturbed, unsettled to the point of saying, Gosh, I really need to ask a question to a real person to a real guide, who really knows what's going on, just like this unit that unit does. So stay tuned. We're going to see what happens tomorrow after he asks this great question, which is about whom I asked you, does the prophet Isaiah say about this? So, thanks for listening. I'll see you tomorrow.