Faithful on Fridays Blog

Part Eight

As we enter into the ‘fifties’ of Isaiah we uncover God’s greatest gift, His Son, however, before we arrive there (chapter 53) we need to define two words. In Isaiah 51 God speaks to those who pursue righteousness, for a Jew that would be the substituted blood of a sacrificed animal as payment to Him for sin. It happened once a year on the Day of Atonement receiving yearly forgiveness according to God’s direction being considered in ‘right standing’ with Him. That’s the lower story. For believers in Jesus that was a picture of God’s own Son voluntarily giving His life as our ransom; that’s the upper story. When we repent of our sins Jesus’ blood guarantees our forgiveness and we’re also in right standing with Him, declared not guilty of our sins, and our record expunged forever. Our sinful nature was charged to Jesus and His righteousness is charged to us: too good to be true, right? But it is.

The prophet speaks for God as He tells the people to seek this right standing, do the right thing, live the right way, and always remember the Rock and Quarry where you came from … the faith of Abraham and Sarah (Rom. 4:16-25). Why? Because Messiah is coming as a light to the world bringing salvation to those who will believe from every nation.

Another word we find in these chapters is Zion; this can be a person or a place, but it’s always referring to God’s salvation, rescue, and eternal love. It was originally a literal stronghold, but became God’s dwelling place as well (Ps. 87:1-3; Jer. 31:6) since it housed the Ark of the Covenant. God doesn’t love a literal city, but the people that dwell there because they’re His children (Ps. 149:2); watch for this name as you read Isaiah 51-54.

Zion is encouraged to be strong as they wait for God’s restoration with the promise that He’ll be with them (52:8) and will send His Servant (Messiah) to make the world right again. Beginning with 52:13 and completing God’s description of Messiah in 53:12, we find the Suffering Servant, the Man of Sorrows, and the One whom God sent to be the Savior of the world. The details are irrefutable and you can literally imagine Jesus suffering the piercing, crushing, and punishment of the cross. When God saw the far future (53:11) He was satisfied and our sin, iniquity, and transgressions were counted as righteousness; we call that just-if-ication. God sees a believer in Jesus ‘just-as-if’ they’d never sinned. 

The closing of Is. 54 says that all these promises are our heritage, as His adopted children our righteousness is from God Himself (vs. 17) and no weapon from the enemy can succeed. Sons and daughters of Zion (Song of Songs 3:11) you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus (2 Cor. 5:21) and His perfection of beauty (Ps. 50:2) shines forth in you.