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The Acts of the Apostles
wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit
of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord; and shall make Him of quick
understanding in the fear of the Lord.” The One thus anointed was “to
preach good tidings unto the meek; ... to bind up the brokenhearted, to
proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them
that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day
of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; to appoint unto
them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of
joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that
they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord,
that He might be glorified.”
Isaiah 11:2, 3
;
61:1-3
.
“Behold My servant, whom I uphold; Mine elect, in whom My
soul delighteth; I have put My Spirit upon Him: He shall bring forth
judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause His
voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed shall He not break, and
the smoking flax shall He not quench: He shall bring forth judgment
unto truth. He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till He have set
judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for His law.”
Isaiah
42:1-4
.
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With convincing power Paul reasoned from the Old Testament
Scriptures that “Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from
the dead.” Had not Micah prophesied, “They shall smite the Judge
of Israel with a rod upon the cheek”?
Micah 5:1
. And had not the
Promised One, through Isaiah, prophesied of Himself, “I gave My
back to the smiters, and My cheeks to them that plucked off the hair:
I hid not My face from shame and spitting”?
Isaiah 50:6
. Through
the psalmist Christ had foretold the treatment that He should receive
from men: “I am ... a reproach of men, and despised of the people.
All they that see Me laugh Me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they
shake the head, saying, He trusted on the Lord that He would deliver
Him: let Him deliver Him, seeing He delighted in Him.” “I may tell
all My bones: they look and stare upon Me. They part My garments
among them, and cast lots upon My vesture.” “I am become a stranger
unto My brethren, and an alien unto My mother’s children. For the
zeal of Thine house hath eaten Me up; and the reproaches of them
that reproached Thee are fallen upon Me.” “Reproach hath broken
My heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take