Basic HTML Version
304
Royalty and Ruin
gently the daylight breaks on the earth, dispelling the darkness and
waking the earth to life. Isaiah exclaimed:
For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called
Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 9:6
The loyal ones among the Jewish nation strengthened their faith
by dwelling on these and similar passages. They read how the Lord
would anoint One “to preach good tidings to the poor,” “to heal the
brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives,” and to declare
“the acceptable year of the Lord.”
Isaiah 61:1, 2
. Yet with sadness
and deep humiliation of soul they noted the words in the prophetic
scroll:
He is despised and rejected by men,
A Man of Sorrows, and acquainted with grief.
And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted... .
All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
Isaiah 53:3-6
As the substitute and the One taking responsibility for sinful
humanity, Christ was to suffer under divine justice. Through the
psalmist the Redeemer had prophesied concerning Himself:
Reproach has broken My heart,
And I am full of heaviness;
[244]