Romans 15:4 "For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope."
Personal evangelism is sharing the message of Jesus Christ with others.
It is showing and telling and serving others— with, through both word and deed — who Jesus is and how it’s possible to have a relationship with Him.
Think of individual evangelism in light of our own and everyone else’s life’s journeys.
Personal evangelism is simply the privilege of entering into the spiritual journey of another person, living into and out from God’s summons, and discovering how God is at work, and the undeniable role that we can play.
Genesis 24:1-9 GOD’S WORD Translation
Abraham Instructs His Servant
24 By now Abraham was old, and the Lord had blessed him in every way. 2 So Abraham said to the senior servant of his household who was in charge of all that he owned, “Take a solemn oath. 3 I want you to swear by the Lord God of heaven and earth that you will not get my son a wife from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I’m living. 4 Instead, you will go to the land of my relatives and get a wife for my son Isaac.”
5 The servant asked him, “What if the woman doesn’t want to come back to this land with me? Should I take your son all the way back to the land you came from?”
6 “Make sure that you do not take my son back there,” Abraham said to him. 7 “The Lord God of heaven took me from my father’s home and the land of my family. He spoke to me and swore this oath: ‘I will give this land to your descendants.’
“God will send his angel ahead of you, and you will get my son a wife from there. 8 If the woman doesn’t want to come back with you, then you’ll be free from this oath that you swear to me. But don’t take my son back there.” 9 So the servant did as his master Abraham commanded and swore the oath to him concerning this.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.
And Father Abraham Said Unto His Servant, “GO!”
Abraham’s wife Sarah has died (Genesis 23:2).
Isaac is the only son left through whom God will make a great nation of people.
So, the question naturally arises,
“Does not Isaac need a wife if he’s going to have children, bless generations ?”
Abraham is old, and he knows he won’t live much longer.
There is one more thing he needs to take care of – get a wife for his son Isaac.
Of one thing he is very sure: he cannot let Isaac take a bride from the Canaanite women who worship false gods.
Abraham calls on his most trusted servant and commissions him to find a wife for Isaac from among his kin.
Abraham is very clear that Isaac is not to go; he must stay in the land the Lord has promised them.
So, the loyal servant of Abraham swears an oath to Abraham and “Goes Forth.”
That’s the story we come to next.
In Genesis Chapter 24, however, we must first take careful note in our text that we have four main persons: the father, the son, the servant, and the bride.
This is very meaningful.
As we move forward in time and come to the writings of the New Testament, we should see that the Triune God is working, laboring together to obtain a bride for the Son….The subject of the New Testament is the Triune God, the Father, the Son, the Spirit, working, laboring together to obtain the bride for the Son.
From the start, The Father made the plan, the Spirit carries out the Father’s plan, the Son enjoys what the Father has planned, what the Spirit carries out.
Who is the bride?
The bride is that chosen part of the human race which will marry the Son and become His counterpart .
Upon Closer Scrutiny-With One Eye Towards Eternity
If we read this chapter through carefully, we will find that the central character in the text is not Rebekah, who is to become the bride of Abraham’s son Isaac.
Very little of her reaction is actually recorded here; she has a secondary part.
The spotlight of the story really follows Abraham and Abraham’s unnamed senior and most trusted, most faithful servant, who is the central character.
For us, this is a picture of the Holy Spirit’s work.
But remember, the Spirit of God chooses to do His work largely through men and women, through those of us who are His.
This is especially true in the work of the calling out a people for God’s name.
God has given us the responsibility and the privilege of being His instruments to go into the world and faithfully seek out and call His bride out of the world.
So this whole story from Genesis chapter 24 becomes for us a precursor, an ancient beautiful picture of the whole process of PERSONAL EVANGELISM.
PERSONAL EVANGELISM: The process of we, Father God’s loyal and trusted servants bringing others to Christ begins with the command of God the Father.
Genesis 24:1-4 New American Standard Bible
A Bride for Isaac
24 Now Abraham was old, advanced in age; and the Lord had blessed Abraham in every way. 2 Abraham said to his servant, the oldest of his household who was in charge of all that he owned, “Please place your hand under my thigh, 3 and I will make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you shall not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I live; 4 but you will go to my country and to my relatives, and take a wife for my son Isaac.”
The initiative here is with Father Abraham, he knew he was advanced in age and his length of years would soon end, and he knew well God blessed in every way.
Abraham sends his most senior and trusted servant, who has authority over everything Abraham owns, to do this work, binds him to the task with an oath.
When the servant puts his hand under Abraham’s thigh, he is simply practicing an oriental custom that recognized the loins of the thigh were the source of life.
For the trusted servant, it was a representation of being bound in a solemn oath.
As we apply this to our own situation and see God the Father standing in the place of Abraham here, He is asking every servant to give himself to this task.
The servant is unnamed here so that you and I can put our own names here.
The Father calls us His servants, commands us to go and take a wife for His Son.
This is not an option for a believer in Jesus Christ.
God has said, not only in the fashion we see here but also in direct statements in the Word of God, the obligation rests upon believers to give themselves over to the sacred task of reaching to others for the coming Bride Groom Jesus Christ.
God has commanded, us, His most trusted servants, to take a wife for my Son.
And so unto this end, the Holy Spirit of God has come into our hearts to dwell.
His whole purpose of coming into your life and mine is that He might be what He is and do what He came to do – send us out into the world to find a “Bride.”
Our Lord Jesus is the one dwelling within, and we are told what He came to do.
45 It’s the same way with the Son of Man. He didn’t come so that others could serve him. He came to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many people.”Mark 10:45
He said, For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost(Luke 19:10).
If this is what He came to do, we will find Him doing exactly that in our lives, if we give Him the opportunity – we authentically become that “Trusted Servant.”
Do we recognize and live by our servant mandate as disciples of the Lord Jesus?
Are we being .01% authentically responsive to the prompting of the Holy Spirit?
Are we being .01% authentic, responsive to Acts 1:8 “go forth into the world?”
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
A Prayer for Opportunity
God, My Father, Like Abraham’s loyal servant I long to be sent forth, the chance to serve you, for the opportunity to proclaim the goodness of Your name. I long to seek others, engage with them, pray with them, be a servant unto them, draw them closer to you, for service in your Kingdom. As I go out today, please bring me into contact with those who have been given eyes to see, ears to hear. Direct my steps and lead me into those conversations You want me to have today, Jesus. In Jesus’ name, I pray.
53 Who has believed [confidently trusted in, relied on, and adhered to] our message [of salvation]? And to whom [if not us] has the arm and infinite power of the Lord been revealed? 2 For He [the Servant of God] grew up before Him like a tender shoot (plant), And like a root out of dry ground; He has no stately form or majestic splendor That we would look at Him, Nor [handsome] appearance that we would [a]be attracted to Him. 3 He was despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and pain and acquainted with grief; And like One from whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we did not appreciate His worth or esteem Him.
4 But [in fact] He has borne our griefs, And He has carried our sorrows and pains; Yet we [ignorantly] assumed that He was stricken, Struck down by God and degraded and humiliated [by Him]. 5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was crushed for our wickedness [our sin, our injustice, our wrongdoing]; The punishment [required] for our well-being fell on Him, And by His stripes (wounds) we are healed. 6 All of us like sheep have gone astray, We have turned, each one, to his own way; But the Lord has caused the wickedness of us all [our sin, our injustice, our wrongdoing] To fall on Him [instead of us].
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.
Someone Familiar With Our Suffering
“You can’t truly know people unless you walk a mile in their shoes,” we sometimes say.
Two thousand ago, a man named Jesus walked into humanity’s full view, in our shoes, and showed that he genuinely knew the full range of human experience.
The Word of God for His Children often reminds them that Jesus was one of us.
The Word of God comes right out of God’s mouth to reveal to human kind He experienced joy and suffering and sorrow, feasting and hunger, the fruits of hard work and the setbacks of humiliation, injustice, poverty, life and death.
He also knew the grief of losing a close friend, which led him to weep (John 11:32-35).
In addition, Jesus was sometimes discouraged by the spiritual numbness of his disciples (Matthew 16:8-12), and weary from hot, dusty travel (John 4:6).
He became angry when people mistreated God and others (Matthew 21:12-13), he also took children in his arms, taught and blessed them (Matthew 19:13-14).
Countless times we read of him healing the sick and destitute, individually and by the village full, approaching the unapproachable, touching the untouchable.
In the account of his crucifixion, as Isaiah foretold, Jesus even experienced total rejection, complete betrayal and unimaginable physical and spiritual suffering.
The reality: Our salvation wasn’t won in the beauty and safety of a royal palace.
Jesus pioneered our salvation through the experience of human living in this world.
He faced all the temptations and struggles we meet daily—and yet he never sinned (Hebrews 4:15).
There is not one single human heart who can claim it has never been wounded.
There is not one single human heart which can claim it has not ever suffered.
His words from the cross “I am thirsty” (John 19:28) assure us that he willingly and obediently dealt with all human experiences as he worked to defeat sin.
For humanity, there must eventually, gradually, subtly, suddenly, come the realization that there is a very real place in God’s divine order – where all our hurting, our woundedness, our suffering, our brokenness, sin, come together.
From Genesis to Revelation, The Word of God reveals to all of God’s children Jesus is our ultimate example of the type of heart we need to turn to, we need to surrender to, because by his crucifixion, He is our healer, our wounded healer.
And we see this heart, the heart of Jesus, not only from His life but also in the death He died for us, not only by the death He died for us, but by the witness of the EMPTY tomb, the angels’ words, by His resurrection and by His Ascension.
A Wounded Healer’s Heart
Jesus is a Wounded Healer.
He experienced our wounds by coming in flesh so He could feel what we feel.
“But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.”Isaiah 53:5. NKJV.
Are You A Wounded Healer?
Am I A Wounded Healer?
You and I may not even know there is a name for it; you are too busy doing what needs to be done.
You and I have almost certainly, surely been gravely wounded, hurt, maybe too even abused, maybe even bullied, maybe even betrayed, maybe even humiliated.
Somehow, by some means, in too many ways, we are all wounded throughout our lives, physically, emotionally, psychologically; some of us have been hurt in more ways than we can remember – the measure of trauma is too inconceivable.
A Wounded Healer is one who, although they have been wounded time and time again; discern they learn to take those experiences and use them to help others, to minister like Jesus, during their time of loss, tragedy, grief, pain or illness.
Even from hospital beds, with bodies wracked by severe illnesses, like Jesus, they realize that though they are suffering, have suffered in their bodies, they have also learned, by prayer, witness and their testimony of the work of their Savior Jesus in their lives, they can now benefit all others from that suffering.
Now they have become a Wounded Healer.
God isn’t causing their pain but He can use their pain to get your attention and help you and me and others grow, teach the many of compassion and grace.
By their example, you and I can learn how we too can share all our Savior Jesus Christ, minister to others in the middle of our own pain and it helps them heal!
Hebrews 13:1-2 Amplified Bible
The Changeless Christ
13 Let love of your fellow believers continue. 2 Do not neglect to extend hospitality to strangers [especially among the family of believers—being friendly, cordial, and gracious, sharing the comforts of your home and doing your part generously], for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it.
When this passage in Hebrews was anonymously written, people were expected to show generous hospitality to travelers and strangers who might otherwise have nowhere else to stay as they went from village to village and town to town.
The context of this advice urges believers in God to show love and care for one another as well for others who may be in need, such as strangers, travelers.
This advice echoes the words of Jesus in Matthew 25:31-46, where Rabbi Jesus teaches us all that caring for the needs of others is like doing the same for him.
This passage in Hebrews also invites us to consider that a stranger or visitor we encounter might be an angel—that is, a messenger from God (also Genesis 18).
The point is that we should treat anyone we meet as being so valuable and fully worthy of our time that they might be sent from God, and that showing love and care and compassion to them would be like doing the same for the Lord himself.
This can be hard to imagine, especially if hospitality is not so common anymore in our culture and we need to be ever so much more wary of “stranger danger.”
But here the Spirit of God is challenging us simply to treat others well, showing love and kindness to everyone, no matter who they are.
In other words, we are called, even from the midst of our suffering, to love and care for others just as our Lord, Savior Jesus Christ has done for us at Calvary.
Angels of Mercy who will probably not have a set of initials after their name, they won’t ever claim to know it all, and they won’t ever have all the answers.
But they know how to listen, they know how to care, whose families will show up with a casserole, a care package, or sit with you through the night if need be.
Sometimes they say nothing at all.
They do not have to because they have been there.
They were wounded, they know.
Silence is golden, a hug is infinitely better than words.
Where Our Hurt and Our Healing Collides
Isaiah 53:3-5 Amplified Bible
3 He was despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and pain and acquainted with grief; And like One from whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we did not appreciate His worth or esteem Him.
4 But [in fact] He has borne our griefs, And He has carried our sorrows and pains; Yet we [ignorantly] assumed that He was stricken, Struck down by God and degraded and humiliated [by Him]. 5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was crushed for our wickedness [our sin, our injustice, our wrongdoing]; The punishment [required] for our well-being fell on Him, And by His stripes (wounds) we are healed.
Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is all of mankind’s Wounded Healer.
He experienced our wounds by coming in flesh so He could feel what we feel.
“But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.”Isaiah 53:5. NKJV.
If you have damaged emotions and physical and emotional scars, ABBA God the Father and Jesus His Son and God the Holy Spirit, are able to take care of those.
For God so loved the World that God sent His Son into the World that we should be saved – NOT CONDEMNED for our sins as we all so very righteously deserve.
Jesus gave His life at Calvary and rose again so that we could have eternal life AND be healers on this earth.
We cannot have open wounds and be a healer, we must have those taken care of.
Our resurrected Jesus is the only One who can overcome and heal our hurts so we can then recognize His Sovereignty and become the blessing God intended.
Maybe from your ailing’s you have never thought you had anything to offer.
My friend, I am certain you do.
If the Lord has forgiven you and restored you, pray for opportunities to give others hope and a light at the end of their tunnel.
Pray for the wisdom of God’s testimony and Jesus’ witness at Calvary above all, it is not an easy road to walk the road of suffering, but there are great rewards.
Are there areas in your life where you have opportunity to be a Wounded Healer?
I would love to hear about them!
Has someone else been a Wounded Healer to you?
Feel free to share Jesus Christ, your thoughts and encourage others here today.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Gracious God,
on this day we gather to remember the suffering death of Jesus.
He was despised and rejected,
oppressed and afflicted,
yet he was prepared to be wounded for our transgressions. We come overwhelmed by the depth of Jesus’ love for us,
and his commitment to defeat evil,
even when that meant his own suffering and his own death.
In his willingness to make us righteous, he poured himself out to death, even death on a cross, and so, in response to such love and sacrifice, we commit all of ourselves as his disciples to overcome evil with Your good, our suffering with Your wholeness, with love and compassion, acceptance and mercy for all, meeting oppression with Your justice. Thank you, Jesus, for being willing to enter the grit and grime of our humanity to save us. There has never been a greater sacrifice! Let that be our Witness and let that we our sure and certain Testimony unto the world. Jesus’ name, we pray.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.
49 Listen to [a]Me, O islands and coastlands, And pay attention, you peoples from far away. The Lord has called Me from the womb; From the body of My mother He has named Me. 2 He has made My mouth like a sharp sword, In the shadow of His hand He has kept Me hidden; And He has made Me a sharpened arrow, In His quiver He has hidden Me. 3 And [the Lord] said to Me, “You are My [b]Servant, Israel, In Whom I will show My glory.” 4 Then I said, “I have labored in vain, I have spent My strength for nothing and vanity (pride, uselessness); However My justice is with the Lord, And My reward is with My God.”
5 And now says the Lord, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant, To bring Jacob back to Him and that Israel might be gathered to Him, —For I am honored in the eyes of the Lord, And My God is My strength— 6 He says, “It is too trivial a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the [c]survivors of Israel; I will also make You a light to the nations That My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” 7 This is what the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel, Israel’s Holy One says, To the thoroughly despised One, To the One hated by the nation To the Servant of rulers, “[d]Kings will see and arise, Princes shall also bow down, Because of the Lord who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel who has chosen You.”
8 This is what the Lord says, “In a [e]favorable time I have answered You, And in a day of salvation I have helped You; And I will keep watch over You and give You for a covenant of the people, To restore the land [from its present state of ruin] and to apportion and give as inheritances the deserted hereditary lands, 9 Saying to those who are bound and captured, ‘Go forth,’ And to those who are in [spiritual] darkness, ‘Show yourselves [come into the light of the Savior].’ They will feed along the roads [on which they travel], And their pastures will be on all the bare heights. 10 “They will not hunger or thirst, Nor will the scorching heat or sun strike them down; For He who has compassion on them will lead them, And He will guide them to springs of water. 11 “And I will make all My mountains a roadway, And My highways will be raised. 12 “In fact, these will come from far away; And, lo, these shall come from the north and from the west, And these from the land of [f]Aswan (southern Egypt).” 13 Shout for joy, O heavens, and rejoice, O earth, And break forth into singing, O mountains! For the Lord has comforted His people And will have compassion on His afflicted.
The Word of God for the Children of God.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum!
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
I am impressed by good service.
Good service at a restaurant I eat at, good service by the plumber who fixes the plumbing in house when I need it – day and night, good service from teachers in our schools where children are educated, Service from all of First Responders in times of need when we require protection, emergency medical and health care.
Whenever, Wherever it may be, if I receive good service I am impressed by it.
I am very impressed because good service surpasses my expectations for not just the everyday, give-and-take interaction, but also those life saving ones.
In difficult situations or making critical choices, we are often told to trust God.
Trust is necessary to have a relationship with Him.
If you can’t trust God, you aren’t going to willingly obey His calling on your life.
Every time we worry about something, it is showing a lack of trust in God.
Every time we try to take a situation into our own hands, it shows a lack of trust.
Every time we question what God is calling us to do, it shows a lack of trust.
So, what does it mean to constantly, and confidently, expectantly trust in God?
When you take the word back to its origins, we find that one of the earliest uses of Trust was to express “confident expectation” of someone.
That is what it means to trust God: to have confident expectations of what He is going to do.
We are confident in who He is and what He can do, and we are expectant of His working.
The power of that phrase has the ability to strengthen our faith and deepen our relationship with God.
What if we faced every difficult situation and critical decision by saying,
“I have continuously confident expectations of what God is going to do.”
The power of that sentence is palpable and tangible.
So how do we apply this?
How do we act in confident expectation?
To go back to the origin, four words round out our understanding of Trust: help, confidence, protection, and support.
If you trust someone, you believe that that person is going to help you when you are in need or in danger.
Proverbs 3:5-8Amplified Bible
5 Trust in and rely confidently on the Lord with all your heart And do not rely on your own insight or understanding. 6 [a]In all your ways know and acknowledge and recognize Him, And He will make your paths straight and smooth [removing obstacles that block your way]. 7 Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the Lord [with reverent awe and obedience] and turn [entirely] away from evil. 8 It will be health to your body [your marrow, your nerves, your sinews, your muscles—all your inner parts] And refreshment (physical well-being) to your bones.
When you trust in the Lord, He will help you.
He will direct your paths and guide you.
It will be health to your body – and refreshment to your bones ….
To trust in the Lord is to acknowledge His ability to help and to seek His help.
Trust brings with it a sense of confidence in the person.
Isaiah 12:2 expresses this by saying,
“Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid; ‘For YAH, the Lord, is my strength and song; He also has become my salvation.’”
There is the expectation of confidence in God’s strength and His salvation.
When we are confident in God’s power, we are no longer afraid—we are bold.
There is an assurance of protection in trust.
“Trust in Him at all times, you people; pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us,” states Psalm 62:8.
He is a sure and certain refuge.
He protects us, we feel confident in that protection when our trust is in Him.
There is support in trust because you believe that the person is going to be there for you and they will be with you the whole time.
When you think of support, you think of the environment or people around you—that which is going to sustain you.
Jeremiah 17:7-8 illustrates what this support from God looks like. It says,
7 “Blessed [with spiritual security] is the man who believes and trusts in and relies on the Lord And whose hope and confident expectation is the Lord. 8 “For he will be [nourished] like a tree planted by the waters, That spreads out its roots by the river; And will not fear the heat when it comes; But its leaves will be green and moist. And it will not be anxious and concerned in a year of drought Nor stop bearing fruit.
When a tree is planted by water, it has the support of the water to thrive.
That is what it is like for us when we confidently, expectantly trust in God—we have the confident expectation of maximum support from Him that we need.
Charles Wesley, brother of John Wesley, founder of Methodism wrote the Advent Hymn titled “Come, Thou Long – Expected Jesus.”
It is pretty much sung at some point during each and every Advent Season.
Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus
1. Come, thou long expected Jesus, born to set thy people free; from our fears and sins release us, let us find our rest in thee. Israel’s strength and consolation, hope of all the earth thou art; dear desire of every nation, joy of every longing heart.
2. Born thy people to deliver, born a child and yet a King, born to reign in us forever, now thy gracious kingdom bring. By thine own eternal spirit rule in all our hearts alone; by thine all sufficient merit, raise us to thy glorious throne.
The first verse speaks to the repeatedly expressed, confident expectations, of the Prophets of the Hebrew Testament that at some God Appointed time – a Messiah would come to be born on earth – to ultimately console, restore Israel.
The 2nd verse speaks to that moment having actually occurred, we hear in the background – a confident chorus of those ancient Prophets singing: Alleluia!
At Christmas each year we read and hear the Gospel story of Jesus’ birth.
For those of us who have been involved in church, planning church worship, walking the Christian life for some time, we can take this story for granted.
Instead of being impressed by the actual “long expected coming” of the truths of Immanuel’s incarnation, we often become blasé and apathetic to the season.
Yet, as I daily delve into scripture in greater depth, I become more and more impressed at how God’s handiwork throughout the Old Testament speaks into the birth of Jesus. And lately, for me, this has come from the book of Isaiah.
Miraculously, we read that seven to eight hundred years prior to the birth of Jesus, we read the prophecies and teaching of God through the person of Isaiah.
He speaks to the leaders of God’s people with admonishment and judgement upon their rebellion toward God, but also (like all Hebrew Testament prophets) Isaiah provides a growing sense of confidence, promises of hope for the future.
Through what is known as four ‘Servant Songs’ (Isaiah 42:1-4; 49:1-13; 50:4-9; 52:13-52:12), God’s message through the long expectant, long confident Isaiah, depicts a person who will absolutely, definitely come to serve the people of God.
This person will come from within Israel, and is to serve them as one who has been called and consecrated by the Lord. Through this ‘Servant of the Lord,’ there will come restoration, consolation, hope, and salvation for God’s people.
Isaiah 49:5-6Amplified Bible
5 And now says the Lord, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant, To bring Jacob back to Him and that Israel might be gathered to Him, —For I am honored in the eyes of the Lord, And My God is My strength— 6 He says, “It is too trivial a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the [a]survivors of Israel; I will also make You a light to the nations That My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
Isaiah’s words confidently, expectantly speak of how the Lord will form this servant from the womb, will provide him with strength to unite God’s people.
The Lord then seems to be speaking to this servant directly when he says,
“It is too small a thing for you to be my servant, restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.”(See also Isaiah 50:10; 52:13; 53:11).
Through what we could call this ‘Servant-King’, God will enact his mission in reconciling the world to himself once again.
No longer will God’s people be ruled by inept human leaders, but will be governed by a selfless, humble, and perfect Servant-King.
And this Servant-King, as we understand from the New Testament, is Jesus, is Immanuel, God with, within us, the birth of whom we celebrate each Christmas.
As we come together, as believers and non-believers in our worship services, and as we sing “Come All Ye Faithful” and “we sing Silent Night, Holy Night,”
Celebrating Jesus, celebrating Immanuel, God With Us and Within Us, this Christmas it is 100% worth considering at least 1 of these four Servant Songs,
because through them we find how important they are for understanding the incarnation event.
These Servant Songs – written several centuries before Jesus’ birth – reveal just how confidently, expectantly, specifically the prophetic scriptures speaks to the undeniable truth of who the expected “soon to arrive” Messiah would truly be.
In Isaiah 42:1-4 it reads:
1 Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. 2 He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; 3 a bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. 4 He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his law.
These words of Isaiah give us insight into the Servant-King.
We are told of what this person will do and what he won’t do.
This prophecy speaks to the heart of who Jesus is and why he has been sent.
Here are words which bring maturing confidence and expectation, hope and encouragement to the people of God, both at the time of writing and today.
Through these four verses we begin to prophetically envision a picture of the character and mission of the absolutely expected coming Servant-King Jesus.
This coming Servant-King:
is a specific person chosen and upheld by the Lord (verse 1)
is one who is delighted in by the Lord (verse 1)
will have the Spirit of God upon them (verse 1)
will bring justice to the nations and peoples of the world (verse 1)
will not cry aloud and lift his voice in the streets (verse 2)
will not break people, abuse them, or squash them (verse 3)
will not tire nor be discouraged from pursuing his mission (verse 4)
And when we read these, knowing our New Testament scriptures, we find that Jesus meets each aspect of this criteria.
Jesus was chosen, upheld, and delighted in by God.
He had the Spirit upon him, and has come to be the perfect just judge.
Through his ministry he worked in humility and with patience, seeking to serve, to be kind and compassionate, and tender toward others.
And finally, he did not grow discouraged or stop the work he was called to do, not even unto the point of death.
Seven hundred years after Isaiah wrote these words, they find fulfillment through the Servant-King Jesus.
Through his birth Jesus comes as the great justice-giver.
Jesus comes to bring justice to the nations, establish justice upon the earth.
Jesus achieves these words of justice through his life and ministry, ultimately turning that justice upon himself, making himself the conduit of justice by taking upon Himself the maximum measure of all of the sins of the world.
Through the cross Jesus achieves and establishes justice for the nations, and for us personally.
He serves as the Servant-King,
reminding us of the words of
Mark 10:45, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
The faithfulness of God’s Words ….
The confidence, expectations of the ancient Prophets God will absolutely COME!
The courage of the ancient Prophets to write these expectations down, not just for their coming generations of readers to remain hopeful, but for our very own coming generations too!
The confidence, the faithfulness of God’s Prophets in their Obedience to the Will of God for their times and trials and tribulations, seasons of their lives ;
But, ultimately, it comes down to ….
The faithfulness of God toward his people,
the confident delivery of true restoration,
the long expected provision of hope for the future,
and the eternal salvation for souls finds culmination at the cross.
Jesus, the Servant-King, provides us with the greatest service.
And this Christmas Eve, as we turn our hearts and souls toward the celebration of his birth may we be wonderfully expectant, impressed, strengthened in faith, and humbled through His grace, because of God’s Words through his Prophets.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Heavenly Father, thank You for Your perfect plan of redemption and that by grace, You formed the Lord Jesus from the womb to be Israel’s suffering Servant and eternal King. Thank You for the lives of Your Prophets, for their words spoken and written for their people and for us, through their complete obedience to Your Will. It is only by their confidence in You, by the surest certainty, the surest expectations of Your future actions in the lives of coming generations, we have these Servant Songs. Thank You for fulfilling these ancient prophetic words, Thank You that You chose to reveal that fulfillment through the songs of the Shepherds, Mary and Joseph, Zacharias and Elizabeth, Simeon and Anna. Thank You that You chose me to be part of that ancient chorus, through the Body of Christ, so that in Him we might show forth the praises of Immanuel, Him Who came to us, called us out of darkness into His marvelous light.
Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum!
Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 