I have been reading through the book of Isaiah during these last few days. It is very slow going, because I keep reading something that reminds me of a passage or verse in the New Testament which I must find before reading further in Isaiah. I don’t begrudge this, it is nourishing to my soul, but it is slow. In the 53rd chapter alone I looked at more than thirty parts of the New Testament while reading. These citations were by Paul, Peter, in Hebrews, but also by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
Long decades ago, while a student at USC, I tutored a young man my age in Chemistry and Physics. He was unable to read, I do not know why, but did well in college because of his tutors. One day he came to the door in his robe and asked me to be seated for a minute while he finished dressing. I took out my Bible and used the time reading. It happened to be in Isaiah 53.
When he returned, he saw me turn a page and asked what I was reading. I said, “Isaiah.” He asked me to read the page to him.
“Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and like one from whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our peace fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him…”
That is as far as I got when he suddenly burst into screaming, “You’re telling me that’s Jesus, right, that he died for my sins. That’s about the crucifixion, that he is the savior, right?” These words were screamed at the top of his lung capacity.
“I didn’t say that,” I said calmly.
He picked up a ceramic lamp and threw it directly at my head. I ducked, and it smashed against the wall. He picked up ashtrays and cups that were within reach and heaved them at me, shouting, “Get out! Get out!”
I did. I never got my physics book back, but I’d say there was a young man who heard Isaiah 53 which was written some seven hundred years before the birth of Jesus Christ.
From Isaiah 55:11, “So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; it will not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.”
And Hebrews 4:12, “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”