Reading: Isaiah chapter 52 verse 13
There are those who would read about the death of Jesus and conclude that it happened by chance. They might accept that it was a huge miscarriage of justice but they do not see any evidence of a divine plan. Men were in control and decided when, where and how they would end His life. Those who were longing for the Messiah to deliver them from their enemies could not see how this would be accomplished by the way of suffering and death on a Roman cross.
If they had looked back to the Old Testament, they would have seen that this was in God’s divine plan and that salvation was to be brought about by the way of the Cross! It has been said that there was a CROSS in the heart of God long before one stood at Calvary!

The first prophecy in the Bible was spoken to Satan by God after he had instigated the fall of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden: ‘I will put enmity between you (Satan} and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He (Jesus) shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel’, Genesis chapter 3 verse 15. Indeed, it was in God’s eternal Plan that SALVATION WOULD BE THROUGH THE DEATH OF HIS SON AND THE SHEDDING OF HIS PRECIOUS BLOOD!

One of the great Old Testament prophets, ISAIAH, frequently took up the theme of SALVATION BY WAY OF THE SUFFERING SERVANT. As you read his book, you cannot help but catch the atmosphere and feel as if you are standing at the Cross:

‘All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth, He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth . . . He poured out His soul unto death . . . He bore the sin of many’, Isaiah chapter 53 verse s 6-12.

May we all never forget God’s suffering Servant and that it was all for – US!