Only God knows how many of his dear children he has brought to faith in Christ by illuminating this most amazing of all Old Testament Messianic prophecies. May it bring a fresh blessing to your hearts and lives. d

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Who has believed our message?
And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

He grew up before Him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no stately form or majesty to attract us,
no beauty that we should desire Him.

He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.
Like one from whom men hide their faces,
He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.

Surely He bore our infirmities and carried our sorrows;
yet we considered Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
But He was pierced for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was placed upon Him,
and by His stripes we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray,
each one has turned to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet He opened not His mouth.
He was led like a lamb to the slaughter;
and as a sheep before her shearers is silent,
so He opened not His mouth.

By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
and as for his generation, who among us considered
that he was cut off from the land of the living
for the transgression of my people,
the ones to whom the stroke was due?

He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and was with a rich man in His death,
though He had done no violence,
nor was any deceit found in His mouth.

Yet it pleased the LORD to crush Him, and to put Him to grief.
And when His soul has been made a guilt offering,
He will see His offspring,
He will prolong His days,
and the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.
After the anguish of His soul,
He will see the light of life and be satisfied.

By His knowledge My righteous Servant will justify many,
and He will bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will allot Him a portion with the great,
and He will divide the spoils with the strong,
because He poured out His life unto death,
and because He was numbered among the transgressors.
Yet He bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.

– Isaiah 53 (ASV, NASB, BSB)