AP

Isaiah 29:22-23  Therefore this is what the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, says to the descendants of Jacob: “No longer will Jacob be ashamed; no longer will their faces grow pale.  When they see among them their children, the work of my hands, they will keep my name holy; they will acknowledge the holiness of the Holy One of Jacob, and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.

From about 740 to 680 BC the prophet Isaiah was commissioned to warn God’s people of God’s Judgement on them for their persistent disobedience to God’s revealed truth.  But interwoven with this message is a message of future hope when God will do his ‘awesome’ mighty work among them to redeem them from their sinful ways.

Of all the OT prophets, probably Isaiah, throughout his book, gives the clearest picture of how this will be done.  God says it will be “the work of my hands”, that people would be enabled to ‘keep [his] name holy’ (and therefore to enjoy a restored relationship with their holy God), acknowledging One who will be called the ‘Holy One of Jacob’.  When this One did come, meeting all the prophet’s predicted expectations set out in chapters 40-66 of Isaiah, they missed him because they had built up their own expectations instead of listening to God’s voice in his inspired Word!

It is exciting today when Jewish people, reading their Scriptures, have the ‘veil lifted from their eyes’ (2 Corinthians 3:13-18) and they see Jesus as their Promised Messiah, and suddenly Isaiah’s prophecy makes sense!  It is interesting in this regard that when we read in the Gospels of unclean spirits addressing Jesus as the ‘Holy One of God’ (eg Mark 1:24) it is pointing to the ‘Holy One of Jacob/Israel’ mentioned throughout Isaiah, anticipating the future Messianic Age.  I like the testimony of the Jewish man, Stan Telchin, in his book, ‘Betrayed’, how, when his daughter, Judy, became a Christian, he thought he should read his own Scriptures so he could show her where she was wrong, and in the process saw the power and validity of all these prophecies as they are fulfilled in Jesus, and became a Christian himself!

I serve on the Council of International Mission to Jewish People (IMJP, formerly CWI, Christian Witness to Israel, and I ’stand in awe of the God of Israel’ as I see a constant stream of Jewish people acknowledging Jesus as their Promised Messiah.  In 520 BC, God gave Zechariah these prophetic words to record for his people: “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication.  They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son.” (Zechariah 12:10)  Let us pray for much fruit from Jewish evangelism, especially in these evil days of increased worldwide antisemitism.  “O come, O come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel that mourns in lonely exile here, until the Son of God appear.  Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.” (Karl Spitta)

– Bruce Christian