January 5th, 2023
by Jon Welch
by Jon Welch
Today we will be leaving the gospels and looking at an Old Testament passage. It’s a Messianic passage, which is a section of scripture in the Old Testament, where God shines a light on the coming Messiah, giving people a view of what is to come. This will happen a few times throughout this study because, really, the entire Bible is about Jesus.
In Isaiah, we get a great description of the Messiah that may be unlike anything you would expect.
Read Isaiah 52:13-53:12 and write down your observations
What are some of Jesus’ physical attributes? How does this show Jesus’ humanity?
How do you see the deity of Jesus in these verses?
How did Jesus suffer? Maybe as a teenager?
Did you catch the name for Jesus in the first verse of chapter 53? The “arm of the LORD”- wow! I imagine God the father reaching down to Earth, and extending His arm, and that arm is Jesus! God the creator extends His arm to me in friendship... When I was His enemy and far from Him, He took the first step to reach down in love and give friendship and reconciliation through Jesus. Amazing! This passage starts out by talking about the fact that Jesus would grow up in the dry ground of Israel. It was dry in the spiritual sense with hard ground and people with hard hearts toward God. Jesus came to earth and grew up in the midst of a generation hardened to the things of God.
Did you catch what Jesus would look like physically? (53:2)
Jesus wasn’t a GQ model, he didn’t walk around like a star or strut his stuff like a king. He was just an ordinary guy, yet he was the King of Kings. Jesus was royalty but he left all of that behind to become like us in every way (Heb. 2:17). He was just like us in that he grew up from a baby, probably struggled through puberty, make it trough the middle and high school of his day. He was extraordinary person in an ordinary, everyday body of a Jewish male.
No Hollywood Jesus here folks. There was “nothing about his appearance that we should desire him” Isa. 53:2. Just an ordinary guy. There was nothing special about him. Do you think the other kids would have heard the story of the “quick marriage” and noticed that Jesus didn’t share Josephs traits? In my time in youth ministry, I can almost assure you that they wouldn’t have missed that… Teenagers can be ruthless.
Buy why? Why would God put His Son in an ordinary body? Why not make him like Arnold Schwarzenegger? In a world obsessed with physical appearance, why make him easily missed?
Maybe God wanted to remind us that, “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” 1 Sam. 16:7
Spend a few minutes just thanking Jesus for coming to live as a human and suffering at the hands of the young men of His day- all for you!
What observations stand out to you today? Freely comment in the section below!
In Isaiah, we get a great description of the Messiah that may be unlike anything you would expect.
Read Isaiah 52:13-53:12 and write down your observations
What are some of Jesus’ physical attributes? How does this show Jesus’ humanity?
How do you see the deity of Jesus in these verses?
How did Jesus suffer? Maybe as a teenager?
Did you catch the name for Jesus in the first verse of chapter 53? The “arm of the LORD”- wow! I imagine God the father reaching down to Earth, and extending His arm, and that arm is Jesus! God the creator extends His arm to me in friendship... When I was His enemy and far from Him, He took the first step to reach down in love and give friendship and reconciliation through Jesus. Amazing! This passage starts out by talking about the fact that Jesus would grow up in the dry ground of Israel. It was dry in the spiritual sense with hard ground and people with hard hearts toward God. Jesus came to earth and grew up in the midst of a generation hardened to the things of God.
Did you catch what Jesus would look like physically? (53:2)
Jesus wasn’t a GQ model, he didn’t walk around like a star or strut his stuff like a king. He was just an ordinary guy, yet he was the King of Kings. Jesus was royalty but he left all of that behind to become like us in every way (Heb. 2:17). He was just like us in that he grew up from a baby, probably struggled through puberty, make it trough the middle and high school of his day. He was extraordinary person in an ordinary, everyday body of a Jewish male.
No Hollywood Jesus here folks. There was “nothing about his appearance that we should desire him” Isa. 53:2. Just an ordinary guy. There was nothing special about him. Do you think the other kids would have heard the story of the “quick marriage” and noticed that Jesus didn’t share Josephs traits? In my time in youth ministry, I can almost assure you that they wouldn’t have missed that… Teenagers can be ruthless.
Buy why? Why would God put His Son in an ordinary body? Why not make him like Arnold Schwarzenegger? In a world obsessed with physical appearance, why make him easily missed?
Maybe God wanted to remind us that, “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” 1 Sam. 16:7
Spend a few minutes just thanking Jesus for coming to live as a human and suffering at the hands of the young men of His day- all for you!
What observations stand out to you today? Freely comment in the section below!
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12 Comments
I think that making Jesus ordinary looking we have to search for him. Even though he will leave the flock to find the one missing, you have to want to be saved. As the old saying goes you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink. Jesus can find you, but if you’re not willing it doesn’t do any good. So we need to keep our eyes open and search for him daily.
I love this 🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻
I love this! His ways are not our ways!
What an amazing reminder, I am sure He was showing us that what we admire is not what truly matters…. It is the heart.
So hard for us to learn how to see people the way God does. We constantly get sucked into the way the world sees things.
I am thankful today for this reminder ❤️
Scripture says "It pleased The Lord to bruise His beloved Son" my goodness how wonderful His love must be for me a very sinful broken person, the more i see my sin the more i see His great mercy and love He displayed on His cross! Thank you Heavenly Father!
His looks and his humbleness stands out to me. You know when someone may not be as attractive but has a Heart of Jesus, they look way better on the outside because of their inside. And so goes for when someone is beautiful outside but not on the inside, they are less attractive.
The way Jesus just kept his mouth shut and stayed humbled. When he could have said whatever and done whatever to prove who he was. When we know the end result we don’t have to fight back or say a word. God will have the last Word.
I'm constantly amazed by the limitations and disadvantages Jesus willingly applied to himself. Sometimes we see "leadership" as top down. But Jesus' model was from the ground up.
Why? Because through suffering Jesus learned obedience! Heb. 5:8
One of my favorite verses is Isaiah 53:5.....
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.
Some big words in there: Transgressions, Iniquities, Pierced, Crushed, Punishment, HEALED.
Thos verse always reminds me how much God has done for us, by reaching down and providing Jesus. SO thankful!!
It stands out to me that through Jesus’ life he experienced many of the ordinary troubles we’ve faced. He actually does understand what it is to be human. He can relate to our momentary troubles. I think that can stir up great trust for us, that God knows us intimately.
I believe this was a duel prophecy - he may have looked like an ordinary Jewish man, but I think this is pointing to his grotesque appearance on the cross…who would be attracted to that? Only when you realize why it happened does it draw us to such an ugly scene
What stands out to me today comes from Isaiah 52: 13-15 when it talks about how badly he suffered and how he did it for us. Though sinless and perfect, he would be beaten beyond recognition because of our sins. And not just our sins, the sins of the past, present, and future. Sins of billions of people that he never even met in his lifetime, people that could care less about him, people who choose not to serve Jesus, everyone. He still chose to suffer and die on the cross so that each and every person may be able to be with him one day. My sins alone must’ve been hard to bare, yet he did that for everyone. I can’t imagine how heavy that must’ve been and I can’t begin to imagine how much he truly suffered. We can read the words in the Bible, but we will never understand for ourselves just how brutal it was. I’m so thankful that he did that for us though, and I will serve him until my dying day so that I can join him in paradise!
What stands out to me is how constant His suffering must have been, not only on the cross but throughout His life. “For he was cut off from the land of the living” that would be a sad and lonely place. All of this being by choice is hard for me to fully grasp most days.
Very thankful He cared enough to save me
What stands out to me is the suffering that Jesus went through to pay for my sin.
“Just as there were many who were appalled at him—his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being and his form marred beyond human likeness”
Before Jesus was crucified he was beaten so severely that his entire face and body didn’t even resemble a human being. Can you even fathom that kind of pain? He did that for me -for us, because of his immeasurable love for us. Legions of angels stood ready to rescue Him, but he bore that pain and horrific death to pay my debt and to save me! The love of Jesus is the greatest gift, and I pray I never take for granted what my Savior did for me. Praise to the One who was, who is, and is to come!❤️