“The Lord GOD has opened My ear; and I was not disobedient nor did I turn back. I gave My back to those who strike Me, and My cheeks to those who pluck out the beard; I did not cover My face from humiliation and spitting. For the Lord GOD helps Me, therefore, I am not disgraced; therefore, I have set My face like flint, and I know that I will not be ashamed” (Isa 50: 5-7).
I will never forget the first time I read these verses in Isaiah: “Wow! Who put Jesus in my side of the Bible?!” At the time, I had no idea these verses were cited in the New Testament, nor did I realize how crucial Luke’s allusion to Isaiah 50:7 was in the macrostructure of his Gospel. But here, in the book of Isaiah—hundreds of years before the New Testament was written—the Suffering Servant sets His face like flint, unashamed, mocked, spat upon, and beaten as He makes His way down the Via Dolorosa.
And just as I asked about forty years ago, so I ask the same question again: “Who put Jesus in my side of the Bible?” God did! And He did it hundreds of years before it happened, so that I would recognize my Messiah.
But why in the world would this innocent Servant willingly allow Himself to be led “like a lamb to the slaughter”? The prophet gives the reason in Isaiah 53: “But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being 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. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth” (Isa 53:5–7).
And just as I asked about forty years ago, so I ask the same question again: “Who put Jesus in my side of the Bible?” God did! And He did it hundreds of years before it happened, so that I would recognize my Messiah.
