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REFLECTION
Who Was, Who Is, and Who is Yet to Come
by Mary Alice McGinnis
As I was pondering this meditation today, one word struck me! "WAS"!
These prophecies of the Suffering Servant in Isaiah 53, fulfilled in Jesus, were laid on Isaiah’s heart some 700 years, in the 8th Century BC. How could it be that Isaiah who foretold about the FUTURE Messiah, spoke in the past tense? I found this puzzling.
Isaiah says:
He WAS despised and rejected by men . . .
Hew WAS a man of suffering . . .
He WAS pierced (wounded, bruised) for our transgressions . . .
He WAS crushed for our iniquities . . .
He WAS punished to bring us peace . . .
He WAS oppressed and afflicted . . .
He WAS led like a sheep to be slaughtered . . .
He WAS cut off from the land of the living . . .
Yet it WAS the Lord’s will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer . . .
The Holy Spirit put these prophecies in Isaiah’s heart as past tense because God’s plan, which He had laid out from the beginning of time, was so certain, so emphatically sure that it was as if it had already happened!!!
1 Peter 1:10-11, and 20 says, “Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow.”
“He was chosen before the creation of the world but was revealed in these last times for your sake.”
Consider also how Isaiah uses these present tense phrases:
By His wounds we ARE healed . . .
Lord HAS laid on Him the iniquity of us all . . .
The Lord MAKES His life an offering for sin . . .
Then Isaiah also looked toward the future, foretelling what this Suffering Servant WILL DO!
He WILL see His offspring and prolong His days . . .
The will of the Lord WILL prosper in His hand. . .
After He has suffered, He WILL see the light of life and BE satisfied . . .
By His knowledge my righteous servant WILL justify many . . .
He WILL bear their iniquities. . .
God’s plan has never been off track. He never had a plan B. His will was, is, and always will be prospering in the hand of our Suffering Savior, who did the unthinkable. He gave His perfect life in exchange for our sinful, broken, and messed up souls. The fullness of His Glories are still YET to come!
He is the One Who Is, Who was, and Who is yet to come. By His wounds we ARE healed, past, present, and future. Even unto eternity!!
PRAYER PRACTICE
Cup Prayer – This prayer will help you pour your heart out to God (Ps. 62:8). Begin with your hands folded together like an upside-down cup. Pour out before God all your fears, anxieties, guilt, sin and shame. Tell Him what troubles you. Take time to be specific. When you feel like you’ve poured out your heart, flip your hands over, folding them like an open cup, ready to receive from God. Sit in silence, asking God simply to fill you with His Spirit. If your mind runs back to sin, shame, anxiety or concerns of the day, flip your hands back over and pour it out to the Lord. When you are finished praying, read today’s Scripture and listen as God shares His heart back with you.
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