Progress of Redemption #10 — David Shirley

We come now to the fourth major time that God has spoken, through the prophets. The prophets spoke for about four to five hundred years, from around 840 B .C., when Obadiah wrote, to 420 B .C., when Malachi wrote.

So from the 4th to the 9th century, from the 9th to the 4th century, they spoke. And 2 Kings chapter 17 and verse 13 says,. Yet the Lord testified against Israel and against Judah by all the prophets and by all the seers, saying, Turn you from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes according to all the law which I commanded your fathers and which I sent to you by my servants and prophets.

The Prophets’ Major Themes and Call to Repentance

The major prophetic themes are suffering and reigning, or the first and second coming of Jesus Christ, the remnant, the day of the Lord, and the kingdom. First, the prophets would try to save the nation from its idolatry and wickedness by calling them back to God in repentance.

If this failed, then they would announce that the nation was going to be destroyed, but not completely destroyed. There would be a remnant that would be saved. And then out of this remnant would come a person who was going to bring all nations to God.

The family tree of David was the most powerful family in the world, but it was cut down in the days of the prophets. And so the family is going to have a comeback, and out of the family will come one called the branch, and he will be the king of kings.

It is fitting that the group of books called the prophets, the major and the minor, major because they took more space to write and minor because they took less space to write, are at the end of the Old Testament, pointing us toward that time of the New Testament when the Messiah would come.

And when you go and read the Gospels, you'll find a phrase that constantly reappears, that it might be fulfilled. And as you examine those fulfillments, you'll find that God fulfills prophecy literally.

And even in the figurative passages, once you determine the meaning of the figurative passages, that too has a literal fulfillment. You'll notice that the prophet was never sent while the nation was walking in obedience to God.

But they mainly spoke concerning the nation Israel, and other nations are mentioned only as they come in contact with Israel. But the prophets were concerned about the moral and political corruption of the nation.

But the fact that the people were worshiping idols and had turned away from their God from following Him fully was their greatest concern. They came during times of apostasy when the nation was developing a wrong attitude toward God.

And of course Christ gave us the most succinct statement about what our attitude should be toward God in Luke 10, 27, when He came, and that's love the Lord thy God with all thy heart. Your attitude toward God will affect your whole life.

As you've often heard, creed always determines conduct. And that's not true just of individuals, but of nations as well. And prophecy is so important in God's Word that one-third of the Bible is prophecy.

It's God giving His revelation about His plans to His children. And so we read from that time when the theocracy began to cool off and was divided and finally went into captivity. During this time of four or five hundred years, the Lord testified unto Israel and unto Judah by the hand of every prophet and of every seer, saying, Turn ye from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes according to all the law which I commanded your fathers and which I sent to you by the hand of my servants the prophets.

These prophets were breathing the eternal things that were in the mind of God, things that God had planned from all eternity to take place here on earth, and things that He wanted in terms of their heart.

And so they actually start way back in Samuel because there were oral prophets as well as writing prophets. Peter makes the statement, All the prophets from Samuel. And so the prophets would come and they would keep before the people the truth that this nation, Israel, was chosen by God and it was to be a theocracy, that it was a nation created to live among all the other nations and to live by the revelation of God, to be a kingdom of priests for Him, a holy nation.

And so when the prophets would come, their message would first of all be of the throne of God and of the sovereignty of God. They always had their hope centered in Him, His purpose and what He had planned in the future.

They would foretell that the Messiah was coming and we would realize the purposes of God on earth when the Messiah comes. And His kingdom will yet be established over all the earth and we still look for the fulfillment of these prophecies.

As they prophesied oftentimes, they would see their own time, they would see the captivity and the restoration, they would see the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, His first coming, and they would see also His second coming and His rule.

And there wouldn't be any time breaks between them, they would see the whole event as one thing because they were recognizing ultimately the throne of God, His sovereignty, and any kind of infidelity to the throne of God would be denounced as the sin of all sins.

And there would be, if persisted and not repented of, a judgment and a suffering involved for those who do not submit to the King of kings and the Lord of lords. And with all the negative judgments, you might say, that they would pronounce and the things that they prophesied would happen concerning the day of the Lord, as horrible as it would be, a day of fire and darkness, they could still see through it all and they would look beyond and see the glory that is yet to come.

And so, all the prophets said in that day needs to be said again today. We need to be called back to the throne of God, to bow before Him, and they bear witness of Christ. He is the fulfillment of everything to which the prophets gave their witness, and our hope is in Him, even as now Christ in us is the hope of glory.

The Prophets’ Need: Israel’s Idolatry and Broken Covenant

Now as we begin to look at this fourth major time God spoke through the prophets, we are looking first of all at what is the need? We can't appreciate the prophets until we see the need. Then we look at the content in general, and then the method by which God speaks, and finally the response that God expects.

Listen to how Isaiah expresses the need. In Isaiah chapter 1, he says,. They have despised the Holy One of Israel. They have turned away from Him. They have no doubt broken the moral law of God and corrupted the ceremonial law of God.

God has raised sons, but they have turned away from Him. So He says, Just wash yourselves. Make yourselves clean. Remove the evil of your deeds from my sight. Cease to do evil. Learn to do good. Change your habits by putting off the old and putting on the new.

And He calls out the idolaters in chapter 44 and says, beginning in verse 14,. And surely He cuts cedars for Himself and takes a cypress or an oak and raises it for Himself among the trees of the forest.

He plants a fir and the rain makes it grow. Then it becomes something for a man to burn. So He takes one of them and warms Himself. He also makes a fire to bake bread. He also makes a god and worships it.

He makes it a graven image and falls down before it. Half of it He burns in the fire. Over this half He eats meat as He roasts a roast and He's satisfied. He also warms Himself and says, Aha, I'm warm.

I have seen the fire. But the rest of it He makes into a god, His graven image. He falls down before it and worships. He also prays to it and says, Deliver me for Thou art my God. They do not know, nor do they understand.

For He has smeared over their eyes so that they cannot see and their hearts so that they cannot understand. And no one recalls, nor is there knowledge or understanding to say, I have burned half of it in the fire and also have baked bread over its coals.

I roast meat and eat it. Then I make the rest of it into an abomination. I fall down before a block of wood. But do you begin to catch what the need is? Jeremiah speaks of the need as though they hewed out for themselves cisterns, broken or cracked cisterns that can hold no water.

The sin of Judah is written down with an iron stylus with a diamond point. It is engraved upon the tablet of their heart and on the horns of their altars. The heart's more deceitful than all else and desperately sick.

Who can understand it? I, the Lord, search the heart. I test the mind even to give to each man according to his ways, according to the results of his deeds. For as the waistband clings to the waist of a man, so I made the whole household of Israel and the whole household of Judah cling to me, declares the Lord, that they might be for me a people for renown, for praise and for glory.

But they did not listen. We see again the need. Hosea expresses it this way. Go love a woman who's loved by her husband. Yet an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the sons of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love raisin cakes, their heart is faithless.

Now they must bear their guilt. The Lord will break down their altars and destroy their sacred pillars. Ezekiel expresses it very strongly. Ezekiel 16, when he says, I also clothed you with embroidered cloth and put sandals of porpoise skin on your feet, and I wrapped you with fine linen and covered you with silk.

And I adorned you with ornaments, put bracelets on your hands and a necklace around your neck. I also put a ring to your nose and earrings in your ears and a beautiful crown on your head. Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your dress was of fine linen, silk, and embroidered cloth.

You ate fine flour, honey, and oil. So you were exceedingly beautiful and advanced to royalty. Then your fame went forth among the nations on account of your beauty, for it was perfect because of my splendor, which I bestowed on you, declares the Lord God.

But you trusted in your beauty and played the harlot because of your fame, and you poured out your harlotries on every passerby who might be willing. And you took some of your clothes made for yourself, high places of various colors and played the harlot on them, which should never come about or happen.

Moreover, you took your sons and daughters whom you had borne to me, and you sacrificed them to idols to be devoured. Were your harlotries so small a matter? You slaughtered my children and offered them up to idols by causing them to pass through the fire.

And besides all your abominations and your harlotries, you did not remember the days of your youth when you were naked and bare and squirming in your blood. You can see the need. They have broken the law of God.

They've broken the moral law of God. They've corrupted the ceremonial laws of God. God had entered into a wonderful relationship with Israel, and they've broken it. They've turned away from God to that which is false, to vanity, to idols.

I mean, it's one thing to have marital problems, but if your spouse turns to you and says that they've fallen in love with someone else, well, that's another story then, isn't it? So there's a terrible broken relationship here, and the need is for repentance and cleansing and restoration here.

Thank God when we later see in Ezekiel that God does sprinkle them with clean water, and He cleanses them from all their filthiness, from all the idols, and says, I'm going to give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you, and I'm going to remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a new heart of flesh and put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes so that you will observe my ordinances and you'll live in the land that I gave your forefathers so you'll be my people and I'm going to be your God.

So there needs to be a repentance and a work in their hearts. They need to be caused to come back to God because they've gone away a hoarding after other gods. So they need restoration and reconciliation.

Reconciliation Through the Prophets’ Message

Well, what's the general content of the message of the prophets? It's that God speaks about the problem of the broken relationship. He talks about what causes it, the consequences of it, and the solution.

And as he begins to do that, one thing he makes clear is that he's not the cause of the problem. In Micah 6, verse 3, he says, My people, what have I done to you? And how have I wearied you? Answer me.

God is expressing that it is not his fault. And if any way they can say it's his fault, then answer me. But they can't because he's done all for them. We see through the prophet Hosea a picture of this broken relationship.

Hosea married Gomer even as the Lord had married Israel. Back in Exodus chapter 19, verses 5 through 8, we read, Now then, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be my own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is mine.

And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel. So Moses came and called the elders of the people and said them, you know, before them all the words which the Lord had commanded him.

And all the people answered together and said, All that the Lord has spoken we will do. And Moses brought back the words of the people to the Lord. And so they entered into a relationship there. But as Gomer is a harlot, we read in Hosea 1 ,2, When the Lord first spake through Hosea, the Lord said, Go take to yourself a wife of harlotry and have children of harlotry.

For the land commits flagrant harlotry, forsaking the Lord. And so a wife of whoredom. And Israel does the same thing. They go after Baal. They go after idols. Israel becomes a harlot in the same way.

In chapter 2 and verse 5 it says,. For their mother has played the harlot. She who conceived them has acted shamefully. For she said, I will go after my lovers who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flags, my oil and my drink.

So she's playing the harlot. And yet she will be punished for the days of her Baals when she used to offer sacrifices to them and adorn herself with her earrings and jewelry and follow her lovers so that she forgot me, declares the Lord.

There needs to be a reconciliation in this relationship. Now, Gomer goes on in chapter 3 and actually becomes a slave. So verse 2 of chapter 3 says that, I bought her for myself for 15 shekels of silver and a homer and a half of barley.

Then I said to her, You'll stay with me for many days and you'll not play the harlot nor shall you have a man so I will also be toward you. He actually had to go and buy her back. I don't know if it's from her pimp or what, but she became a slave because of her harlotry.

And so Hosea had to actually go buy her back the same way that Israel had to be bought back. And we see in verse 4,. For the sons of Israel will remain for many days without a king or a prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar and without ephod or household idols.

And afterward, the sons of Israel will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king and they will come trembling to the Lord and to his goodness in the last days. And so there is a plan for Israel to be bought back.

And at the end of the book, you see Hosea and Gomer reunited and the same we will see Israel and God reunited when they seek the Lord and David their king. So when you see the need, the need is for reconciliation and restoration.

No wonder Isaiah says, Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. You see, judgment is not going to be the final word, but comfort. Speak kindly to Jerusalem and call out to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity has been removed, that she has received the Lord's hand double for all her sins.

A voice is calling, Clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness. Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God. Let every valley be lifted up and every mountain and hill be made low. And let the rough ground become a plain and the rugged terrain a broad valley.

Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all flesh will see it together. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken. A voice says, Call out. Then he answered, What shall I call out? All flesh is grass and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field.

The grass withers, the flower fades. When the breath of the Lord blows upon it, surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. Get yourself up on a high mountain, O Zion, bearer of good news.

Lift up your voice mightily, O Jerusalem, bearer of good news. Lift it up, do not fear. Say to the cities of Judah, Here is your God. Behold, the Lord God will come with might, with his arm ruling for him.

Behold, his reward is with him and his recompense before him. Like a shepherd, he will tend his flock. In his arm, he will gather the lambs and carry them in his bosom. He will gently lead the nursing ewes.

And so we see that God will do this. He's going to do it through his servant, through the Messiah, the leader he's sending. And so Isaiah continues to say, Behold my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom my soul delights.

I've put my spirit upon him. He will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry out or raise his voice nor make his voice heard in the street. A bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he will not extinguish.

He will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not be disheartened or crushed until he has established justice in the earth and the coastlands will wait expectantly for his law. So God is the answer.

God himself. And he wants the reconciliation. Through Isaiah he says,. Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts. I am the first and I am the last and there's no God besides me.

And who is like me? Let him proclaim and declare it. Yes, let him recount it to me in order from the time that I established the ancient nation. And let them declare to them the things that are coming and the events that are going to take place.

Do not tremble and do not be afraid. Have I not long since announced it to you and declared it? And you are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me? Or is there any other rock? I know of none. There is going to be a reconciliation.

That's why Haggai 2 -9 says, The latter glory of this house will be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts. And in this place I shall give peace, declares the Lord of hosts. And Daniel says the same thing in Daniel chapter 9 and verse 24.

He says, Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy place.

So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince. There will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. It will be built again with plaza and moat, even in times of distress.

Then, after the sixty-two weeks, the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing. And the people of the Prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary and its end will come with a flood. Even to the end there will be war.

Desolations are determined. And He will make a firm covenant with the many for one week. But in the middle of the week He will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering. And on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate even until a complete destruction.

One that is decreed is poured out on the one who makes desolate. And so, we know through the prophets that there is going to be a time when they will be restored and the reconciliation will take place.

And there is no doubt that this was what was in the minds of the disciples in Acts chapter 1 and verse 6 when they said, will you now restore the kingdom, the theocracy, the relationship that we've had.

This is the kingdom that the disciples refer to. It's a kingdom they've been anticipating from all the passages such as Isaiah chapter 2, Psalm chapter 2. The church age had been hidden from the prophets.

But these guys were anticipating at this time the restoration of the theocracy. And that's why they asked the question. So, there's going to be a reconciliation and a restoration of Israel as the prophets have spoken.

The Prophetic Office and Testing False Prophets

Now, what is the method by which God speaks concerning this broken relationship and the reconciliation and restoration that needs to take place? He speaks through these prophets. Yes, some were oral like Elijah and Elisha, but most were written, the words of God.

And we see the scriptural definition of what a prophet is to be in Deuteronomy chapter 18, beginning in verse 15. And the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me. Moses referring to himself.

From among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him. This is according to all that you asked of the Lord your God in Horeb on the day of the assembly, saying, let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God.

Let me not see this great fire anymore lest I die. And the Lord said to me, they have spoken well. I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you and I will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak to them all that I command him.

And so in this sense, a prophet is a medium in the sense that he's an instrument and God can speak through him and without speaking directly to the people because the presence of God was just too much for them to take.

And it shall come about that whoever will not listen to my words, which he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him. And so a prophet is speaking for God. He's speaking the very words of God and they're not just suggestions.

They are the very words of God. But the prophet who shall speak a word presumptuously in my name, which I've not commanded him to speak or which he shall speak in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.

And you may say in your heart, how shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken? When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken.

The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You shall not be afraid of him. God is true and even every word that he speaks through the prophets will come true. And if it doesn't come true, then that person is a false prophet and he should die.

So the method that God chooses is to speak through these holy men. And they spoke. Everything they spoke pointed forward, ultimately, of course, to Jesus Christ. The law, the prophets, the Psalms, everything points forward to Christ and must be fulfilled.

In Acts 10 .43, we read, and to him, that is to Jesus, all the prophets bear witness. And in Revelation 19 .10, the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. When you think of what a true prophet really is and you realize today there's so many people running around claiming to be prophets of God and every now and then maybe they hit on a few things that are true, but oftentimes and most of the time the things that they're saying, they're not true.

They're spoken presumptuously. And if you find someone that is only speaking part of the truth or is only truthful some of the time, then they're no prophet. They ought to die, is what it says in the Old Testament.

Obviously, there's grace here, but though we're not to despise prophesying even in the New Testament in terms of someone speaking a message from God, that message better be just that, straight from God and judged by the Scriptures in perfect agreement with the Scriptures.

And if he claims to be speaking from God and for God, and it's not in line with the Scriptures and it doesn't come absolutely true, then he's a false prophet. And so we need to be aware of that and not to take any kind of prophesying lightly at all.

Ultimately, it will glorify Jesus Christ and point forward to Him as the Lord of lords and King of kings, that He is on the throne and will call us back from sin, call us back from idolatry and have anything that's in our heart or our spirit that needs to be changed.

Repentance, Restoration, and the Coming Messiah

And so, what is the response that God expects when He sends a prophet? Well, He expects us to just simply admit that there's failure, that we say, you're right, I failed, I've sinned, and that we confess our sin.

Just admit it and confess it. That's the first thing God expects. If you've sinned against God, if you've lost your relationship with God, if you need restoration back to God, then God has spoken to you, no doubt through His Word, and the first thing that you can do is simply admit it and confess it.

That's the correct thing to do. Then, once you do that, then you can begin to turn back to your God who is faithful. You can change your mind. That's what repentance is. And you can turn around and move back towards God.

And then just go on walking with Him in faith and obedience. Establish a relationship with Him. Get into the Word of God and into prayer. Talk to Him. And get in fellowship with other Christians who are walking with God, studying His Word.

This is the response that God expects. As we move toward the fifth time that God spoke through His Son, listen to some of the things that Isaiah says about the one who is to come. Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign.

Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Emmanuel. He will eat curds and honey at the time He knows enough to refuse evil and choose good. The people who walk in darkness will see a great light.

Those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them. For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us, and the government will rest on His shoulders, and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace on the throne of David and over His kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore.

The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will accomplish this. Behold, the Lord, the God of Hosts, will lop off the bows with a terrible crash. Those also who are tall in stature will be cut down, and those who are lofty will be abased.

And He will cut down the thickets of the forest with an iron axe, and Lebanon will fall by the mighty one. Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit, and the spirit of the Lord will rest on Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge, and the fear of the Lord.

And He will delight in the fear of the Lord, and He will not judge by what His eyes see nor make a decision by what His ears hear, but with righteousness He will judge the poor and decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth, and He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked.

Behold, your God will come with vengeance. The recompense of God will come, but He will save you. Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. Then the lame will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb will shout for joy.

The waters will break forth into wilderness and streams into Ereba, and the scorched land will become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water. In the haunt of jackals its resting place, grass becomes reeds and rushes, and a highway will be there, a roadway, and it will be called the highway of holiness.

The unclean will not travel on it, but it will be for him who walks that way, and fools will not wander on it. No lion will be there, nor will any vicious beast go up on it. These will not be found there, but the redeemed will walk there, and the ransomed of the Lord will return, and come with joyful shouting to Zion with everlasting joy upon their heads.

They will find gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will flee away. Behold, the Lord God will come with might, with His arm ruling for Him. Behold, His reward is with them, and His recompense before Him, like a shepherd He'll tend His flock.

In His arm He'll gather the lambs and carry them in His bosom, and He will gently lead the nursing ewes. Who has measured the waters in the hallow of His hand, and marked off the heavens by the span, and calculated the dust of the earth by the measure, and weighed the mountains in a balance, and the hills in a pair of scales.

Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, or as His counselor has informed Him. With whom did He consult, and who gave Him understanding, and who taught Him in the path of justice, and taught Him knowledge, and informed Him on the way of understanding.

Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are regarded as a speck of dust on the scales. Behold, He lifts up the islands like fine dust. Even Lebanon is not enough to burn, nor its beasts enough for a burnt offering.

All the nations, there is nothing before Him there regarded by Him as less than nothing and meaningless. To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness will you compare with Him? Behold, My servant, whom I uphold, My chosen one, and whom My soul delights, I have put My Spirit upon Him.

He will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry or raise His voice, nor make His voice heard in the street. A bruised wreath He will not break, and a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish.

He will faithfully bring forth justice. The Lord God has given Me the tongue of disciples, that I may know how to sustain the weary one with the Word. He awakens Me morning by morning. He awakens My ear to listen as a disciple.

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 shall not be ashamed.

Behold, My servant will prosper. He will be high and lifted up, and greatly exalted, just as many were astonished at You, My people. His appearance was marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men.

Thus He will sprinkle many nations. Kings will shut their mouths on account of Him, for what had not been told them they will see, and what they had not heard they will understand. Who has believed our message, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, like a root out of parched ground. He has no stately former majesty that we should look upon Him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and like one from whom men hide their face.

He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried, yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 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 scourge and 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's led to the slaughter, like a sheep that's silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth. By oppression and judgment He was taken away.

And as for His generation, who considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living? For the transgression of My people, to whom the stroke was due, His grave was assigned to be with wicked men, yet with a rich man in His death.

Although He had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in His mouth. But the Lord was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief, that He would render Himself as 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. As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied. By His knowledge, the righteous one, My servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities.

Therefore I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the booty with the strong, because He poured out Himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors. Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors.