Israel will inherit the right standing of Christ
One of the ways the scriptures describe Israel’s failings in their relationship with the Lord is by the statement “They have stumbled over the stumbling stone.” If you’ve ever walked on an unevenly paved path, you know what this feels like. There’s a stone set out of place with the others, and you don’t notice it, and all of a sudden, you find yourself fighting to keep your feet. Jesus is the stumbling stone Israel stumbled over. The Lord, in His word, had set Jesus along their path and they failed to see Him, and there is no place in the Old Testament where this failure to see is more evident than in Isaiah 53 where the Lord prophesied to His people the work His servant would do in suffering and dying as He bore their iniquities. And though He would do this, the people would still despise and reject Him, yet He nonetheless still died for them, all according to the Father’s will. Even to this day, the vast majority of the Jewish people fail to see this message about their Messiah in Isaiah 53, and we’re often left asking in amazement “How could they miss it?!” Yet one thing we all often miss is how Isaiah, in Isaiah 53, begins to reveal the hope-filled promise of God made possible by Jesus’ suffering and death for our sakes, and then reveals the hope-filled promise in great detail in the very next chapter of Isaiah: Isaiah 54. The promise that this Messiah who will die will also live to see the glorious renewal of Israel by the power of His death and life! A magnificent story of Israel’s future when God brings the work of Christ to its full fruition towards Israel IN THAT DAY when Israel will inherit the right standing of Christ!
We invite you to come join us this Sunday morning for our in-person worship service at Leptondale Bible Church in Newburgh, starting at 10:55 AM. For those unable to attend, our service can be viewed live on the church’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/leptondalebiblechurch. This Sunday, we’ll continue a new series from Isaiah titled “In That Day: The Kingdom in Isaiah.” This Sunday’s message from Isaiah 54:1-17 is titled “Israel will inherit the right standing of Christ.”
God bless!
Pastor Mike
