1Who has believed our message?
To whom has Yahweh’s arm been revealed?
2For he grew up before him as a tender plant,
and as a root out of dry ground.
He has no good looks or majesty.
When we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
3He was despised
and rejected by men,
a man of suffering
and acquainted with disease.
He was despised as one from whom men hide their face;
and we didn’t respect him.
4Surely he has borne our sickness
and carried our suffering;
yet we considered him plagued,
struck by God, and afflicted.
5But he was pierced for our transgressions.
He was crushed for our iniquities.
The punishment that brought our peace was on him;
and by his wounds we are healed.
6All we like sheep have gone astray.
Everyone has turned to his own way;
and Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7He was oppressed,
yet when he was afflicted he didn’t open his mouth.
As a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and as a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he didn’t open his mouth.
8He was taken away by oppression and judgment.
As for his generation,
who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living
and stricken for the disobedience of my people?
9They made his grave with the wicked,
and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.
10Yet it pleased Yahweh to bruise him.
He has caused him to suffer.
When you make his soul an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring.
He will prolong his days
and Yahweh’s pleasure will prosper in his hand.
11After the suffering of his soul,
he will see the light and be satisfied.
My righteous servant will justify many by the knowledge of himself;
and he will bear their iniquities.
12Therefore I will give him a portion with the great.
He will divide the plunder with the strong,
because he poured out his soul to death
and was counted with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sins of many
and made intercession for the transgressors.
Having Beautiful Feet
Philip Riding With the Ethiopian's Chariot
The stoning of Stephen resulted in the church being scattered throughout the land. God was using these events to spread the gospel. This chapter demonstrates that as persecution intensified, the spread of the gospel expanded. Although Saul was the chief persecutor at this time, he would soon have his encounter with Jesus, and he would write the church in Rome, assuring them, “28 We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28 WEB)
We must remember that it is during challenging and difficult times that we, too, grow in the Lord and learn to trust Him. As the chapter progresses, we find the account of some high-level Ethiopian government official leaving Jerusalem, where he had gone to worship. Many scholars surmise that there were faithful followers of Yahweh in Ethiopia from the time of Solomon. As he rode along, he was reading Isaiah 53:7, a key messianic passage in the Bible. He didn’t know to whom the scripture referred. God impressed on Philip to approach the chariot and explain what these scriptures meant. The text tells us, “35 Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture, preached to him about Jesus” (v.35)
Are we willing to “open our mouths and preach to others about Jesus”? In the tenth chapter of Romans, Paul raises the question of how anyone will hear the good news without a preacher. Like Philip, God sometimes puts each of us in the presence of others, and we are the means by which the gospel is to be shared. Often, our timidity and fear get in the way. We think, “Surely there is someone more qualified than me who needs to share the gospel with this person”. We must all reflect on what God has done for us and be prepared to share that with others. We must prepare ourselves to walk others through the Bible. Not to do so is to hide our light under a bushel. Pray today for the courage to be able to open your mouth and to tell others about the wonderful things that God has done in your life. In that same chapter, Paul says, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the Good News of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!” (Romans 10:15b WEB)