The focus of Good Friday is the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth. This set time in God’s redemptive plan for humanity is described in the following Messianic prophecy declared approximately 700 years earlier:

ISAIAH 52:13 – 53:9

Behold, My Servant

shall deal prudently; He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high.

Just as many were astonished at you,
So His visage was marred more than any man,
And His form more than the sons of men;
So shall He sprinkle many nations.

Kings shall shut their mouths at Him;
For what had not been told them they shall see,
And what they had not heard they shall consider.

Who has believed our report?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

Ecce Homo (Behold the Man) By Antonio Ciseri

Detail: ISAIAH 52:13 – 53:9, The Great Isaiah Scroll.

The Great Isaiah Scroll, the best preserved of the biblical scrolls found at Qumran.

For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant,
And as a root out of dry ground.

He has no form or comeliness;
And when we see Him,
There is no beauty that we should desire Him.

He is despised and rejected by men,
A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows.

Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted.

But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities.

The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He opened not His mouth;

He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,
And as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
So He opened not His mouth.

He was taken from prison and from judgment,

And who will declare His generation?

For He was cut off from the land of the living;
For the transgressions of My people He was stricken.

And they made His grave with the wicked—
But with the rich at His death,
Because He had done no violence,
Nor was any deceit in His mouth.

Jesus’ death as revealed in this prophecy was a substitutionary sacrifice for sin—the only sacrifice God will accept on man’s behalf. How humbling and moving to know that as a result of Christ’s death, we can now experience a relationship with God and the assurance of eternal life in presence.

For more thoughtful reading, click on Holy Week.

IMAGES:
1) Ecce Homo (Behold the Man). (Image in all forms used for illustrative purposes) (Photo credit: By Antonio Ciseri/[Public domain]/Wikimedia/Enhancement, MKM Portfolios)
2) The Great Scroll of Isaiah. (Photo credit, images and detail: By Ardon Bar Hama/author of original document unknown/[Public domain]/Wikimedia/Enhancement, MKM Portfolios)

Copyright © 2016 Charles E. McCracken, devotional comments only. Reprint with permission from the author. Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Charles E. McCracken is an international Bible teacher, long-time friend of Israel and advocate for the Jewish people. Rev. McCracken authentically communicates biblical truth making his presentations relevant for those seeking to understand the significance of Israel and the church in Bible prophecy. He staunchly supports the nation of Israel and the Jewish people’s right to exist and live in peace.

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