Often I read the Old Testament and just skim over many of the pages. It feels like an arduous task to read who beget who and so and so is the son of this guy etc… The black words just seem to blend into their vanilla canvas and I become distracted as I read. However, in the book of Isaiah there is so much to try to understand it is difficult to just skim the pages.

This morning I read through my verses in chapters 52 and 53. As I was reading I was encouraged to stop and go through some of the notes and key themes of this awesome book.

Here is just one of the key themes from the book of Isaiah. It is well worth your reading of each verse and see how it points to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ:

The only hope of the world is bound up in one man—the promised Davidic king:

• Isa 4:2
• Isa 7:14
• Isa 9:2-7
• Isa 11:1-10

The servant of the Lord

• Isa 42:1-9
• Isa 49:1-13
• Isa 50: 4-9
• Isa 52:13-53:12

The anointed preacher of the gospel

• Isa 61:1-3

And the lone victor over all evil

• Isa 63:1-6

Isaiah 53 1-11

Isa 53:1 Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
Isa 53:2 For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.
Isa 53:3 He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Isa 53:4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
Isa 53:5 But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.
Isa 53:6 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.
Isa 53:7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.
Isa 53:8 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, stricken for the transgression of my people?
Isa 53:9 And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.
Isa 53:10 Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
Isa 53:11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. (ESV)

* All notes and references come from the ESV Study Bible

To study the Bible online go to: http://www.esvbible.org/devotions/esv-study-bible/

Have a blessed day as you draw closer to Christ.
Keith