Christ According to Isaiah

I have decided that to help me get to know Christ, the New Testament would help out a lot.  This year in Sunday School, the church happens to be focusing on just that!  I'm going to try to study using the manual as a guide and find my own insights into exactly who Jesus Christ really is.  I think it will be good!

Isaiah prophesied of Christ's mission before he came.  He says:

Christ will have the Spirit of the Lord God.  He needs this to be able to do all the other stuff that Isaiah says He will do.

He will be anointed to preach good tidings unto the meek.  Anoint means to confer a holy office upon someone by smearing or rubbing them with oil or to consecrate.  Christ was consecrated with the holy office to preach good tidings (the gospel) to the meek (gentle, submissive, those who are willing to submit themselves to the will of God).

He will bind up the brokenhearted.  I absolutely love this image.  There are many things that will break our heart here on the earth whether those are difficult experiences, sins, or anything else.  But no matter what breaks our heart, Christ will always be there to bind it up.  He knows how to heal us, and He takes the time to do so if we go to Him.  Plus, a broken heart is a required sacrifice for God.  We are basically required to let things break our hearts (but in the right way of course).  Why?  Because trials and mistakes and the repentance process is the way to prepare for eternal life.  We are required to be broken and imperfect.  However, we should never stay that way.  Instead we can go to Christ and He will bind us up.

He will proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.  Proclaim means to announce officially or to declare.  Christ will declare liberty meaning that liberty is an official promise to all those who accept Him.  He will open whatever prison that holds the captives bound.  I know that at many points in my life, I have felt captive to fear, to myself (sin or bad habits or negative ways of thinking), to my circumstances, to the effects of my own choices or the choices of others on me.  I have seen the liberating power of Jesus Christ in my life.  I know that He can open whatever prison that holds us bound.  We never have to stay captive.  We, in fact, never have to be captives to anything.  I like to think of the prophets who literally were in prison, yet on the inside, they were free because of their own testimonies and firm faith in Jesus Christ.  That is something we can all aspire to.  That state of being is the most happy and the most free.    

He will proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God.  I assume this means proclaim the second coming and invite people to repent, so that they can avoid the vengeance of God and be with the Lord.

He will comfort all that mourn.  Comfort means a state of physical ease and freedom from pain or constraint or the easing or alleviation of a person'a feelings of grief or distress.  Physical ease brings to mind a hug or a safe place where a person is not afraid or hyper alert to their surroundings.  Their neck and back aren't all tight from stress.  They feel good and safe physically.  Freedom from pain is pretty self explanatory whether it is emotional, mental, or physical pain, Christ brings alleviates us from that.  Freedom from constraint is an interesting one.  Constraint is any limitation or restriction.  It can also mean inhibiting yourself or being stiff in certain situations, especially in relationships.  To me, freedom from constraint means freedom from the limits or restrictions that other people place upon us or especially those that we place upon ourselves.  I know that in certain situations, I may hid myself because of certain fears.  I may hold myself back or I may limit my own ability to live somehow because of certain fears or things I don't know.  Christ can free us from these things!  He can replace fear with comfort, so that we aren't holding ourselves back anymore.  So that we can truly live.          

He will appoint unto them that mourn in Zion.  I honestly don't quite understand the structure of this one, but it could mean to assign a role or responsibility to those that mourn in Zion.  Meaning that those who go through hardship because they choose Zion, because they live righteously, will be on Christ's team.  He will trust them and appoint something unto them.  

He will give them beauty for ashes.  I LOVE this image.  Ashes reminds me of when something gets burned by fire, maybe a big trial burns someone.The life or perspective or comfort zone that someone once knew is now only ashes.  BUT whatever fire we experience, Christ will make beauty come from it.  I have seen this in my own life.  Christ has made something good, many good things, out of every single hard thing I have gone through.  Sometimes all we can see is the left over ashes, and we wonder what we are going to do. Or we mourn the loss of whatever existed before.  With Christ, we are able to see that beauty comes from the ashes.  Christ makes that so through the hope He inspires in us.  Because He died for us and can make all of us alive!    

He will give them the oil of joy for mourning.  Oil is symbolically linked with anointing which is also linked with the Holy Ghost in the scriptures.  Through Christ, we can receive the Holy Ghost which will replace our mourning with joy.    

He will give them the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.  The word garment always makes the temple come to mind.  I have gone to the temple with the "spirit of heaviness" and come out so light and clear that it feels so wonderful.  And I feel so good that I want to just say thanks to God all day or "praise" Him.  He is so good to me, He really is.  Sometimes our spirits feel so heavy that we don't feel like we can hold that weight anymore.  But the temple is a tool we can use as well as the garments to be protected and overcome the heaviness.  

Why will Christ be and do all this?

That they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified.

Christ will give us all of this because He wants us to be righteous trees in His vineyard.  He wants to call us His, because He loves us.  He wants us to be with Him.  God's glory is our well-being.  Of course, Christ's is the same.  I know that if we invite Christ into our lives, more and more over time as we learn how to better do so, we will be prepared as His trees, we will be a part of His planting, and we will be glorified with Him after this life.

This was a super powerful study, and it took a while because a couple of scriptures had so much meaning jam-packed inside.  That's Isaiah for you.  But Christ is wonderful!  I felt a bit closer to Him as I dove into each of His characteristics and/or roles.  I'm grateful for Him.

And YOU!

Love,

Rachel