THE FORBIDDEN CHAPTER: Message 3
By Solomon Ostrovsky
Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form nor comeliness that we should desire him. 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.Israel will find her true happiness and destiny when for a moment she stands still in her path and starts retracing her steps. The nation of Israel is destined to be a light and a blessing to the nations, and Zion to be a gathering-place for all nations; currents of peace and love are to flow from the mountain of the Lord’s house. How will this come to pass? What power will raise the people to this high level? What is the source of this mysterious change which will influence the world as predicted by the prophet?- Isaiah 53:1-3
Isaiah contemplates the nation and in a prophetic vision sees at a certain point in its history a central Figure in whom are linked, in a mysterious but very real way, the sufferings and the destiny of Israel. The Diaspora and Geulah (Redemption) are both bound up in this Person. Israel’s first encounter with Him resulted in the Diaspora; the second encounter will result in her Redemption. Israel CANNOT escape this Man, and apart from Him she has no destiny. What image did this Person create in the minds of the people at their first encounter with Him?
A. DESPISED AND REJECTED OF MEN
Israel looked at Him with human, natural eyes. Her spiritual eyes were blinded and she saw in her illustrious Son “neither form nor comeliness.” She saw in Him one who was “despised and rejected of men.” The national leaders of that generation despised Him and made Him despicable in the eyes of the people. They had expected to see the brilliance of external splendour, which would attract the heart. Motivated as they were by their desire for an Israel “like all the nations,” they did not find in Him what they were looking for. His spiritual qualities – humility, righteousness and truth – the value of these they neither recognised, nor appreciated. And yet in Him, who is the theme of this prophecy, “grace and truth met each other, righteousness and peace kissed each other.” But grace and truth are not jewels set in gold; righteousness and peace are not diamonds in a king’s crown, and so they despised and rejected Him, and in so doing, rejected their own destiny.
Wonder of wonders. The ideal Man, who is destined “to raise up the tribes of Israel and bring back the remnant of Jacob,” to be a light to the Gentiles and a universal source of salvation, is the One “deeply despised, abhorred by the nation.”
B. A MAN OF SORROWS AND ACQUAINTED WITH GRIEF.
This is the most outstanding characteristic of this Messianic figure as seen by the prophet. He should have been welcomed with songs of thanksgiving and psalms of praise, but the people of God understood neither their own need, nor their Redeemer. “Who is blind as he that is perfect, and blind as the Lord’s servant?” (Isaiah 42). For did He not bear OUR griefs and carry OUR sorrows? He, the Redeemer of Israel and of all mankind, took upon Himself the burden of universal sin with its grief and shame. He came to bear the punishment of OUR sin and to wipe the tears from every eye.
For thousands of years man has deceived himself and in various ways has hidden his internal malady of sin. With gold trappings he has masked and hidden this cancer; with shining ornaments he has adorned this corrupting disease. But here comes the Man, awaited for generations, and He cries “Enough!” to this self-deception. He exposes the hypocrisy of the priests, the corruption of the teachers, who treated “the wound of the house of my people as a light thing, saying, Peace, peace, when there was no peace.” But He was “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.” The situation demanded this, and so we hid our faces from Him, scorning Him with a scorn which in the course of time turned to hatred – “we despised and esteemed him not.”
Put into this framework, described by Isaiah, the Figure who appeared two thousand years ago – Jesus of Nazareth. Why did the nation of Israel despise Him? Why do they continue to hide their faces from Him? How is it that the One who to such a great extent has been a Light unto the Gentiles (even according to Klausner) is to this day not recognised by Israel? Why do the people of God in the land of Israel refuse Him? Why must a Jew, who would read the New Testament, do so in secret? Whence this estrangement between Israel and Jesus of Nazareth? Why is it that He who came to bring peace and light to the world has become a source of tension and hatred to Israel?
Reader! The State of Israel has come into existence, but her redemption is not yet accomplished. The mountain of the Lord’s house is still desolate. The nations are busy polishing their swords and sharpening their daggers instead of changing them into ploughshares and pruning hooks. The world is expecting – albeit unconsciously- something new from the nation that dwells on Mount Zion – this nation that was chosen to be a kingdom of priests and a holy people. The world is waiting for a two-fold redemption: the redemption of Israel from her sin, her unbelief and obstinacy, and the redemption by God’s people of the Messiah Himself from the caricature, the utterly false image, which Christendom – by and large – presents of Him. As a result, “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”
“And there will be a day, known to the Lord, it will be neither night, nor day. And behold at evening time it will be light” (Zechariah 14:6-7).
“The stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner. This is the Lord’s doing and it is marvellous in our eyes” (Psalm 118:22-23).
Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
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