“But He was wounded for our transgressions; He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our piece was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed.” Isaiah 53:5
In the book of Acts of the Apostles, we find a passage which tells the story of a Eunuch of Ethiopia, “…a man of great authority, under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure.” (8:27) He had been in Jerusalem, as he had come to worship, and was heading back to Ethiopia. However, somehow, most certainly the working by the Spirit of God in his heart, he was reading in the book of Isaiah a passage that seized his attention, but he did not understand it. It was at this moment that, though he was in a desert area, there came up beside his chariot, one of the disciples, Philip by name. The Lord had told Philip to “go to the south,” and to “Go near, and join thyself to this chariot.” God had arranged a divine meeting between this eunuch and Philip, for He would now by the words of Philip have his eyes opened to who Jesus Christ was, what he had recently accomplished on the cross, and now risen from the dead, providing a salvation for all men. That which is key to this narrative is the passage that the eunuch was reading from. It was from Isaiah 53, where we have the verbal portrait of the suffering Servant of Jehovah, the Lord Jesus, who was rejected by those He had come to save, but who had, in spite of being despised, and crucified by the hands of sinful men, endured to the end, taking upon Himself the sins of the world, that man might be forgiven of his sins, and made just before God. The eunuch, while in Jerusalem, had heard of Christ’s crucifixion, as most certainly, especially after Pentecost, the news of His resurrection and message, was spreading with great power. So, why does God, in the middle of a desert, work to guide this eunuch to come upon the passage of Scripture which might be called the centerpiece of worship for mankind? It is because in that passage is revealed the absolute justice, mercy, love, and goodness of God. Nowhere in Scripture is there painted with such broad, and specific clarity, before the eyes of the seeking heart, a portrait of such suffering out of devotion to God the Father, love for the sinner, and the perfect, absolute provision of God to save to the uttermost that which was irretrievably lost but for the grace and mercy of God. Though great artists in the world have sought to portray the suffering Christ on Calvary, His resurrection and ascension, in order to communicate in some small measure the depths of the heart of God in the giving of His Son, nowhere and by no one, has come forth a means of doing this except by divine Scripture, and especially, that found in Isaiah 53. Why? Because, as was the case with the eunuch, when the Spirit of God opened his heart by the words of Philip, God made the message and the matter real, so convincingly real and powerfully gripping, that God’s purpose in giving the vision would be realized in the salvation of a soul who was baptized beside that road, believing wholly in Christ as his Savior, and continuing his journey, rejoicing. But what about worship, true worship, and this centerpiece of worship? How is it to bring about the transformation of the soul?
The Apostle Paul wrote the following: “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” (2 Cor. 3:18) When the believer looks sincerely, with open face, at the Lamb of God, suffering on Calvary, and realizes that Christ loved him and gave himself for him, the Spirit works to change the heart, and mind. The worship of the Lamb in Spirit transforms men’s hearts.
Dear Father, Strengthen our gaze today. In Jesus’ name, Amen.