MONDAY January 16, 2023
God’s Predetermined Plan
“For truly against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done.”
Acts 4:27-28
The rulers, elders, scribes and chief priests all came against the message of the Cross. They tried to plot against Peter and John because they were spreading the message of Christ’s Resurrection. Written in the Old Testament Scriptures 1000 years earlier, Isaiah the prophet spoke of Christ––the Lord’s holy Servant. The Jews knew these Scriptures!
In rejecting Christ, they failed to see they were actually coming against Jehovah and His Servant, Yehoshua. Why did they miss Him? Today, if you speak with a Jew, they will tell you that Isaiah 53 was written about the nation of Israel, not a person. Consider these verses for yourself. They speak profoundly of the person of Christ:
For He [Jesus] 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. … By His knowledge My righteous Servant [Jesus] shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities (Isaiah 53:2-4, 11).
These Scriptures speak of Jesus’ suffering on the Cross for us. This was God’s predetermined plan. He allowed His Son to suffer. Do you think Herod, Pontius Pilate, the Gentiles or the people of Israel had any power over Christ? I remind you of Jesus’ words to Pilate: “You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above” (John 19:11). God is in control––not man!
God made His own Son to be sin that He might make the sinner a saint.
~Oswald Chambers~
For more from Raul Ries, please visit SomebodyLovesYou.com!
