The Gift of the Spirit of Prophecy: Isaiah 53 and Revelation 19
Seven hundred years before Jesus came onto the scene Isaiah penned Isaiah 53. Pure prophecy. Pure Messianic Prophecy.
When he came. Some believed. Some didn’t.
If you believe, when is the last time you sat before God and thanked him for the gift of prophecy? If you don’t believe, you may want to consider it.
It is one chapter. It may be a good starting place. It takes a couple minutes to read. One prophecy of hundreds in the Bible.
It says, in Revelation 19:10 that “the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” It is the great test between religions. Many make the claim, but do they hold up? As a child I was raised in the faith, as I grew I believed in the Son for my sins and His great love for me, as I grew older I doubted and stopped believing… I came to believe things that weren’t as sure as prophecy.
It wasn’t long after that I repented and returned to the heart of God for my sins and all His great benefits asking again for fresh fire, and once again, taking up, “and the Lord has laid on him the inquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6b) in a fresh way. I’ll be honest prior to returning to the great Father of light not much prophecy was on my mind. A lot of selfish desires were, desires tainted by the world. Now, I have a staple in my life it is the testimony of Jesus not only his, but his is mine. And I can truly say he is the spirit of prophecy.
A God who can know the future vastly changes how we look at the future. It gives us tremendous hope and perspective on past, present, and the future. It gives us confidence that we are part of the plan. It is in the heart of man to know the future. It is omniscient power, division of soul and spirit power only God could grant. The human soul longs for this power. That is why mediums, fortune-tellers, and witch doctors are still present in our world today and each notable religion or scholar stating how they believe the world will end. But we are not after just another spirit guide are we? We want the real thing. We want the unshakable power.
Isaiah 53 has been read billions and billions of times, translated into thousands of languages as the Bible has been distributed around the world and the message of the gospel continues to advance. And people everywhere get to decide if they believe this prophecy and not as just another nice saying, but as the revealing of the soul of mankind and it’s Messiah. Each verse is notable in its own way with Isaiah 53 verse 5 “pierced for our transgressions,” verse 6, “All we like sheep have gone astray,” or even verse 7 “like a lamb that is led to the slaughter.” Especially, when we consider he was crucified at the end of the Jewish Passover week which they had celebrated since the time of Moses with Jesus himself being referred as the “Passover Lamb” (I Cor. 5:7). I think the headline that flashes across the page that should really get our attention rests in verse 10 and 11, it states “…it was the will of the Lord to crush him (10)” and “…the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous (11).” I imagine Jewish scribes pondered this for generations wondering what this meant and how it were to come to pass remembering the Passover year after year. I imagine some tossed around the passage in the vision Zechariah received of Joshua the High Priest in Zechariah 3 when the Lord promises to remove his iniquity in a single day and symbolizing this by taking off his filthy garments and replacing them with clean ones, for both Joshua and his friends. I do wonder if their hope ever waned and it is shocking that so many didn’t believe in Jesus. Yet, some did believe and the passage is still there for more to believe today. My testimony is that I believe this is true.
On the passage still being fulfilled today from Isaiah 53:11 that “many will be accounted righteous” Who will they be and when will it fully come to pass? We’ve analyzed several prophecies in the Old Testament that came to pass we believe at the time of Jesus and gave tremendous hope for those that heard or read the prophesying. We have another prophecy in the book Revelation that remains unfulfilled that relates to this one, Revelation 19:8, the Bride clothing herself in fine linen, bright and pure. We are in much the same position as the Jewish people leading up to the time of Jesus. They had prophecies that pointed to a Christ, a Messiah, or in Hebrew, “Yeshua,” meaning a Deliverer or a Savior. One of the advantages we have is we have both sets to look at old and new, but we are still in the position of those Jewish believers leading upto the time of Jesus. It is like we are a reroll of the First Coming with His Second Coming. With close to a quarter of Bible being prophecy and so much of it being fulfilled with pinpoint accuracy it does leave us with no reason to believe the remaining won’t be fulfilled with the same pinpoint accuracy that the others were by a God who is dedicated to only the truth. Those “accounted righteous” are those who are spoken of in the rest of the book of Isaiah with a focus on Jesus as the righteous Messiah for their sins. A prophecy that will continue on until the Day of Redemption.
The book of Revelation was written after the time of Jesus by his close disciple John. John was given tons of verbage in the New Testament on the love of God and the forgiveness of sins. It should not be taken lightly what the Holy Spirit had to say through him in the final book. John was exiled on the island of Patmos for his testimony of Jesus and the Word of God. This book begins that John “bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Rev. 1:2) by way of an angel, “Blessed is he who reads the words of this prophecy” (Rev. 1:3). It is not clear if Isaiah 53 was conceived by way of a vision or a word spoken or angelic enounter what we do know it is came and he wrote it down for future generations to explore for themselves. We are in much the same position upon what the angel spoke to John to write down.
In the book of Revelation at the marriage supper of the Lamb the Bride will be granted permission “to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure” (19:8). The Bride is those who hold to the testimony of Jesus and the Word of God even calling Jesus “the Word of God” in Rev. 19:13 and that “the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.” There is even a panoramic depiction of verse 14 at the great supper of God that “the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure” appears much like the vision of “pure vestments” as in Zechariah 3. And as reminder of the Lamb it states in verse 9 the angel said “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb” and “These are the true words of God.”
I’ll close on this, I know some may be challenged by the book of Revelation I think a good starting point is Isaiah 53 a reminder of God’s capability to fulfill prophecy and His capability to fulfill it again.
Have you ever considered since times of Moses when the Passover began, to the times of Isaiah and one being sent for our sins that daily those who hold to the testimony of Jesus and perform his righteous deeds are fulfilling prophecy until this very day? May the truth of this “fine linen, white, and pure” be granted to all who read it.