The iconic statement “who has believed our report” or “message” is first made in Isaiah and then repeated in John and Romans. As important as those five words are you should not miss where they are said. Those words in context are what this post is about.

Isaiah 53:1

Isaiah did not put in chapters or verses; a French printer did most of that. Paragraphs came after that and the helpful chapter and section headings are the work of publishing companies. This section of Isaiah is important, so you may need to work a little at grouping thoughts together. I like looking for, “This is what the Lord says.” So, if you start at 52:4 and go to 55:13 that may be a section. A problem with that is there are several times in this body of Scripture you will find the Lord reinforcing things He has said. These are also a nice place to put in chapter or sections breaks. Regardless of how you think the sections might read, I would suggest you read 52:4 through the end of Chapter 53 to get a little better context for this study.

Just before Chapter 53 are several “Repeats and Upgrades” that the Lord uses to get our attention for 52:13 where He talks about “my servant”. This flows into 53:1 and continues the description and work of this servant. Christians, you will see many references to Jesus here and portions of this are repeated in the Gospels, look at the footnotes if your Bible uses them.

We see this “servant” as Jesus and much of this describes His condition after the Romans laid hands on Him before He was “raised and lifted up and highly exulted” (52:13 NIV) at His crucifixion. Yes, both the Jews and Gentiles laid hands on Jesus as part of Him becoming our sin offering. Okay, those looked more like slaps and punches and not the simple touching and confessions of the Mosaic sin offerings.

The message/report, is the Ten Commandments (Deuteronomy 5) and the righteousness that the Father wants with and for His Children, Jew and Gentile. Love God and love your neighbor is the heart of the Ten Commandments, but righteousness also has two parts. Righteousness deals with justice and right standing before God, but it also has a fellowship component and that is with God and with man. Deuteronomy 11 is about loving God and keeping His commands and He would take care of His Children, it would be a good place to read that Chapter.

Part of Isaiah’s message is this righteousness. Look at the “Repeats and Upgrades” that precede 53:1 and you will see this. The Northern Tribes did not believe God and were unfaithful to Him in how they worshipped. So, Isaiah and many of the “minor” prophets were trying to get Judah back to the Father; they would not believe his report about God.

John 12:38

John’s focus is different than the other Gospels, but that last Passover is still majority of his Book. John 12 is about Jesus getting ready to follow the example of David and ride into Jerusalem. I see this time as Jesus going to pay the Bride’s Price for His Church. John reflects on the stubborn attitude that persisted even with His message and the miracles to back up His words.

The people liked the power Jesus displayed with the healing and miracles, but their idea of Kingdom was not wrapped around repentance and righteous fellowship in God. They wanted a military leader. His sermons on the two mounts on Tuesday of Holy Week was not what they wanted. Please note that the wedding parables are given on the Mount of Olives after having answered marriage questions on the Temple Mount. All of this happened after the fig tree died.

The leaders just wanted Him to go away so they could keep the Temple (vineyard). War is messy and they had a nice deal going in Jerusalem and the synagogues. Temple tax, offerings, and sacrifices added up to a lot of money coming into the region. Plus, they could make the people feel good.

Running tally on believing the message.

• Isaiah – The Ten Commandments and righteousness. They took Baal and the sex-oriented worship that went with him. Plus, the servant in Chapter 52 and 53 did not sound very powerful.
• Jesus and His message to repent and the miracles to confirm the Good News. They were nice but dead Romans and no Herod would be better. They took Barabbas.

Romans 10:16

I want to say that this section of Romans that deals with several important topics goes from 9:1 to the end of Chapter 11 with the Doxology, that is open for debate. The verse is nestled in with a part of the “Roman Road” and confession because of hearing the Good News. If you have footnotes for Chapter 10, look at them; mine are from Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Isaiah, Psalms, and Joel. Clearly these ideas are found in the Old Testament.

(A note from my reading through Acts. Saul/Paul’s part of the story begins with the testimony of Stephen and ends with Paul’s testimony. Both are to Jewish leaders and those groups were divided on what they heard.)

Paul, several times, is confronted with Jews hearing and not believing. Acts 22:18-19 is where Jesus tells Saul to leave Jerusalem. Saul is convinced that the Jews will listen to him because of who he was, he leaves. Chapter 28:24 talks about the Jewish leaders in Roman, some believe some don’t. There were many cities where Paul started talking to Jews and had to stop, then they mounted physical attacks against him. Just because we speak the Word of Life to people does not mean that they will or can hear the message. Jesus help us and send us into “the field that is ripe for harvest”.