Welcome to the Daily Blade. The Word of God is described as the sword of the spirit, the primary spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.

All right, good to have you back today. This week we were looking at

Isaiah 53. So yesterday we did a summary of the first 52 chapters of Isaiah. We talked about how Israel

had turned toward wickedness and had no way of saving itself from the ruin that was to come.

And now we start getting into the answer, right? One thing that is interesting about the time period that we're really discussing here is how every culture essentially had an idea of what a king was, right?

Especially a conquering king and what they would look like, right?

So kings were typically these massive figures, right?

And they were flanked by large and powerful armies.

And at that time in the

near east and even today, that is what we expect from a conquering king, isn't it? Like we, like

those back in Isaiah's day, were hardwired to look for a king that looks like that. But the first three

verses of Isaiah 53 absolutely destroy that picture and that expectation. Let's read the first

three verses here. Who has believed what he has heard from us, 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 the dry ground.

He had no former majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty 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.

So is the Savior coming as a fully established great big tree? Well, no. He grew up before us like a young

plant, like a root out of the ground, as it says. And there was nothing spectacular about his

appearance, right? He didn't look majestic. He wasn't beautiful. He wasn't handsome. He did, you know,

and how did the people respond when they saw him in this state? They despised him.

They held him in low esteem. They rejected him, right? Does that sound like somebody you know?

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