Lamb of God: Hope for the Hopeless

“Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief;

when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;

the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; 

by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.

Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,

because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors;

yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.”

Isaiah 53:10-12

We are not the first to reflect on this passage of Scripture. I want us to put ourselves in the place of a man who read and pondered this passage about 2,000 years ago. We don’t know his name. We only know where he came from, his position of prestige and the condition that marred and impacted his entire life. Luke calls him the “Ethiopian Eunuch”. We find his story in Acts 8.

This man, presumably a convert to Judaism, was returning home from Jerusalem where he had been worshiping God. He was reading from the scroll of Isaiah, and his heart snagged on Isaiah 53:7-8. Why had he stopped there? I wonder if it was his translation of verse 8: “In his [the servant’s] humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.” The Ethiopian Eunuch would have painfully understood what these verses meant. The Suffering Servant, the Lamb of God, had been cut off in his prime. He had no children, no descendents, no offspring to carry on his family name. He would die alone and forgotten.

Though this man had power and prestige as the chief treasurer of the Queen of Ethiopia, his life was still painfully lacking. How many times over the course of his life had this eunuch experienced the aching realization that he would not be surrounded by children and grandchildren in his old age? How many times did he long for the companionship of a wife or the comfort of children, only to face the reality of his situation? Had he too felt that he had been cut off in his prime? He must have faced the fact that he would one day die alone and forgotten. Had he seen a fellow sufferer in Isaiah’s servant?

This man was not forgotten or alone. God sent his servant, Philip, to run alongside his chariot and offer to explain the words of Isaiah to him. The Ethiopian heard about the sacrificial love of the Lamb of God, Isaiah’s suffering servant. He felt the weight of his sin. He understood that he was a sheep who had wandered from the fold of God and he longed to come home. He believed in the name of Jesus and was baptized. 

This is where Luke leaves the reader, but I want us to use our imagination and wonder what might have happened next. As the man traveled for hours back to Ethiopia, I think we can safely assume that he continued reading the scroll of Isaiah. If so, then he would have read the words that we are considering today. He would have understood the passage with new eyes. Philip had explained that the Lamb of God was Jesus. He had died and was buried and had risen from the grave. The suffering servant that Isaiah wrote about became the Conquering Hero. 

“He shall see his offspring.” (v. 10)  How those words would have rung out in the eunuch’s heart! The Conquering Hero had an offspring, not born of flesh and blood, but of water and the spirit. Though he died alone, he rose as the firstborn of many brothers and sisters. He had paved the way for eternal life, and brought many sons and daughters to glory (Heb. 2:10) Though Isaiah’s servant had been cut off in his prime, he rose with healing in his wings, bringing life and light to all. He had a lineage and a name that is above every name. 

If the Ethiopian eunuch continued on, he would have read these words, just three chapters later: 

“Let no foreigner who is bound to the Lord say, ‘The Lord will surely exclude me from his people.’ And let no eunuch complain, ‘I am only a dry tree.’ For this is what the Lord says: ‘To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant—to them I will give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters. I will give them an everlasting name that will endure forever.’” (Isaiah 56:3-5)

What joy would have filled this man’s heart as he read those words? Because of the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, this man received something better than sons and daughters–an everlasting name that endures forever. He would not die alone and forgotten. He had become an inheritor of the kingdom of God, surrounded by the love of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He was not a dry tree. He was a son of God with a memorial and name.

Our world is full of painful longing. We sense that we were made for more and we feel the ache of being caught in the “already and not yet”--the place where the sure promises of God have not yet broken into the reality of our situations. We feel the veil that separates us from an eternity of promises kept and joy unhindered. But we are still on the other side of that reality. Faith is difficult when life gets hard. 

This Christmas season, let’s approach the manger with hope. With eyes of faith, let’s look upon the Christ child, hear the angels’ chorus and know with certainty that our God keeps his promises. That little boy is the Yes and Amen of thousands of years of waiting, hoping and longing. He is God’s Word, God’s promise kept. He is God’s love wrapped in human flesh. 

For all who feel hopeless, for all who feel cut off, for every soul that feels like a dry tree, you have a sure hope in Jesus. He is proof that God will keep his promise to you. Like the eunuch, all who come to Christ in faith have a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters. You have an everlasting name that endures forever. Because of the suffering servant, there is hope for the hopeless. Behold, the Lamb of God, who came into our world for you.