Welcome, friends, to another
broadcast of Morsels for Zion's Poor. Isaiah was given more messianic
prophecies than any of those men whom the Lord sent into the
earth. Yet he had very limited understanding of the things which
he wrote, and confessed with the other Old Testament prophets
that these things were written for those to come. Of which salvation
the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied
of the grace that should come unto you, searching for what
manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did
signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and
the glory that should follow. unto whom it was revealed that
not unto themselves, but unto us, they did minister the things
which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the
gospel unto you, with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven,
which things the angels, or messengers, desire to look into. He was told
to write of him who was despised and rejected of men, a man of
sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we hid as it were our faces
from him. He was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he
hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem
him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded
for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes
we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray.
We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid
on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the
slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth
not his mouth. He was taken from prison and
from judgment, and who shall declare his generation? For he
was cut off out of the land of the living, for the transgression
of my people was he stricken. While Isaiah was given the gift
to write of these sufferings and the great anguish of our
Redeemer, yet Jeremiah was given the gift to experience in a limited
measure those very soul sufferings which are recorded for us in
the book of his lamentations. Jeremiah was sent to warn the
nation of Israel of their coming judgment and captivity by the
Babylonians, but the Lord shut up the ears of Israel that they
would not hear his word. Whereas Isaiah was given to prophesy
of the glory of the coming king and his redemptive work, Jeremiah
was called upon to endure great rejection and sorrow at the hands
of those to whom he was sent. We are not then surprised that
he is known as the weeping prophet. His sufferings were experienced
with each of his emotions and felt by each of his senses. Nonetheless,
he was but an illustration of the sufferings of that prophet
which was to come. Christ, our prophet, priest,
and king, was brought into hell itself in our behalf as he endured
the wrath of God poured out upon his head. Yet it pleased the
Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief when
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. Jeremiah recorded the
very thoughts of Christ when he spoke of his own affliction
and misery, which was visited upon him as he knelt in the Garden
of Gethsemane. And being in an agony, he prayed
more earnestly, and his sweat was as it were great drops of
blood falling down to the ground. Has ever any mortal been so tried
and bereft of comfort? Has any endured such grief as
swept over him? No man stood with him. He was
well nigh unto death, except that his time was not yet come.
This is indeed that bitterness of soul and mind which is described
by Jeremiah as the wormwood and the gall. We are not exactly
sure what wormwood and gall as a substance actually are, but
we are sure that both of them denote great bitterness and sorrow.
These words appear together in four verses in the King James
Version. Wormwood appears five times by itself, and gall is
mentioned ten times by itself, two instances being in the New
Testament. In all cases they are associated
with bitterness, even unto death. It is interesting to note that
whereas Matthew records that the soldiers gave Christ, as
he hung on the cross, vinegar mixed with gall, yet Mark records
the same instance as wine mingled with myrrh. We are sure that
the substances are the same and find it striking that even as
a babe he was given myrrh by those wise men from the east,
thus foretelling the life of sorrow and bitterness which lay
before him. As the hymn says, myrrh is mine,
its bitter perfume, breathes a life of gathering gloom, sorrowing,
sighing, bleeding, dying, sealed in a stone-cold tomb. Our hearts
are made to worship Him as we consider Him that endured such
contradiction of sinners against Himself. Do you tremble as you
consider the soul sufferings of Christ which He endured in
the behalf of sinners? For a free CD containing 15 of
these radio broadcasts, send an email to forthepoor at windstream.net.