Volume 5 Rest Break #6

At this point, we have covered eleven trailheads.

The 11^th trailhead of Isaiah 53:9 is about the Promised Messiah being buried as the rich.  From the cross reference scriptures, we see that Jesus of Nazareth was buried in the tomb of a rich man called Joseph.  By the custom of that day, condemned criminals who died the death of the cross were to be buried in a mass grave.  The fact that Jesus of Nazareth was buried as the rich by a respected member of the Jewish Sanhedrin pointed to His innocence; the Innocent dying in place of the guilty.

In the course of exploring the 11^th trailhead, we also saw that the quality and success of an occasion hinges on the amount of preparation that goes into it.  Thus far, we have seen how God had prepared His beloved Son as Jesus of Nazareth for the Big Day of Salvation.  It started with God having prepared a physical body as stated in Hebrew 10:5.  That physical body was then indwelt by the beloved Son of God with the power of the Holy Spirit without the stain of sin from natural procreation as mentioned in Matthew 1:18.  Then, He was water baptized to identify Himself with sinners as written in the footnote to Matthew 3:15 of the Amplified Bible.  Thereafter, He was led away to the wilderness to be tempted of the devil as written in Matthew 4:1-11.  In Luke 4:13, we are told that the devil temporarily left Him until a more opportune time after he had finished every temptation,  That would mean the devil return to tempt Jesus many more times such that He was tempted in every aspect as we are but did not commit any sin as Hebrews 4:15 tells us.  All these were followed by contempt and hatred as detailed in the seventh trailhead of the second Marker of Isaiah 49:1-9 of this series on “The Messianic Credentials”.

The ultimate sacrificial lamb was tested and proven to be without spot or blemish.  It was well prepared, so to speak, before being offered as the Perfect sacrifice for sin.  We have been purchased with the precious blood of a spotless and unblemished sacrificial lamb as 1 Peter 1:19 puts on record.