Our Satisfied God

OUR SATISFIED GOD

 

By Gene Hutchcraft

 

“He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.”(Isaiah 53:11).

 

INTRODUCTION

 

The prophet speaks, more than any other under Moses’ law, of God’s great work to redeem; that which the Might One is inclined to do despite the blasphemy of His name through the generations in Israel. And He determined to do so before those things occurred. For human behavior is a minor motivation in God’s ‘eternal purpose.’ Human conduct, wicked or righteous, is not even in the category of ‘eternal.’ So, how could it be the ground of fulfillment in God’s eternal agenda? It cannot be so! As is written, “My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.”  (Isaiah 46:10)

 

Now, with this godly perspective, that of God’s pleasure, let us then give attention to what the prophet expounds of the impact of this life upon Him ‘Who is, was, and is to come, Who liveth forever and ever; Who created all things and for Whose pleasure they are and were created.’ (Revelation 4:8-9) He is the One with whom we have to do. He is the primary factor for Whom these events are worked, displayed, and completed. Whether or not men recognize it!

 

The subject of this text ‘grew up before Him’. The Most High observed this One while in the earth and found no spot or blemish in His sayings or doings, even that which men could not examine God did. This One grew in wisdom, favor, and stature with God Who declared publicly, ‘This is My Beloved Son in Whom I am well pleased.’ Then God repeated it again as the culmination of Jesus’ time in the earth approached. Adding this decree, ‘Hear ye Him.’

 

In this man God accomplished a thing that men can believe only by God’s provision in their hearts and minds. Otherwise, it would not enter them. For it is more than historical events for men to examine and then pass their jaundiced judgment. This is God’s great salvation which is found in no other place or One.

 

 

- HE SHALL SEE -

GOD LOOKED FOR AND MADE A REASON TO SHOW HIMSELF TRUE, GOOD, AND MERCIFUL

This involved His wrath, mercy, and grace. His wrath over that which offended Him, was detestable in His sight even from the beginning at the tree. His mercy because He knew that without it none would be spared the wrath or have room to stand and look to Him for cleansing and hope. His grace which is designed to enable, equip, and establish believers to abide with Him, receive from Him in that abiding, and take hold of that for which He takes hold of them.

 

HE HAD TO SEE THIS IN THE EARTH FOR HIS OWN RIGHTEOUSNESS SAKE

This is where sin and sinners are, the place from which you can come out, can recover and live by faith. God made the earth for this purpose to show Himself able, good, and faithful to Himself against great indignities or insults to His name. Yet, there was none who could intervene for a basis upon which God could then extend Himself to sinners for recovery. “Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth; and I will pardon it.” (Jeremiah 5:1) ● “And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.” (Ezekiel 22:30).

 

THEN THERE WOULD BE A BASIS UPON WHICH HE COULD RECONCILE SINNERS

God must have a cause so He made the means by which He could reconcile the contrite heart to himself. He said that he dwells with such and so made the circumstance by which to exhibit this reality of what He esteems in the human heart, even those blemished and spotted. He would have to see a reason in this place of rebellion and hardness. Then He could send a message of good news that hope and reconciliation are real to those who flee to Him for refuge from the wrath to come.

 

 -THE TRAVAIL OF HIS SOUL -

PREVIOUSLY REPORTED OF GREAT TOIL AND LABOR IN THE SUFFERER

This is a price to be paid, full and real, of the human soul for sin against God. This debt is owed to God Most High for the offense against His name, righteousness, truth, and goodness that men accrue by their refusal to retain the knowledge of Him. This plunges them into every form of godless appetites with greediness. Bro. Paul writes of it in this manner. “This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.”(Ephesians 4:17-19) Such is the continuing condition of our race without the knowledge of God.

 

The prophet declares that God extracts from this man. This man was stricken, smitten, and afflicted by God of the price sinners owed for their rebellion toward God. That man bore our griefs, sorrows, transgressions, bruising,  and iniquities for our waywardness. Not His own! The Lord laid all of this grief as a charge against His soul, not ours. No man saw this suffering, only God and the heavenly hosts.

 

THAT WHICH GOD WROUGHT WITH THE SUFFERER’S COOPERATION

It was excruciating work which no other man could engage because of the weakness in their nature. Such a burden was beyond the capacity of a sinner, one of Adam’s nature. That nature is what demanded the high price and this man was willing to bear it, alone on the winepress of the wrath of God. He took up this body prepared for Him and gave His back and cheeks to the whip and those who plucked out the beard. However, it was the travail of the soul that secured satisfaction for God.

 

THIS BLAMELESS SPOTLESS ONE COULD BEAR THE BURDEN AND RECOVER

Strong in love for righteousness and justice as did His Father, He would not compromise. “And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD; And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins.” Isaiah 11:2-5)

 

So, He entered the strongman’s house, tied him and took His possessions. By this One the kingdom forcefully advanced in the earth, gathering numbers and moving them toward the appointed destination of God’s choosing. 

 

- AND SHALL BE SATISFIED -

THERE IS GOOD REASON FOR GOD’S WRATH TOWARD MEN ON THE EARTH

Sin in human nature, bent them away from God and to corruption, things which God abhors or despises; things which never entered His mind, and that from Israel as they followed in the way of the nations rather than the path of life and peace from God. They said they wanted to become as the others and so they did! The nations as earlier declared by bro. Paul who also spoke of them without God in the world.

 

GOD’S JUSTICE MUST FIND FULFILLMENT

He cannot let this stand without answering and a resolution to the challenge of His government. The earth is a place for Him to demonstrate how He will do this while gathering for His name a people out of the earth who love and want the same as He, though they were once enemies in their minds by evil deeds.

 

So, God sent a substitute for the race out of the chosen people, all the while giving a testimony of His justice and righteousness in their law. However, the law of Moses was not meant to save, it could not do so by its nature. It proved the need for it even in a people of God’s choosing. This law also demonstrated the power of a substitute offering, and interceding priesthood, and deliverance from that which was otherwise too powerful.

 

PRIMARY PART OF HIS NATURE WHICH CANNOT BE DENIED

Holiness must remove that which offends, only God can and will act appropriately in these things. So, He does in this man of His choosing, a consistency demonstrated in the revelation granted to Israel. They suffered God’s wrath through their generations. Their status as God’s people did not protect them from it when they turned from the way revealed to them. God’s justice later found Zedekiah, who struck Micaiah the true prophet. It also found Hananiah who broke the wooden yoke from Jeremiah’s shoulders. It found false prophets Ahab and Zedekiah in Babylon, whom Nebuchadnezzar roasted in the fire.

 

 

Seeing these things fulfilled, honored, and loved by the Son on the earth was a great pleasure to the Almighty. Much more then when His Son fully submitted to the substitutionary work of the cross, bearing sin, being cursed, and becoming sin that God might spend His wrath in Him rather than in sinful men who could not recover. He recovered and returned to the Father to take up the greater and eternal work of intercession and as a conduit of provision for those who live by faith, walk in the truth, and wait for His return as promised.