Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Isaiah 35:5-6
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
Long before My Son actually became man and walked among you, I foretold the signs of His ministry. Isaiah 61:1-2; Isaiah 35:3-6; Isaiah 7:14; Isaiah 53:4-5; Isaiah 29:18; Isaiah 42:1-4, 6-9; Psalm 78:2. I wanted you to know these beforehand so that you would recognize the Messiah when He came. Jeremiah 31:34 His works and His teachings would be His credentials, so to speak, to establish Him as the One Who was to come. Luke 7:18-23. As I have told you many times, I do nothing without first revealing it to My prophets, and this was no exception. Amos 3:7.
The proof that Jesus was God and man, the long awaited Messiah, was clear and accessible in the Psalms and the Prophets, but the leaders of the Jewish religion at that time hardened their hearts against Me and failed to recognize the time of their visitation. Isaiah 6:9-10; Isaiah 53:1; John 12:38-41; Luke 19:44. Otherwise they would have turned to Me and I would have healed them. Isaiah 6:10 Instead many of them, through the hardness of their hearts, refused to receive My mercy and died in their sins. John 8:24. This was not My will for them. Luke 7:30. I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked. Ezekiel 33:11; Ezekiel 18:23.
Now I will begin to show you from Scripture that Jesus did the works and preached the message that proved without a doubt that He was the long-awaited Messiah. There are so many instances of this and prophecies that you will find I need to take several more chapters to even begin to open for you the mystery of Christ, your hope of Glory. I am a God, however, who reveals mysteries. Daniel 2:28.
My prophet Isaiah is a good place to begin to search out the works the Messiah was to perform. You will find that the signs and wonders My prophet Isaiah foretold were never performed by anyone else as they were by Jesus. Recall that the Israelites who witnessed the works of Jesus and heard Him speak proclaimed that no man had ever spoken as He did or had done the works He performed before. Mark 2:12: John 9:32; John 7:45-46.
The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure that a man found hidden in a field, when he found it, he went back and sold all he had to buy that field. Matthew 13:44. The treasures, the words of wisdom, found buried away, embedded in passages throughout Scripture, give you scattered revelation of the life and works, the very character, and mission of the Savior. When you search them out, you will find that Jesus is the Messiah, that He is the Lord. Let Me set forth some of the passages in this chapter and then show how they are fulfilled in Jesus. More treasures from My Word unfold to you throughout the Bible as you open more to My Spirit as you read and listen.
In the Book of Isaiah the following word of wisdom is given of what to look for in the works of the Messiah, of God the Son, on earth:
Say to those with fearful hearts, “Be strong, and do not fear, for your God is coming to destroy your enemies. He is coming to save you.” And when he comes, he will open the eyes of the blind and unplug the ears of the deaf. The lame will leap like a deer, and those who cannot speak will shout for joy! Isaiah 35:4-6.
Jesus fulfilled every one of these words of wisdom foretold by My prophet Isaiah. Acts 10:38. He was God come to save you. Luke 2:11.
First, you see that this passage reveals that God is coming to destroy your enemies, that is, to save you. Remember when I promised this to the first man and woman after they had handed their dominion authority over to Satan in the Garden of Eden? They had rejected Me and made the devil the god of this world by submitting to his rulership, but immediately after this happened I foretold the Seed that would come from the woman and crush the serpent’s head– the first promise of the Messiah, the Savior. Genesis 3:15.
Yes, the Son of God appeared to destroy the devil’s work. 1 John 3:8; Hebrews 2:14. He came to earth to defeat your enemy, Satan, by paying for your sins and regaining dominion authority for those who believe in Him and receive Him as Lord. Isaiah 53:5-6, 11; Colossians 2:13-15. After He had cleansed you from all unrighteousness, Isaiah 53:11; Hebrews 1:3, so that your spirits were born again, Ezekiel 11:19; Ezekiel 36:26; John 3:3, My Spirit could again live in you and you could take back your dominion authority on the earth. Isaiah 53:12; Acts 2:32-33; Romans 5:17.
Jesus came to redeem you from the curse of the law. Isaiah 53:10-12; Galatians 3:13. He gave His life as a ransom for the many. He shed His Blood to redeem you and cleanse you from your sins. No other man could have done this for all others were tainted by sin, devoid of eternal life, and born under the dominion of the devil in slavery to sin and death. The psalmist understood this when he wrote in Psalm 49: “No man can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for him- the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough- that he should live on forever and not see decay.” Psalm 49:7-9.
But then the psalmist has a word of wisdom about redemption from Me as he sings, “But God will redeem my life from the grave; He will surely take me to Himself. Selah.” Psalm 49:15. I have done this by the death and resurrection of My Son. Romans 5:10.
I Myself in the person of the Son had to rend the heavens and come down to save you. Psalm 18:9; Isaiah 64:1. The Savior had to be one who was righteous to save you, but, as it is written by My prophet Isaiah, all your righteousness without Me is like filthy rags. Isaiah 64:6. Indeed, without Christ’s sacrifice as foretold by Isaiah in his passages about the suffering servant, there is no one righteous, not even one who understands and seeks Me. Psalm 14:1-3. All had turned away, they had together become worthless; there was no one who did good, not even one.” Romans 3:10. Yes, without Christ, no one is righteous. But in Christ, I made Him who knew no sin to be sin so that in Him you might become the righteousness of God. That is why Jeremiah the prophet calls Him “the Lord our Righteousness.” Jeremiah 23:6.
Jesus destroyed the work and authority of your enemies, the devil and his demons, by His sacrificial suffering and death, His descent into Hades and His powerful resurrection as Lord. He is your savior from sin, the curse, and eternal death. During His sojourn on earth, He healed the blind, the deaf, the lame, and the mute so that they saw, heard, walked and spoke. Matthew 11:5; Matthew 15:30-31; Matthew 21:14; Luke 7:22. He did all these things and more. Anointed by Me with the Holy Spirit, He went about doing good and healing all those who were oppressed by the devil.
You see then, that the first indication to look for in the Messiah, the one to come, was that of His mission as Savior. This was totally fulfilled in Christ and His High Priesthood. Psalm 110:4; Hebrews 6:20; Hebrews 7:28. Jesus Himself explained to His followers that He had not come to be served, but to serve and give His life as a ransom for the many.
Let us now look at the other works that the Messiah was to perform. Once Jesus had been baptized and spent some time alone with Me in the desert, He began His ministry in Nazareth. When He was rejected there, He moved His home to Capernaum and went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people. Matthew 4:23.
The news about Him spread throughout all Syria; and they brought to Him all who were ill, those suffering with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, paralytics; and He healed them. Matthew 4:24. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: “He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases.” Isaiah 53:4; Matthew 8:17.
But, back to the passage of Isaiah we are considering. The first work it foretells is that “when He comes, He will open the eyes of the blind.” Isaiah 35:5. There are many instances where Jesus did just that. Matthew 21:14; Matthew 12:22; Matthew 20:30-34; Mark 10:46-52; Luke 7:21-22; John 9:1-7.
One instance that particularly comes to My Mind is when, early in His ministry, two blind men came to My Son and asked Him to have mercy on them. My Son asked them if they believed He could give them sight. They replied in the affirmative. Then He touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith will it be done to you”; and their sight was restored. Matthew 9:27-30
Do you wonder why Jesus asked them first whether they had the faith that He could heal them? It is because without faith it is impossible for Me to work great miracles in your life. Sarah, Abraham’s wife, did not conceive a son until both she and Abraham believed My promises to them. Faith in Me and My Goodness allows Me to work in your life. All things are possible for Me and all things are possible for those who believe. It takes a combination for great things to come about on earth. My Son could work no great miracles among the people of Nazareth because they did not believe in Him. Matthew 13:58; Mark 6:6.
But back to the passage of Isaiah we are considering, the next work of the Messiah foretold there was that the Messiah would “unplug the ears of the deaf.” Isaiah 35:5. Here I am thinking of one instance (though there were many) where a deaf and mute man was brought to My Son in the area of the Sea of Galilee and the ten cities during His public ministry. Jesus put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spit and touched the man’s tongue. He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to the deaf man, “Ephphatha!” (which means, “Be opened!”). At this, the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly. After witnessing this, the people were overwhelmed with amazement. “He has done everything well,” they said. “He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.” Mark 7:31-37.
The next work of the Messiah, foretold in the passage of Isaiah we are still considering, is that, under His healing touch, “the lame will leap like a deer.” Isaiah 35:6. There were many lame that were healed by Jesus in His ministry, but here I am thinking of one instance that truly stands out. Once when My Son was at His home in Capernaum news got around that He was at home. Mark 2:1. Well, this brought quite a crowd of people to His house, including a group of scribes and Pharisees. Luke 5:17. In fact, so many people gathered that there was no longer room for them, not even around the door. My Son preached the Word to them.
Now four men, who heard Jesus was at home, came bringing a paralyzed man on a stretcher. They were trying to bring him in and set him near Jesus, believing for a cure. But when they could not find a way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and opened it up over where Jesus was. After they had broken through, they let down the mat on which the paralytic was lying. When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralyzed man, “As for you, your sins are forgiven.” Mark 2:5; Luke 5:20.
The scribes and Pharisees who were present began to ask themselves, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who but God alone can forgive sins?” Mark 2:6-7; Luke 5:21. Jesus, through the gift of the Holy Spirit of a word of knowledge, knew their thoughts, and said to them in reply, “Why are you thinking these things? Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”– He said to the paralytic, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all, glorifying Me. This amazed everyone and they praised Me saying, “We have never seen anything like this!” Mark 2:8-12; Luke 5:22-26.
Now we need to consider the last sign of the promised Savior written in the passage of Isaiah to which we are referring here. That sign was that when the Messiah came, “those who cannot speak will shout for joy.” Isaiah 35:6. As one example of this, I will share with you a healing that took place right after the two blind men I discussed earlier in this chapter received their sight. While those two healed men were going out, a man who was demon-possessed and could not talk was brought to Jesus. Jesus drove out the demon and the man who had been mute spoke. The crowd was amazed and said, “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.” Mark 9:33.
This, of course, was not the only instance where Jesus healed a mute person, but since I have only been discussing one instance of each sign of the Messiah as foretold in the book of Isaiah I will not present more here. But you should be aware, as My beloved disciple John wrote in his Gospel: “Jesus did many other things as well, but if every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.”
Clearly there can be no argument that Jesus fulfilled the prophecy found in the book of Isaiah concerning the works that the promised Messiah was to perform.
My Son summed up his credentials well when John, after John had been put in prison by Herod for preaching against Herod’s adulterous lifestyle, sent some of his followers to Jesus just to make sure Jesus really was the promised Messiah as he had believed when he baptized him in the Jordan River. Jesus replied by showing that He fulfilled this very passage of Isaiah plus one other, Isaiah 61:1-2, as reassurance to John that he had not been mistaken about who Jesus was. He said, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.” Matthew 11:4-5.
Notice that My Son in His message to John confirming His identity, also referred to His preaching as a sign and quoted from the passage of Isaiah that He read in the synagogue in Nazareth when He began His ministry.
I love you. Jesus is God with you. And He is with you always. You are never alone. I never planned you to be that way, or Me either. We are one in Him, together now and forever. In our next Life Lesson, we will look at His preaching and teaching to discover more signs of the promised Redeemer.