Part 2 of Handel’s Messiah returns to Isaiah for some prophecies of Jesus and what His time on earth will bring to pass.  Isaiah 53:3  “He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.”  Isaiah 50:6  “I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting.”   Both of these prophecies were given hundreds of years before Messiah was born.  They tell of the pain and suffering He was to endure both mental and physical.  He was going to be despised, rejected, suffer beatings, insults, mocking and would be spit upon.  During His ministry He was rejected and despised, Mark 8:31 “He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.”   He would be beaten, insulted, mocked and spit upon.  Matthew 27:26-32 “Then he (Pilate) released Barabbas to them. But he had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified. Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. ²⁸ They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, ²⁹ and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand. Then they knelt in front of him and mocked him. “Hail, king of the Jews!” they said. ³⁰ They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. ³¹ After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.”

What do these prophecies say to us today during the Season of Advent?  Jesus came willingly that Christmas into a world that would reject and hate Him.  He came because He loves us. John 3:16 says it best, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  Because of His LOVE, He came.  Praise Him today for coming and celebrate His victory over sin on our behalf.  “But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”  1 Corinthians 15:57

Linda