Our Need of God’s Exalted Servant: Isaiah 52:13-53:3

If you have your Bibles turn with me to Isaiah 53. As I mentioned last week, we are beginning a new study today, a four week study, on one of the most well known chapters of the Old Testament which will lead us into the Easter season. If you have been a Christian for some time, there is no doubt that you are probably familiar with the sacred words of this wonderful and moving passage of prophetic Scripture. Followers of Christ can easily argue that this chapter is the heart of the entire Old Testament, for it both prophecies and exalts with crystal clarity the life, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ some 700 years before He even was born. This passage, as Philip explained to the Ethiopian in Acts 8, who struggled to make sense of the text, is all about the Lord Jesus Christ! This is why Saint Augustine concluded that Isaiah 53, ...“It is not a prophecy, it is a gospel.” In fact, many scholars from the past have entitled this chapter, “The Fifth Gospel,” to be added to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Yet, before we dive into the enormously deep waters of this passage, I think it’s important for us to understand how this glorious chapter fits into the overall message of the book Isaiah. If you haven’t noticed, Isaiah is a massive book, containing 66 chapters. Therefore, few pastors tempt to preach through this book expositional as we do here at Heritage. It would literally take years to accomplish such a task. Now don’t worry, I don’t have any plans to start such a series in the near future. Those of you with short attention spans can take a deep breath, for at least you are safe for the time being. But let me give you a general overview that I hope will prove helpful. The book of Isaiah is divided into two sections: chapters 1-39 make up the first, and then 40-66 form the second.

The first section, those first 39 chapters of this book, speak of the coming judgment and captivity of Israel. For example, listen to summary found Isaiah 39: 6-7… “‘Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house and all that your fathers have laid up in store to this day will be carried to Babylon; nothing will be left,’ says the Lord. ‘And some of your sons who will issue from you, whom you will beget, will be taken away, and they will become officials in the palace of the king of Babylon.’” And indeed, about 80 years after Isaiah recorded these very specific words, the Babylonians did exactly as Isaiah prophesied.

The second section, containing the remaining 27 chapters of Isaiah have the dual theme of grace and salvation. Those chapters detail one thorough and glorious vision of salvation that will come by the hand of a Messiah. This salvation, to which Isaiah speaks, encompasses both the deliverance of Israel from Babylon, and the greater deliverance of sinners from sin. Just consider the opening verses of this section (Isaiah 40:1)…. “Comfort, O comfort My people, says the Lord. Speak kindly to Jerusalem; And call out to her, that her warfare has ended, That her iniquity has been removed, That she has received of the LORD’s hand Double for all her sins. A voice is calling, Clear the way for the LORD in the wilderness; Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God.” And of course, it was John the Baptist who fulfills that prophecy, he was the voice in the wilderness crying out, “Prepare the way of the Lord.” And so, the final section of Isaiah begins where the gospel message of Christ begins. And guess what? It ends where the New Testament ends as well. In Isaiah 65:17, the prophet writes, “See, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.” The same message we read in the book of Revelation chapters 21 and 22. And so in a very moving way, the last section of Isaiah’s prophecy parallels the New Testament. And again, I’ll remind you, it was written and recorded some 700 years before the life of both John the Baptist and the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ.

So, as we prepare to read the text, we must understand that Isaiah is speaking to a soon to be defeated and enslaved nation. The first section of his prophecy was the sobering reality that their sin had brought forth God’s just judgement. And the second half, it was the hope of salvation, the good news and gospel message of the Messiah. And right in the middle of that second and final section, the book of Isaiah reaches the highest point, as he records the words of Isaiah 52 and 53. It’s here that God Himself, asks and answers the two most important questions that have ever existed: How can a sinful man be made right with God? And how can a holy God declare a sinner righteous? And church family, there are no greater questions for any of us to ever consider. So, if you have your Bibles open, read along with me as I read starting in chapter 52:13 and I will read today through the entire 53rd chapter.

Today, I want you to see three things from the text this morning that I believe will help us understand the glory of God’s Servant, the Lord Jesus Christ, and our great need of a Savior.

1) The glorious yet shocking exaltation of God’s servant (52:13-15).

These last verses of chapter 52, provide somewhat of both an introduction and summary of chapter 53, so its fitting that we actually start there. Notice, the speaker of these three verses is God Himself, who in verse 13 draws our attention to the Servant of God who will prosper and be exalted. Notice the first word, “Behold!” Meaning, give your full undivided attention to this person and to what is about to be said, for this is vitally important. My servant, says God, will prosper. The word for servant in this verse is the Hebrew word for slave, a word that referred to someone who worked hard to obey their master. One who had no will of his own. Its a person who simply lives to please and submit to their Lord. You see, God here is describing His own Son, the Messiah as His slave, who is fully obedient and submissive. And His hard-working servant will prosper.

The Hebrew word used for “prosper” is interesting. It literally means to act intelligently, or to act wisely. In fact, the ESV actually reads, “Behold my servant will act wisely.” You see, to say someone acts wisely in Hebrew means they are successful. Here in our text, the servant’s success is the direct result of hard work and wise strategy. The Servant of God, Jesus Christ, will act wisely and be successful for He will accomplish the Father’s work and will. And in doing so, He will prosper.

In fact, God says the servant “will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted.” Sounds rather redundant, doesn’t it? But what God is saying, is that His Servant will be high, higher, and highest. Indeed, God will make Him so, for He will exalt the Son high, then higher, and then highest. Many scholars, with whom I agree, believe this is reference to Christ’s resurrection, ascension, and coronation. In other words, Jesus will be so successful that God will raise Him from the dead, take Him to glory, and sit Him at His own right hand. The apostle Paul explains this profound exaltation in Philippians 2:9-11… “God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

God’s servant, according to Isaiah 52:1, will come, He will succeed, He will accomplish the Father’s work by focusing all His attention on obeying His will, and as a result God will exalt Him above all. This is a glorious exaltation but notice closely verses 14-15… because shockingly God reveals that this exaltation will come as a result of His Servant’s humiliation. God proclaims, “Just as many were astonished at you, (now notice in our Bible if you are using the NASB, the words “My people’ are in italics, meaning its been added to the original manuscript. Often its helpful to have such additions, but I personally feel this is off, in fact out of all the translations of the Bible, the NASB is the only one who adds these specific words, and I will explain more later, but all most all conservative Bible scholars believe this is speaking not of Israel, but the Messiah, Therefore, we read the next words…) So His appearance was marred more than any man And His form more than the sons of men.” The Hebrew word used for “astonished” means shocked. The word implies being thrown into a numbed condition, to be petrified, or to be paralyzed. And notice, what the cause is of this great state of shock. It’s not the exaltation of the Servant, but it’s His great humiliation. You see, something is going to happen to God’s Servant that is so shocking, that it is actually paralyzing. God tells us that His appearance will be marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men. The word appearance has to do with the Messiah’s face, and His form speaks of His body. You see, in both His face and His body, Jesus would be marred and disfigured more than any man.

This means His face and His body will be so totally mutilated that He will literally be outside the category of being human. In other words, He will be so marred that He will not even bear the resemblance of a man. Obviously, this is a reference to His crucifixion, and to the scourging and torture that took place beforehand. Isaiah had already pointed to this. In Isaiah 50:5-6 he wrote in the voice of Jesus… “The Lord God has opened My ear; And I was not disobedient Nor did I turn back. I gave My back to those who strike Me, And My cheeks to those who pluck out the beard; I did not cover My face from humiliation and spitting.”

Now most of us are all too familiar with what occurred to Jesus. We know that He was scourged, beaten to verge of death, His body ripped apart with a leather whip embedded with sharp pieces of glass and rocks, infamously called the cat of nine tails, which would have left His back with uncountable wide open wounds all pouring out the blood of the innocent. We know that a crown of thorns, thorns measuring some 2 to 3 inches in length, was pushed and smashed deep down into his face and head. We know that according to scripture, he was slapped, punched, spit upon, and then hung naked, by being nailed to the cross. The Servant of God would truly be unrecognizable and humiliated to the greatest degree, leaving many paralyzed in shock.

But look at verse 15 again as we see why God exalts Him. “Thus He will sprinkle many nations, kings will shut mouths on account of Him, for what had not been told them they will see, and what they had not heard they will understand.” The word sprinkle refers to the work of a priest under the Mosaic Law. Whether it was the sprinkling of blood or water, they both had to do with cleansing, and specifically making a person or thing fit to be in the presence of God. You see it is specifically the humiliation of the Messiah that cleanses all who believe, not just Israel, the text couldn’t be more clear, but also outsiders, those who have been chosen by God before time began who represent many nations.

This great work of the Servant, this exaltation through humiliation, will also shut the mouths of kings, rendering them completely speechless. I believe this statement made in verse 15 refers to the exaltation that will be revealed in the second coming of or Lord Jesus Christ. When all of mankind will see Christ exalted in that moment, when everyone will finally understand and see all things regarding Christ clearly. And the kings and leaders of this world, along with countless others, will fail to utter a word as they stand in both awe and shame.

That’s the glorious yet shocking prelude to everything we will study over the next four weeks. That’s Isaiah 53 in miniature. These three short verses speak so powerfully of how God exalts His Servant, His slave, who emptied and humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. The apostle Paul in Philippians 2 calls us to embody that same attitude. James 4:10 adds, “Humble ourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.” And Jesus Himself said, “whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:26-28). Like the Messiah, we too can and will be exalted by God, only when we humble ourselves and live to glorify and please Him alone.

Now our fallen world would argue that greatness is equated with being served by others. But the Bible repeatedly calls us to humble ourselves as we live in His kingdom, to have a slave mentality, and live as the Servant to God. And in doing so, God will make you great and even call you family. For He will elevate you from being a hopeless sinner, an enemy of God, to become a hope filled child of the Most High. Listen, the Messiah is our model to follow. To have the heart of the Savior is to have the heart of a slave who loves to please the Father. Therefore, if we long to be great, if we long to be a great husband, wife, child, student, a great employee, neighbor, or even a great friend, then we must be radically different from our culture and embrace a servant mentality. Instead, of longing to be served by others, we must die to ourselves and serve both God and others, We must humbly give of time, energy, and even our finances until it hurts, and trust that God will meet all our needs and use the sacrificial gifts of our energy, money, and time to build His kingdom and transform His world.

2) The tragic nature of spiritual blindness and our great need of sovereign grace (53:1).

Look at verse 1 of chapter 53 again, “Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?” As we’ve crossed the threshold into the 53rd chapter, I want you to notice something that I feel is easily overlooked. In the previous chapter, God Himself was speaking through His prophet and He spoke of things that were to come in the future. But now in chapter 53, God is no longer speaking, and all the events recorded within this glorious chapter are being looked back upon as events that occurred in the past. So, we must wonder who is speaking, who is asking the question of verse 1, “Who has believed our message?” The word “our” in this verse, I believe, is intentionally flexible. Some scholars argue that this is a reference to the nation of Israel in the future when their spiritual eyes are finally opened, and they embrace Christ as the Messiah. And out of their brokenness over their generations of spiritual blindness they cry out, we missed it! We were blind to Jesus; we didn’t believe the message of our own prophets. That’s one view, but others argue from the context that the plural pronouns of this chapter must include the nations of the world. Remember, we just read in chapter 52, of the gentile nations and their kings. Therefore, many, including myself, believe the pronoun “we” in verse 1 speak to all, all who have come to understand that their sin has caused God’s Servant, the Messiah, to suffer and die. The rest of this chapter is their song of lament. It's a song that confesses their previous spiritual blindness, and it expresses a deep sense of guilt and shame, as the Messiah embraced the wrath and judgment of God in their place.

This chapter like no other in the Old Testament examines carefully the cross, the death, and atonement of the promised Messiah, hundreds of years before crucifixions were even imagined. Its primary purpose is to say to Israel and those who struggle to believe, that one day in the future, many of you will turn back and look at the gospel, you will look at Christ, and you will realize that you have rejected your only hope, your only Savior, and this chapter will be your lament.

Now, it is worth noting that the Jews are greatly and profoundly disturbed by this chapter of Scripture. In fact, in many synagogues its often ignored and never read in the normal reading of the Old Testament. Its usually skipped over, and those who do read it have thoroughly convinced themselves that the suffering servant referred to in Isaiah 53 cannot be the Messiah but is instead the nation of Israel. They see themselves as the righteous sufferer who will one day be rewarded and exalted by God for all their experiences of unjust suffering.

Oh, how spiritually blind they are. Every time, I go to Israel and breathe the same air that they do, I am heartbroken over the spiritual blindness of the nation. They just can’t see it. They refuse to see how their countless sacrifices that were offered to God all pointed to Jesus. The fail to see Christ as the true Passover lamb, whose blood would allow them to escape the wrath of God. They can’t understand how the Messiah is like the ram caught in the thicket that God graciously provided for Abraham on top of Mt Moriah, to die in the place of his own son Isaac. With all the glorious stories and prophecies of the Old Testament, they still refuse to see Christ as the Messiah and true sacrifice for sin. They are completely blind to it.

And this blindness is not just limited to Israel. It profoundly exists in everyone one who has yet to turn to Christ in faith and away from their sin. To the lost person, Jesus makes little to no sense. That’s why the world likes to classify Jesus as simply a good teacher, maybe even some sort of prophet, or social justice warrior, but they refuse or can’t possibly see Him as Lord and Savior. Listen: they don’t want someone with absolute authority who will dictate how they are to live, and a Savior? Why? They have no need for a savior at all because in their mind they don’t need one. Listen to 2 Corinthians 4:3-4… “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

Brothers and sisters, apart from the work of sovereign grace, everyone will remain spiritually blind to their sin problem, to Christ, and to His gospel. To believe in Christ atoning work on the cross, will naturally prove foolish, because we are completely blind and unable to grasp the truth that we deserve hell for our sinfulness and need a Savior. That’s why we have the second half of the first verse… “And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed.” The arm of the LORD is a symbol of His absolute divine and sovereign power. It was the arm of the LORD that brought the nation of Israel out of Egypt, and its the arm of the LORD that provides salvation, for He alone can enable a sinner to believe and repent of their sin. The Bible could not be clearer, that saving faith is a gift of God alone. You see, only God can heal our spiritual blindness and open our eyes to see our desperate need of His saving grace. Only He can stir or hearts and draw us to Him. Only He can take our sinful heart of stone and exchange it for a new one that can be shaped into the very image of Christ. Only He is powerful enough to transform our wayward hearts by sprinkling them clean with the Savior’s blood. Salvation is by grace and by grace alone! Listen, we cannot earn our salvation. No matter how hard we may try, our best effort will never be good enough to produce righteousness. Your sin problem is way too great! The great eighteenth century evangelist George Whitefield once said, “What! Get to heaven on your own strength? Why, you might as well try to climb to the moon on a rope of sand!” It’s that impossible!

Listen, there are some of you in this room this morning, who I believe God is beginning to open your eyes to His grace. You are starting to understand how great of a sinner you are, and you are beginning to realize, that there is no way you can ever make yourself righteous and acceptable to God on your own. Perhaps you’ve tried, and yet in your heart, you know your sin is still great. Oh, how you need a Lord and Savior! And God is calling your heart right now to trust Him, to believe the gospel, that Jesus died in your place on that cross, where He bore all of your sin and shame. He paid the ransom and high price of your sin debt in full, He simply calls you today to humble yourself in that truth and live for Him as His Servant. Will you do that, will you respond to His sovereign grace and trust Him as your Lord and Savior? If so, will you please come and talk to me after the service. I’d love to pray with and for you as you begin to see things clearly for the first time.

Oh, how our sin and our world have blinded us from the power of the gospel and His amazing grace. I pray that someday in the future none of us will sing this chapter as a song of lament, that none of us will be broken over why we failed to believe the message of Scripture, but instead, the hope of my heart is that we will sing these truths as praise as our eyes have clearly seen the grace our Lord and Savior, because He revealed them to us. Well, there is one last point for us to consider this morning…

3) The dire warning concerning our heart’s expectations and perceived needs (53:2-3).

Its important to understand that the main reason Israel was and is blind to seeing Christ as the Messiah is because they saw no need for a Savior. They had the Law, and that was and is enough in their mind to produce righteousness. You see like every other religion in the world, Israel began to trust in their own works and goodness to earn their salvation. You see, they could not grasp what Isaiah said in chapter 1:5-6 when God said they were completely depraved, full of sin from the sole of their feet to the top of their heads. Their hearts and minds were consumed with sin. Therefore, listen to what God says to Israel next in verses 10-15… “‘Hear the word of the Lord, You rulers of Sodom; Give ear to the instruction of our God, You people of Gomorrah. What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me?’ Says the Lord. ‘I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams And the fat of fed cattle; And I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs or goats. When you come to appear before Me, Who requires of you this trampling of My courts? Bring your worthless offerings no longer, Incense is an abomination to Me. New moon and sabbath, the calling of assemblies— I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn assembly. I hate your new moon festivals and your appointed feasts, They have become a burden to Me; I am weary of bearing them. So when you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you.” Listen, they placed their eternal hope in obeying the Law, which has the intent to point us to our great need of a Savior. They were blinded to their sin and had no grasp of the depraved state of their soul. They had no need for a Savior to deal with their sin problem. What they did need, however, at least in their own understanding, was a king. A mighty king who could free them from their oppressors. So, that’s what they looked for in the Messiah, that became their primary expectation. And in the remaining two verses that we will examine this morning, the prophet Isaiah revels how the birth, life, and death of Christ failed to meet Israel’s expectations of the Messiah. Thus, they continue to refuse to even consider the possibility that Jesus is God’s Servant.

Look at the words of verse 2… “For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot and like a root out of parched ground.” Notice, Jesus grew up and matured in front of the very eyes of God. Everything Jesus did on earth was in full view of God the Father, and God was overly pleased with His One and Only Son as Jesus lived to glorify Him in all things. But when sinful man looks to the life of Christ, he appears as a tender shoot, and like a root out of parched ground.

To say that Jesus was a tender shoot, is simply say He was like a sucker branch on a fruit producing tree. Now this illustration may not mean much to us, who fail to live in such agricultural driven culture. But this was a clear and understood message to ancient Israel. For sucker branches pop up without cultivation and expectation. So, in order to keep the such branch from robbing fruit bearing branches of the life they need, you have to cut them off. These branches are not needed, considered insignificant, irrelevant, and unnecessary.

What the text is saying here, is that Jesus’ upbringing and life seemed completely irrelevant. It seemed unimportant and insignificant. Jesus was a nobody from nowhere. A young man from a town off the far beaten path. A man who was born in a manger, in the company of dirty and untrustworthy shepherds. Jesus to them was simply a son of a carpenter from a town in which nothing good ever came out of. He had no royal birth, no social status to claim, and no formal education. He was completely irreverent to them.

He was also described like a root out of parched ground. In that part of the world, in the Middle East, the ground becomes parched and dry under the intensity of the sun. And as the ground is deprived of water, roots begin to move toward the surface. These would be roots of a tree which no cares for or waters. Again, this is just another way of saying that Jesus seemed unimpressive and unnecessary. To them, Jesus had no significance at all. He gained nothing from His family origin, nothing from His social status, and nothing from His followers. Let’s face it, Jesus’ disciples were not brilliant men, they were not educated or gifted orators. They were not powerful, influential, or important. They were simple fishermen, a tax collector, and even one of them was someone we would consider a terrorist. They had no rabbi, Pharisee, Sadducee, priest, or scribe to call their own. They were a bunch of nobodies, worthless like a sucker branch or a root popping out of dry ground.

But not only did Jesus not have the pedigree the nation of Israel expected, he also didn’t have the look. Look at verse 2 again, “He had no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.” We must remember how Israel was big on appearances. Remember when they chose their first king Saul, it was simply because he was more handsome and taller than everyone else. That still seemed to be their formula for success. But with Jesus there was no royal look to Him. He didn’t look like a king, the king that they longed for who would lead them in overthrowing their oppressors. And yet before their own eyes, He humbly displayed sovereign power, divine wisdom, truth, holiness, and grace. But they couldn’t see it, nor accept it.

And lastly, there was His death. Which to them was completely despicable. Look at verse 3, He was despised… meaning to treat with disdain or disregard and forsaken of men. The Hebrew word for men in this verse refers to the elite, the rulers, prominent people, the religious leaders, and government officials. And those men of power and influence saw nothing in Jesus to be celebrated or affirmed. In fact, they were the ones who led the crowd in shouting crucify Him for He claims to be king, but surely He's not our Messiah.

Therefore, Jesus was simply “A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.” The Hebrew word sorrows is literally pain, but not external pain, instead it’s the internal pain of the heart. To them, he was a sad person, a weak pathetic man with deep sadness of heart. He’s not their triumphant leader, a man full of excitement and enthusiasm.

Yet on top of that, there was great physical and external pain. Notice Jesus is described “as one from whom men hide their faces.” On the cross, as verse 14 reminded us, Jesus was marred more than any man. He hung there naked, bruised and bloody beyond all recognition from the beating of the soldiers, nailed to a roman cross. This scene was so barbaric and horrific that your natural response was to cover your face so that you wouldn’t have to see it or the death in the air. You don’t want that horrible image in your mind. And yet that’s how Israel sees Jesus. The thought of Him being the Messiah is unimaginable and despicable. And so, at the end of verse 3, we read, “He was despised and we did not esteem Him.” The word esteem means they considered Him nothing or nonexistent. Literally, He was a nobody to them because He failed to meet their misplaced expectations.

Listen, we too, like Israel, can easily have misplaced expectations of Christ. We too can foolishly believe that we can make ourselves righteous enough for heaven on our own effort. We can easily convince ourselves that if we go to church, be a good person, have good morals, and be a good neighbor then we must surely be good enough for God. We can easily believe that we have no need for a Savior, because we are actually not that bad compared to other people. But that’s not true! For you are sinner, from the sole of your feet to the top of your head, and when we stand before the holiness of God and His Word, we desperately need a Savior, not a religious system of works that will certainly fail to produce true righteousness. You see God is holy, and we are not, and therefore, we cannot be with God unless we are made clean by the blood of the Lamb. We also, can foolishly believe, that if we just give our lives to Christ and live for Him, then surely God will bless us with an easy life, full of health and prosperity, a wonderful marriage, a beautiful family, with little to no suffering. But Jesus never promises us such things. Instead, He assures us, that if we follow Him, troubles and trials will surely find us. And so, God never promises us an easy life, but He does, as we studied last week, provide us with His presence and power, so that whatever troubles we do face in this world we can find rest and hope in Him, for He is with us. In fact, we can find everything we ever truly need in Him.

Oh, how easy it is to have misplaced expectations when it comes to Jesus. And listen, here’s the warning of this passage, when Jesus fails to meet our perceived needs and expectations, we too will quickly look past Him and consider Him nothing. We will have no need for what offers us. Oh, how easy it is to live our lives thinking we have no need for a Savior, no need for His forgiveness, and no need of grace. Sadly, most people just want an easy life, and so they trust in themselves, they place their hope in idolatrous things like a good job, a great education, a sound retirement plan, a relationship, or whatever may bring them the greatest success and happiness. And in doing so, they neglect their greatest need, and as a result they never experience the joy, hope, peace, and satisfaction that only Christ can give. Listen, your heart will constantly lead you astray. Even after, you put your faith in Christ, your desires will attempt to convince you that you need something other than what Jesus offers you. But everything you truly need is found in the life, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. You need forgiveness, you need His grace, you need His gift of eternal life, which is truly an abundant life. Place your hope there, look to Him alone, live in His Word, and live to be like Him by being a true Servant of God. For only in Jesus will our hearts find true rest. Pray with me!