Well pleased!

Isaiah 42:1-4 NIV is a prophecy about Jesus: 'Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight'. God's words way back in the Old Testament mirror the words he spoke at Jesus' baptism: 'This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased' (Matthew 3:17 NKJV). So... God spoke words about Jesus in Isaiah, a book written about 700 years before Jesus came to earth. Then, he confirmed those prophetic words as Jesus stepped into the water of the Jordan and was baptised as a symbol of officially starting his mission.

And here's more of God's amazingness in this story... The words in Isaiah were written in Hebrew, and Matthew was written in Greek. The words used for 'I am pleased'/'I delight' in the two languages - 'ratsah' in Hebrew and 'eudok' in Greek - translate to the same thing: to be really, really pleased with someone or something. More than that, both the Hebrew and Greek words have a super-specific undertone. As well as meaning 'to be pleased', the words both mean something along the lines of 'to restore', or 'to be resolved'. They both talk of redemption.

God's heart is to show us, over and over, that Jesus stepped into this messy, troubled world precisely for redemption, to restore our relationship with him. The Bible speaks of that from start to finish.



So what now? A practical task for today: how can you bring some peace and restoration for someone whose life is a bit messy right now.





— SCRIPTURE —

'This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.' Matthew 3:17 NKJV
— SOULFOOD —

2 Sam 7:18-11:27, Matt 25:1-13, Ps 122, Pro 17:18-21