“He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.” Isaiah 53:7
May 14, 2025
A court official from Ethiopia was riding in his chariot reading the prophet Isaiah. “Do you understand what you are reading?” asked Philip. The official was puzzled by the identity of the “silence of the lamb” in Isaiah 53:7. Little did he know that it was the Servant of God who willingly submitted to an undeserved punishment. Philip “told him the good news about Jesus” (Acts 8:35). Jesus Christ had not been forced to the Roman cross against His will. Instead Jesus suffered voluntarily and patiently by being conscious of the Father’s sovereign will. Jesus had no guilt to confess. He was innocent. His silence was one of condemnation. We are not told all that Philip said about Jesus Christ. But this we know. It was for our sins that God judged His Son. The seeming passivity of the Servant, Jesus Christ, was the suffering of injustice so that we through faith in Christ alone could be forgiven and receive eternal life. What a chariot ride that turned out to be. If you have turned from your unbelief and put your trust in the Lamb of God, rejoice that your loss has been turned to gain by the atonement of Jesus Christ.
H
“O Lamb of God! That on the cross, Didst suffer to atone my loss, Give ear unto a sinner’s plea, Have mercy, Lamb of God! On me.” Christopher Neman Hall, “The Lamb of God”