David's Sermons - Arm of the Lord

Isaiah 53 v 1-3

Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?
For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Isaiah 52 v 10

The LORD hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.

Isaiah 55 v 4

Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people.

Today we look at another of the names given to Jesus. He is here called the Arm of the Lord. The arm signifies strength, power, control, authority. We talk about the long arm of the law. It is also the instrument by which we put our thoughts into practise. The mind conceives a plan and the arm carries it out.

The Jews expected their Messiah to be a strong leader, a great commander. They expected Him to stamp on the gentile nations and rule in His kingdom, as written in Psalm 2. He will do these things, but they missed the details of the first coming of Christ as opposed to His second coming.

In Isaiah 53 we find a gentler character, someone who is persecuted, who is little esteemed, and this is the Christ we know who walked the earth 2000 years ago. He did have the power. We see from the great miracles He did that he had power to heal, to renew and even to restore life, but He didn't use His power in a forceful way. The Arm of the Lord was there to do the work of the Lord. He knew that His work was the cross.

John 12 v 37-41

But though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him:
That the saying of Esaias the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report? and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed?
Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said again,
He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.
These things said Esaias, when he saw his glory, and spake of him.

It is sad that hearts can be hardened. The people had seen Him perform so many miracles and yet didn't recognise Him as the Arm of the Lord.

Arms are not just about strength and power, but also about comfort and protection. Deuteronomy 32 v 27 reminds us that we can walk for the Lord, stepping sure in the knowledge that underneath are the everlasting arms.