Gary Harbo - He Gave Us His Word

The sixth prophecy predicts that with his life hanging in balance, Jesus would not open his mouth to defend himself. This is clearly laid out by Isaiah nearly 700 years before the coming of Christ.

“He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He opened not His mouth; ”

Now what does oppressed mean? According to Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary i.e. (p. 799),
“to crush or burden by abuse of power or authority.”

Afflicted means i.e. (p. 20),
“to distress so severely as to cause persistent suffering or anguish.”

Think about that for a second. The King of the Jews, our Messiah, the one on whose shoulders would carry the government of the world, is going to be crushed by the abuse of power. He is going to be in such severe distress as to suffer in anguish. Yet He does not open His mouth.

Matthew 27:12-14 And while He was being accused by the chief priests and elders, He answered nothing. Then Pilate said to Him, “Do You not hear how many things they testify against You?” But He answered him not one word, so that the governor marveled greatly.

This powerful King of the World is going to be killed and how does Isaiah say that He will respond?

“And as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
So He opened not His mouth.”

In other words, with all of the power of the kingdom at His disposal, he would not go out roaring and fighting as a lion, but quiet as a sheep. God is telling us that His Son is going to quietly lay down His life for the sins of the world. This should have been a clear sign to His chosen people that the time was at hand for the fulfillment of the Messiah prophecy. The Jews had no excuse for not recognizing the Messiah. In fact, I did a Bible study on 29 prophecies that came to pass during the last 24 hours of Christs' time on earth. In these 29 prophecies there are over 60 obvious clues. In retrospect, it is almost impossible to imagine how all of the clues could have been ignored. But then again, we are talking about mankind, and one should never underestimate the foolhardiness of mankind.

Can you imagine the magnitude of this prediction? It would be similar to the leader of the free world being accused of a crime of which he was innocent. Now this free leader knowingly decides, even though he is pure of heart and has committed no crimes, to quietly accept his death sentence. Does that make any sense whatsoever? Can you imagine anyone in this world that would agree to suffer the fate of death for the crimes of humanity without a word of defense?

It makes no sense whatsoever, unless that person is not of this world. That’s the key! This could only be accomplished by a God that so loved His creation, that He was willing to buy it back with His very own life. So to accomplish the plan of salvation, Christ simply would not respond. Christ had literally put Himself in the shoes of humanity. He was standing in the shoes of us sinners and therefore would make no defense.

Again, this prophecy is a bold prediction that goes against all human logic. It only makes sense in retrospect, because it clearly fulfilled the Word of God. This follows a pattern of making statements of prophecies that are almost the opposite of what one would expect from a human perspective. Dr. Missler puts the odds of this scripture being fulfilled as one in 1,000. We’ll go with that, but I think he is way too low.