The Greatest President
“I am God, and there is no other;I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning,from ancient times, what is still to come (Isaiah 46:9-10).”
On November 19, 1863, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address explained the entire Civil War’s significance with just 272 words. A miraculous feat, but Lincoln’s perfect speech pales beside Isaiah’s 405 words in chapter 53 (below). Why? Because Isaiah wrote them 700 years before Jesus’ crucifixion!
The receiving end of Pickett’s Charge at the 150th Anniversary
Generals A.P. Hill and Marse Robert at the 150th Anniversary
Moments after Pickett’s Charge reenactment at the 150th Anniversary
Here’s Isaiah’s 53rd chapter:
Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant,and like a root out of dry ground;he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,and no beauty that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejectedby men,a man of sorrowsand acquainted withgrief;and as one from whom men hide their faceshe was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefsand carried our sorrows;yet we esteemed him stricken,smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions;he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray;we have turned—every one—to his own way;and the Lord has laid on himthe iniquity of us all.
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. By oppression and judgment he was taken away;and as for his generation, who consideredthat he was cut off out of the land of the living,stricken for the transgression of my people?
And they made his grave with the wickedand with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;he has put him to grief;when his soul makesan offering for guilt,he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
Out of the anguish of his soul he shall seeand be satisfied;by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,make many to be accounted righteous,and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,because he poured out his soul to deathand was numbered with the transgressors;yet he bore the sin of many,and makes intercession for the transgressors.
Imagine if Gettysburg was predicted with this detail in 1163. Impossible, unless “I am God and there is no other,” saw Gettysburg (and the crucifixion) 700 years beforehand! Which if He did, it also means He knew you’d read this today, and your response to Isaiah 53:1 with his first nine words.
Here’s those magical words of Lincoln and why they matter: The Gettysburg Address
And some controversy too: 269 or 272?
YHM 