Satisfaction Guaranteed

“He shall see of the travail of his soul, [and] shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.” (Isa 53:11 AV)

The Bible clearly tells us the LORD is not pleased with the death of the wicked.  He would much rather save the wicked than to damn them.  Yet, He is satisfied.  He is satisfied with the knowledge He did what He could to save them.  He is satisfied that His soul was in travail.  He is satisfied there was no greater act of love that could have been shown and every opportunity to repent and receive would be offered to them.  He is satisfied!

There is another way to look at it, too.  Even if only one person accepted Christ, He would have been satisfied.  That shows the value of the individual soul to the LORD Jesus Christ.  He is not a numbers guy.  He is not pessimistic that unless all come to Him, His death meant little.  Sure, the LORD’s heart breaks at the thought of any soul who rejects Him.  But equally so, He is satisfied at the prospect of each individual who does come to Him!

As preachers, we could learn a lot from this attitude.  Sometimes we allow ourselves to focus on the failures and fail to see the successes.  If we are pure numbers guys, then we are all failures.  Less come to Christ then those who don’t.  And significantly so.  Less walk with God when they do get saved than those who don’t walk with God.  Less surrender for service than those who don’t.  At His death, Christ only had three!  One disciple and two ladies.  Yet, He hung on the Cross satisfied!  As long as we do all that we can do, then we should be satisfied.  Otherwise, we are telling those who are faithful that they are not enough!