Reader’s Guide: “The Word for Today” Tuesday, April 9, 2013 Read – Isaiah 43 The powerful “gospel” of Isaiah 43 is a delight for anyone of faith to hear. And, once again, they had meaning to Isaiah and their first hearers in the context of their life! But, once again, through “Messianic Exegesis” we can see them informing our experience of faith in Jesus. Luke does not tell his readers exactly what Jesus taught the travelers on the Emmaus road as Jesus explained to them that it was necessary for the Messiah to suffer and die and then enter into his glory. But, we can imagine that these words for Isaiah may have been part of that teaching. While it is important that we do justice to the Old Testament by insisting that it speaks on its own to its own time – we can move on from there to the hear those words in a new light – they do help us understand Jesus.