Who Shall Declare His Generation- I
In this hour of spiritual visitation, God is reminding us, His people, that His desire is to draw us closer, into an unveiled union with Himself. His desire is to, through us, reveal His glory to the nations. Therefore, He is forming a company of willing people, a generation dedicated to do His will. A company to accomplish His purpose among the nations. “For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth” (Acts 13:47).
God is doing a new thing in the earth in this hour, and it behooves us to submit to Him and follow the leading of the Holy Ghost. The trumpet is sounding again, and God is moving among His people, to change us, and to lead us forward and upwards into the ever-unfolding desires of His own heart. He’s doing a work in our generation, and He will complete it in righteousness.
There’s a generation destined from the foundation of the world to display God’s glory before the nations. A people from within the present Babylon of confusion and futility, destined to manifest the character and glory of God. All creation waits with earnest expectation for the unveiling of these special ones. You and I, spirit-filled children of God, have received an open invitation to dedicate ourselves and enroll in this army. Will you heed this call? Will you join that generation of people that will seek, serve, and worship Him in spirit and in truth? Will you be among His “seed” company, those who will carry on the life, work, and legacy of Jesus Christ? The prophet passionately asks: “And who shall declare His generation? For He was cut off out of the land of the living” (Isa 53:8b).
My prayer is that as you read this series of messages, the central question here will ring in your ears day and night, and as you hear “Who shall declare His generation?” echoing in your inner ears, you will boldly and passionately answer, “Here I am, Lord, I will. I belong to His Generation. I am among the company of those who will declare His generation. I belong to His seed, His progeny, the company of overcomers that will show forth His wisdom, His power, and His glory to principalities and powers. For His is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever and ever, Amen.”
“Who shall declare His generation?”
One of God’s main blessings pronounced on Adam in the beginning was fruitfulness. “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it” (Gen 1:28). And to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, God said that “in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies” (Gen 22:17). Fruitfulness was God’s special blessing for His people, for “He maketh the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children. Praise ye the Lord” (Ps 113:9).
The Psalmist in the spirit sang:
“Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate” (Ps 127:3-5).
However, in light of this, Isaiah the prophet seemed to lament, saying of Jesus of Nazareth, “Who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the land of the living.” Let’s look at the entire passage a little closely.
“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.
“Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
“He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken” (Isa 53:3-8).
Strong gives the meaning of the word translated as “declare” in this verse as “to ponder, meditate, or to converse with oneself,” as in, “Who shall ponder on this serious issue that He has no posterity because He was cut off due to the hideous transgression that was laid on Him.”
Here’s Young`s Literal Translation of the passage from the seventh verse:
“It hath been exacted, and he hath answered,
And he openeth not his mouth,
As a lamb to the slaughter he is brought
And as a sheep before its shearers is dumb,
And he openeth not his mouth.
By restraint and by judgment he hath been taken
And of his generation who doth meditate,
That he hath been cut off from the land of the living?
By the transgression of My people is plagued.”
This solemn question pertains to the progeny of Jesus Christ. The spirit speaking through the prophet is saying that since He was cut off due to transgression (our transgression, not His), and left no seed to continue His lineage, who shall declare His generation?
Strong`s dictionary presents the specific Hebrew word translated as “generation” in this passage as having meanings such as “posterity, a revolution of time, or an age or generation.”
The International Standard Version of the Bible renders the passage as “From detention and judgment he was taken away—and who can even think about his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living, he was stricken for the transgression of my people” (Isa 53:8).
Jesus, the last Adam, left no seed in Adam’s line to declare his generation; but He himself became the seed, or the “grain of wheat” that fell into the ground and died. He terminated the lineage of the first Adam. Here is the hidden wisdom of God. “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!” (Rom 11:33).
O The Depth of the Wisdom of God!
God in His infinite wisdom purposely terminated the natural seed of Adam’s line. The seed of Abraham according to the flesh terminated in Jesus of Nazareth, for He left no earthly seed to continue that generation. He left no natural progeny to carry on His lineage through natural procreation. This therefore totally eliminates the “seed of Abraham” coming from natural birth.
Because the true “Seed of Abraham,” the Shiloh, the Messiah, to whom the promise was made, left no child born to Him when He was cut off from the land of the living. We must therefore ask the question with Isaiah:
“Who shall declare His generation?”
“But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
“But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
“But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
“Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God” (1 Cor 2:7-12).
While, down here below, man saw that Jesus of Nazareth, the seed of Abraham, was cut off from the land of the living, God was planting His single seed, the “grain of wheat.” The kingdom of darkness and the serpent rejoiced greatly when they saw Him, the promised “seed of the woman,” terminated. They remembered God had said, “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel” (3:15). And so hell and death celebrated the demise of the Son of man, not knowing their doom was knocking at the door and they were celebrating their own destruction.
Even the disciples were downcast.
Walk behind Cleopas and the other disciple on the way to Emmaus a few days after His death, and hear their lamentation:
“Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people: And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him.
“But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to day is the third day since these things were done” (Luke 24:18-21).
Has the seed of Abraham, the seed of the woman, been terminated? Where is the son of David? What has happened to the Anointed One?
Is His dominion and power not everlasting? We trusted that He would redeem Israel and sit upon the throne of David as the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. Is it not Him through whom the whole family of the earth will be blessed?
Did God not say He will bless whoever blesses Him, and curse whoever curses Him, and that He the Almighty is the saving strength of His Anointed?
What has happened to the seed of Abraham? And who shall declare His generation? For he was cut off from the land of the living.
“But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us … commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Eph 2:4a, Rom 5:8b). God, in His incomprehensible love, sent His only begotten Son to die for us. He planted His seed, the “seed of Abraham,” God’s single “grain of wheat,” and caused Him to die, so that through Him at harvest time, He might raise up innumerable “seeds” after the same kind.
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit” (John 12:24). And the laws set in motion in Genesis had already fixed what the “fruit” to be brought forth would look like. The first of the laws states, “While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease” (Gen 8:22). The first part of this law says that seedtime and harvest shall not cease. When a man sows, this law says, he shall also reap at harvest time. The laborer is worthy of his wages. And God, the greatest farmer, has sown His “seed,” the grain of wheat, in His garden. He shall, without fail, reap His harvest. In the second law, God commands every fruit-yielding tree to bring forth fruit after its kind: “God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind” (Gen 1:11).
This indeed confirms that the plan of God from the foundation of the earth is for the progeny of Jesus Christ to not be of natural birth, but to come forth from His death with His resurrection. His seed that will continue His lineage comes from the harvest produced by Him, the grain of wheat, that was sown by God, the wise Husbandman.
They will be brought forth by the “power of His resurrection.” Joshua led Israel into the land of promise. It was a new generation brought forth out of death. It was a new generation that came forth out of the River Jordan. They died and were buried in the river of death. They were raised up by the power of God to march forth in newness of life to conquer Jericho and beyond.
In the same manner, a new generation has arisen on the earth, a new company of God-seekers. They are the company the prophet spoke about. They are the “generation” that was “to come,” the people created to “praise the LORD,” even to show forth the excellence of our God in the land of the living (Ps 102:18).
They are the generation of them that seek Him. They are the company of true worshippers, who worship the Father in spirit and in truth. They will ascend into the hills of the Lord, and will permanently reside in His holy mountain and commune with Him there. The day has arrived. The hour has come. The time of manifestation of these true worshippers is now upon us.
This generation is not based on age, race, tribe, or tongue: it is the generation of true seekers of God from all nations, both Jews and Gentiles, young and old, rich and poor.
This plan of God in this end-time will be carried out, not by an individual celebrated minister, but by these anointed sons of the High Priest. They will not be chosen by man, but by the Lord God Almighty Himself. He is building an army, an overcomer’s company, a kingdom of priests, and a “generation of seekers.” You and I are important to God as individuals, but in this move, it is the company of well-equipped soldiers that will go across Jordan and take the land.
In this end-time, God is once again gathering His people together unto Himself through His anointed ones, calling us to lay aside all that is of man, all that which separates the Body, and to come into union with Christ. He is calling us to leave our sectarian and territorial spirits behind and gather unto Christ so He might pour on us that “precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard that went down to the skirts of his garments.”
“Oh, that He might pour on the body in this hour, that precious anointing that is upon the Head, even that same anointing upon our High Priest, not after the order of Aaron, but after the order of Melchisedek.”
Dear saint of the Most High, can your hear the sound of the trumpet? Can you hear what the Holy Ghost is saying to us? For I know you have ears to hear and the eye of understanding to perceive the things of God. The Lord God is gathering “this chosen generation” that He might lead them to the next level. To be a part of it, we must prepare and sanctify ourselves for the great move of the Almighty God in His church. We must listen carefully to our Commander-in-Chief, the Lord Jesus Christ, as He directs and leads us onward into battle. We must be attentive and hear what the Spirit is saying to the church. Yes, we must listen to Him who “holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass and hath the sharp sword with two edges.”
This is the company of people the Psalmist prophesied about. They are the “willing generation.” His people, His generation or progeny, will be willing in the day of His power, says the prophet in the book of Psalms. A spirit of willingness will come upon the elect. It is going to blow across the church like a mighty wind. Men and women in the church will break their fallow ground, willingly, and without any compulsion. They will sow to themselves in righteousness, and reap in mercy, because the time to seek the Lord has come, and “He will come and rain righteousness upon us” (Hosea 10:12). We will not sow among thorns anymore as God awakens our hearts to serve and worship Him in spirit and in truth.
