Isaiah 53:8 “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.”
The New Testament opens with, “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ,” (Matthew 1:1). When “Philip” met the “eunuch”, he found him reading in Isaiah 53, and he asked “Philip” who it referred to; “Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus.” (Acts 8:35). Thus, it seems that, in these passages, the word “generation” refers to our Lord’s life and Great Works here on the earth, which were Eternally Effectual. Our Lords “generation” is so extensive, that John wrote, “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.” (John 21:25). You would think that, when the Son Of God came, everyone, including even the highest officials, would adore Him and be anxious to “declare” His Coming and Great Works. But, many rejected Him and set out to destroy Him and “his generation”. However, our Lord ensured that “his generation” would be declared and recorded for all His follow-on generations; He called such men as fishermen, a customs collector, a physician, and a converted Pharisee to “declare his generation”. The officials viewed our Lord’s people as an ignorant bunch of rag-tags that would soon fade away. They thought that when He was “cut off out of the land of the living”, His “generation” would end, and that ‘the Christian problem’ would die out. But when the officials “saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.” (Acts 4:13). Even today, many still do not understand, they consider Christians to be ignorant weaklings who simply need Christianity as a crutch to help them through life’s difficulties. The problem is that they do not have the Loving Spirit of God indwelling them that joyfully moves His People to believe in Him and to believe what is declared of “his generation” and to “worship him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24) and to strive with all diligence to follow and obey Him (John 14:15). Furthermore, when the Holy Spirit indwelled us, He gave us “faith” (Hebrew 11:1; 12:2) to believe that what is declared and recorded of “his generation” is true and to know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that He paid our Sin debt, that at death He will take our soul-spirit to be with Him, and that one magnificent day He will mightily raise our bodies to Eternal Life with Him.