ISAIAH 53 “The Suffering Servant Is Revealed”
By
1.
INTRO
1.1.
In our last study, we looked
at the beginning of the fourth ‘servant song,’ as Isaiah began to reveal God’s
‘ideal servant’ from the perspective of one who is to come on the scene and
provide redemption for mankind.
1.1.1.
The first part of that
chapter had to do with God’s restoration of His people during the 7 Year
Tribulation of the book of Revelation, just before Christ’s Second Coming and
the establishment of His Millennial Kingdom.
1.1.1.1.There, the Lord told His people to clothe themselves with strength and
to put on beautiful clothes in preparation for their glorious celebration of
their salvation which the Lord shall bring about
1.1.2.
Then, there was a word to
the captive Judeans who will live 100+ years after the time of Isaiah’s writing
to purify themselves and to not touch anything of the Babylonian culture as
they are leaving to return to their land and rebuild their city and temple
1.1.3.
Finally, Isaiah again
introduced us to God’s ‘ideal servant,’ and we began to see more clearly the
horrible vicarious suffering that he would have to undergo in order to make
propitiation for the sins of mankind
1.1.3.1.As we considered God’s ‘ideal servant,’ we were humbled to be in the
presence of an almighty and holy love of a kind we could never have imagined on
our own
1.2.
In our study today, we are
going to look at this chapter that has been called the pinnacle of Biblical
prophesy both in the book of Isaiah as well as in the rest of the entire Old
Testament. We will see today in chapter
53 that Isaiah completely unveils for us the nature of God’s ‘ideal servant’ as
well as the work that he would perform in becoming the once-for-all time sacrifice
for the sins of mankind.
1.2.1.
Chapter 53 is the pinnacle
of Biblical prophesy:
1.2.1.1.Dr. Kyle M. Yates has said that chapter 53 and this fourth servant song
of Isaiah’s is “the Mt Everest of Bible prophesy,” because of its
“beauty and grandeur.”
1.2.1.2.Delitzsch says that, “It is the center of this wonderful book of
consolation (ch. 40-66), and is the most central, the deepest, and the loftiest
thing that the Old Testament prophecy, outstripping itself, has ever achieved.”
1.2.1.3.We saw in our last study that the Jewish rabbis and scholars
interpreted this chapter as being Messianic until the 12th century
after which they have mostly asserted that the nation of Israel is the ‘ideal
servant’
1.2.1.4.In our last study, we saw that this chapter is quoted at least 41 times
in the New Testament, each time in order to show how that Christ fulfilled the
prophesies listed
1.2.2.
The nature and work of God’s
‘ideal servant’ is fully revealed
1.2.2.1.We see again that God’s ideal servant could only be a man of flesh and
blood
1.2.2.2.We see that God’s ideal servant is none other than the Lord Himself, in
His 3rd person
1.2.2.3.We see that God’s ideal servant suffered vicariously for each and every
one of us so that we might have our sins and iniquities forgiven and thus be
justified by his sacrifice
1.2.2.4.We see the man sufferings of God’s ideal servant described, as well as
the fact that it was the Lord who caused him to suffer and who was pleased with
the sacrifice for sins which he made
1.2.2.5.We see that God’s ‘ideal servant’ will be highly exalted as a result of
his willingness to be that perfect sacrifice on our behalf
2.
VS 53:1 - “1 Who has believed our
message? And to whom has the arm of the
Lord been revealed?” - Isaiah asks two questions here, one
concerning who would believe the prophet’s message about God’s ‘ideal servant’
to come, and the other about to whom
would the ‘arm of the Lord’ be revealed?
2.1.
Isaiah had constantly faced unbelief in his
day. As he prophesied to rebellious
2.2.
It appears obvious here that the same group
who would not believe the prophet’s message would also not have the ‘arm of the
Lord’ revealed to them. This then would
more than hint at the fact that one must put his faith and trust in God’s word
concerning the prophesied Messiah to come, if he wanted to truly understand the
salvation that the Lord would bring, and more so to be considered part of God’s
people.
2.3.
I have mentioned already that Isaiah teaches
that the ‘arm of the Lord’ is God’s ‘ideal servant,’ and here we see that this
theme of the ‘arm of the Lord’ is revealed to be the Lord’s means by which men
and women might have the way of salvation procured for them. Isaiah reveals in this chapter that the
Messiah, who is the ‘arm of the Lord,’ would Himself become the salvation of
God’s people.
3.
VS 53:2 - “2 For He grew up before Him like
a tender shoot, And like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty That we
should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.” - Isaiah tells us that God’s
‘ideal servant’ would grow up before the Lord, His heavenly father, and be
before Him a ‘tender shoot’ and a ‘root out of parched ground’
3.1.
God promised in His word that the Messiah
would be a direct descendant of King David:
3.1.1.
In 2 Sam. 7:12-13,
the Lord promised David that He would raise up after him a descendant
(singular) of his whose kingdom would last forever, “12 “When
your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your
descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his
kingdom.13 “He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne
of his kingdom forever.”
3.1.1.1.See
also Psalm 89:35-37.
3.1.2.
In Isaiah 11:1-11,
Isaiah already revealed to us that the Messiah to come would come as a shoot
from the stem or root of Jesse, meaning that he would be a descendant of King
David the son of Jesse, “1 Then a shoot will
spring from the stem of Jesse, And a branch from his roots will bear
fruit. 2 And the Spirit of the Lord will
rest on Him, The spirit of wisdom and understanding, The spirit of counsel and
strength, The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. 3 And He will delight in the fear of the
Lord, And He will not judge by what His eyes see, Nor make a decision by what
His ears hear; 4 But with righteousness
He will judge the poor, And decide with fairness for the afflicted of the
earth; And He will strike the earth with
the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He will slay the
wicked. 5 Also righteousness will be the
belt about His loins, And faithfulness the belt about His waist. 6 And the wolf will dwell with the lamb, And
the leopard will lie down with the kid, And the calf and the young lion and the
fatling together; And a little boy will
lead them. 7 Also the cow and the bear
will graze; Their young will lie down
together; And the lion will eat straw
like the ox. 8 And the nursing child
will play by the hole of the cobra, And the weaned child will put his hand on
the viper’s den. 9 They will not hurt or
destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth will be full of the knowledge of
the Lord As the waters cover the sea.”
3.1.2.1.See
also Jer. 33:15.
3.1.3.
In Rev. 22:16,
Jesus is called both the “root” and the “offspring” of David, “16 “I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things for
the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright morning star,””
and Warren Wiersbe points out the
follow about this, “Because Jesus Christ is
God, He is the “root of David”; but because
He is man, He is the “offspring of David.””
3.2.
Being ‘out of parched ground’ most likely
expresses the fact that the kingly line from king David, from which Jesus can
be genealogically traced, had been abandoned by the Lord from being the source
of His blessing. Jesus was descended
from King David, however there was no longer a Jewish king in
3.3.
Isaiah has shown us in these four servant
songs that God’s ‘ideal servant’ must be a man of flesh and blood, and that he
cannot be the nation of
3.4.
Isaiah tells us that God’s ‘ideal servant’
will have ‘no stately form or majesty,’ which indicates that the coming of
God’s ‘ideal servant’ would not be through the normal channels of royalty and
royal dignity. Though he would be a
physical descendant of King David, as both Matthew and Luke provide for us in
Jesus’ genealogy, and though he would one day rule over the entire earth for
eternity, yet his coming would be amongst very common folk.
3.4.1.
We know that the gospels tell us that Jesus
was born to Mary who was engaged to be married to Joseph at that time, and that
after Jesus was born and Joseph and Mary consummated their marriage, that they
lived among the poorer classes of people in
3.5.
Isaiah tells us also that Jesus did not
possess attractive looks and did not come to earth like a
4.
VS 53:3 - “3 He was despised and forsaken
of men, A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face,
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.” - Isaiah tells us that men would despise and
forsake God’s ‘ideal servant’ and that he would experience much grief and
sorrow
4.1.
In Heb. 1:9, the Lord shows us that Jesus was
“anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows,” which indicates that
Jesus’ life was filled with the joy of the Lord. Thus, it was not the continual experience of
sorrow and grief which Jesus experienced in life that is in view in this verse,
but rather the sorrow and grief in particular brought upon by going to the
cross for the sins of mankind.
4.2.
The gospels reveal to us that many turned
away from Jesus after initially following Him and that He was constantly
harassed by the Jewish religious leaders, and thus He was a man who was
‘despised and forsaken of men.’
4.2.1.
In fact, when Jesus was being betrayed by
Judas, all of His disciples even fled and went their own ways rather than stick
with their leader.
4.3.
Isaiah tells us that God’s ‘ideal servant’
would be ‘like one from whom men hide their face.’ In John 3:20-21,
Jesus taught that men and women avoided Him and the light of truth if they were
content living in their sin, “20 “For everyone who
does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds
should be exposed.21 “But he who practices the truth comes to the light, that
his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.””
4.4.
Isaiah tells us that Jesus was ‘despised’ and
that men did not ‘esteem Him.’ That is,
the religious and political leaders of
5.
VS 53:4 - “4 Surely our griefs He Himself
bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we
ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted.” - Isaiah tells us that God’s
‘ideal servant’ bore our ‘griefs’ and carried our ‘sorrows’
5.1.
Beginning in this verse, Isaiah begins to
fully unravel for us the vicarious suffering of God’s ‘ideal servant.’ The things that he suffered were all
completed vicariously for mankind. It
was the suffering and pain that each and every one of us deserved that God’s
‘ideal servant’ would take upon himself.
He is presented by Isaiah as dying and suffering in our place.
5.2.
Vicarious sacrifice was seen all through
God’s dealings with mankind. The first
vicarious sacrifice that I believe was carried out was the animals killed by
the Lord so that Adam and Eve could be clothed after initially committing their
sin in the garden of Eden. All of the
blood sacrifices of the Old Testament were sufferings that were vicarious, the
sufferings of an animal in place of the individual.
5.2.1.
The just punishment that each and every one
of us deserved because of our sins was willingly suffered by God’s ‘ideal
servant.’ Therefore, we can say that he
bore our ‘griefs’ and carried our ‘sorrows.’
5.3.
Instead of men realizing that God’s ‘ideal
servant’ was suffering vicariously in their place and as payment for their
sins, instead they scoffed and railed at him and said that he was suffering
because he deserved it. They said that
he must have done something wrong and therefore he had been ‘smitten of God and
afflicted.’
5.3.1.
This was in fact what happened to Jesus upon
the cross of
5.4.
The Hebrew word “cholee” here that is translated
‘griefs’ can mean “sickness” or “disease.”
Jesus Christ not only suffered the payment for our sins which we
deserved upon the cross of Calvary, but He Himself was made to “become sin” (to
carry the disease of sinfulness) according to 2 Cor. 5:21, “21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we
might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
5.4.1.
There was more horror to the cross for Jesus
to be associated with that which He abhorred so much and which was so foreign
to Him, namely “sin.” To be made “sin”
and thereby be separated from His heavenly Father because of His sin was much
more excruciating than merely suffering His beatings, whipping, and the nails
driven into His hands.
6.
VS 53:5 - “5 But He was pierced through for
our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon
Him, and by His scourging we are healed.” - Isaiah tells us that God’s ‘ideal servant’
was pierced through and crushed for our iniquities
6.1.
The vicarious sacrifice of the Lord for the
sins of mankind is finally revealed in full.
It was for each of us that God’s ‘ideal servant’ was murdered and had to
suffer. He was being punished for ‘our
well-being,’ and as a result of His ‘scourging’ (whipping) we are healed from
our sin and its consequences.
6.2.
The term ‘pierced through’ is translated from
the Hebrew word “kwahlal” and indicates a severity of wounding such as that
which is usually fatal. We know that
Jesus was also pierced through with the nails in His hands and the nail in His
feet, and also that the Roman soldier pierced His side with the sword after He
had expired upon the cross.
7.
VS 53:6-7 - “6 All of us like sheep have gone
astray, Each of us has turned to his own way;
But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him. 7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet
He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb
that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers,
So He did not open His mouth.” - Isaiah tells us that all of us in the human
race are like sheep who have wandered away from our shepherd, but that as he
was allowing the iniquity of all of us to fall upon himself God’s ‘ideal
servant’ would be like a ‘lamb that is led to the slaughter’
7.1.
Jesus, in fulfilling His vicarious suffering
on our behalf and for our sins, is the ‘lamb without spot or blemish’ which was
typified by the type of lambs of the Old Testament sacrifices required:
7.1.1.
In Gen. 22:8,
there is an Old Testament story which is a picture of what God was doing
through Christ upon the cross of Calvary, and the King James translation alone
has really properly brought out what I believe is an Old Testament picture for
us of the fact that the Lord Himself would become the lamb of sacrifice in our
place. The Lord told Abraham to offer up
in sacrifice his only begotten son, the one for whom he had waited and prayed
for his entire life, and so he headed up Mt. Moriah to offer up Isaac. In the book of Hebrews, chapter 11, we read
that Abraham also believed that God could raise up Isaac from the dead if he
were sacrficed. In Gen. 22:8, when Isaaac asked Abraham where the lamb to
be sacrificed, he replied to him, “8 …My son, God will
provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.”
7.1.1.1.The
King James alone properly renders this verse to indicate that the Abraham told
his son that the Lord Himself would become the lamb for the sacrifice.
7.1.1.2.John
the Baptist told his followers one day when he saw Jesus, “Behold the lamb of
God who takes away the sins of the world!”
7.1.2.
In Rev. 13:8,
we read that even from before the foundations of the world were created that it
was in the mind and plans of God that the eternal Son of God, the third person
of the Trinity, would come to be the lamb of God who would take awaw the sins
of mankind, “8 And all that dwell
upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of
life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”
7.1.3.
In Acts 8:26-35,
we read about how Philip the evangelist (who had been one of the original
deacons at the church in Jerusalem) shared with the Ethiopian Eunuch what these
verses here in Isaiah mean as he preached the gospel to him and led him to
faith in Christ, “26 But an angel of the
Lord spoke to Philip saying, “Arise and go south to the road that descends from
Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a desert road.)27 And he arose and went; and
behold, there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of
the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure; and he had come to
Jerusalem to worship.28 And he was returning and sitting in his chariot, and
was reading the prophet Isaiah.29 And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go up and
join this chariot.”30 And when Philip had run up, he heard him reading Isaiah
the prophet, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?”31 And he said,
“Well, how could I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up
and sit with him.32 Now the passage of Scripture which he was reading was
this: “He was led as a sheep to
slaughter; And as a lamb before its
shearer is silent, So He does not open His mouth. 33 “In humiliation His judgment was taken
away; Who shall relate His
generation? For His life is removed from
the earth.” 34 And the eunuch answered
Philip and said, “Please tell me, of whom does the prophet say this? Of
himself, or of someone else?”35 And Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from
this Scripture he preached Jesus to him.”
7.2.
In these verses, we see that whereas the
lambs of the Old Testament sacrifices were ignorant of their impending
slaughter, that Jesus was willingly laying His life down as a sacrifice for our
sins. He could have appealed His
sentence and rebuffed His accusers, and He could have reviled those reviling
Him, yet as we read the gospel accounts of the day of His crucifixion we see
that He chose to be silent and to willingly bear up under those sufferings in
order that He might fulfill His calling and the scriptures in being the one sacrifice
for all time for the sins of mankind.
7.3.
Isaiah’s wording here lays the accountability
for turning away upon each one of us individually, and therefore we could not
plead innocence because we were helplessly caught up in the herd of foolish
humanity who were rebelling against God.
8.
VS 53:8 - “8 By oppression and judgment He
was taken away; And as for His
generation, who considered That He was cut off out of the land of the living,
For the transgression of my people to whom the stroke was due?” - Isaiah tells us that God’s
‘ideal servant’ would be cut off (die) and that this would happen because He
was dying for the transgression of the people
8.1.
The Hebrew word ‘oster’ is translated
‘oppression’ here, but it can mean and some translations translate it to mean,
“prison.” God’s ‘ideal servant’ would
suffering the just due for mankind’s sins and transgressions, and thus is seen
being taken away out of prison to suffer capital punishment for the
‘transgression’ of God’s law by all of the people upon the earth.
8.2.
Isaiah asks a question about the ‘generation’
among which God’s ‘ideal servant’ would live,
would they consider at that time that he was being put to death because
of the transgressions of the people?
This is the one of several hints in this chapter (see also verse 1 for
instance) that not everyone would believe God’s message about His ‘ideal
servant’ and thus would not receive the salvation that he purchased in his
blood for mankind.
8.3.
This word translated ‘cut off’ can mean to be killed, and it conveys the
same idea as Dan. 9:26 where
Daniel wrote down the timetable for the death (being cut off) of the Messiah
and the consummation of all history under His kingdom, “26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but
not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the
city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the
end of the war desolations are determined.”
9.
VS 53:9 - “9 His grave was assigned with
wicked men, Yet He was with a rich man in His death, Because He had done no
violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth.” - Isaiah tells us that the ‘ideal servant’s’
grave was assigned to be with ‘wicked men,’ yet in his death he was with a rich
man because in reality he was innocent of any wrong himself
9.1.
It was man’s intention to throw the body of
Jesus in a common grave where the vilest of criminals were thrown, however the
Lord overrode the plans of man because this was no ordinary man this was God’s
‘ideal servant,’ and he was totally innocent of any wrong.
9.2.
We read in the gospels that in fulfillment of
this prophesy that a rich man named Joseph of Arimathea, who was a member of
the Sanhedrin and a secret disciple of Jesus’, just happened to own an unused
tomb near where Jesus was crucified, and that this man obtained permission to
take the body of Jesus and bury it in his tomb.
9.3.
Jesus was innocent of any wrong.
9.4.
Jesus had never harmed any man and thus he
had never done any ‘violence.’
9.5.
Jesus never lied, and thus there was never
‘any deceit in his mouth.’
10.
VS 53:10 - “10 But the Lord was pleased To
crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He
would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will
prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand.” - Isaiah tells us that it was
the Lord who was crushing God’s ‘ideal servant’ and that the Lord was pleased
to do so since the ‘ideal servant’ was being offered up as a ‘guilt offering’
10.1.
This verse tells us that every blow, every
strike of the whip, every hammer hit upon the nail, etc. came about from the
Lord, for it was the Lord who determined what just punishment was due because
of the sins of millions of people since the beginning of creation. Those might have come via the vehicle of men,
yet it was the Lord who was behind every one of them.
10.2.
The Lord saw the offering up of Jesus as a
sacrifice that was pleasing in His sight, but not because He enjoyed in any way
seeing His only begotten and much beloved Son suffer, but because his sacrifice
was an expression of the greatest love ever known. Jesus in love willingly went to the cross of
10.3.
The ‘offspring’ mentioned are the children
who would come into the
10.4.
The Lord would ‘prolong His days’ by raising
His ‘ideal servant’ from the dead on the third day.
10.5.
After being raised from the dead ‘the good
pleasure of the Lord’ would prosper in His hand, as He was raised up from the
dead, ascended up to heaven, and then exalted and raised up to the right hand
of God.
11.
VS 53:11-12 - “11 As a result of the anguish of
His soul, He will see it and be satisfied;
By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many,
As He will bear their iniquities. 12
Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, And He will divide the
booty with the strong; Because He poured
out Himself to death, And was numbered with the transgressors; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, And
interceded for the transgressors.” - Isaiah tells us how that God’s ‘ideal
servant’ would ‘justify’ many as he is bearing their iniquities
11.1.
The justice and wrath of God against sin and
sinners was fully satisfied by the suffering of Jesus upon the cross of
11.2.
God’s ‘ideal servant’ would have the
‘knowledge’ of the Lord, and thus he would be able to bring to “justification”
mankind.
11.3.
“Justification” means to be made “just as if
you had never sinned.” When a person
accepts Christ as his Lord and Savior, all of the enmity and the damage of
their relationship with the Lord is removed to the point that it is as if they
had never sinned in the first place.
11.3.1.Romans 5:1 tells us how that we become “justified”
before the Lord by faith in Christ and His work on Calvary in our place for
salvation, “1 Therefore having been
justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
11.4.
The reason that men and women could be
justified is because God’s ‘ideal servant’ would ‘bare their iniquities.’
11.5.
Because Jesus did in fact pour out His life
unto death in order that mankind might be justified, the Lord says that He will
‘allot Him a portion with the great.’ This means that God’s ‘ideal servant’
would be lifted up and exalted to the Father’s right hand as a result of
faithfully laying down his life for the salvation of men.
11.5.1.In
Phil. 2:8-11, we read about the
exaltation of Jesus, “8 And being found in
appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of
death, even death on a cross.9 Therefore also God highly exalted Him, and
bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,10 that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven, and on earth, and under the
earth,11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the
glory of God the Father.”
11.6.
In Heb. 7:25,
we read about the fact that Jesus is constantly interceding for us His people
now that He has ascended up the Father, “25 Hence,
also, He is able to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since
He always lives to make intercession for them.”
11.7.
Isaiah tells us that God’s ‘ideal servant’
was ‘numbered with the transgressors’ which indicates that the suffering and
punishment which he would undertake for the sins of mankind would occur through
the judicial system of his day. However,
Isaiah tells us that the ‘ideal servant’ would intercede to the Lord for those
same transgressors.
11.8.
Again we see the willingness of God’s ‘ideal
servant’ to suffer in our place and as the sacrifice for our sins as Isaiah
tells us that He ‘poured out his soul unto death.’