ISAIAH CHAPTER 53

A PROPHECY OF JESUS’ SUFFERING

 

Stanza 2—Humiliation: The sorrowing Servant: Isaiah 53:1-3, NAS:

1 Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
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.
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.

The question in verse 1 implies that, in spite of these and other prophecies, only a small number of people would recognize who Jesus was when He came. This prediction found fulfillment at Christ’s first coming. Israel did not welcome Him. At Jesus’ first coming the nation of Israel did not recognize the mighty power of God in the person of Christ, their Messiah.

Few people will believe that Jesus is the promised Messiah because nothing about His physical appearance would attract a large following. He grew up before God as a tender shoot and as a root out of dry ground. In other words, Jesus came from a region that was very spiritually dry, an area where one would not expect a large plant to grow; that is, an area you would not expect a king to come from (John 1:45, 56). His appearance did not give the impression of royalty in beauty and majesty. His true identity would only be recognizable by faith.

The nation of Israel despised and rejected the Servant who experienced sorrows and . . . suffering. He was the kind of person people do not normally want to look at; they were repulsed by Him. They could not accept His suffering, crucifixion, and death as the sign of the conquering king they were waiting for. For these reasons the nation did not esteem Him; they didn’t think He was important. Yet He was and is the most important Person in the world, for He is the Servant of the Lord.

Stanza 3—Atonement: The Smitten Servant: Isaiah 53:4-6, NAS:

4 Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted.
5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities[fn]; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.
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.

Isaiah is saying that the Messiah, Jesus, would bear the consequences of the sins of mankind. This is the heart of the passage, and it presents the heart of the Gospel message: the innocent Servant dying as the sacrifice for sin. This message was at the heart of Israel’s religious system, the innocent animal sacrifice dying for the guilty sinner (Leviticus 16).[fn] The emphasis in verses 4–6 is on the plural pronouns: our griefs and sorrows, our iniquities, our transgressions. We have gone astray, we have turned to our own way. He did not die because of anything He had done but because of what we had done.[fn]

Jesus was “pierced through.” His hands and feet were pierced by nails (Psalm 22:16; Luke 24:39–40) and His side was pierced by a spear.[fn] He was crucified, which was not a Jewish form of execution.[fn] Capital punishment to the Jews meant stoning.[fn] If they  wanted to further humiliate the victim, they could publicly expose the corpse (Deuteronomy  21:22–23), a practice that Peter related to the Crucifixion.[fn]

On the cross, Jesus Christ was “crushed” under the weight of a burden. What was the burden? The sins and wrongdoings of us all (Isaiah 53:6, 12; 1:4). Sin is indeed a burden that grows heavier the longer we resist God (Psalm 38:4).

Jesus was “chastised” and given many “stripes,”[fn]and it was that punishment that could bring us peace and healing. The only way a lawbreaker can be at peace with the law is to suffer the punishment that the law demands. Jesus kept the Law perfectly, yet He suffered the whipping that belonged to us. Because He took our place, we now have peace with God if we believe that He suffered and died in our place, and therefore we cannot be condemned by God’s law (Romans 5:1; 8:1). The “healing” in Isaiah 53:5 refers primarily to the forgiveness of sins, not only to the healing of the body.[fn] Sin is not only like a burden, but it is also like a sickness that only God can cure.[fn]

Sin is serious. The prophet calls it transgression, which means rebellion against God, daring to cross the line that God has drawn (Isaiah 53:5, 8). He also calls it iniquity, which refers to the crookedness of our sinful nature. In other words, we are sinners by choice and by nature. Like sheep, we are born with a nature that prompts us to go astray; and like sheep we foolishly decide to go our own way. By nature, we are born children of wrath (Ephesians 2:3); and by choice, we become children of disobedience (Ephesians 2:2).

Stanza 4—The Silent Servant: Isaiah 53:7-9, NAS:

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.
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?
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.

As noted, the tendency of sheep is to follow others even to their destruction. In verse 7 the quiet, gentle nature of sheep is stressed. Seeing many sheep sheared for their wool or killed as sacrifices, Israelites were well aware of the submissive nature of sheep. Jesus, as the Lamb of God (John 1:29), quietly submitted to His death. He did not try to stop those who opposed Him; He remained silent rather than defend Himself.[fn] He was willingly led to death because He knew it would benefit those who would believe.

After being arrested and bound (John 18:12, 24) and after His judgment, Jesus was sentenced to die (John 19:16) and led to His death. He died not because of any sins of His own for He was sinless,[fn] but because of and for the sins of others. To be taken away means to be “taken to death.” It is the same as being “cut off from the land of the living,” an obvious reference to death. The words, “as for His generation,” mean He was cut off in the prime of life. Those words, however, could also be translated “who of His generation considered” (NIV), meaning that only a few of those who lived then considered His death important. These things were done to Him by God the Father according to 2 Corinthians 5:21: “God made Him . . . to be sin for us.”

The soldiers who crucified Jesus apparently intended to bury Him with the wicked like the two criminals (John 19:31). However, He was buried with the rich, in the grave of a rich man named Joseph (Matthew 27:57-60).

 Stanza 5—The Lord’s promise about the blessing of the Servant: Isaiah 53:10-12, NAS:

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.
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.

The suffering and death of the Servant was clearly God’s will. In that sense He was “slain from the Creation of the world” (Revelation 13:8). The statement that the Servant gave His  life as a guilt offering, does not mean that Jesus’ life satisfied the wrath of God but that His life, which culminated in His death, was the sacrifice for sins. As indicated in Isaiah 53:7-8, He had to die to satisfy the righteous demands of God. The word for “guilt offering” is used in Leviticus 5:15; 6:5; 19:21 and elsewhere as an offering to atone for sin.

His death and burial appeared to end His existence (He was ”cut off, “ Isaiah 53:8), but in actuality because of His resurrection Jesus will see His offspring, those who by believing in Him become children of God (John 1:12) and He will prolong His days, that is He will live on forever as the Son of God. He will be blessed, that is prosper (Isaiah 53:12a) because of His obedience to the will and plan of God.

His suffering, which included His death, led to life, His resurrection. Satisfied that His substitutionary work was completed, He now can justify many, that is declare righteous those who believe. “By His knowledge” could be translated “by knowledge of Him” as in the NIV.

He bore the punishment for their iniquities, so that many people would not have to die. Because He died, they live.

Having willingly followed God’s plan, the Servant, Jesus, is exalted. “To have a portion and divide the spoils” pictures a general, after winning a battle, sharing goods taken from the enemy.[fn] Because He was numbered with the transgressors, that is, was considered a sinner (Matthew 27:38) and bore the sin of many, that is, everyone, He is exalted and allows believers to share in the benefits of that exaltation. And because He is alive, He now intercedes for sinners before the throne of God in Heaven

This great passage gives a magnificent  picture of what the death of Jesus Christ accomplished on behalf of Israel (John 11:49-51) and the whole world (1 John 2:2). His death satisfied God’s righteous demands for judgment against sin, thus opening the way for everyone to come to God in faith for salvation from sin.[fn]

If you have never accepted this work of Christ for yourself personally, do not let another day go by without being sure your sins are forgiven and that you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

This has been the fourth and most compelling of Isaiah’s servant songs (52:13–53:12). It contains the Old Testament’s clearest description of the sufferings of Christ. Isaiah begins with a sharp contrast: The Servant is valued by God, but rejected by mankind (52:13–15). Eager for a powerful ruler, God’s people see no beauty in the carpenter of Galilee despite His good works (53:1–2). Despised by His own people, Christ was a sufferer, not a conqueror (verse 3). His affliction seems to the people to be evidence of God’s displeasure, but His suffering actually is for us, that we might be healed by His wounds (verses 4–6). He remains humble in life and death. Though innocent, He dies for the transgressions of His people (verses 7–9). It was God’s intent to crush Him, for Christ is a guilt offering, a substitute paying the price of our sins (verse 10). Yet death is not the end. Beyond the grave the light of life waited for the Savior and because of Him it waits for us as well. He not only rises, but is satisfied that His suffering was not in vain, for by it He “will justify many” (verse 11). Vibrant with new life, Christ is raised to glory. In submitting to God’s will, “He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors” (verse 12).

Isaiah

John

Romans

1 Peter


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