The 53rd chapter of the book of Isaiah is a very powerful prophecy concerning the coming of the Messiah and the sufferings which He would endure. We'll conclude our study of this stirring and expressive chapter as we look at verses 7-12...
"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. And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors."
Verse 7 tells us a lot about the nature and character of Jesus, as He did not protest the punishment which was delivered to Him, although it was cruel, unusual, and undeserved. "He was brought as a lamb to the slaughter..." the meekness of Christ foretold so eloquently by Isaiah here, and as he continues..."and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth." Jesus chose not to speak on His own behalf, or to declare His innocence, because His suffering and death was necessary in order to satisfy the wrath of God. He willingly laid down His life, taking the punishment that we all deserve. Jesus confirms this in John 10:17-18..."Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father."
With verse 8, Isaiah tells us that the Messiah was "taken from prison and from judgment". Jesus was betrayed by Judas and taken prisoner by the Roman soldiers, but we are never told that He was imprisoned, which would lead to the conclusion that the "prison" which Isaiah speaks of is the grave, and this would certainly be validated by the resurrection of Christ. An interesting side note here is the fact that both His betrayer, Judas Iscariot, and His judge, Pontius Pilate, would declare His innocence, hence His being "taken from prison and from judgment." Isaiah goes on to ask the question, "...and who shall declare his generation?" There are two schools of thought on this phrase, one which defines the query as, "Who can comprehend the wickedness of a generation which would execute an innocent man?" while the other puts forth that the phrase, "who shall declare his generation?" refers to the eternal life of Jesus, and the incomprehensible nature of His everlasting kingdom. Both views provide valid points, and are not contradictory in any way, they are just different ways of interpreting the verse. Isaiah continues..."for he was cut off from the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken." The fulfillment of this prophecy would come with the death of Jesus, and Isaiah counts himself among those whose transgressions the Messiah would suffer and die for.
"And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth." Jesus was crucified between two thieves, as if He had been the worst of the three, but He was not buried in the place where He died, as would have been common in the death of criminals. Rather, He was buried in a new grave which belonged to a wealthy man named Joseph of Arimathea, thereby fulfilling yet another aspect of the prophecy. The fact that Jesus was buried in an honorable way distinguished Him from a common criminal, and set Him apart as One who did not die for his own crimes, but for the sins of others.
At this point in the chapter, there is a shift in focus from the physical sufferings and death of Jesus to the sufficiency of His sacrifice, that is, the satisfaction of the wrath of God, as it was poured out upon Him. Verse 10 begins with a rather cryptic phrase..."Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief:" This is in reference to the fact that justice and righteous judgment must be maintained; by the process of transference of the sin of all mankind onto the body of Jesus, the curse of sin was abolished and the wrath of God because of sin was satisfied through the suffering and death of Christ on the cross. Isaiah goes on to write..."when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities." As the sacrificial lamb, as the bullock upon the altar, Jesus was appointed to be born upon this earth, and to endure the penalty and consequence of sin in His own body, as we read in 1 John 2:2..."he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." From the transgression of Adam, and throughout history, to our sins today, righteous judgment for all sin was laid upon the shoulders of Jesus, as we read in Romans 6:23..."For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
Finally, we read in verse 12..."Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors." After the death of Jesus upon the cross, and His burial, His resurrection solidified our salvation, and the beginning of His glorification. He was exalted as He returned to Heaven, to sit at the right hand of God, and because He bore our sins, He is supremely qualified to intercede on our behalf. A beautiful summary of these thoughts is found in Hebrews 7:25-27..."Wherefore he is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's: for this he did once, when he offered up himself."
One thing is certain...we are all guilty before God. Our own sin, as well as original sin which was laid to our charge, has separated us from God. As we read in Romans 3:23..."For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God..." and earlier in this chapter..."All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." We have all strayed from the path which God intended for us; we are, by our very nature, a rebellious people, as Isaiah reveals in chapter 59:1-2..."Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear." Had it not been for the precious blood that Jesus shed on the cross, we would be without hope. Finally, we read in 1 Peter 2:21-25..."For hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow in his steps: who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously: who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls."
The Old Testament is filled with prophecy concerning Jesus, and the book of Isaiah is certainly no exception. Isaiah was a prophet who lived approximately 800 years before the time of Christ, and his prophecies are some of the most accurately detailed and specific glimpses into the future. The nation of Israel received stern warnings through the prophecies of Isaiah, but these warnings were not meant for the people of Israel alone. They apply to us as a nation today just as much as they applied to the nation of Israel 2800 years ago. Through Isaiah, God would foretell not only the fate of nations, and prophesy concerning the end of the world, but more importantly, the Spirit of God showed Isaiah the coming of the Redeemer, the Messiah, who would save His people from their sins. There are many instances of prophecy concerning Jesus throughout the book of Isaiah, but the 53rd chapter is devoted entirely to the life and sufferings of Jesus with regard to the salvation of mankind. With these thoughts in mind, let's take a detailed look at the 53rd chapter of the book of Isaiah, and the prophecies concerning the coming of the Messiah. We'll begin with the first half of the chapter, verses 1-6, and continue in part 2.
"Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. 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 every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. "
With verse one, Isaiah prophesies concerning the rejection of the Messiah by the Jews, as well as His acceptance by the Gentiles. "Who hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?" The Jews were expecting a king, one who would come to overthrow the Roman Empire and set them free, and they rejected the person of Christ because of His lowly demeanor, and because they could not recognize the fact that His mission was about so much more than merely freeing the Jews from the oppression of Rome, but about freeing all of humanity from their sins. The Gentiles, on the contrary, had no preconceived notions of what a Messiah should be, and therefore, were much more open to the concept of salvation. When the arm of the Lord was revealed, through signs and miracles, it was as if Isaiah were present to witness the sad rejection which Jesus faced.
"For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him." Meek and lowly from birth, Jesus grew up before the Father in silent reverence and submission. He was born to a poor family from Nazareth, a town of Galilee, a city of no reputation, as we read in John 1:46..."And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see." Another aspect of the prophecy that Jesus would be "as a root out of a dry ground" is the fact that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was a virgin when she conceived and bare him. There were apparently no distinguishing physical features of Jesus which would differentiate him from any other man, no great beauty which would establish His being the Son of God. His physical appearance was not relevant, and it pales in comparison with His moral beauty, His holiness, and His example of love. Furthermore, God would not have us concentrate on, and therefore idolize, His physical appearance. He was created in a plain and unadorned body, if for no other reason than to discourage our dwelling on His temporal appearance, and to point us to His glorious appearing at the Last Day.
"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." The beauty of Jesus having to be spiritually discerned, the carnally minded would reject him outright. His own people, the Jews, would reject Him because He did not physically fit their idea of what the Messiah should be. He was not born into wealth and royalty, He did not proclaim to be king, He laid no claims as to the freeing of the Jews from Roman rule, and in fact, He did not seem to be concerned with the current state of the Jewish nation at all. Rather, His concern was with the whole of humanity, and his display of kindness toward all men brought a rejection all its own. He showed compassion toward sinners, and tax collectors, and made no distinctions between the Jews, the Gentiles, and the factions of people who were considered to be second class citizens, such as the Samarians. His benevolent and empathetic worldview isolated him from the self righteousness of the Jewish rulers, and ultimately led to His crucifixion. He was meek, and lowly, "a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief..." and Isaiah goes on to say that "we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not." Sin has a way of separating, of leading us to hide our face from Jesus. The same sin which led the people of Jesus' day to despise and reject Him, and to hide their faces from Him, is still causing sinners to turn away, to reject Jesus, and is the root cause of the lack of esteem given to Jesus today. The cure for this is found in the next two verses...
"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." It is our acceptance of, and our faith and belief in, these truths, on which our salvation is dependent. The fact that Jesus, in His physical body, bore not only our sins, but also our sicknesses, our grief, and our sorrow, make Him supremely qualified to be our Healer, our Counselor, as well as our Savior. We read in Isaiah 9:6..."Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." There is no friend like Jesus. He truly knows, and understands, our pain and our sorrow, and He alone can heal us. It was our sin, not His own, which He bore on the cross. He suffered indignation and the severest punishment at the hands of the Romans on our behalf. We can have peace with God because of the sacrifice which Jesus made for us, as He gave Himself to be the sacrifice in our stead. We read in 1 John 4:10..."Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." Jesus endured unimaginable torture in order to satisfy the full extent of God's wrath in His own body, rather than allow us to suffer it ourselves. As an example, the scourging that Jesus received at the hands of the Roman soldiers was not after the restrictions of the Jewish law, which allowed for no more than forty stripes to be given to any one person. Instead, as Pontius Pilate intended for this scourging to be used for the punishment of Jesus in place of crucifixion, the Roman soldiers were unusually cruel in their treatment of Him. Not only was He crowned with thorns upon His head, but He was beaten and whipped until His skin was torn and shredded, and nothing appeared but bloody wounds and bruises. However, this was still not enough for the Jews, and what had intended to be the full punishment of a criminal turned out to be the horrible beginning of the crucifixion of an innocent man. As hard as it is for us to imagine these sufferings, this was all a part of God's divine plan. The willingness of Jesus to endure this agony secured salvation for all those who would believe on His name, and therefore, "with his stripes we are healed."
"All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all."
My friend, don't think for a moment that you are the only one who has turned your back on Jesus. Each one of us, in our own way, has despised and rejected Him. We have all minimized His sacrifice and not esteemed Him, or given Him the glory, that He deserves. It is because of our sin that Jesus suffered in the first place. It is our sin which was laid on His shoulders, which He bled and died to redeem us from. He paid the price for us, in our stead, in order to bring us into a state of peace and freedom. He purchased our salvation with His precious blood, and thereby gave us eternal life. We read in 2 Corinthians 5:21..."For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."
