Isaiah 53: A Vision Of Hope Pt.1
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."
"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.
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."
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