The Book Of Isaiah. Day 142, The Suffering And The Glory Of The Servant, Part Four

As we study Chapter 53 we see how Isaiah's prophecy regarding the one known as the Lord's "Servant" corresponds with what happened to Jesus Christ.

"He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before his shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth." (Isaiah 53:7) Jesus was arrested after dark in the garden of Gethsemane and taken to the high priest's house where an unlawful trial was held in the middle of the night. As morning was breaking He was taken to the residence of Pontius Pilate where He was accused before the Roman governor. These things were done during the night and very early in the morning to avoid the majority of the people learning about it, for many believed He was the Messiah and even a lot of those who didn't consider Him the Messiah thought He was a prophet. A riot of protest could have occurred if these people realized what was happening; Jesus' enemies didn't want anything to interfere with their plans. 

Jesus Himself didn't protest His unlawful trial. He didn't want anything to interfere with His enemies' plans either because it was His intention to go to the cross to carry out God the Father's plan of salvation. He didn't say or do anything that could have prevented His death, thus foregoing putting on a defense before the Roman governor who was the only one who could have set Him free. (Mark 15:2-5) In addition, He didn't call upon the hosts of heaven to supernaturally rescue Him. He stated that the Father would have heard His prayers to be rescued, sending Him twelve legions of angels if He prayed to be rescued. (Matthew 26:53) This clearly demonstrates that Jesus went to the cross of His own free will and that He was in control of the situation the whole time. Nobody could have nailed Him to the cross if He didn't want to go to the cross. 

"By oppression and judgment He was taken away. Yet who of His generation protested? For He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people He was punished." (Isaiah 53:8) Judgment was passed against Him, though Pilate stated that Jesus had done nothing wrong. (Luke 23:4, John 19:4) The word translated as "taken" means "seized, taken hold of, captured", which depicts the way the Lord Jesus was arrested in the garden and taken by force first to the high priest and then to the governor. He was sentenced to death by Pilate, though Pilate declared Him innocent by wrongdoing, and He was taken by force to the cross where He was put to death: "cut off from the land of the living". Why was an innocent man put to death? Why did Jesus allow Himself to be treated this way? It was for the transgressions of human beings, as Isaiah states in our text above. He did it for you and for me! He was punished not for His own transgressions (He didn't commit any) but for our transgressions!

Who else has loved us like this? Even though there might be fellow human beings who would be willing to die in our place, their death couldn't save us from our sins. Their death couldn't pay for our transgressions because all of our fellow human beings are transgressors themselves. Jesus endured the insults and the false charges against Him even though He never did anything wrong in His life. Most human beings cannot endure such things; we want to clear our names. Most human beings cannot endure the physical abuse He endured before being nailed to the cross and after He was nailed to the cross; many a person has turned on their loved ones under pressure less intense than this---that is why torture is such an effective interrogation method. But Jesus never denied us! He never will! If we have made Him the Lord of our lives, He is our defender forever!

The Book Of Isaiah. Day 141, The Suffering And The Glory Of The Servant, Part Three

We are in Chapter 53 which deals with the suffering and the glory of the "Servant": the Lord Jesus Christ. Until the advent of Christ I am sure it was difficult to understand this passage, but in the church age we can clearly see that it describes the things Jesus endured in the gospel records.

Yesterday we looked at verses 1-3 and now we pick up at verse 4. "Surely He took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered Him punished by God, stricken by Him, and afflicted." (Isaiah 53:4) It is my opinion that when Isaiah uses the word "we" he is speaking primarily of the people of his own nation, many of whom (though not all) reviled Jesus and believed He was a liar and a blasphemer. Those who wanted Him crucified viewed His death as the proper punishment for stating He was the Son of God, the Messiah. They believed He was being punished by God for making what they considered untrue statements and for pronouncing what they considered false prophecies. According to the law of Moses, this made Jesus worthy of death, for blaspheming the name of the Lord was a capital offense (Leviticus 24:16) and proclaiming false prophecies in the name of the Lord was a capital offense (Deuteronomy 18:20).

If Jesus had not been who He said He was, the people would have been correct in declaring Him guilty of capital offenses. These would have been very grievous sins. But, since Jesus is who He says He is, and since He is incapable of sin, He was nailed to the cross for some other reason. He was nailed to the cross because He is who He says He is and because He is sinless: only the sinless Lamb of God could make a sacrifice capable of saving our eternal souls. He suffered for our sins, not His, as we see below.

"But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on Him, and by His wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." (Isaiah 53:5-6) I don't know what Isaiah made of this information. I don't know how he reconciled the idea of a suffering Messiah with the idea of a victorious Messiah. What I do know is that he believed all of this. He may not have understood how God would put all these pieces together and fulfill the plan of salvation through a Servant who would die for our sins and yet be an eternal King, but he trusted that God could and would do it.

The blood sacrifices of the Old Testament pointed forward toward the blood sacrifice of the Lamb of God. Those had to be made year after year after year. But when Christ came, He made a far more perfect and enduring sacrifice---the sacrifice of Himself---the sacrifice of "the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world". (John 1:29) Now that this perfect and eternal sacrifice has been made, there is no other way to obtain forgiveness from our sins except to accept in faith what Christ did for us on the cross. Therefore, "How shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation?" (Hebrews 2:3) Christ is our hope, our only hope, "For there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved." (Acts 4:12)

The Book Of Isaiah. Day 140, The Suffering And The Glory Of The Servant, Part Two

On Monday we began a segment of the book of Isaiah that contains a prophecy regarding the death and resurrection of Christ. As we ended our study yesterday we found the Lord saying that people all over the world would learn about things they had never heard of and that even kings would have nothing to say against this message. I believe these words foretell the way the gospel message would spread all over the earth, converting people from all walks of life. People of pagan nations who had never heard of the God of Abraham would learn of Him and renounce their idols.

Now we move on into Chapter 53 with these words: "Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?" (Isaiah 53:1) The Message Bible translates verse 1 like this, and I believe it's a perfect way to describe what Isaiah is saying: "Who believes what we've heard and seen? Who would have thought God's saving power would look like this?" Who could have foreseen the suffering of the Servant of God? Who would have expected God's power (His "arm") to be depicted as human weakness? Who would have dreamed eternal life would come through death? But the Redeemer had to come in the form of a man so He could make Himself an offering for all people. The reason so many of His own people rejected Him was because they were offended by the idea of a suffering Messiah; they were expecting (and they preferred) a conquering Messiah who would extract them from under the iron boot of Rome.

But there was more at stake than freedom from the Roman oppressors. Souls were at stake. Freedom from the penalty of sin is far more important than freedom from any human oppressor. The entire human race was beset with sin and needed a perfect and eternal means of redemption. That perfect and eternal means of redemption could only come through the perfect Lamb of God who would come in the form of a human---who was fully man and fully God at the same time---who could make a sacrifice so great that it was capable of paying for their sins past, present, and future.

"He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces He was despised, and we held Him in low esteem." (Isaiah 53:2-3) These verses depict the birth of Christ as a baby, who grew up in the sight of God the Father, who grew both in physical size and in the wisdom of God and in the favor of God. (Luke 2:52) In these verses we see both His humanity and His deity. 

The advent of Christ occurred during a time when it must have seemed to many in the world that the nation of Israel could never rise again. The human mind was not able to figure out how the nation could ever again be a sovereign power. The descendants of Jacob knew what the prophets had said---that a king would come from the direct line of David and that His kingdom would endure forever---but exactly how such a thing would be accomplished had never been spelled out for them. The advent of Christ occurred during an era of discouragement: He appeared like a "root out of dry ground". 

Jesus was not a man of taller stature than everyone else in the nation or more handsome than anyone in the nation, like King Saul was. Saul was elected king by the people because he was such an imposing and impressive figure. King David was also a very handsome man, along with being the mightiest warrior the people had ever seen, and he was elected because he successfully fought against his people's enemies. But Jesus did not come with a sword in His hand to lead a successful rebellion against the nation's enemies. Therefore Isaiah says that He had no "beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him". In the gospel accounts we often find Jesus blending into the crowd, not standing out in the crowd, for He was average in looks and in height. He looked pretty much like any Jewish man in the first century AD who was of lower economic status. 

No one would have pointed to Jesus and said, "This man looks like a king." From the outside He didn't make much of an impression but it was what He said and did that proved He was who He said He was. Those were the things that attracted people to Him. As Peter once declared to Jesus, "You have the words of eternal life." As we continue on through Chapter 53 this week we will see how accurately Isaiah describes what Jesus did in order to offer us eternal life.

The Book Of Isaiah. Day 139, The Suffering And The Glory Of The Servant, Part One

We are beginning a portion of the book of Isaiah in which he foresaw the way the Lord's plan of salvation would unfold. He predicted the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Earlier in the book of Isaiah we found him speaking of the one called "the Servant". This is not just any servant but is the Servant: the one who will perfectly keep all the commandments and laws and statutes of God---the one who will completely fulfill the will of God.

It is God Himself who speaks these words: "See, My Servant will act wisely; He will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted." (Isaiah 52:13) 

Although mere human beings who love the Lord can be called the servants of the Lord, and although those who love the Lord generally act more wisely than those who reject Him, this Servant will be more than a mere human. This Servant will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted in a manner different from someone who is only a human. This Servant is going to be rewarded above all. As the Apostle Paul worded the glorification of this Servant: "God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name." (Philippians 2:9)

But before this faithful Servant is exalted, He will suffer. He will suffer because He is fully obedient to the will of God in carrying out the plan of salvation. He did this by "Taking on the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to death---even death on a cross!" (Philippians 2:8) This next segment begins to describe the suffering the Servant endured as He obediently did what was necessary to carry out the Lord's will and to offer us redemption.

"Just as there were many who were appalled at Him---His appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being and His form beyond any human likeness---so He will sprinkle many nations, and kings will shut their mouths because of Him. For what they were not told, they will see, and what they have not heard, they will understand." (Isaiah 52:14-15) 

In the gospel accounts we learn that Jesus was viciously abused during His trial by the high priest's soldiers and by the soldiers of Pontius Pilate. They mocked Him and struck Him repeatedly in the face, causing bleeding and bruising and swelling. They grabbed His beard in their hands and pulled the hair out by the roots. They whipped Him many times across the back with the Roman flagrum, a whip made of multiple leather cords in which were tied sharp pieces of bone; this type of whip literally shredded the skin. A crown of thorns was pressed down roughly upon His head, making puncture wounds from which blood ran in streaks. I'm not saying these things to be graphic but to point out how accurate Isaiah was when he stated that the Servant was rendered unrecognizable by what He endured.

We also talk about this horrific suffering to remind ourselves that He endured these things for our sake. By the sacrifice He made for us, He has "sprinkled many nations" as Isaiah said: He has made the blood offering that cleanses us of all unrighteousness by our faith in what He did for us. People from all over the world have placed their faith in Christ, which is why Isaiah said "man nations" would be sprinkled by the blood of this holy sacrifice. The Lord promised Abraham many centuries earlier that through one of his offspring (one of his descendants) all nations would be blessed. (Genesis 22:18) The suffering, death, burial, and resurrection of Christ was the fulfillment of this promise, for by these things the Lord offered salvation to every nation and every race upon the earth.

Some years back I did one of those ancestry DNA tests. Nothing was especially surprising about the results because I knew my family tree pretty far back. I am mainly of English, Irish, and Scottish heritage, with small amounts of Norwegian and Swedish heritage. This ancestry means that my forefathers and foremothers were heathen idolaters in ancient times. If the Lord's plan of salvation had not been a plan for "many nations", I would have been without hope. But the Lord, thanks be to His name, didn't make the offer of redemption only to the descendants of Abraham. He wanted to bless all nations. He wanted to save people from every country under the sun. That is why you and I can be the children of God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ---in the Servant who paid the ultimate price in order to offer us eternal life with Him.

We will be talking about this subject for the next several days as we conclude Chapter 52 and move on into Chapter 53. We will clearly see that the words spoken in this passage of Scripture describe no one other than the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Vacation Week

We will pause the Bible study this week while I take vacation time. My husband will take the remainder of his time off. A few projects need to be done at home and my dog and I both have doctor appointments and we may take a day trip or two. 

When we pick back up with the study we will look at a passage of Isaiah that predicts the crucifixion.

The Book Of Isaiah. Day 138, Good Tidings

We have been studying a section in which the Lord promises to bring back the descendants of Jacob and resettle them in their land. Today's passage begins with the Lord reminding them that He brought them out of Egypt and can rescue them from the Assyrians, from the Babylonians, and from any other enemy.

"For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: 'At first My people went down to Egypt to live; lately, Assyria has oppressed them. And now what do I have here?' declares the Lord. 'For My people have been taken away for nothing, and those who rule them mock,' declares the Lord. 'And all day long My name is constantly blasphemed. Therefore My people will know My name; therefore in that day they will know that it is I who foretold it. Yes, it is I.'" (Isaiah 52:4-6) 

In Isaiah's day the Assyrians were the major threat to everyone in the region. But Babylon would rise from the ashes and defeat Assyria and also Judah, among other nations. The people will have the prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and other prophets; when they are released from captivity they will know that the Lord foretold it long before it happened. They will give glory to His name.

When the people begin returning to the land, they will proclaim the news far and wide to those in exile and to those who fled the incoming enemy army and are living as fugitives in other lands. "How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, 'Your God reigns!' Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices; together they shout for joy. When the Lord returns to Zion, they will see it with their own eyes." (Isaiah 52:7-8)

The generation that returns to the land will see with their own eyes the Lord's promises coming true. They will shout for joy and praise His name. They will speak of the power of the Lord. "Burst into song of joy together, you ruins of Jerusalem, for the Lord has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord will lay bare His holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God." (Isaiah 52:9-10) The imagery in verse 10 is the imagery of one who rolls up his sleeves to perform manual labor or to engage someone in a fight. The people will proclaim that the Lord has performed great works on their behalf and that He has fought their enemies for them.

When the captives leave the land of their captivity, it won't be as refugees. It won't be like people making a run for it. It will be by permission of the government that defeats their oppressors. It will be with that government's blessing. "Depart, depart, go out from there! Touch no unclean thing! Come out from it and be pure, you who carry the articles of the Lord's house. But you will not leave in haste or go in flight; for the Lord will go before you, the God of Israel will be your rear guard." (Isaiah 52:11-12) 

The people they have lived among during their captivity were idolatrous people. The government that sets them free is made up of idolatrous people. The descendants of Jacob are not to carry with them any of those practices when they leave. They aren't to bring any religious objects of the foreigners with them. They must forsake any changes they may have made to assimilate into foreign cultures. Now that they will be free to practice their own religion in the ways prescribed by God, they are to fully assimilate back into the culture of their forefathers.

This should be good news to all the people descended from the sons of Jacob. But another type of good news is in view here. A good news will come in a farther-off time to the descendants of Jacob and to the whole world. This will be the good news of the gospel and as we conclude Chapter 52 and move on into Chapter 53 we find Isaiah prophesying about the life, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the "good news that will cause great joy for all the people". (Luke 2:10) 

The Book Of Isaiah. Day 137, Redeemed Without Money

Today we talk about redemption. In Biblical times a person could end up as an indentured servant or as an actual slave if they had debts they couldn't pay. But their closest relative could choose, if they could afford it, to "redeem" them. This relative, known as the "kinsman redeemer" could pay their debts off for them and set them free. If the closest relative couldn't afford to do this or didn't want to do this, the opportunity would go to the next closest, and so on. In today's text the Lord speaks of how He will redeem His people but without money. He will be their "kinsman redeemer" with His grace and mercy and love, rescuing them from their oppressors and setting them free.

"Awake, awake, Zion, clothe yourself with strength! Put on your garments of splendor, Jerusalem, the holy city. The uncircumcised and defiled will not enter you again." (Isaiah 52:1) This prophecy had a short term and a long term meaning. In ancient times it meant that the people would be able to return to their land and rebuild. In the future, in the eternal kingdom of the Messiah, the descendants of Jacob will never have any enemies on the earth. The only people inhabiting the world will be the people of God.

During Isaiah's lifetime the northern kingdom of Israel fell to the Assyrian Empire. Later the southern kingdom of Judah would fall to the Neo-Babylonian Empire. Both of these enemy nations took the majority of the people captive and forcibly resettled them. The captivity is mainly what is in view in this next portion. "Shake off your dust; rise up, sit enthroned, Jerusalem. Free yourself from the chains on your neck, Daughter Zion, now a captive." (Isaiah 52:2) It was a common practice in ancient times for a conquering army to chain captives together in a long line. This prevented escape, for it was pretty much impossible for a large group of captives chained together to run together in sync well enough and fast enough to get away. Plus there would be those too frightened to make a run for it or those with illnesses or physical disabilities that would prevent them from running with the others.

"For this is what the Lord says: 'You were sold for nothing, and without money you will be redeemed.'" (Isaiah 52:3) Both the northern and the southern kingdoms were conquered because a majority of the citizens began practicing idolatry. In that sense they sold themselves to sin because they willingly gave in to idolatry. Anytime we sin we are "selling" ourselves. As the Apostle Paul said, when we offer ourselves to serve someone or something, we are allowing ourselves to be enslaved. (Romans 6:16) When we give in to sin, we are making sin our master, which means we are slaves to sin. Paul was repeating a statement made by Jesus who said that everyone who sins is a slave to sin. (John 8:34)

We have all sinned and that means we have been the slaves of sin. As long as we live in these mortal bodies in a fallen world, we will fall prey to sin at times. So what are we to do since we cannot be perfect? What are we to do to get out of slavery? We must trust in the One who can set us free from slavery. The Lord Jesus Christ---our Kinsman Redeemer---can set us free. He will do it without money. He will do it by His mercy and grace and love, which are what compelled Him to go to the cross for us to pay our penalty for us. By His blood He paid the price for our freedom. By His resurrection we know that the Father accepted this payment on our behalf. Through our faith in what Christ did for us we obtain forgiveness, salvation, freedom from the penalty of our sin, and eternal life with our Kinsman Redeemer.