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.
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