OVERVIEW: The Humiliation of the Servant (Messiah) (53:1–12); the Blessings of the Servant (Messiah) (54:1–55:13); the Blessing of God upon the Gentiles (56:1–8); the Condemnation of God upon the Wicked (56:9–57:21); the Restoration of True Worship (58:1–14); the Transgression of Israel (59:1–8); the Confession of Israel (59:9–15a); the Lord’s Deliverance of Israel. (59:15b–21)
HIGHLIGHTS & INSIGHTS:
Isaiah 53 is one of the most incredible chapters in the entire Bible. It was this very chapter that the Ethiopian eunuch was struggling to understand out on that desert road, in Acts 8, when the Lord prompted Philip to ask him if he understood what he was reading. When the eunuch responded, “How can I, except some man should guide me?” (Acts 8:31), the scripture says, “Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto Him Jesus.” (Acts 8:35) Philip actually used this passage to lead this Ethiopian dignitary to Christ, and it is commonly believed that it was through his conversion that the gospel first made its way into the continent of Africa in the 1st century. This is the most comprehensive, and yet, concise passage in the entire Bible concerning the life and death of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of its significance, we will devote most of our attention to this chapter of today’s reading.
In verses 1–3, Isaiah prophesies the rejection that our Lord would endure. John 1:11 says, “He came unto his own, and his own received him not.” By the time the Lord Jesus Christ came to the earth, the Jews were living under the oppression and domination of Rome. Needless to say, they hated it! Therefore, the Messiah they were looking for was a political revolutionary who would come in warrior-like fashion to overthrow the Roman government and establish His own Kingdom and empire on the earth; a Kingdom, in their thinking, in which the Jews would be preeminent. They failed to understand, however, that the physical oppression of Rome under Caesar was just a minor illustration of a spiritual oppression they were experiencing because they were being held in the “snare” of this world by the very will of Satan himself. (2 Tim. 2:26; Eph. 2:2) They failed to realize that, in order for their Messiah and King to have citizens in His kingdom, the sin issue that caused spiritual death in them would have to be dealt with (Gen. 2:17; Rom 5:12), and that to qualify for citizenship in His Kingdom, they would need to experience a supernatural spiritual birth by calling upon the name of the Lord. They failed to realize that their Messiah would take up a CROSS before He would take up His CROWN; that there would be HUMILIATION before His EXALTATION; and that there would be SUFFERING before there would be GLORY.
Isaiah begins in verse 1 to foreshadow the fact that the Jews would have difficulty “believing” once the “arm of the Lord” (the Lord Jesus Christ) was “revealed” on the earth. Their difficulty, Isaiah says in verse 2, is because of how the Father chose for Him to make His entrance into this world. He came as a humble bush (“tender plant”), not as a stalwart tree. “Dry ground” is a reference to the barren spiritual condition of the nation of Israel when their Messiah would be “revealed”. He came offering life to the parched soil of their lives, but it wasn’t the life they were looking for. He didn’t come on the scene displaying the physical power and majesty that would attract them to Him. (“…he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him” — 53:2.) Because of it, the Jews “despised and rejected” God’s glorious Servant, and their promised Messiah. He who was the King of kings became “a man of sorrows”. The One to whom belongs all glory was “acquainted with grief”. The One who offered life and forgiveness to all who would simply look to Him had his very own people “hide” their “faces from him”. The One who should have been lauded and honored, was “despised” and “esteemed not”.
Even though He came to bare the “griefs” and the “sorrows” man had inflicted upon himself through the choice of sin, it was of no consequence. The Lord Jesus Christ was treated as a common criminal as if He was worthy of the treatment He received. (53:4)
Note in 53:5, the words used to describe Christ’s crucifixion: He was “wounded”; “bruised”; “chastised”; and “striped” (referring to the stripes upon His back through being scourged with whips). Notice also in verse 5, the reason for such brutality: Isaiah tells us it was “for our transgressions” and it was “for our iniquities.” He then goes on to reveal to us the result of His crucifixion: it was so we might experience “peace” with God, and thus, “peace” with ourselves, and it was so we could be “healed”! Certainly not our physical healing, but the healing that was necessary in our soul and spirit because every one of us had “gone astray”, turning from God, “to our own way”. God reveals to us in this passage through Isaiah, that He was providing His only begotten Son to die a substitutionary death for our sin: “the Lord hast laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Notice also, that Isaiah’s prophecy lets us know that through the entire ordeal of our Lord Jesus Christ’s unfair trial and merciless crucifixion, never would “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29) ever “open his mouth.” (Isa. 53:7–8)
Isaiah goes on to prophesy that when Christ died, it would be with “the wicked” (i.e. crucified between two thieves), and yet, His burial would be connected with “the rich”. (i.e. He “borrowed” the tomb of a rich man by the name of Joseph of Arimithea — Matt. 27:57.)
Though the details of Isaiah’s prophecy are humanly tragic and horrific, verses 10–12 let us know that every single detail of this entire ordeal was purposed and planned by none other than God Himself! It is the same incomprehensible truth Peter preached about on the Day of Pentecost: that Christ was “delivered (to His tormentors) by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God.” (Acts 2:23)
Once again, you can “keep your bearings” through the chapters in today’s reading by following the outline presented in today’s overview. But at the same time, do allow yourself to “lose your bearings” today in the wonder of our glorious Savior and His willingness to offer Himself as a sacrifice for us as it is detailed in Isaiah 53. Let us also pray that, like Philip, God will allow us to use this chapter to “preach Jesus” to some needy soul today.
CHRIST IS REVEALED:
As the ONE WHO WAS REJECTED BY HIS OWN — Isaiah 53:3 (John 1:11; Luke 23:18)
As the ONE WHO REMAINED SILENT THOUGH FALSELY ACCUSED — Isaiah 53:7 (Mark 15:3–5)
As the ONE WHO WAS BURIED WITH THE RICH — Isaiah 53:9 (Matt. 27:57–60)
As the ONE WHO WAS CRUCIFIED WITH SINNERS — Isaiah 53:12 (Mark 15:27–28)