Isaías 53
John MacArthur · Citado em PreceptAustin
Isaías 53
MacArthur says "It’s high, higher, highest. God is going to make Him high, then higher, and then highest. High, I believe, looks at His resurrection. Higher looks at His ascension. And highest looks at His coronation. He is going to be so successful that God is going to raise Him from the dead, God is going to take Him into glory, and God is going to sit Him at His right hand, Philippians 2:9-11. God is going to give Him a name above every name, the name Lord. And at that name, every knee will bow. God is going to make Him the ruler over everything in the universe. He’s going to be the King of the universe, as well as the head of the church. The astonishing revelation of the Servant of Jehovah is this, He will come, He will succeed, He will accomplish the purpose of God by His great effort, and God will validate that by raising Him from the dead, taking Him into glory and seating Him on His throne. That is an astonishing appearance of the Messiah. (The Startling Servant of Jehovah) To summarize: (1) High (Rising up) - His Resurrection (2) Lifted Up - His Ascension (3) Greatly exalted - Seated at the Right Hand of the Father Jennings - First, He is raised up from the depths of humiliation, to which that path had led Him, the tomb: then still higher does He rise, as from Olivet His feet leave this earth, and the cloud hides Him from sight; till finally to Him is given the highest place in all the universe, or, as a very literal rendering of these last words would be, "High, Very." Thus are we told in these few words the whole path of the Messiah, till He reaches, as Man, the Throne He had left as the divine Son. (Isaiah 52:13-15-53:1-12) S Lewis
Isaías 53
MacArthur adds that the verb naza "can mean to spurt (and) metaphorically, to leap up. And there is evidence that could mean to leap up by excessive emotion. It can mean to startle metaphorically. And by the way, nations cannot be cleansed anyway (ED: AS WOULD BE THE INTERPRETATION IF IT WERE TRANSLATED "SPRINKLE MANY NATIONS!"). Individuals can. But the whole world can be startled and will be startled by the return of Christ. The day will come when the nations of the world will tremble with astonishment when He comes. They will be electrified. " What is surprising is that very few commentaries make significant mention of the Septuagint translation of this verse. And before you say that this version is not "inspired" you need to realize that Paul quoted part of this very passage not from the Hebrew text but from the Greek text (Septuagint) in his inspired letter to the Romans (Ro 15:21). That fact alone should establish the Septuagint rendering of Isaiah 52:15 as valid and can serve as an aid in interpretation of the passage. That said, it is noteworthy that the Septuagint renders naza with the Greek verb thaumazo (future middle) which means to be extraordinarily impressed with, on one hand or extraordinarily disturbed by, on the other hand. Thaumazo is often used in the NT to express the human reaction to divine revelation (Mt 8:27; 9:33, 2 Th 1:10, Acts 3:12, etc). Clearly the Hebrew translators were fully aware of the distinctly different Greek verb rhantizo (used in Heb 9:13) which means to sprinkle but they passed on that verb and instead choose the verb thaumazo. That fact plus the context of the passage (the following phrase referring to the the shutting of the mouths of kings), would seem to favor that this passage is best translated "He will startle many nations." In addition, verse 14 begins with "just as" (speaking of the astonishment of the Jews), verse 15 begins with "so" (ESV) or "thus" (Septuagint where the adverb is houtos which "with reference to what preceded in combination with a correlative to produce a comparison (means) (just) as . . . so." (Friberg). JUST AS they were astonished, SO the nations will be sprinkled makes far less sense as a comparison than "JUST AS they were astonished, SO the nations will be startled." S Lewis
Isaías 53
MacArthur comments on Romans 15:21 - He quoted that, showing that the verse embraces not only the final exaltation and reign of Christ, but the preaching of the gospel that leads up to that. The world will be shocked when it happens because they will not expect it. They haven’t been told. They haven’t understood it. But all through history, even now, people are being told, people are coming to understanding. So Paul extends this which has its ultimate fulfillment in the return of Christ and the shock of the nations back to the period of the preaching of the gospel where we are telling people what they’ve never before seen, what they’ve never before understood about the glory of Christ. (Ibid) In his commentary on Romans MacArthur explains it this way - The context of that passage in Isaiah indicates that its primary reference is to Christ’s Second Coming. But in its broadest application it refers to the process of evangelism that began in Paul’s day and will continue throughout church history until its ultimate fulfillment at Christ’s return. People who have had no news of Christ, who have not heard the Gospel, are found everywhere. They can be found in every country, every city and town, and in every community and neighborhood. God does not call every believer to be an evangelist, but He calls every believer to be a witness. It therefore should be the desire and prayer of all believers that the unsaved will be given spiritual sight to see Christ as their only hope of salvation and that they will be given spiritual hearing in order to understand the gospel and turn to Him to be saved. (The MacArthur New Testament Commentary) Isaiah 53:1 Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? KJV Isaiah 53:1 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? CSB Isaiah 53:1 Who has believed what we have heard? And who has the arm of the LORD been revealed to? Who has believed John 1:7,12; 12:38; Ro 10:16,17 our message. Isaiah 51:9; 52:10; 62:8; Ro 1:16; 1 Cor 1:18,24; Eph 1:18,19 And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed Isaiah 40:5; Mt 11:25; 16:17; Ro 1:17,18 Isaiah 53 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries THE MISUNDERSTOOD MESSIAH At the very outset of this great chapter we are presented with two questions which in turn raise the question of WHO IS SPEAKING and also WHEN ARE THEY SPEAKING? Let's look at this another way - let's take these first 6 verses and examine the pronouns, especially the first person plural pronouns, OUR - OURSELVES - WE - US - OWN. Notice from the highlighted passage below that these pronouns appear 16 times in 6 verses. Now remember that Isaiah is a Jewish prophet addressing a Jewish audience. So the question is this - to whom do these pronouns refer? I have to admit that I have never seen this interpretation before and benefited from insights found in a number of commentaries that all said the same thing (I've quoted several of them below) -- they interpret these pronouns (THE SPEAKER OF THESE PASSAGES) to be Jews who have been saved in the future (believing Jewish remnant) and who are looking back (through the prophet Isaiah's eyes and voice, so to speak) at the SUFFERING SERVANT, the Messiah, Who their ancestors largely rejected. In support of this interpretation notice that the verbs are not future tense. For example in verses 2-3 it reads "He grew up" NOT "He will grow up" or "He was despised" NOT "He will be despised," et cetera. You can observe the other verbs and you will discover that they are past tense, not future tense. You may be saying "So what?" First of all is this Suffering Servant passage a prophecy of the future work of the Messiah to provide salvation for mankind? Of course it is a prophecy that was fulfilled in Messiah's First Coming. So in that sense the passage looks forward to Messiah's suffering and death on the Cross. But what I had never seen before is that these passages are more than a prophecy looking forward to the first coming of the Messiah. They are also a lament of those Jews who are saved in the future and who look back on this prophecy that was missed by most of their Jewish ancestors. And so this section begins with a rhetorical question (Isa 53:1) that expects a negative answer - "Who believed..." The answer is that most of the Jews did NOT believe. In summary, after studying the passage and reading the commentaries, I think interpreting the speaker as a future saved Jewish remnant looking back makes good sense (See excursus). It was hard for me to grasp because I as a Gentile believer have always personalized Isaiah 53 which is certainly a valid application (saying things like "He was pierced through for your and my transgressions"), but I had forgotten that the words were originally addressed to Jewish readers. I trust this extended explanation helps you understand this great passage better. And hopefully the comments below by those far more qualified then myself will make sense. 1 Who has believed OUR message? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? 2 For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty That WE should look upon Him, Nor appearance that WE should be attracted to Him. 3 He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and WE did not esteem Him. 4 Surely OUR griefs He Himself bore, And OUR sorrows He carried; Yet WE OURSELVES esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. 5 But He was pierced through for OUR transgressions, He was crushed for OUR iniquities; The chastening for OUR well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging WE are healed. 6 All of US like sheep have gone astray, Each of US has turned to his OWN way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of US all To fall on Him. So below are a number of respected conservative sources that interpret the pronouns above as representative of a future saved Jewish remnant looking back and lamenting over the truth of Isaiah 53. Paul Apple - The nation of Israel is speaking here – as the believing remnant (diagram) saved in the Day of the Lord that now looks back to confess their former spiritual blindness. (Jehovah is Salvation - 1130 pages) S Lewis Johnson expands on Apple's comment - Now, I want to say something as we begin Isaiah 53, something which is very important to help understand what the prophet is saying. In the original text of Isaiah 53:1-9 you will discover that almost all the verbs are in the past tense. In other words, the author is transporting himself into the future, and he has become a mouthpiece for a group of people (JEWS) who in the future will look back over the past and describe their reaction to the Suffering Servant when He appeared (AT HIS FIRST COMING). What we have here is a future redeemed group (OF JEWS), who lament for the whole of the people (OF ISRAEL), regarding their unbelief at the Servant’s first coming, so they say, “Who believed what we heard? To whom was the arm of he Lord reveled?” In other words, what we have is Isaiah (by the Holy Spirit) transported (so to speak) into the future, and from the standpoint of the future he is given words inspired by the Spirit, words which belong to this group (of BELIEVING JEWISH REMNANT IN THE FUTURE - diagram), and he describes how they feel (IN THE FUTURE) over what they (ACTUALLY THEIR JEWISH ANCESTORS) did hundreds of years before to the Servant when He first appeared. (The Misunderstood Messiah) David Baron Messianic Jewish expositor - The second section (Isaiah 53:1ff), into which the whole prophecy divides itself, is, as stated above, primarily the sorrowful lament and confession of repentant Israel in the future. We are transplanted in these verses, by the spirit of prophecy, into that future solemn day of Israel's history which is described in the last chapters of Zechariah—when the spirit of grace and supplications shall be poured upon them, and their eyes shall be opened to look upon Him whom they have pierced (Zechariah 12:10-14+). It is then, in the great mourning and weeping which are there described, that they shall break out with this plaintive hymn, which is musical in its sadness and betrays the agony of a broken heart and contrite spirit. (Isaiah 53 Exposition) Scott Grant: Whose griefs and sorrows is he bearing and carrying? Isaiah, referring to them as "our" griefs and sorrows, is speaking at least for the believing Jewish community, who didn’t at first believe the message concerning the Servant but later owned that message (Isaiah 53:1-3). . .So on the first level, when Isaiah speaks of "our" griefs and sorrows, he’s speaking of Israel’s griefs and sorrows. Yet the Apostle John says Jesus is the "propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world" (1 John 2:2). (A strange wisdom) Gary Smith says that "These verses were spoken by an unidentified “we, us, our” group of people mentioned repeatedly in Isaiah 53:1, 4–6. Commentators have suggested three different groups may be speaking the “we” statements: (a) the nations mentioned in 52:14; (b) the prophet’s disciples, or (c) the believing people of Israel....the “we” statements seem to best fit with the believing people of Israel. They are the ones who observed what God revealed to them. F. Delitzsch also notes that the “we” speeches in Isa 16:6; 24:16a; 42:24; 64:5–6 all refer to Israelites. (New American Commentary - Luke) NET Note - The speaker shifts here from God to an unidentified group (note the first person plural pronouns throughout Isa 53:1–6 - "WE...OUR"). The content of the speech suggests that the prophet speaks here as representative of the sinful nation Israel. The group acknowledges its sin and recognizes that the servant suffered on their behalf. (Isaiah 53 Note) Moody Bible Commentary - The speaker changes from God to Israel in 53:1, and the nation continues speaking through the three stanzas of the body of the poem (53:1–9). Israel speaks from the perspective of finally understanding the identity of the Servant after many years of rejection. This is penitential Israel, finally recognizing the long-rejected Messiah. In a parallel passage, Zechariah predicts that when Israel finally recognizes the Messiah, the nation will repent with great mourning (Zechariah 12:10-14+). The words in this section aptly express that mourning and repentance. (Bolding mine) John Martin - This report on the death of the Servant will be given by enlightened Israel AFTER they realize the significance of His death on their behalf. Like the nations (ED: Described as "startled" in Isaiah 52:15 - see previous comments), they badly miscalculated the Servant’s importance to them. (Bible Knowledge Commentary) (Bolding and all caps mine) Jewish commentator Arnold Fruchtenbaum - The second strophe (Isaiah 53:1-3) contains Israel’s confession for not recognizing the Servant in His person and calling. In verse 1, the faithful Remnant asks two questions. John MacArthur has comments similar to S Lewis Johnson above - When they [the Jewish nation] do turn to Christ (IN THE FUTURE - E.G., SEE Romans 11:26+), this (ISAIAH 53) will be their confession. Notice as I read, that all the way down to Isaiah 53:10 the verbs are in the past tense. Most people think of this chapter as a future prophecy concerning Christ and it is that. It gives us many details about Christ and His death, burial, resurrection and exaltation, because it is unmistakably a prophecy of Him. But it is not written in the future tense. It is not a prophet prophesying what will happen to Jesus (AS MUCH AS) it is a prophet prophesying the salvation of Israel in the future when they look back and say this (ISAIAH 53) about the Messiah they rejected and crucified. It is the lament of Israel when they look back on the Messiah that they have long rejected....you have to understand that this chapter while it speaks of the Cross, speaks of it in retrospect from the vantage point of the time in the future when Israel repents of their long rejection of Jesus Christ. The Jews since the New Testament time have been profoundly disturbed by this chapter...while in a sense this looks forward to the event of the death and resurrection and even exaltation of Christ, and gives us details about those marvelous realities, in the purest sense it is a look beyond the Cross to the conversion of Israel and what they will say when they look back. There are astute tudents of Scripture, theologians, preachers, writers who don’t believe in the future salvation of Israel. They don’t believe that the Kingdom will be on earth. They are not pre-millennial and my judgment is that they cannot interpret this chapter because this is the confession of national Israel at the time of their future conversion. (Isaiah 53:1-3 The Scorned Servant of Jehovah, Part 1) Roy Gingrich - The confession of these verses is the confession that will be made by the Jewish remnant in Jerusalem when the returned Lord appears unto them and takes the veil of blindness from their eyes, Zechariah 12:10–14; 2 Corinthians 3:15–17; Revelation 1:7 (The Book of Isaiah) EXCURSUS: ISRAEL'S FUTURE SALVATION Here are the passages most commentators refer to in speaking of that time in the future when a remnant of Jews (diagram) will have the veil removed from their heart and their spiritual eyes opened to the truth that Jesus of Nazareth was in truth their long expected Messiah, their King of kings... (Jehovah speaking) I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn. 11 “In that day there will be great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the plain of Megiddo. 12 “The land will mourn, every family by itself; the family of the house of David by itself and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself and their wives by themselves; 13 the family of the house of Levi by itself and their wives by themselves; the family of the Shimeites by itself and their wives by themselves; 14 all the families that remain, every family by itself and their wives by themselves. (Zechariah 12:10-14 - see in depth commentary notes) “In that day a fountain will be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for impurity. (Zechariah 13:1 - commentary) (EVENT OF FIRST COMING) “Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, And against the man, My Associate,” Declares the LORD of hosts. “Strike the Shepherd (JESUS' CRUCIFIXION - CF Mt 26:31) that the sheep may be scattered; And I will turn My hand against the little ones. (EVENTS OF SECOND COMING) 8 “It will come about in all the land,” Declares the LORD, “That two parts in it will be cut off and perish; But the third will be left in it. 9 “And I will bring the third part through the fire, Refine them as silver is refined, And test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, And I will answer them; I will say, ‘They are My people,’ And they will say, ‘The LORD is my God.’”(Zechariah 13:7-9 - commentary) COMMENT - There are about 14 million Jews in the world so this remnant would constitute about 4-5 million Jews if these events were to occur in the near future (Notes written June, 2018). And what will the future saved Jewish remnant say when the mourn? At least part of the answer is that they will mourn and lament using the words penned in Isaiah 53! This is Israel’s penitential confession, which they shall make at the second coming of Jesus Christ to the earth when they realize what they have done. Parallel the above passages with Paul's words in Romans... and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, “THE DELIVERER WILL COME FROM ZION, HE WILL REMOVE UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB.” 27 “THIS IS MY COVENANT WITH THEM, WHEN I TAKE AWAY THEIR SINS.” 28 From the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God’s choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers; 29for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. (Romans 11:26-29 - commentary) Before we go further the question arises as to how we know Isaiah 53 is referring to the Messiah, Jesus Christ. As always, the Scripture is the best commentary on Scripture and below are three witnesses (WHICH CONFIRMED A MATTER - Dt 19:15) that testify that Isaiah 53 is a prophecy about Jesus. So he (PHILLIP) got up and went; and there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure; and he had come to Jerusalem to worship, 28 and he was returning and sitting in his chariot, and was reading the prophet Isaiah. 29 Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go up and join this chariot.” 30 Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31 And he said, “Well, how could I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 Now the passage of Scripture which he was reading was this: “HE WAS LED AS A SHEEP TO SLAUGHTER; AND AS A LAMB BEFORE ITS SHEARER IS SILENT, SO HE DOES NOT OPEN HIS MOUTH. 33 “IN HUMILIATION HIS JUDGMENT WAS TAKEN AWAY; WHO WILL RELATE HIS GENERATION? FOR HIS LIFE IS REMOVED FROM THE EARTH.” 34 The eunuch answered Philip and said, “Please tell me, of whom does the prophet say this? Of himself or of someone else?” 35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture he preached Jesus to him. 36 As they went along the road they came to some water; and the eunuch *said, “Look! Water! What prevents me from being baptized?” 37 [And Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”] 38 And he ordered the chariot to stop; and they both went down into the water, Philip as well as the eunuch, and he baptized him. (Acts 8:27-38) On the very day Messiah entered Jerusalem on a donkey fulfilling Zechariah 9:9 (WHICH THE JEWS SHOULD HAVE RECOGNIZED! - Jn 12:14-15) apostle John quotes Isaiah 53:1 writing "This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet which he spoke: “LORD, WHO HAS BELIEVED OUR REPORT? (cf Ro 10:16) AND TO WHOM HAS THE ARM OF THE LORD BEEN REVEALED?” (Jn 12:38) Comment: The tragic irony of John's statement is that while the Jews did not believe in Jesus, the Gentiles were present wishing to see Him (Jn 12:20-21)! John goes on to record "For this reason they could not believe, for Isaiah said again, 40 (JOHN QUOTES Isaiah 6:10) “HE HAS BLINDED THEIR EYES AND HE HARDENED THEIR HEART, SO THAT THEY WOULD NOT SEE WITH THEIR EYES AND PERCEIVE WITH THEIR HEART, AND BE CONVERTED AND I HEAL THEM.” 41 These things Isaiah said because he saw His glory, and he spoke of Him." (John 12:39-41, cf Jn 12:35-36, 37-38) Paul in explaining Israel's spiritual blindness (Romans 9-11) quotes directly from Isaiah 53:1 in Romans writing "However, they (THOSE WHO HAD THE GOOD NEWS PREACHED TO THEM - Ro 10:15) did not all heed the good news; for Isaiah says, “LORD, WHO HAS BELIEVED OUR REPORT?”." (Ro 10:16) Who has believed our message? - This is a rhetorical question. The NET translation is "Who would have believed what we just heard?" The ESV marginal note has "Who has believed what we have heard?" Holman CSB has "Who has believed what we have heard?" Is this question referring to a "message" they announced or a "message" they heard? The context and the way the passage is quoted in John 12:37-38 (cf Romans 10:16) above would favor this being the message (of good news) the Jews had heard but which they refused to believe. John speaks of the Jews failure to receive the message writing "He (MESSIAH) came to His own (JEWS), and those who were His own did not receive (paralambano = receive with favor) Him." (John 1:11+) NET Note - The first half of Isa 53:1 is traditionally translated, “Who has believed our report?” or “Who has believed our message?” as if the group speaking is lamenting that no one will believe what they have to say. But that doesn’t seem to be the point in this context. Here the group speaking does not cast itself in the role of a preacher or evangelist. No, they are repentant sinners, who finally see the light. The phrase “our report” can mean (1) the report which we deliver, or (2) the report which was delivered to us. The latter fits better here, where the report is most naturally taken as the announcement that has just been made in Isaiah 52:13–15. (Bolding mine) (Isaiah 53 Notes) Their rhetorical questions call for a negative answer and Motyer adds "The true reply to the first question, therefore, is ‘No-one’." David Thompson adds that "The answer is to hardly anyone. John Calvin said, “Scarcely a hundredth person will be a believer” (Isaiah, Vol. 8, p. 111). Very few actually believed that Jesus Christ could save a nation and a person from sin. Very few believed it in Isaiah’s day and very few believe it in our day. This is what Merwin Stone called the “tragedies of tragedies” (A Study of Isaiah 52:13- 53:12, Bib. Sac. 91:362, Apr. 1934, p. 224). God sent His special revelation, His own Servant who had the strength of God to save, and no one believed Him. The same tragedy exists today. Most (ED: NOT ONLY JEWS BUT ALSO GENTILES) do not and will not turn to Jesus Christ for salvation. (Exposition) Oswalt adds that "The two NT quotations of the passage understand it in this way: the people of God (THE JEWS) who have heard the news and seen the revelation have refused to believe it (John 12:38; Ro 10:16-see these below)." (NICOT-Isaiah) W E Vine - The word rendered "report," means that which was heard, that which was declared, and the reference is to the Gospel preached at Pentecost and afterwards, which was persistently rejected by the nation. Witness Paul's protests and lament (Acts 13:46; 18:6; 28:28; Romans 9:1; 11:7, 8; 1 Thessalonians 2:14-18). (The Collected Writings of W. E. Vine) Believed (0539)(aman) conveys the basic idea of firmness or certainty of that which provides stability and confidence, like a baby would find in the arms of a parent. Recall that the first use of a word in Scripture is often very significant as it establishes the primary or most significant meaning, and this general principle is true in the Spirit's inspired use of 'aman in Genesis 15:6+ where "Abram believed in Jehovah" = Hebrew verb 'aman = ) In both Ge 15:6 and here in Isa 53:1 aman is translated in the Septuagint with the verb pisteuo which means to consider something to be true and therefore worthy of one’s trust. The point of this question in Isa 53:1 is that they did not believe the message (in context, the message about the Messiah), and both John and Paul quote Isa 53:1 in a similar context of unbelief. Aman is used in a similar sense in Isaiah 28:16 where God says “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a tested stone (MESSIAH), A costly cornerstone (MESSIAH) for the foundation, firmly placed. He who believes (Lxx = pisteuo) in it (MESSIAH) will not be disturbed (Lxx = ashamed)" which is quoted 3 times in the NT (Ro 9:33, Ro 10:11, 1 Pe 2:6). John quotes Isaiah 53:1 (and this also says the fact that Isaiah 53 is a prophecy about the Messiah) to substantiate the fact that the Jews did not respond to the ministry of the Lord Jesus at His First Coming.... But though He had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in Him. 38 This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet which he spoke: “LORD, WHO HAS BELIEVED OUR REPORT? AND TO WHOM HAS THE ARM OF THE LORD BEEN REVEALED?” 39 For this reason they could not believe, for Isaiah said again, 40 “HE HAS BLINDED THEIR EYES AND HE HARDENED THEIR HEART, SO THAT THEY WOULD NOT SEE WITH THEIR EYES AND PERCEIVE WITH THEIR HEART, AND BE CONVERTED AND I HEAL THEM.” (John 12:37-40) Paul quotes Isaiah (again showing Isaiah 53 is about Jesus) also to explain why "they did not all heed the good news," the reason of course being that they did not believe it... How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? 15 How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, “HOW BEAUTIFUL ARE THE FEET OF THOSE WHO BRING GOOD NEWS OF GOOD THINGS!” 16 However, they did not all heed the good news; for Isaiah says, “LORD, WHO HAS BELIEVED OUR REPORT?” 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. (Romans 10:14-17) JEHOVAH'S POWER WAS REVEALED And to whom has the Arm of the LORD been revealed - This is an interesting question which we might paraphrase as "To whom was the Messiah revealed?" Keeping in mind that Isaiah is addressing the Jews, the answer (from our modern perspective looking back) would be that in one sense the news of the Messiah had spread throughout Israel. For example in Matthew 9:31 after healing a demon-possessed man "they went out and spread the news about Him in all that land." (cf Luke 4:14). The problem was that although the Messiah "had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in Him." (John 12:37) Spiritual truth must be revealed by the Spirit, but their unbelief (their spiritual obduracy) short-circuited (so to speak) the regenerating work of the Spirit. And so the apostle John explained their unbelief by quoting Isaiah 53:1 "to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet which he spoke: “LORD, WHO HAS BELIEVED OUR REPORT? AND TO WHOM HAS THE ARM OF THE LORD BEEN REVEALED?” (Jn 12:38) John then goes on to quote those tragic words in Isaiah 6 explaining that now these unbelieving Jews could not believe for Isaiah said "HE HAS BLINDED THEIR EYES AND HE HARDENED THEIR HEART, SO THAT THEY WOULD NOT SEE WITH THEIR EYES AND PERCEIVE WITH THEIR HEART, AND BE CONVERTED AND I HEAL THEM.” (John 12:39-40) Arm is a metonymy for Jehovah's power in context of Isaiah 53 is manifest in the Person of the Messiah, the "Suffering Servant"! While the nation of Israel witnessed Jesus' miracles, they failed to recognize that He was the Arm of the LORD whom God had revealed. They refused to believe and then were spiritually blinded to see Jesus as the Arm of the LORD.
Isaías 53
MacArthur explains the comparison with a tender shoot - This is simply a way to say His beginning was irrelevant. It was unimportant, it was insignificant, it didn’t matter, He was a nobody from nobodies, from nowhere. We looked at Jesus, what did we see? An insignificant family, Joseph, Mary, an insignificant town, Nazareth (cp Jn 1:46), way off the beaten track. Born in an insignificant place in an inn, in a stable placed in a feed trough, and attending His birth were shepherds who were the lowest people on the social ladder. No royal birth, no social status, no family nobility, no formal education. Thirty years a carpenter in Nazareth. No connections with anybody who mattered with the elite, with the important. He is a sucker branch. He is irrelevant. (The Scorned Servant of Jehovah - Part 2) Since Messiah would arise from such humble beginnings, which none of the trappings of fame, riches or royalty, only those with eyes of faith could see His true identity and divine "Pedigree!" Motyer says it this way "Only those to whom truth was revealed could see that this was the arm of the lord." (TNTC-Isaiah) Roy Gingrich - Just as it is impossible to believe that a mighty oak can come out of utterly dry ground, even so it was humanly impossible to believe that “the arm of Jehovah” could come out of the Jesus’ boyhood surroundings (He grew up in a despised province, John 7:52; He grew up in a mean little town, John 1:46; and He grew up in an humble home). The people of Israel knew that such adverse surroundings could not produce their Messiah. They failed to see that Jesus was nurtured from above (“He grew up before Him”). (Book of Isaiah) Scott Grant - A tender shoot is a suckling on a trunk that sucks life from the tree. That’s how Jesus was viewed—as leading a renegade movement that threatened the Jewish establishment. Parched ground is a place where you don’t expect a root. Jesus came from what was deemed the "parched ground" of Nazareth (John 1:46), Galilee (John 7:52) and a carpenter (Matthew 13:55). (Isaiah 53:1-3: Ordinary appearance, extraordinary love) David Thompson - When He was born in Bethlehem, the leaders in Jerusalem would not even travel five to six miles to see Him. They wouldn’t even look at Him. They could not imagine that their Messiah could come from such parched ground. (Exposition) And like a root out of parched ground - The intent of this simile is easy to discern. A root in parched ground is virtually useless. There was little promise in this simple Nazarene carpenter to amount to anything in the eyes of other men! Oh, how deceiving appearances can be! Messiah is the "shoot of Jesse", and in Isaiah 11:10 as "the root (seres) of Jesse," the same word for root in this verse. Luke describes Jesus' growing up writing "And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men." (Lk 2:52+) A root out of parched ground has little prospect of successful growth. Parched ground can speak of spiritual dryness which would have been an appropriate description of the nation of Israel from which Jesus arose. Lot's of religious activity, but all dead works.
Isaías 53
MacArthur explains that "This speaks to the humiliating treatment of the Servant at His first advent, a theme emphasized by Isaiah (Isa 50:6-9; 52:14, 15; 53:3). The "nation" is used collectively for all who reject Him, particularly Gentiles, who are the rulers, kings, and princes referred to as someday giving exalted treatment to the Servant at His Second Coming. Former oppressors will bow down to Him as in Isa 52:15+, because of the salvation of Israel." (Borrow MacArthur Study Bible) Bazah is used in the Messianic passage in Psalm 22:6 where Messiah Himself says... I am a worm and not a man, A reproach of men and despised (bazah; Lxx = exoudenema = object of contempt! ) by the people. Comment: See the incredible picture inherent in Messiah saying "I Am a Worm." David Thompson - They disdained Him showing a lack of respect which was accompanied by a feeling of intense dislike! They did that to Him when He walked among them and the Jews still (in general) treat Jesus with great disdain! This word is never used in a positive context. For example, Esau despised his birthright (Ge 25:34); Saul was despised as king (1 Sa 10:27); Michal despised David (2 Sa 6:16); various kings were despised (Jer 22:28; Da 11:21). This is more than just not liking; this is holding something in contempt. It is interesting that both participles “despised” are in the Niphal stem, which means each person was involved in the emotional action and the results of the action (ED: see reflexive verb). In other words, when Jesus Christ came into this world, almost every person, in and of himself, emotionally despised Him and held Him in contempt. (Exposition) Play Robin Mark's worshipful song Highly Exalted You were despised You were rejected Lord Those who passed by Even averted their gaze from Your sight Such was the suffering You bore for us Led like a lamb, lamb to the slaughter You spoke not a word Chose to be silent Lord You did no wrong Nor was deceitfulness found in You Yet by Your wounds our salvation has come Yet by Your suffering our freedom is won Chorus For God has highly exalted Your name He has enthroned You on high Jesus, the name above all names – 2times Led like a lamb, lamb to the slaughter You spoke not a word Chose to be silent, Lord You did no wrong Nor was deceitfulness found in You Yet by Your wounds our salvation has come Yet by Your suffering our freedom is won Messianic Jewish writer David Baron rightly says that "No person in the history of the Jews has provoked such deepseated abhorrence as He who came only to bless them, and who even on the cross prayed, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." When on earth, at the end of His threeandahalf years of blessed ministry among them, they finally rejected Him. Their hatred was intense and mysterious. "Away with this man; release unto us Barabbas...Crucify Him, crucify Him!" was their cry (Lk 23:18, 21+). And all through the centuries no Name has provoked such intense abhorrence among the Jews as the name of Jesus. I have known personally the most amiable and lovable characters among the Jews; but immediately the name "Jesus" was mentioned, a change came over their countenances, and they would fall into a passion of anger. In the course of my missionary experiences these past thirty five or forty years, how often has it been my lot to witness some of my people almost mad with rage—clenching their fists, gnashing their teeth, and spitting on the ground at the very mention of the Name which to the believer "is as ointment poured forth"! Israel's attitude to our Lord Jesus may be gathered also from their literature. In the filthy legends about Him in the Talmud and more modern productions, the very names by which He is called are blasphemous. The precious name Yeshua ("Jesus," Saviour) has been changed into "Yeshu," made up of initial letters which mean, "Let His name and His memory be blotted out." The Holy One who knew no sin nor was guile found in His mouth, is often styled "the Transgressor"; and another term frequently in the mouth of the Jews is "Tolui" ("the hanged one"), which is equivalent to "the accursed one." There are also other hateful designations, such as "Ben Stada," or "Ben Pandera," which imply blasphemies not only against Him, but against her who is "blessed among women." And Israel's blind hatred to the Messiah does not stop short at His person, or His virgin mother, but extends to His words and works, and particularly to those of their nation who are ready to take upon them His reproach and to follow Him. Thus His works are still ascribed to witchcraft and Beelzebub; His gospel (the Evangelium) is called Aven or Avongillajon, "the sinful or mischievous writing"; while Rabbinic hatred to His followers (especially from among the Jews) was not satisfied with classing them as "apostates" and "worse than heathen," but rose to the height of instituting a daily public prayer in the most solemn part of their liturgy, that "the Nazarenes" may, together with all apostates, "be suddenly destroyed," without hope, and be "blotted out of the book of life"! This may be painful reading to some Christians, and the Lord knows it is far from my thoughts to write anything which might tend to foster unchristian prejudice against my people, but it is necessary to show how literally the prophetic forecast has been verified, and how deep seated and mysterious Jewish hatred has been to Him who, according to His human nature, is flesh of their flesh, and bone of their bone, and in whom is bound up all their hope and salvation. Let it be remembered also that Jewish hatred to Christ and His followers, at any rate in more modern times, is partly to be traced to the sufferings which they have endured at the hands of so called Christians, and also that it is not our Lord Jesus as we know Him, that Israel in ignorance thus blasphemes, but the caricature of Him as presented to them by apostate persecuting Christendom in the dark ages and since. Often the only way left to the Jews to avenge their terrible sufferings and massacres was to write blasphemously of Him in whose name they were ignorantly perpetrated. Neither is it to be forgotten that if Christ has been, and alas! to a large extent still is, "abhorred of the nation," there has always been a remnant in the nation to whom He has been "the fairest of ten thousand and altogether lovely," and who, for the love of Him, counted not even their lives dear unto them. (Isaiah 53 Exposition) John MacArthur adds that "you will see in rabbinic writings Yeshu the contemporary way of saying, “We will not have this man to reign over us,” (Lk 19:14+) which is what they said when they screamed for His crucifixion." NET Note - The servant is likened to a seriously ill person who is shunned by others because of his horrible disease. Jesus was indeed forsaken more than any other man has been forsaken - by his family sarcasm on part of brothers (John 7:1-4,5) and His own people thought he had lost His senses (Mk 3:21); by his countrymen (John 1:11); by the world - People think Jesus has no significance for their life; he is just not relevant for them (John 1:10); and worst of all forsaken by His own Father (Mt 27:46). Forsaken (02310)(hadel from the verb chadhal = to cease) is an adjective used only here, Ps 39:4 and Ezek 3:27 and meaning transient, rejected, fleeting. The idea here in Isa 53:3 is being abandoned by others. The word hadel carries with it the idea of ceasing or desisting from something or leaving something before it reaches its end or conclusion. What Isaiah is saying is that when Jesus Christ came into the world, there would be many who would seem to have somewhat of an interest in Him for a while, but their interest was transient (and for what they could get out of it for themselves - as in Jn 6:66) and they would all eventually leave Him and abandon Him before He completed His assignment. Indeed, in His trial and crucifixion He would even be forsaken by His own disciples! Hadel also means the opposite of hearing, that is, deliberately refusing to hear or respond positively (Ezek. 3:27 = "Let the hearing-one hear, and let the ceasing-one cease [i.e., from hearing]."). It describes the Servant of Isaiah as a person rejected, refused by people. Hadel takes on the idea of fleeting or transitoriness with respect to the impermanence of human existence on earth and is translated "transient" in Ps. 39:4. "The marginal reading of the KJV is, "that I may know what time I have here." So understood, the word is not referring to the lack of ability that causes the ceasing, but to the "fleeting" time frame over which the ceasing occurs, expressed in the next verse, "Each person's life is but a breath." See related resource - Redeeming the Time. Edwin Yamauchi - In Isaiah 53:3 the Messiah is described as "rejected of men" (KJV, RSV, JH, NIV), avoided by men" (NAB). (Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament) Gilbrant on hadel in Isaiah 53:3 - Since the term means "ceasing," the statement refers to the rulers' ceasing from having anything to do with him, that is, forsaking him. Forsaking people involves rejecting them, hence, the translation "rejected." An Arabic cognate means "avoiding." (Ibid) MAN OF SORROWS A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief - (Yahweh put Him to "grief" - Isa 53:10) - The NET Bible renders it "one who experienced pain and was acquainted with illness." Jesus 3 year public ministry was one of constant sorrows (pain) and grief (sickness, disease). Acquainted is the Hebrew verb yada' which means to know relationally and experientially. In short, Messiah had intimate knowledge of grief and suffering. Baron on the meaning of the phrase man of sorrows - As Delitzsch explains, it is not that He had by nature a sickly body, falling from one disease into another (as some would explain), but that "the wrath instigated by sin, and the zeal of selfsacrifice,10 burnt like the fire of a fever in His soul and body." The point emphasised is that sorrow and grief were the very characteristics of the Servant of Jehovah, "the tokens we know Him by." And the chief causes of His sorrows and grief were not personal ills, or physical pain, though these were great enough. It was heart sorrow and grief of soul. (Isaiah 53 Exposition) Gingrich - His public ministry was one of constant sorrow (pain) and grief (sickness, disease). He was constantly sorrowful because He constantly bore the spiritual pains of those around Him. He was constantly grieved because He constantly bore the physical diseases of those around Him. Could such a sorrowful and griefstricken man be Israel’s Messiah? (Book of Isaiah) Sorrows (pains)(04341)(makob from verb kaab = to be in pain) refers to pain, suffering, sorrow. It can refer to physical pain or emotional pain. Gilbrant adds it "means "pain," such as physical pain from disease (Job 33:19), and "sorrows" which could include physical as well as emotional pain that are due to the wicked, but "mercy" surrounds the person who trusts in God (Ps. 32:10). These sorrows were experienced by the Lord Jesus in our stead to pay the penalty for our sin (Isa. 53:3).The concept of spiritual or emotional suffering of the soul appears as early as God's call to Moses. God saw the oppression of his people and knew their resultant "sorrows"; hence, He sent Moses to deliver them (Exo. 3:7). The deep suffering of the soul also appears in Jeremiah's lament over the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of the people of God (Lam. 1:12, 18)." (Ibid) Makob - 15v - pain(10), painful(1), sorrow(1), sorrows(3), sufferings(1). Exod. 3:7 = "I am aware of their sufferings"; 2 Chr. 6:29 = "his own pain"; Job 33:19 = "man is chastened with pain on his bed"; Ps. 32:10 = "sorrows of the wicked"; Ps. 38:17 = "my sorrow is continually before me"; Ps. 69:26 = "they tell of the pain of those whom You have wounded"; Eccl. 1:18 = "and increasing knowledge results in increasing pain" (~heartache"); Eccl. 2:23 = "his task is painful and grievous"; Isa. 53:3; Isa. 53:4; Jer. 30:15; Jer. 45:3; Jer. 51:8; Lam. 1:12; Lam. 1:18 Grief (02383)(choli from chalah = to become sick, weak, grieved) is a masculine noun which refers to various ailments, pain, suffering, sorrow. It describes misery resulting from affliction. Some of the afflictions are external in origin, such as the fall of Ahaziah through the lattice of his chamber. The common denominator of the ailments referred to by chŏlî is either that the problem is chronic (e.g., Ahaziah died; "when Elisha had fallen sick with the illness of which he was to die," 2 Ki. 13:14) or that the sufferer is in constant pain (cf. Ecc. 6:2; Jer. 6:7; 2 Chr. 16:12). Choli describes suffering as a result of loss of wealth (Eccl 6:2). Choli is an appropriate metaphor for the Northern Kingdom as the sickness which was to kill Israel had befallen it (Hos. 5:13), an account of its oppression of the weak (v. 11). The verb is used in the sense of “sick of heart” or “mind,” as a girl sick with love (Song 2:5; 5:8). Saul complained that nobody was “sick,” i.e. “felt sorry” for him (1 Sa 22:8). The suffering Servant bore chronic, painful sicknesses that were the results of human sin (Isa 53:3ff). The imagery carries a double meaning. The sickness which should have been fatal to us instead was fatal to the Servant because Isaiah 53:4 says "our griefs (choli) He Himself bore." (ON HIMSELF, ON THE CROSS). This imagery serves as a poignant reminder of the tremendous sacrifice Jesus gave for our salvation. Choli is used figuratively of the ever-present evil of Jerusalem (Isa. 1:5; Jer. 6:7) that could not be healed by seeking out foreign powers for healing (Hos. 5:13). Idolatry was an especially heinous sickness of Israel before the exile (Jer. 10:19). The Septuagint translates choli in Isa 53:3 with the noun malakia which can describe a condition of bodily weakness (Mt 4:23) but in Isaiah 53 refers to a condition of inner weakness in the sense of despondency. The Septuagint translates choli in Isa 53:4 with hamartia which describes our sins which He bore. Choli - 24x in 22v - affliction(1), disease(2), grief(1), griefs(1), illness(3), sick(1), sickness(14), sicknesses(1). Deut. 7:15 = sickness; Deut. 28:59 = chronic sicknesses; Deut. 28:61; 1 Ki. 17:17; 2 Ki. 1:2; 2 Ki. 8:8; 2 Ki. 8:9; 2 Ki. 13:14; 2 Chr. 16:12; 2 Chr. 21:15; 2 Chr. 21:18; 2 Chr. 21:19; Ps. 41:3; Eccl. 5:17; Eccl. 6:2; Isa. 1:5; Isa. 38:9; Isa. 53:3; Isa. 53:4; Jer. 6:7; Jer. 10:19; Hos. 5:13 Scott Grant - In the fourth Servant Song, Isaiah uses several different words for sin, probably to show the different forms it takes and effects it has. The first two of these words are "sorrows" and "grief." The Servant was "a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief." This does not mean that the Servant was a sinner but that sin affected him deeply. The word "sorrow," though used in connection with sin in Isaiah 53, was usually used to convey mental and emotional anguish. He was a "man of sorrows"—to some extent he was characterized by mental and emotional anguish. Because of sin, the Servant suffered mental and emotional anguish. The word "grief," also used here in connection with sin, was usually used to convey illness or weakness. Because of sin, the Servant was "acquainted with grief"—it’s as if he’s had so much experience with illness and weakness that he knows them personally. Gary Smith - Some day the godly remnant of Israel (diagram) will be sorry for this rejection; some day they will turn in real repentance to Him (Zechariah 12:10-14+). David Thompson - The word “sorrow” comes from the Hebrew root that often means to have terrible emotional and mental pain because of great sorrow. The word “grief” is one that refers to an internal sadness and affliction that just wears you down. As Jesus walked on this earth as the Savior of Israel and the world, and He continually saw all the sin and wickedness, and as He saw that He was rejected, and that no one even looked to Him for the salvation He could give, it just wore Him down. It grieved Him and made Him sad. There were things that happened to Him that caused Him to weep. Think about this - Jesus Christ had to endure animosity His entire life. Satan hated Him, demons hated Him, Israel rejected Him, His own disciples abandoned Him, and His own Father had to turn against Him and pour out His entire wrath on Him. His whole existence in this sin-cursed world was that of sorrow and grief. (Isaiah 53:1-3 Commentary) Paul Apple - Why was the Servant a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief? Certainly, it has something to do with the way he was treated. If you’re despised, you’re likely to experience sorrow and grief. But if you’re despised and you love the people who despise you, you will grieve for them. The Pharisees despised Jesus, but he was "grieved at their hardness of heart" (Mark 3:5). And somehow, the Servant also bore the griefs and carried the sorrows of others (Isaiah 53:4). That’s just what Jesus did on the cross (2 Corinthians 5:21, 1 Peter 2:24). Sin causes sorrow and grief for the sinner and the victim. In his life, and particularly in his death, Jesus felt that grief and sorrow. And if in the end you feel that you are on the verge of being forsaken by God himself, you might say what Jesus said in the Garden of Gethsemane, just before he was abandoned by God as he suffered for sins (Mark 15:34): "My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death..." (Mark 14:34). Jehovah is Salvation - 1130 pages C H Spurgeon was a man who did not hide his face from Jesus, but on his glorious, God appointed “DAY OF SALVATION” "looked unto Jesus" as recorded in his own testimony of how God used a passage from Isaiah to save his soul from Hell. Here it is in the old King James version Spurgeon heard one stormy winter morning in London... Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else. (Isaiah 45:22KJV) Dear reader, Spurgeon's testimony begs the question, have you "Looked unto Jesus?" or are you still like the majority of mankind, hiding your face from Jesus? Remember today could be the best day of your life, the first day of eternal life, “THE DAY OF SALVATION”. (2 Cor 6:2). And like one from whom men hide their face - The Septuagint translates "hide their face" with apostrepho and prosopon (face) which means they turned away their faces from Jesus and the perfect tense signifies this was their fixed condition! They turned away their faces and remained in that position! Woe! David Baron - "As one from whom men hide their face" "i.e. like one whose repulsive face it is impossible to endure, so that men turn away their face or cover it with their dress" (Delitzsch); or, as another expresses it: "Instead of meeting Him with a joyful gleam in their eyes responding to His grace and help, men turned away from Him—as one looks the other way to avoid the eye of a person whom he dislikes, or as one shrinks from an object of loathing" (Culross). (Isaiah 53 Exposition) "He would not be welcomed and received . Isaiah 53:3d Instead of people running to Him, welcoming Him, and receiving and believing in Him, they hid from Him. They considered Jesus Christ to be so detestable that they would not even look at Him; they hid their faces from Him. Men would actually hide their faces from Jesus Christ. They would not look to Him as Savior and all He ever did to them was come to save them from their sins so He could give them God’s Kingdom. Not only wouldn’t people look at Him for this, they actually hid from Him. (David Thompson) David Thompson - Again it is brought out that He would be despised. This was God walking on this earth and He was not esteemed; He was demeaned and held in contempt. Israel saw Jesus Christ, Israel thought about Jesus Christ, and she despised Jesus Christ. Do not be fooled for one second; this is a Christ-rejecting, not Christ-exalting world. You try to get people today to look only to Jesus Christ for salvation and you will see the same thing Isaiah saw. Hardly any will believe your message and most won’t even look at Jesus Christ. Sinful men do not honor Jesus Christ. Sinful men do not exalt God. Sinful men do not esteem God. Sinful men hide from God. They would rather rely on themselves than on the only Savior. What Israel did to Jesus Christ when He was here on earth, is the same thing the world does to Jesus Christ since He has gone back up into heaven. He is despised and rejected by men. (Isaiah 53:1-3 Commentary) He was despised and we did not esteem Him - We (the future redeemed Jewish remnant - diagram) did not esteem Him where esteem is the Hebrew verb chasab/hasab which conveys the basic idea of employing of the mind in a thinking activity. He was not valued or wanted by His own people! (Jn 1:11) The Septuagint translated chasab with logizomai which means to think about, consider or let their mind dwell on Him. They absolutely did not give Messiah any serious thought! They did not regard Him highly or think much of Him. Amazing! Yes, they were amazed at His speech and His supernatural displays but did not think much of Him and certainly did not consider Him to be the expected Messiah. Motyer on did not esteem Him - Esteemed is an ‘accounting’ word, a reckoning up of value. They saw ordinariness (Isa 53:2), the world would call him an ‘unfortunate’ (Isa 53:3b), so they did not choose to follow him (Isa 53:3a) but turned from him (Isa 53:3c). They appraised what they saw and it added up to nothing (Isa 53:3d). (TOTC-Isaiah) “When all that the human eye saw and the human mind apprehended was added up the result was zero." Paul Apple - Martin Luther: "We estimated Him at nothing." We counted Him a zero. We didn't give Him a second thought. That is how much we valued Him. Ps. 118:22 “The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief corner stone. This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.” Quoted by Peter in 1 Pet. 2:6-8. Quite a downer note to stop on for today -- UNKNOWN, UNREMARKABLE, UNPOPULAR - This will be the lament of Israel in the last days – looking back on the Messiah they had rejected. Don’t let this be your lament today. Jehovah is Salvation - 1130 pages Baron - Instead of counting Him dear and worthy, we formed a very low estimate of Him, or rather we did not estimate Him at all, or, as Luther forcibly expresses it: "we estimated Him at nothing."This, dear Christian reader, will be Israel's brokenhearted confession on the day when the Spirit of grace and supplications is poured upon them, and their eyes are opened at last to the fearful error which they committed as a nation in the rejection of their Messiah. But, as we read these sad and solemn words, "He was despised, and we esteemed Him not," may we not pause for a moment to ask ourselves if this is not true also in professing Christendom today? And what about ourselves, who by the grace of God do believe on Him? Do we estimate our Lord Jesus at His true worth? Is He indeed to us the chiefest of ten thousand and altogether lovely? (Song 5:16) Are we prepared for His dear sake to forsake all and to follow Him outside the camp (Heb 13:22), esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt? (Heb 11:25) (Isaiah 53 Exposition) The apostle of John elaborates on did not esteem Him - He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own (ISRAEL), and those who were His own did not receive Him. (John 1:10-11+) Acquaintance With Grief - "A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief." Isaiah 53:3 We are not acquainted with grief in the way in which Our Lord was acquainted with it; we endure it, we get through it, but we do not become intimate with it. At the beginning of life we do not reconcile ourselves to the fact of sin. We take a rational view of life and say that a man by controlling his instincts, and by educating himself, can produce a life which will slowly evolve into the life of God. But as we go on, we find the presence of something which we have not taken into consideration, viz., sin, and it upsets all our calculations. Sin has made the basis of things wild and not rational. We have to recognize that sin is a fact, not a defect; sin is red-handed mutiny against God. Either God or sin must die in my life. The New Testament brings us right down to this one issue. If sin rules in me, God's life in me will be killed; if God rules in me, sin in me will be killed. There is no possible ultimate but that. The climax of sin is that it crucified Jesus Christ, and what was true in the history of God on earth will be true in your history and in mine. In our mental outlook we have to reconcile ourselves to the fact of sin as the only explanation as to why Jesus Christ came, and as the explanation of the grief and sorrow in life. (Oswald Chambers) HE HATH BORNE OUR GRIEFS Acquainted with grief.... Isaiah 53:3. Never forget that Christianity began with a Man of sorrows acquainted with grief. Joel called on God's ministers to weep between the porch and the altar. Paul warned everyone day and night with tears. The joy of the Lord is not to be confused with the religious levity that has no root or depth. Churches have become second-class theaters as though the Gospel were a form of entertainment. The joy of the Lord is not a "happenness" that depends on what happens. It smiles through tears and rejoices in spite of what happens. (Vance Havner) J R Miller - "He was despised and rejected by men." Isaiah 53:3 The saddest thing about the life of Christ—was the rejection he met among those he had come to bless. He came with a great love in his heart. He wanted to do them good, to draw them away from their sins, to make them love God, to lead them to heaven. "He came unto his own—and his own received him not." He went to their doors and knocked, and they kept their doors shut upon him; and he had to go away with his gifts and blessings unbestowed, leaving "his own" in their sin and sorrow. It is the same yet. Christ comes with treasures of life and glory, which he offers to all; but men and women pay no heed to his knocking and his calls, and he has to pass on. "He is despised and rejected." He never forces his blessings on any. He knocks, but we must open the door. He will never open it himself. In Holman Hunt's picture, "The Light of the World," the door has no knob on the outside; it can be opened only from within. You can keep the omnipotent Christ outside your heart if you will; you do keep him out by simply not rising to open to him. It does not need dishonoring sins, nor any violent rejection of the Savior, to make one a lost sinner; the mildest and gentlest indifference to his knocking and call—will do it just as effectually. HALLELUJAH WHAT A SAVIOUR! - Written in 1876, shortly before his death, this was the last hymn I heard Mr. Bliss sing. It was at a meeting in Farwell Hall in Chicago, conducted by Henry Moorehouse. A few weeks before his death Mr. Bliss visited the State prison at Jackson, Michigan, where, after a very touching address on “The Man of Sorrows,” he sang this hymn with great effect. Many of the prisoners dated their conversion from that day. When Mr. Moody and I were in Paris, holding meetings in the old church which Napoleon had granted to the Evangelicals, I frequently sang this hymn as a solo, asking the congregation to join in the single phrase, “Hallelujah, what a Saviour,” which they did with splendid effect. It is said that the word “Hallelujah” is the same in all languages. It seems as though God had prepared it for the great jubilee of heaven, when all his children shall have been gathered home to sing “Hallelujah to the Lamb!” (Story of Gospel Hymns - Ira Sankey) Man of Sorrows! What a name For the Son of God, who came Ruined sinners to reclaim; Hallelujah! What a Savior! Bearing shame and scoffing rude, In my place condemned he stood, Sealed my pardon with his blood. Hallelujah! What a Savior! Guilty, vile, and helpless, we; Spotless Lamb of God was he; Full atonement! Can it be? Hallelujah! What a Savior! Lifted up was he to die, “It is finished!” was his cry: Now in heaven exalted high: Hallelujah! What a Savior! When he comes, our glorious King, All his ransomed home to bring; Then anew this song we’ll sing: Hallelujah! What a Savior! —Philip P. Bliss (1838–1876)
Isaías 53
MacArthur has a note on the verb tenses which we have stated earlier are almost all in the past tense in Hebrew - Even though the verbs are past tense, they predict happenings future to Isaiah's time, i.e., "prophetic perfects" (SEE ILLUSTRATION) in Hebrew here and elsewhere in this Servant-song. Isaiah was saying that the Messiah would bear the consequences of the sins of men, namely the griefs and sorrows of life, though incredibly the Jews who watched Him die thought He was being punished by God for His own sins. Matthew found an analogical fulfillment of these words in Jesus' healing ministry (Mt 8:16, 17), because sickness results from sin for which the Servant paid with His life (Isa 53:7, 8; cf. 1Pe 2:24). In eternity, all sickness will be removed, so ultimately it is included in the benefits of the atonement. (Borrow MacArthur Study Bible)
Isaías 53
MacArthur adds that "The word “stricken” is to strike violently, a very violent word used in Exodus 11:1 of the plagues." (ED: Compare Daniel's prophecy in Daniel 9:26+ "Then after the sixty-two weeks [+ the 7 weeks] the Messiah will be cut off [crucifixion] and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined.")
Isaías 53
MacArthur says that iniquities ('avon) is essentially "a word that means to bend double, twisted like a pretzel, to bend double. It’s perversions." He was CRUSHED for our iniquities recalls the Protoevangelium in Genesis 3:15+ And I (GOD) will put enmity Between you (SATAN) and the woman, And between your seed and her seed (MESSIAH); He (MESSIAH) shall bruise (shuph) you on the head, And you (SATAN) shall bruise (shuph) him on the heel.” SHALOM WITH GOD: WHOLENESS, RESTORED RELATIONSHIP The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him (NET = "He endured punishment that made us well" RSV = "The chastisement that made us whole"; NIV = "the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him" NLT = "He was beaten so we could be whole") -- Well being is peace (shalom) and is a genitive of result which means His punishment resulted in our peace or well-being, giving redeemed sinners a sense of wholeness and restoration of a relationship with the Holy God which we all lacked while still in Adam (Ro 5:12+, 1 Cor 15:22, 45) and which we could never achieve had not the Messiah been chastened in our place, as our Substitute. Paul describes the peace that is now available to us in Christ - "Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, (Ro 5:1+).
Isaías 53
MacArthur comments - Through the wounds of Christ at the cross, believers are healed spiritually from the deadly disease of sin. Physical healing comes at glorification only, when there is no more physical pain, illness, or death (Rev 21:4+). (MacArthur Study Bible). Gotquestions - Isaiah 53:5, which is then quoted in 1 Peter 2:24, is a key verse on healing, but it is often misunderstood and misapplied....The word translated “healed” can mean either spiritual or physical healing. However, the contexts of Isaiah 53 and 1 Peter 2 make it clear that it is speaking of spiritual healing....The verse (1 Peter 2:24) is talking about sin and righteousness, not sickness and disease. Therefore, being “healed” in both these verses is speaking of being forgiven and saved, not physically healed. S Lewis
Isaías 53
MacArthur: In Leviticus 16:1-34+ when atonement was made, one animal was killed and one animal was kept alive. And the priests would lay their hands on that one animal, the scapegoat (picture), as if to place all the sins of the people on the scapegoat and he would be sent out into the wilderness, never to return again, never. Jesus is the scapegoat. He picks up all our sin, pays the penalty in full. He’s the sacrificial animal as well, and He’s the scapegoat and carries them all away. In summary when God caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Jesus on the Cross, e was not overlooking our sins but was punishing the Son Who took our sins upon Himself. This is amazing grace, amazing love! How dreadful was the hour When God our wanderings laid And did at once His vengeance pour, Upon the Shepherd’s head! How glorious was the grace When Christ sustained the stroke! His life and blood the Shepherd pays A ransom for the flock. Isaac Watts As John MacArthur says "This will be the confession that Israel makes in the future. But this is the confession that any sinner can make now, and you can make it today." NET Note justifying the translation of paga as "attack" - Elsewhere the Hiphil of paga' means "to intercede verbally" (Jer 15:11; 36:25) or "to intervene militarily" ( Isa 59:16), but neither nuance fits here. Apparently here the Hiphil is the causative of the normal Qal meaning, "encounter, meet, touch." The Qal sometimes refers to a hostile encounter or attack; when used in this way the object is normally introduced by the preposition -B. (bet, see Josh 2:16; Judg 8:21; 15:12, etc.). Here the causative Hiphil has a double object – the Lord makes "sin" attack "him" (note that the object attacked is introduced by the preposition -B.. In their sin the group was like sheep who had wandered from God's path. They were vulnerable to attack; the guilt of their sin was ready to attack and destroy them. But then the servant stepped in and took the full force of the attack.
Isaías 53
MacArthur comments that "He not only accepted the unrighteous judgment of men, but He accepted the righteous judgment of God on behalf of unrighteous sinners in order to make them righteous. No sacrifice was ever so perfect; no sacrifice ever so pure. Here is the sinless, spotless Lamb of God, acceptable to God, chosen by God and elect, dying for sinners. It is here, dear friends, that Old Testament soteriology reaches its apex. This is the high point of the Old Testament. The Messiah is the sacrifice, slaughtered by God for us. He is the Servant of Jehovah; He is the Slave of Jehovah; and His service requires that He die, that He be punished for our well-being, that He be scourged for our healing, that He be crushed for our iniquities, that He be pierced through for our transgressions....The suffering, silent, submissive, slaughtered, scorned Servant of Jehovah takes on Himself the punishment of God for the enormous moral debt of the elect of all human history and pays the ransom price with His life. (The Silent Servant Part 1) So He did not open His mouth - MacArthur says "He accepted the unrighteous judgment of man in order to accept the righteous judgment of God to make unrighteous sinners the recipients of that very same righteousness." (The Silent Servant Part 2) A Lamb goes uncomplaining forth, The guilt of all men bearing; And laden with the sins of earth, None else the burden sharing! Goes patient on, grow weak and faint, To slaughter led without complaint, That spotless life to offer; Bears shame and stripes, and wounds and death, Anguish and mockery, and saith, Willing all this I suffer. Lamb Goes Uncomplaining Forth, A Lamb of God, We Follow Thee
Isaías 53
MacArthur - The final triumph of the Messiah, the Servant, will be the salvation of His people. And that is what it says in verse 8....The point of this chapter is God will save His people. And, in particular, His people Israel. This is a prophecy of the future salvation of Israel. That’s what the whole section of Isaiah is about, salvation for Israel in the future. Zechariah says it’s the time when they look on Him whom they’ve pierced and mourn for Him as an only Son. When they look back in history, which they haven’t done yet, but they one day will, and they look at the One they pierced and realize that He was the Son of God, and they completely will understand what they have not as yet understood except for a remnant of Jews who have come to faith in Christ. "So all Israel will be saved" (Ro 11:26). When they are in the future, they will make the confession of verses 1 through 11. By oppression and judgment - Although there is a different Hebrew word here for oppression, this passage picks up the description of Isaiah 53:7 that "He Himself was oppressed and afflicted." This speaks especially of Messiah's unjust trials (six of them), false witnesses, the breaking of many rules by the Jews regarding the trying of someone, especially for a capital offense when the death penalty was at stake! The NET version translates it "He was led away after an unjust trial." The stress in this passage is on the injustice done to Jesus.
Isaías 53
MacArthur says "there was no crime committed; there was no evidence presented. There were declarations repeatedly of His innocence. He was physically abused, spit on, hit with fists in the face, beaten in the head with sticks, crown of thorns crushed into His head." (The Silent Servant, Part 2) Delitzsch explains that "Hostile oppression and judicial persecution were the circumstances out of which He was carried away by death." He was taken away - This is the same Hebrew verb used in Isaiah 52:5 when God says "My people have been taken away without cause" describing how the Babylonians took Judah into exile. This Hebrew verb conveys the picture of being snatched or hurried away (cf Ezek 33:4 = "a sword comes and takes him away"). MacArthur paraphrases as for His generation, who considered - Who even had an idea that He was receiving a stroke of judgment from God, not for His own transgression but for the transgression of My people. No one even thought of it, and they still don’t....The Jews know the man Jesus was struck dead. They believe He was struck dead by God, but for His own blasphemies. Such a blasphemer that He wasn’t worthy for anyone to step up to His defense. The truth is, He was struck by God for the transgressions of His people, including Jews and Gentiles and one day the nation of Israel. And as for His generation, who considered - This is a difficult verse to translate. The NET translation has "but who even cared?" which conveys the sense that "to his sufferings was added the pain of total lack of sympathetic understanding from those around." (Motyer) Who stepped up and protested? David Baron suggests this translation - "As for His generation—who (among them) poureth out a complaint?" (i.e. at His treatment); or, "who among them uttereth a prayer?" (i.e. on His behalf). In either case there may be, as suggested already by Bishop Lowth, a prophetic allusion to the custom which prevailed among the Jews in the case of trials for life to call upon all who had anything to say in favour of the accused, to come and "declare it," or "plead" on his behalf. (Isaiah 53 Exposition) MacArthur has an interesting note that adds some weight to Baron's interpretation - Here we find in the prophecy 700 years before it ever happened, the pronouncement that no one will defend Him, no one will defend Him....A custom prevailed among the Jews in the case of a trial that could lead to execution.It was required that there be a 40 day period of time once the verdict was given for people to step up and speak to the innocence of the one who had been set for execution....Forty days were to pass between the declaration of death and the execution itself, a period of time in which someone could speak in favor of the accused and plead His innocence...The Jews did not do that. (They tried Him) in the middle of the night (and) as the dawn broke, they sent Him (to Pilate) in a process that resulted in His death that next afternoon. Where were the 40 days? Why did the Jews violate that rule? The Sanhedrin put together a statement now in the Jewish Talmud which says (these are the Sanhedrin’s words) “There is a tradition there on the eve of the Sabbath and the Passover they hung Jesus. The herald went forth before Him for 40 days crying, "Jesus goes to be executed because He has practiced sorcery and seduced Israel and estranged them from God. Let anyone who can bring forth any justifying plea for Him come and give information concerning it’ but no justifying plea was found for Him and so He was hung on the eve of the Sabbath and the Passover.” That is in the Talmud, a blatant lie that they sentenced Jesus and waited 40 days before they executed Him for somebody to show up, and nobody showed up. (ED: HERE IS A SIMILAR NOTE FROM MESSIANIC JEWISH COMMENTATOR DAVID BARON - "There is a tradition: On the eve of the Sabbath and the Passover they hung Jesus. And the herald went forth before him for forty days crying, 'Jesus goeth to be executed, because he has practised sorcery and seduced Israel and estranged them from God. Let any one who can bring forward any justifying plea for him come and give information concerning it; but no justifying plea was found for him, and so he was hung on the eve of the Sabbath and the Passover. Ulla said, 'But doest thou think that he belongs to those for whom a justifying plea is to be sought? He was a very seducer, and the All merciful has said, Thou shalt not spare him, nor conceal him.' But the case of Jesus stood differently because he stood near to the Kingdom": or as others translate, "for his place was near those in power) One rabbi commenting said“But do you think that He belongs to those for whom a justifying plea is to be sought?” In other words, He doesn’t even belong to the category of people that you would want to seek a justifying plea for. He was a very seducer, and the all-merciful God has said, “Thou shalt not spare Him or conceal Him,” (end quote). The rabbi said He isn’t even worthy of a plea for innocence! So when Isaiah 53 begins, “Who believed our message, and who responded to the revelation of the arm of the Lord?” We did not. And how extreme was their rejection? So extreme that even after they had (tried Jesus illegally), even after He had risen from the dead, and even after the church had been born and begun to grow, they concocted a lie to put in the Talmud to say that they gave 40 days and nobody showed up. But then again, why would anybody show up? He didn’t belong to the category of people who were worthy for someone to make a plea!...And what they’re saying in that Talmudic passage that I read was how dare anyone step up and try to defend this vile seducer. No one cared. And that’s exactly what Isaiah says will happen. (Quoted with some minor alterations in wording - Sermon) David Baron comments on the passage in the Talmud writing "there is this much truth in this Talmudic passage, that none dared to appear in His favour; and that in the great crisis when the Christ of God stood on His trial before the corrupt hostile Jewish hierarchy and the representatives of the then great Gentile world power, no one came forward with a justifying plea "on His behalf" for fear of the Jews. Yea, at that solemn moment, when the sword awoke to smite the Shepherd, the sheep were all scattered; and even His own disciples, who later on when convinced of His resurrection became as bold as lions, and willingly laid down their lives for Him, became demoralized with fear and forsook Him and fled. And in a sense our Lord Jesus is still on His trial. Are we, His professed disciples, ready now to take our stand as His witnesses in the face of a hostile Jewish and Gentile world, and make our "justifying plea" on His behalf not only in word but by showing forth the power of His gospel over our own hearts and lives?" (Isaiah 53 Exposition) Paul Apple adds "Where were His disciples? Well, they were living out Zechariah 13:7 “strike the shepherd and the sheep will be – ” What? – “scattered.” They were long gone. They had fled. Matthew says that they fled and Mark says the same thing that the Shepherd was struck and the sheep were scattered. Who was there to speak in His behalf?" Jehovah is Salvation - 1130 pages That He was cut off out of the land of the living - The Hebrew verb cut off (see below) is violent verb which was used by King Solomon to suggest they "divide (gazar) the living child in two" which brought forth the truth of who was the actual mother of the child. Clearly in this context, the picture is that the Suffering Servant would be cut off from life itself by being killed, executed as a criminal even though He was innocent. The meaning of this passage is clear - Jesus was cut off, killed. Cut off (01504)(gazar) means to cut, to divide or separate (see example of King Solomon above). Cutting down trees (2 Ki 6:4). God "divided the Red Sea asunder." (Ps 136:13). "Slice off" (chew up) in Isa 9:20. Of the flock being cut off from the fold (Hab 3:17). Of he nation of Israel being viewed as bones and thus being "completely cut off." (Ezek 37:11). In Ps 88:5 "cut off from Your hand" speaks of the unrighteous dead as cut off from God's care. Hezekiah was cut off from entering the Temple (2 Chr 26:21). When gazar is followed by the preposition min ("out of" here in Isaiah 53:8) "it connotes a violent severance from a former way of life." (TWOT) Jeremiah recounted the time he was placed in a pit and the waters covered his head. He thought he would be cut off, but the Lord heard his cry for help (Lam 3:54). Gilbrant - "Ezekiel saw the vision of the valley of dry bones which represented the whole house of Israel. The people were dried up, without hope and cut off. He explains this to show Israel was spiritually dead and in exile, but the Spirit of the Lord was about to breathe upon them, raise them as a nation from their graves, and restore them to the land (Ezek. 37:11). Finally, the word is used to connote making a decision. There is probably some idea of figuratively cutting between, cutting away, or separating options and choosing one of them. Our English word, "decide," comes from a Latin word meaning "to cut off from." Eliphaz encouraged Job to submit himself to God, then his life situation would change, and whatever he decided would be done (Job 22:28). After King Xerxes's anger subsided, he regreted his decision and decree which expelled Queen Vashti from his presence (Est. 2:1). Here the word is translated "decree" because the decision of the Persian king automatically became royal law. (Complete Biblical Library Hebrew-English Dictionary) Gazar - 13x in 13v - cut down(1), cut off(6), decree(1), decreed(1), divide(2), divided(1), slice off(1). 1 Ki. 3:25; 1 Ki. 3:26; 2 Ki. 6:4; 2 Chr. 26:21; Est. 2:1; Job 22:28; Ps. 88:5; Ps. 136:13; Isa. 9:20; Isa. 53:8; Lam. 3:54; Ezek. 37:11; Hab. 3:17 From the land of the living: This phrase occurs 15x in the NAS = Job 28:13; Ps. 27:13; Ps. 52:5; Ps. 116:9; Ps. 142:5; Isa. 38:11; Isa. 53:8; Jer. 11:19; Ezek. 26:20; Ezek. 32:23; Ezek. 32:24; Ezek. 32:25; Ezek. 32:26; Ezek. 32:27; Ezek. 32:32 NET Note - The "land of the living" is an idiom for the sphere where people live, in contrast to the underworld realm of the dead. See, for example, Ezek 32:23–27. For - This strategic preposition (min) in this context means because of and helps us understand why the Suffering Servant was cut off or killed. This same preposition is used in a similar sense in Isaiah 53:5 where "He was pierced through FOR (min) our transgressions." The transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was [due] - My people (Hebrew - ammi) is a term which indicates the Jews or Israel (e.g., Isa 40:1, Isa 47:6, Isa 51:4, 51:16, Isa 52:4, 5, 6, etc). This statement corrects the erroneous understanding the Jews had in Isaiah 53:3 (He was despised, and we did not esteem Him). The reason Jesus was cut off out of the land of the living is because of the transgression (pesha' = rebellious acts) of the Jews (of course by extension His death was ultimately for the transgressions of the Jews AND the Gentiles). The Jews (and we Gentiles by application) deserved the stroke (Hebrew = nega) that fell on the Servant of Jehovah. Stroke was due - The Septuagint translates it "He was led to death." Stroke (01504)(nega from naga = to touch or strike) in first use in Ge 12:17 refers to the divine plagues on Pharaoh (cf another Pharaoh in Ex 11:1). God is usually the one who metes out punishment and/or disease. In Leviticus 13-14 nega is used over 60x to refer to an infection or mark (like leprosy or skin disease) and refers to a blemish that has been created by touching or striking. Nega can refer to a physical injury inflicted by another person (Dt. 17:8; 21:5; Isa 53:8); or by God Himself ("stripes" in Ps. 89:32) Nega can also describe a nonphysical blemish (1 Ki 8:38; 2 Chr 6:29; Pr 6:33 = "wounds" to adulterers). NIDOTTE - In some passages the verb (naga - root of nega) specifically denotes the idea of striking someone with the intention to harm or kill, or to inflict a disastrous blow upon that person. Gilbrant - The notions of affliction are semantic extensions of the act of being touched. Plague and other illness were considered to be the result of a touch of the gods to ancient Near Easterners, and the result of a touch of Yahweh's hand to Israelites. Indeed, as Solomon dedicated the Temple, he called upon Yahweh to relent of any type of plague, famine, mildew or pestilence upon the land on account of the Temple and his worship there (1 Ki. 8:37f). Skin diseases likewise were thought to come from this sort of divine touching (Lev. 13; the noun occurs forty-seven times in this chapter, and fourteen times in the next, which also covers mildew). The concept is simple. When someone died or displayed bodily disease (an early stage of death) prior to normal life span expectations, he was considered by many ancient Near Eastern peoples to have lacked divine favor. The semantic concept of being violently hit is a human manifestation of touching. The noun appears as a technical term to convey the sense of violent crime such as assault (Deut. 17:8; 21:5). In the course of Yahweh's revealing the Davidic covenant, He asserted that He would never destroy the lineage of David, though He would use violent force of humans to chastise a wayward descendant (2 Sam. 7:14; cf. Gen. 12:17) (Complete Biblical Library Hebrew-English Dictionary) Nega -78x in 62v - affliction(2), another(1), assault(2), infection(30), mark(32), plague(6), plagues(1), stripes(1), stroke(1), strokes(1), wounds(1). Gen. 12:17; Exod. 11:1; Lev. 13:2; Lev. 13:3; Lev. 13:4; Lev. 13:5; Lev. 13:6; Lev. 13:9; Lev. 13:12; Lev. 13:13; Lev. 13:17; Lev. 13:20; Lev. 13:22; Lev. 13:25; Lev. 13:27; Lev. 13:29; Lev. 13:30; Lev. 13:31; Lev. 13:32; Lev. 13:42; Lev. 13:43; Lev. 13:44; Lev. 13:45; Lev. 13:46; Lev. 13:47; Lev. 13:49; Lev. 13:50; Lev. 13:51; Lev. 13:52; Lev. 13:53; Lev. 13:54; Lev. 13:55; Lev. 13:56; Lev. 13:57; Lev. 13:58; Lev. 13:59; Lev. 14:3; Lev. 14:32; Lev. 14:34; Lev. 14:35; Lev. 14:36; Lev. 14:37; Lev. 14:39; Lev. 14:40; Lev. 14:43; Lev. 14:44; Lev. 14:48; Lev. 14:54; Deut. 17:8; Deut. 21:5; Deut. 24:8; 2 Sam. 7:14; 1 Ki. 8:37; 1 Ki. 8:38; 2 Chr. 6:28; 2 Chr. 6:29; Ps. 38:11; Ps. 39:10; Ps. 89:32; Ps. 91:10; Prov. 6:33; Isa. 53:8 David Baron writes that "in repudiation once again of their previous false notion that it was for His own sin that He was "stricken and smitten of God" (Isaiah 53:4+), the vicarious atoning character of His sufferings and death is yet again emphasized: "For the transgression of My people the stroke fell upon Him." (Isaiah 53 Exposition) NET Note on my people - The Hebrew text reads “my people,” a reading followed by most English versions, but this is problematic in a context where the first person plural predominates, and where God does not appear to speak again until Isa 53:11b. Therefore, it is preferable to read with the Qumran scroll 1QIsaa עמו (“his people”). In this case, the group speaking in these verses is identified as the servant’s people (compare פְּשָׁעֵנוּ [pesha' enu, “our rebellious deeds”] in Isa 53:5 with פֶּשַׁע עַמִּי [pesha' ’ammi, “the rebellion of his people”] in Isa 53:8). Some Jews contend Isaiah 52:13-53:13 speaks of the nation of Israel, but this is absurd for how could Israel die for the sins of Israel (my people...to whom the stroke was due)? David Baron adds "the term מּי ִעַל , Ammi ("My people"), can only apply to Israel, and is one of the many internal marks which make it impossible to interpret the prophecy of the Jews as a nation, for the servant suffers and dies for the people, and therefore cannot be confounded with the people. Yes, the Good Shepherd laid down His life in the first instance for "My people"—the people which in a special sense He calls "His own," and that is the chief ground of our hope and confidence for Israel as a nation, but, blessed be God! He died, not for the nation only, but that "He might also gather into one the children of God that were scattered abroad"; (Jn 11:51, 52) and since Christ came, in whom this prophecy received its minute fulfilment, millions from among all the Gentile nations, "who in time past were no people," are now the people of God.: (Isaiah 53 Exposition) Martin Luther - For the transgression of my people he was stricken. —Isaiah 53:8 Those who meditate aright on the suffering of Christ become terror stricken in heart, and their consciences at once sink in despair. This terror should spring forth so that you see the severe wrath and the unchangeable earnestness of God in regard to sin and sinners, in that he was unwilling that his only and dearly loved Son should set sinners free unless he paid the costly ransom for them—an earnestness so inexpressible and unbearable that a person so immeasurably great goes to meet and suffers and dies for it. If you reflect on it deeply, that God’s Son, the eternal wisdom of the Father, himself suffers, you will indeed be terror stricken, and the more you reflect the deeper will be the impression. You meditate on the suffering of Christ aright if you deeply believe and never doubt the least that you are the one who thus martyred Christ. For your sins most surely did it. Thus Saint Peter struck and terrified the Jews as with a thunderbolt in Acts 2:36–37, when he spoke to them all in common: “Jesus, whom you crucified,” so that three thousand were terror stricken the same day and tremblingly cried to the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” Therefore, when you view the nails piercing through his hands, firmly believe it is your work. Do you see his crown of thorns? Believe the thorns are your wicked thoughts and your other sins. Now see where one thorn pierces Christ, there more than a thousand thorns should pierce you, yes, eternally should they thus and even more painfully pierce you. Where one nail is driven through his hands and feet, you should eternally suffer such and even more painful nails—as will be also visited on those who let Christ’s sufferings be lost and fruitless as far as they are concerned. For this earnest mirror, Christ, will neither lie nor mock; whatever he says must be fully realized. Saint Bernard was so terror stricken by Christ’s sufferings that he said, “I imagined I was secure and I knew nothing of the eternal judgment passed on me in heaven, until I saw that the eternal Son of God took mercy on me, stepped forward and offered himself on my behalf in the same judgment. Ah, it does not become me still to play and remain secure when such earnestness is behind those sufferings.” —Martin Luther Martin Luther - For the transgression of my people he was stricken.—Isaiah 53:8 The benefit of Christ’s sufferings depends almost entirely on people coming to a true knowledge of themselves.Where people do not come to this point, the sufferings of Christ have no benefit to them. For the characteristic, natural work of Christ’s sufferings is that they make all people equal and alike, so that as Christ was horribly martyred, we must also be martyred in our consciences by our sins. This does not take place by means of words but by means of deep thoughts and a profound realization of our sins. Take an illustration: If an evildoer were judged because he or she had murdered the child of a monarch, and someone convinced you that you had enabled the wicked person to do the act—then you would be in the greatest straits, especially if your conscience also revolted against you. Much more anxious than this you should be when you consider Christ’s sufferings. For you are truly the one who strangled and crucified the Son of God through your sins. Whoever perceive themselves to be so hard that they are not terror stricken by Christ’s sufferings and led to a knowledge of him, they should fear and tremble. For it cannot be otherwise; you must become like the picture and sufferings of Christ, whether in life or in hell. You must at the time of death, if not sooner, fall into terror, tremble, quake, and experience all Christ suffered on the cross. It is truly terrible to attend to this on your deathbed; therefore you should pray God to soften your heart and permit you fruitfully to meditate on Christ’s suffering. For it is impossible for us profoundly to meditate on the sufferings of Christ of ourselves unless God sink them into our hearts. But first you are to seek and long for the grace of God, that you may accomplish it through God’s grace and not through your own power. Some people never treat the sufferings of Christ aright, for they never call on God for that purpose but devise out of their own ability their own way and treat those sufferings entirely in a human and an unfruitful manner. Such a meditation changes a person’s character, and almost as in baptism he or she is born anew. Then Christ’s suffering accomplishes its true and noble work; it slays the old Adam, banishes all lust, pleasure, and security that one may obtain from God’s creatures, just like Christ was forsaken by all, even by God. Martin Luther - For the transgression of my people he was stricken. —Isaiah 53:8 When you are completely terror stricken in conscience, you must be on your guard that your sins do not thus remain in your conscience and nothing but pure doubt certainly come out of it. Then cast your sins from yourself on Christ. Believe that your sins are his wounds and sufferings, that he carries them and makes satisfaction for them, as Saint Peter says in his first epistle: “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree” (2:24). On these and like passages you must rely with all your weight, and so much the more the harder your conscience martyrs you. For if you do not take this course but miss the opportunity of stilling your heart, then you will never secure peace and must finally despair in doubt. For if we deal with our sins in our consciences and let them continue in us and be cherished in our hearts, they become much too strong for us to manage, and they will live forever. But when we see that they are laid on Christ and he has triumphed over them by his resurrection, and we believe it, then they are dead and have become as nothing. Thus Saint Paul speaks, in Romans 4:25, that Christ was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification; that is, by his resurrection he makes us righteous and free from all sin, even if we believe differently. Now if you are not able to believe, then you should pray to God for faith. For this is a matter in the hands of God that is entirely free and is also bestowed alike at times knowingly, at times secretly. Look on Christ’s sufferings no longer, for they have already done their work and terrified you, but press through all difficulties and see how full of love is his heart toward you—love that compelled him to bear the heavy load of your conscience and your sin. Thus will your heart be loving and sweet toward him and the assurance of your faith be strengthened. Then ascend higher through the heart of Christ to the heart of God, and see that Christ would not have been able to love you if God had not willed it. Be thus drawn to the Father through Christ. That means to know God aright, if we understand him by his goodness and love, there our faith and confidence can then stand unmovable. A person is truly thus born anew in God. Martin Luther For the transgression of my people he was stricken.—Isaiah 53:8 When your heart is thus established in Christ and you are an enemy of sin—out of love and not out of fear of punishment—Christ’s sufferings should also be an example for your whole life, and you should meditate on them in a different way. For until now we have considered Christ’s passion as a sacrament that works in us and we suffer; now we consider that we also work, namely thus: if a day of sorrow or sickness weighs you down, think how trifling that is compared with the thorns and nails of Christ. If you must do or leave undone what is distasteful to you, think how Christ was led here and there, bound and a captive. Does pride attack you? See how your Lord was mocked and disgraced with murderers. Do unchastity and lust thrust themselves against you? Think how bitter it was for Christ to have his tender flesh torn, pierced, and beaten again and again. Do hatred and envy war against you, or do you seek vengeance? Remember how Christ, with many tears and cries, prayed for you and all his enemies—he who indeed had more reason to seek revenge. If trouble or whatever adversity of body or soul afflict you, strengthen your heart and say, “Ah, why then shouldn’t I also suffer a little since my Lord sweat blood in the garden because of anxiety and grief?” That would be a lazy, disgraceful servant who would wish to lie in bed while the Lord was compelled to battle with the pangs of death. See, you can thus find in Christ strength and comfort against all vice and bad habits. That is the right observance of Christ’s suffering, and that is the fruit of his suffering. And they are called true Christians who incorporate the life and name of Christ into their own lives, as Saint Paul says in Galatians 5:24: “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.” For Christ’s suffering must be dealt with not in words and a show but in our lives and in truth. Thus Hebrews 12:3: “Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart”; and 1 Peter 4:1: “Since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude.” Isaiah 53:9 His grave was assigned with wicked men, Yet He was with a rich man in His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth. KJV Isaiah 53:9 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. His grave was assigned with wicked men et He was with a rich man in His death Mt 27:57-60; Mk 15:43-46; Lk 23:50-53; Jn 19:38-42; 1 Cor 15:4 Nor was there any deceit in His mouth 2 Cor 5:21; Heb 4:15; 7:26; 1 Pe 2:22; 1 Jn 3:5 Isaiah 53 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries SERVANT BURIED IN RICH MAN'S TOMB Baron - The prophetic story of the Servant of Jehovah unfolded in this penitential confession moves on. From His life of vicarious suffering and atoning death we come to His burial...."In all countries, I suppose, it has been the rule that persons put to death as criminals have had ignominious sepulture," writes one. "Even after death shame has followed them, though after ages have ofttimes reversed the award and built monuments to them." But this was especially the case among the Jews. This was the law of the time, as stated by Josephus. "He that blasphemeth God let him be stoned, and let him hang upon a tree all that day, and let him be buried in an ignominious and obscure manner." Now, it was as a blasphemer that they condemned Him in their ignorance and blindness, and what more likely than that as He died with criminals He should also be buried with them? But—"with a rich man (He was) in His death. (Isaiah 53 Exposition) His grave was assigned with wicked men - What does this mean? Who died next to Jesus on the Cross? Wicked men, criminals deserving of their death (Lk 23:33+, Mt 27:38). And in first century Israel when a person died and ignominious death and would not receive an honorable burial. In fact sometimes the corpses would be left on the Cross and allowed to be decomposed and/or devoured as carrion by birds of prey! Other times the bodies would be thrown into the fire to burn. A passage in Jeremiah alludes to this recording that “Those slain by the LORD on that day will be from one end of the earth to the other. They will not be lamented, gathered or buried; they will be like dung on the face of the ground." (Jer 25:33, see context in Jer 25:31, 32) MacArthur adds that at crucifixion Jesus and the two criminals "would die on the cross of asphyxiation, and they would leave Him there dead and rotting, for the birds to pluck out their faces. And they would leave them there like road kill for animals that could climb up the cross to chew their flesh. They would leave them there for the purpose of warning everybody who was watching of what happens to people who violate the Roman power and the Roman law. That’s what was planned for Him. Eventually they would have taken the rotted corpses down and thrown them in a dump. The Jerusalem city dump was in the Valley of Hinnom on the southeast side of Jerusalem (which had) a fire that never went out." Of course Jesus' body would never see corruption for Psalm 16:10 said For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol; Nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay.
Isaías 53
MacArthur says this description of Jesus and the one that follows (no deceit) is "a way of saying He was holy on the inside and the outside!" In the Greek translation the noun anomia or lawlessness (sin) is modified by an absolute negation (ouk);i.e., Messiah absolutely committed no sin! A very clear statement of His sinlessness which qualified Him to be the blemish-free Passover Lamb of God. David Baron writes no violence...nor...deceit is but "yet another reiteration of the absolute innocence of His outward actions and of the inward purity and gentleness of His character. It was vicarious sufferings that He endured; it was a death of atonement for others that He died; but immediately those sufferings were ended and that death accomplished, His humiliation was ended, and no further indignity to His blessed person." (Isaiah 53 Exposition) Violence (02555)(chamas/hamas) means wrong, violence (to God's law = Ezek 22:26, Zeph 3:4, "violent hatred" = Ps 25:19), malicious (witness - Ex 23:1, Dt 19:16), , and is used almost always in connection with sinful violence, not with the violence of natural catastrophes. Chamas signifies extreme wickedness and the first two uses are very instructive (Ge 6:11,13). Nor was there any deceit in His mouth - As Jesus taught in Mt 12:34b "the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart," so the point is that their was no deceit out of Jesus' mouth because their was none in His heart, unlike all of Adam's children (every person born other than Jesus) about which Jeremiah says our "heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?" (Jer 17:9) Jeremiah's description did not fit Jesus, but Isaiah's description in this verse did fit Jesus perfectly! John MacArthur - It is a small testimony to His…listen…sinless perfection by His Father and the first small step of His exaltation, the first small step. Even before His resurrection the Father is saying, “I will not allow any further humiliation.” There can be no more humiliation. It’s as low as He can go, to give Himself to death, even the death of the cross, and that’s where the humiliation ends. And this is the first small step up. God honors Jesus in His burial because there was no sin inside, no sin outside. And in a few hours on the third day, He comes out of the grave, and, eventually, in His ascension all the way up. A sweet testimony of the fact that the humiliation was over. This passage is another clear refutation of the contention of many Jews that Isaiah 52:13-53:13 speaks of the nation of Israel, but how could the guilty nation possibly claim to be innocent as in this passage? Without any doubt whatsoever, it is crystal clear that Isaiah is describing an individual who died for sins that the guilty might go free. David Baron quotes Jewish scholar and believer in Messiah Moses Margoliouth -- "The predictions concerning Christ in this chapter, are so numerous and so minute that they could not possibly have been dictated by any but by Him to whom all things are naked and open, and who worketh all things according to the counsel of His own will. The most insignificant circumstances connected with our Lord's death are set forth with as much accuracy as those which are most important. If we reflect but for a moment on the peculiar circumstances which attended our Saviour's last hours, we shall see reason to exclaim with Moses, "The secret things belong unto the Lord our God"; or with Paul, "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!" What could be more unlikely than that the Messiah should be crucified when crucifixion was not a Jewish but a Roman punishment? And yet David (in Ps. xxii.) predicted that such would be the case centuries before Rome was founded. Again, the fulfilment of David's prediction was brought about by the Jews themselves contrary to their own law and tradition. The law expressly forbade to choose a heathen for their king, for the following are the words of Moses, whose disciples they averred they were: "Thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee whom the Lord thy God shall choose; and from among thy brethren shalt thou set a king over thee: thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother." Their Rabbinic law pronounced the most severe anathema against any one who should deliver a Jew to a heathen magistrate. But in this case—that the word of God may come to pass—they regard neither their law nor their tradition, but deliver Jesus to the judgment of the Roman Procurator and call upon him to pronounce sentence. And when Pilate, half in remonstrance and half in mockery, said: "Shall I crucify your King?" they replied, "We have no king but Cæsar." (Isaiah 53 Exposition) WHY - On February 15, 1947 Glenn Chambers boarded a plane bound for Quito, Ecuador to begin his ministry in missionary broadcasting. But he never arrived. In a horrible moment, the plane carrying Chambers crashed into a mountain peak and spiraled downward. Later it was learned that before leaving the Miami airport, Chambers wanted to write his mother a letter. All he could find for stationery was a page of advertising on which was written the single word "WHY?" Around that word he hastily scribbled a final note. After Chambers' mother learned of her son's death, his letter arrived. She opened the envelope, took out the paper, and unfolded it. Staring her in the face was the question "WHY?" No doubt this was the questions Jesus' disciples asked when He was arrested, tried, and crucified. And it was probably the questions Joseph of Arimathea asked himself as he approached Pilate and requested the Lord's body (Lk 23:52+). It must have nagged at him as he wrapped the body in a linen cloth, carried it to his own freshly hewn tomb, and rolled the massive stone into its groove over the tomb's mouth. In the face of his grief, Joseph carried on. He did what he knew he had to do. None of Jesus' relatives were in a position to claim His body for burial, for they were all Galileans and none of them possessed a tomb in Jerusalem. The disciples weren't around to help either. But there was another reason for Joseph's act of love. In Isaiah 53:9, God directed the prophet to record an important detail about the death of His Messiah. The One who had no place to lay his head would be buried in a rich man's tomb. Joseph probably didn't realize that his act fulfilled prophecy. The full answer to the why of Jesus' death was also several days away for Joseph and the others. All he knew was that he was now a disciple of Jesus -- and that was enough to motivate his gift of love. (Today in the Word, April 18, 19920 Isaiah 53:10 But the LORD was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand. KJV Isaiah 53:10 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. NET Isaiah 53:10 Though the LORD desired to crush him and make him ill, once restitution is made, he will see descendants and enjoy long life, and the LORD's purpose will be accomplished through him. NLT Isaiah 53:10 But it was the LORD's good plan to crush him and cause him grief. Yet when his life is made an offering for sin, he will have many descendants. He will enjoy a long life, and the LORD's good plan will prosper in his hands. ESV Isaiah 53:10 Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. CSB Isaiah 53:10 Yet the LORD was pleased to crush Him severely. When You make Him a restitution offering, He will see His seed, He will prolong His days, and by His hand, the LORD's pleasure will be accomplished. NIV Isaiah 53:10 Yet it was the LORD's will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand. But the LORD was pleased To crush Him Isaiah 42:1; Mt 3:17; 17:5 putting Him to grief Ps 69:26; Zech 13:7; Ro 8:32; Gal 3:13; 1 Jn 4:9,10 If He would render Himself as a guilt offering. Dal 9:24; Ro 8:8; 2 Cor 5:21; Eph 5:2; Heb 7:27; 9:14,25,26; 10:6-12; Heb 13:10-12; 1 Pet 2:24 He will see His offspringsee Ps 22:30; 45:16,17; 110:3; John 12:24; Heb 2:13 He will prolong His days Isaiah 9:7; Ps 16:9-11; 21:4; 72:17; 89:29,36; Ezek 37:25; Da 7:13,14; Lk 1:33; Acts 2:24-28; Ro 6:9; Rev 1:18 And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand Isaiah 55:11-13; 62:3-5; Ps 72:7; 85:10-12; 147:11; 149:4; Jer 32:41; Ezek 33:11; Mic 7:18; Zeph 3:17; Lk 15:5-7,23,24; Jn 6:37-40; Eph 1:5,9; 2 Th 1:11 Isaiah 53 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries THE REWARD OF THE SUFFERING SERVANT Let's review these 15 marvelous passages that speak about the Messiah who does not speak in words in this section but with His actions and accomplishments: Stanza #1 - Jesus Christ was God’s shocking Servant. Isaiah 52:13-15 Stanza #2 - Jesus Christ was rejected as God’s suffering Servant. Isaiah 53:1-3 Stanza #3 - Jesus Christ was our substitute to be God’s saving Servant. Isaiah 53:4-6 Stanza #4 - Jesus Christ was totally submissive as God’s silent Servant. Isaiah 53:7-9 Stanza #5 - Jesus Christ satisfies God as His Sovereign Servant Isaiah 53:10-12 Isaiah 53:10 begins the account of Messiah's exaltation and glory which were previewed in the "prologue" in Isaiah 52:13 "ehold, My servant will prosper, He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted." So like "bookends" this high water mark of the Old Testament begins and ends fittingly with the exultation of our great Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. Glory to Him in the highest. And as you read this verse remember that it is the penitent Jewish remnant looking back at the Cross from their salvation in the future in the Last Days giving their confession which goes from Isaiah 53:1 to the middle of Isaiah 53:11 which marks the change in speaker to God the Father Who finishes out the chapter. As David Baron says "Here is not only the mystery of suffering innocence"; but of innocence suffering at the hands of righteousness and perfect love." Yes, mystery of mysteries; and apart from the explanation He Himself gives of it, it is the most inexplicable thing in God's moral government." (Isaiah 53 Exposition) But (yet) - What does this term of contrast signify? What have the redeemed remnant just said was true of the Servant of Jehovah? No violence...nor...deceit indicates His internal and external holiness. But in spite of that blameless state, Jehovah was pleased to crush Him. If this statement is all we knew, it would sound like God was being unfair to His Son. But of course, that's not all of the story, and in fact is the very reason for which God sent His Son John writing "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life." (Jn 3:16). The LORD was pleased to crush Him putting Him to grief - The word LORD is emphatic. As Baron says "it is once more reiterated and emphasized that they were not mere chance experiences which the Servant of Jehovah passed through. Nor was it merely that wicked men were allowed to work out the evil of their hearts in the sufferings and humiliations which they were permitted to heap upon Him, and thus make manifest by their treatment of "the Holy One" their enmity towards God. No; "the supreme causa efficiens," (defined by Aristotle) as Delitzsch expresses it, was God, "who made the sin of men subservient to His pleasure, His will, and predetermined counsel." These martyrs died heroic deaths praising God, singing and testifying of the presence and help of God. But it was not that way with Jesus Christ. When Jesus died, something very mysterious was happening, because He did not speak of the presence of God but the abandonment of God. He cried, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” He spoke of being forsaken by God. Jesus had been perfect, so why is He dying so miserably. No man has ever died like Jesus Christ died. No man could die like Jesus Christ died. What was happening here? What was this all about? It was all God’s judicial Sovereign plan to save sinners. God the Father working in perfect harmony with God the Son and both had Sovereignly planned and executed everything. This death was the Father’s work and it was the Son’s work and the end result is glorious. (Isaiah 53 Exposition) S Lewis
Isaías 53
MacArthur explains it this way - In other words, the LORD is doing something to Him that is horrific. Men, of course, are unjustly crushing Him. Men are doing the worst that they can do with an unjust trial, brutality, abuse, harassment, punching, slapping, hitting with sticks, crowning with thorns and nailing and piercing. Men are doing the worst that they can do, the worst that sinners can do, and they are pleased to do that. But here, God is pleased and God is delighted to crush Him. While men are doing the worst that they can do, at the very same time God is doing the best that He can do. Men are doing the worst that they can do for the sinless One, and God is doing the best that He can do for sinners. His death is God’s work. He is God’s Lamb , chosen by God, chosen by the determinate counsel of God ; the purpose and counsel of God has determined that He will die (Acts 2:23, Acts 4:28). It is God who laid on Him the iniquity of us all. It is God who crushes Him. It is God who cuts Him off out of the land of the living. God, who finds no pleasure in the death of the wicked, as Ezekiel 18:32 says, finds full pleasure in the death of the Righteous One (Isa 53:11) God, Who finds no pleasure in the death of sinners, finds full pleasure in the death of the sinless One....God’s delight and God’s pleasure in crushing His Son in this way was not in His pain, but in His purpose. It was not in His agony; it was in His accomplishment. It was not in His suffering; it was in His salvation ...It was the outcome that pleased God, not the pain. But the pain and the agony was necessary." (The Sovereign Servant - Part 1) (Bolding Added)
Isaías 53
MacArthur explains it says “putting Him to grief,” because it has the idea of making Him sick…not sick with an illness or sick with a disease…but, literally, such an excruciating experience as to completely debilitate His entire being. God not only crushes Him in the sense that kills Him, but He makes it as excruciating and painful as conceivable or inconceivable. He is crushed agonizingly, painfully, excruciatingly. And God is doing the crushing." MacArthur on crush Him, etc - This is what the Lord has done to His Servant. They have a full soteriological understanding of the cross of Christ. These Jews in the future generation who make this confession, they get the whole picture. There’s nothing missing in their soteriology. Their gospel is a complete gospel. This is amazing because remember now, this is 700 years before Christ even comes, and this is words coming from Jews thousands of years after that and indicating a complete understanding of the cross. They know now what the reality is. Verse 10, they know the Lord was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief if He would render Himself as a guilt offering....They understand the vicarious, substitutionary, sacrificial atonement of Christ in the place of sinners....Now this is not the death, as some have suggested, of a martyr; this is not the death of a martyr. Martyrs don’t die like this. I mean physical difficulties are present, whether they are burned at a stake, killed another way; but if you study the history of martyrs, you find something quite interesting. You can go all the way back to the Fox’s Book of Martyrs and read the thousands of accounts of martyrs there. You can study martyrs through the history of the church. And you will find that martyrs die with songs on their lips. Martyrs die singing. Martyrs die testifying to faith in the Lord. Martyrs die with hope in their hearts. Martyrs die, amazing, over the measure of joy because martyrs die…listen…under the sweet comforts of grace. Martyrs die under the sweet comforts of grace. Martyrs die with the Holy Spirit coming around. Martyrs die with God’s presence palpable. Martyrs die under the sweet comforts of grace. Martyrs die, and in dying begin to taste heaven because that’s grace. Our Lord’s death was not like that. No hymns were sung after they left the Passover. No Scriptures were cited, no comfort, no Holy Spirit, no Father, no source of comfort. Why? Because Jesus didn’t die under the sweet comforts of grace. Jesus died under the relentless and unrelieved terrors of Law. Jesus died under divine wrath unmitigated. No comfort, only divine fury. Jesus died tasting hell. “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (ED: THIS IS SURELY "PUTTING HIM TO GRIEF!") No believer ever died like that. And every unbeliever dies like that. Every believer dies tasting heaven. Every unbeliever dies tasting hell. Jesus died tasting hell. He died the death of an unbeliever with no comforts and no grace and no mercy. (Isaiah 53:10-12 The Sovereign Servant, Part 1)(Bolding Added) Paul Apple summarizes this section - Results of the Crushing of the Righteous Servant 1. Benefits to God the Father -- Reparations Satisfied by the Guilt Offering “If He would render Himself as a guilt offering,” 2. Benefits to God the Son -- Results of the Voluntary Sacrificial Death a. Result #1 – Spiritual Offspring b. Result #2 – Resurrected Life c. Result #3 – Worthwhile Mission (“And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.”) Jehovah is Salvation - 1130 pages If He would render Himself as a guilt offering - Literally in Hebrew it reads “Because He would render Himself as a guilt offering. Because He would give His life to save sinners.” For Messiah to be a guilt offering meant He had to die just as did the animals in the Levitical guilt offering (cf Lev 5:7+). Himself is nephesh so that it is even more poignantly rendered Messiah "would render His soul." Oh my. Not just His body but His very soul for you and for me. How unfathomable is this act of His love! The NET Bible renders it "once restitution is made, he will see descendants and enjoy long life." As MacArthur explains below restitution was part of the guilt offering. Look at this pattern in Leviticus “If a person acts unfaithfully and sins unintentionally against the LORD’S holy things, then he shall bring his guilt offering to the LORD: a ram without defect from the flock, according to your valuation in silver by shekels, in terms of the shekel of the sanctuary, for a guilt offering. 16 “He shall make restitution for that which he has sinned against the holy thing, and shall add to it a fifth part of it and give it to the priest. The priest shall then make atonement for him with the ram of the guilt offering, and it will be forgiven him. (Lev 5:15-16) ESV Study note - The Septuagint translates “offering for guilt” as “offering for sin,” which explains why Paul could say that Christ’s death “for our sins” was “in accordance with the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:3). Riddle - As E. J. Young observes, the words "his soul" are "not a mere substitution for himself, but show that the very life is to be the oblation". Whilst both the sin-offering and the trespass-offering had guilt in view, the latter was offered in respect of specific transgressions of the law. The distinctive feature of the trespass-offering is the satisfaction that it offered. It involved "reparation or compensation" (J. A. Motyer). The results accruing from His death follow (What the Bible Teaches – Isaiah) MacArthur has an interesting explanation on why the Spirit chooses guilt offering and not sin offering or burnt offering, stating that the guilt offering "added the dimension of restitution, or satisfaction or propitiation, which is a verb that means to be satisfied. It is the last of the offerings in Leviticus in the first seven chapters. It is an advance from the others. The sin offering and the guilt offering were offered every day in the morning and evening sacrifices. The guilt offering advanced the ideas in the sin offering. In the sin offering you had repentance communicated. In the sin offering you had the recognition of sin bringing death and the hope of a substitute. But in the guilt offering, because the whole animal was put on the altar, there was the picture of completion or complete satisfaction. And the Jews (future remnant) will see that the offering of Christ was the guilt offering in the sense that it was the most complete offering. It provided full satisfaction, full restitution, full propitiation. The satisfaction of God’s justice is demonstrated in the wholeness of that sacrifice. The debt is fully paid and the sinner free. How rich is this understanding that He is not the burnt offering and He’s not the sin offering. He’s the guilt offering, which covers everything the other two cover and adds the marvelous dimension of complete, divine satisfaction, the sacrifice of the Servant as the full, compensatory payment given to God to satisfy His holy justice and to pay in full the penalty for all the sins of all who would ever believe. Those then whose sins are paid will be forgiven forever. And John says, “He’s the propitiation for our sins” the guilt offering, (aka the trespass offering “that satisfies God and not for ours only but for the sins of the whole world." (1 Jn 2:2) This is understanding the gospel that Christ is the complete satisfaction, the complete sacrifice to which nothing can be added; God is satisfied. That’s why God is pleased. Pleased to crush Him, not because He delighted in the agony, but He delighted in the atonement. Pleased because He was the guilt offering for all believers from Adam to the end, who paid in full divine justice. S Lewis
Isaías 53
MacArthur adds that "Jonathan Edwards, 18th century in America, affirms the salvation of national Israel. All who are faithful students of Scripture find it impossible to escape that. So, when that happens, as I have been telling you, this is what they are going to say -- The very words or words very like them from Isaiah 53....They go through this confession, all the way down to the midpoint of verse 11, and then the final word is left for God. And from the middle of verse 11 through verse 12, God affirms their confession. God affirms that this confession is the true confession. And it is God Himself who says in the middle of verse 11, “Yes, My Servant will justify the many, He will bear their iniquities – ” verse 12 – “He poured out Himself to death, was numbered with the transgressors, bore the sin of many, interceded for the transgressors.” That is God’s final affirmation that the confession that the Jews have made is indeed an accurate confession." (The Sovereign Servant - Part 1) SECOND BLESSED REWARD FOR JEHOVAH'S SUFFERING SERVANT He will prolong His days ("He will...enjoy long life" = NET) - Clearly death was not the end of the Servant's life. As above the only way the Servant would be able to prolong His days is because He was resurrected from the dead, thus Paul could write "that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures (resurrection being implicit here in Isaiah 53:10)." (1 Cor 15:3). Will prolong is arak which means to be long and here is in the imperfect tense signifying that the Servant's days would continually be prolonged. Of course the only way to prolong a dead person's days is to resurrect them from the dead. Thompson notes that "in the case of the Lord Jesus Christ, He died and came back to life three days later. His days were prolonged after His death. One of the results of Christ paying the price for our sins is that God would not allow His body to be in that grave very long. He did prolong His days and Jesus came out alive." This reward of prolonged days is in accord with the promise in Ps 16:10 For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol; Nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay. And again in Psalm 21:4 David pens a messianic prophecy which speaks of David himself only in a secondary sense, the primary fulfillment being the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, King of kings, never to die again... He asked life of Thee, Thou didst give it to him, Length of days forever and ever. Comment - Jonathan in his Targum, and Kimchi in his Commentary, themselves explain that the expression orekh yamim, "length of days," refers to "the life of the world to come," and so in fact it must be, since it is for ever and ever. Notice the remnant now shifts to the future tense. When will the Servant see His offspring and when will He prolong His days? Clearly in the forever future. And so this looks forward to future generations. Prolong His days is the way the Hebrews would describe a long life. Indeed, the Suffering Servant is the Sovereign Servant, alive now at the right hand of His Father in Heaven. And He will see His posterity, all those who came to faith in Him. One has to see in this truth at least part of the joy expressed in Hebrews 12 :2 which describes "Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of faith, Who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." Seeing His offspring will bring great joy! And so the future Jewish remnant in essence is giving the same testimony Paul described in Romans 10:9-10+ that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead (cf Isaiah 53:10), you will be saved; 10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. NET Note on offspring...prolong His days - The idiomatic and stereotypical language emphasizes the servant’s restoration to divine favor. Having numerous descendants and living a long life are standard signs of divine blessing. See Job 42:13–16. Riddle on prolong His days - The expression is used approximately twenty times in the Old Testament but its "use here, referring to one who died, is unparalleled" (J. A. Motyer). It has been pointed out that men see "their seed" whilst they are still alive, but He would see them after he had "poured out his soul unto death" (v. 12). In resurrection He declares, "Behold I and the children which God hath given me" (Heb 2:13). He is "alive for evermore" (Rev 1:18) and "death hath no more dominion over him" (Rom 6:9). (Ibid) THIRD BLESSED REWARD FOR JEHOVAH'S SUFFERING SERVANT And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand - Thompson explains "Everything Jesus Christ would do would please the Lord and prosper the Lord’s work. That word “prosper” is one that means everything Jesus Christ would do would continually cause the work of God to succeed and flourish (Ibid., pp. 709-710). The entire program of God will come to complete success through Jesus Christ." David Baron adds "This then, in brief, is the pleasure of Jehovah which shall prosper in His hand, or be brought to a triumphant accomplishment through His mediation, namely, the regathering of Israel, the bringing back of Jacob, not only to his land but into new covenant relationship with God, of which He Himself will be the bond; the illumination of the Gentile world with the light of the knowledge of the true and living God; the establishing of judgment and justice in the earth; the deliverance of men from spiritual blindness and the bondage of sin, and the bringing near of God's salvation to all men throughout the whole world, even "unto the end of the earth." And to this we must add words from the New Testament which open up yet more illimitable vistas of this "good pleasure" of Jehovah which is to be realized in and through the mediation of the Messiah. "For it was the good pleasure of the Father," writes the Apostle Paul, "that in Him should all the fulness dwell; and through Him to reconcile all things unto Himself, having made peace through the blood of the cross . . . whether things upon the earth or things in heaven." (Col 1:19,20) And again, "Making known unto us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Him unto a dispensation of the fulness of times, to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens, and the things upon the earth . . . according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His will." (Eph 1:9-11) (Isaiah 53 Exposition) The NET picks up the idea rendering it "the LORD's purpose will be accomplished through him." The NLT says "the LORD's good plan will prosper in his hands." Recall that in Isaiah 52:13 God was speaking and He declared "Behold, My servant will prosper, He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted." So in this present passage what is the good pleasure of the LORD? God's good pleasure is to save sinners. "And to satisfy His pleasure in saving sinners, He had to slaughter His Son. But He delights in crushing His Son so that He can delight in saving sinners who will forever and ever praise and glorify Him." (MacArthur) In the LORD crushing His Servant, He made a way for salvation for sinners. So not only would the Servant see His offspring, He would make possible His offspring. Jesus alludes to this in John declaring “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. 38 “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. 39 “This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. 40 “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.” (John 6:37-40) Good pleasure (02656)(Hepes/chepes/chephets) is translated by the ESV as "the will of the LORD". Riddle explains that "The pleasure of the Lord" refers to all that God has predetermined to do, and this will be accomplished because in the first place "it pleased the Lord to bruise him". God's purposes will all be secured because His Son died at Calvary. It is not a case, however, of mere accomplishment: the purposes of God will flourish. Whereas, "No weapon that is formed against thee (Israel) shall prosper" (54:17), His people will enjoy the plenitude of divine blessing through Him. "The phrase 'in his hand' points to His mediatorial and high priestly work, as well as to the exercise of His authority and power in His kingdom" (W. E. Vine). (Ibid) Ian Paisley - What About the Cost to the Father? In giving His only begotten Son, in the giving of His beloved Son, in the giving of His Bosom Son, in the giving of His other Self. What human mind can conceive the depth of this thought or attempt to scale its unscalable height, that God loved so much that He gave all that He could give? He gave His Son gladly to the curse of the Cross. There is a verse in Isaiah 53 which staggers me every time I read that great chapter, 'It pleased the Lord to bruise Him.' The cost to the Father when the Son said, 'Farewell' to Him in the ivory palaces of the Eternal Throne Room of the Shekinah Glory of the Everlasting Palace of the Eternal God. He left His Father's Throne on High, So free, so infinite His grace, And bled for Adam's guilty race. The cost to the Father! (Sermons on Special Occasions)