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STUDY 22: THE SUFFERING SERVANT #4– ISAIAH 52:13 – 53:12

© Rosemary Bardsley 2024

The final Servant Song is in Isaiah 52:13 – 53:12. It is extremely rich in its description of Jesus Christ and his saving work.

Even before this Song, Isaiah speaks prophetically of the good news of salvation, of the joy that it brings, and of the knowledge of salvation that has spread to the ends of the earth (52:7 – 10).

A. AN INTRODUCTION TO THE SERVANT AND HIS WORK

In 52:13 – 15 Isaiah briefly mentions a number of truths about the Servant, most of which we have seen in one or other of the previous three Servant Songs:

52:13 – the wisdom of the Servant – he ‘will act wisely’
52:13 – the exaltation of the Servant – he ‘will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted’
52:14 – the torture and suffering of the Servant – he will be tortured and disfigured beyond recognition
52:15 – the purifying work of the Servant – he will ‘sprinkle many nations’
52:15 – The astonishment caused by the Servant and his work – ‘kings will shut their mouths because of him’.

We have looked at the knowledge and understanding of Christ previously, and of his exaltation. We will be looking at his suffering later in this study.

A.1 He will sprinkle many nations
We have repeatedly seen in Isaiah the inclusion of ‘the nations’. Here ‘the nations’ are included in the saving work of Christ.

‘Sprinkling’ was involved in a number of purification rituals defined in the Law of Moses. Of particular relevance to the work of the Servant, is the sprinkling involved in the annual Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16). There we learn:

That this ‘sprinkling’ could be done only by the High Priest (Leviticus 16:3).

That he must offer a bull to make atonement for himself, sprinkling its blood on various items within the Tabernacle (Leviticus 16:6, 11 – 14).

That he must offer a goat as a sin-offering for the people, taking its blood into the Most Holy Place and sprinkling it on and in front of the atonement cover, and by this making atonement for the whole community of Israel (Leviticus 16:9, 15 – 17).

The Letter to the Hebrews teaches us how Jesus Christ, the Servant of whom Isaiah speaks, is the reality behind these rituals. They were prophetic shadows, copies, of the real things – the real High Priest (Jesus Christ), the real Tabernacle/Most Holy Place (the actual presence of God), and the real atoning blood (the blood of Jesus Christ). [Note: Unlike the High Priests, Jesus did not have to offer a sacrifice for himself.)

Read these verses in Hebrews. How do they describe Jesus Christ and his death?
4:14 - 16

7:23 – 28

8:1 – 6

9:7 – 10

9:11 – 15
9:23 – 28

10:19 – 23

Although Isaiah did not understand it (see 1Peter 1:10 – 12), all of this is what he spoke of when he said that the Servant would ‘sprinkle’ many nations. He was talking of the high priestly role of Jesus Christ and of his atoning death, which deals completely and permanently with our sin and our guilt.

A. 2 Kings will shout their mouths
The gospel of Jesus Christ is extremely radical. Isaiah points this out in 52:15b – ‘what they were not told, they will see, and what they have not heard, they will understand’. Who the Servant is and what he does is something previously unheard of and un-thought of by humans. And this newness, this utterly different and unexpected thing, has two aspects:

[1] Here in the gospel we learn of him who is God becoming human; here in the gospel we learn of him who is spirit becoming flesh; here in the gospel we learn of him who is eternal and infinite becoming locked in time and space; here in the gospel we learn of him who is life taking on death. Here we learn that this obviously human Jesus of Nazareth is also at the same time, the Lord God Almighty, the Creator of all that exists.

[2] Here in the gospel we are told that God, in an act of immeasurable mercy and grace, has provided the substitutionary, sin-bearing death of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as the only way by which our sins can be permanently and completely atoned for, the only way for our reconciliation with God, the only way for our acquittal, our only hope of life. Here we are told that nothing that we do will ever be sufficient to gain or maintain our salvation: that salvation is sheer gift. We do not and we cannot earn, merit or deserve it. Nor can we undo it by our weakness and failures. Here, in this gospel, God justifies/acquits the wicked (Romans 4:5).

For some, both of these truths are offensive. The first is offensive because of what it says about God. The second is offensive because of what it says about us. But for those who can see past this seeming offensiveness of the gospel, there is a whole new world, a whole new way of seeing both God and ourselves, a whole new way of knowing God and relating to God (see 2Corinthians 5:14 – 6:1).

Although many rejected Jesus Christ, and many continue to do so, there are some who hear the gospel and, instead of being offended, are overwhelmed by the love of God and the wisdom of God and the power of God revealed in Jesus Christ, the suffering Servant.

Paul, writing about the unexpectedness and utter newness of gospel, roughly quoted Isaiah 64:4, saying: ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him’, then went on to say ‘but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit’ (1Corinthians 2:9, 10). Paul is not here referring to our ignorance of what heaven is like, as many wrongly assume, but about the sheer radical newness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and what he has done for us – he is talking about the message of Christ crucified that he preached (read 1Corinthians 2:6 – 16).

How does Paul express his amazement at the truth about Christ and his sin-bearing death?
Ephesians 1:4 – 8

Ephesians 1:18, 19

Ephesians 2:1 – 8

Ephesians 3:1 – 6

Ephesians 3:14 – 19

What God does in and through the Servant, is something that no one has ever imagined. It is a totally unheard of thing; an inconceivable thing. It is totally different from all known religions and philosophies. So new, so radical and unbelievable is the message of the Servant and his work that kings ‘shut their mouths because of him’ - struck dumb with awe and wonder and praise. Amazed that God would do such a thing. Amazed at the complete salvation and liberation accomplished by the suffering of the Servant for those who believe in him.

This eternal plan of salvation through the sin-bearing death of the Servant, had, until it was accomplished by the incarnate Son of God, been a hidden mystery. It was always there, planned before the creation of the world, hidden in plain sight in the prophetic words, symbols and rituals of the Old Testament. But it is a mystery no longer. The gospel of Jesus Christ is proclaimed; the Spirit of God enables us to understand it. What was previously unknown and unknowable is now known by all who believe in Jesus Christ: by knowing Christ we now know God, and by knowing Christ we have eternal life; we have in Christ complete salvation – every spiritual blessing that God planned for us by the death of the Servant – by the death of the ‘Son’ given to us. By sheer grace.

B. REJECTION – BECAUSE OF THE ORDINARINESS OF THE SERVANT

In 53:1 Isaiah draws attention to the limited number of people who believe the message about the servant. The people of Jesus’ day knew that he was the carpenter from Nazareth; just the man from down the road. His claims to have been sent from heaven, his claims to equality with God, didn’t sit well with his contemporaries (Matthew 13:54 – 57).

The Servant grew and lived in the presence of God (53:2a; compare Luke 2:51, 52), chosen by God and precious to him (1Peter 2:4), and affirmed by God at his baptism and on the Mount of Transfiguration as one with whom he was ‘well pleased’ and One whom he commanded people to listen to (Matthew 3:17; 17:5). But this approval and affirmation had minimal impact. From the perspective of his fellow humans, for most there was nothing particularly remarkable about him to attract their attention or to kindle their allegiance.

Read 53:2 – 3. What does Isaiah say about the seeming weakness and unattractiveness of the Servant?

 

 

 

The ‘tender shoot’ and the ‘root out of dry ground’ point to his weakness and vulnerability, and the difficult and hostile environment in which he lived. He was, as Hebrews points out, plagued by the same sufferings and pressures as the rest of us (Hebrews 2:10, 14 – 18; 4:15). He was, Isaiah says, ‘a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.’

There was nothing – no beauty, no majesty – to attract us to him, to make us desire him. He did not look at all like the conquering, military hero the Jews were wrongly expecting. He was characterised by meekness and gentleness (see Isaiah 42:2, 3), not aggression and might.

The outcome of this obvious, ordinary humanness of the Servant was strong rejection by his fellow humans (53:3): men despised and rejected him; men hid their faces from him; men did not honour him. All of this was the direct opposite of what was really due to him. (We have looked at the mockery and humiliation to which he was subjected in the previous study.)

C. THE REAL REASON THE SERVANT SUFFERED

In the popular theology of the day, personal suffering was understood as punishment for personal sin (see Job 22:4 -10; John 9:1); if you were righteous, God rewarded you with prosperity; if you were suffering, it indicated God was punishing you for your sin. [For detailed studies on suffering go to this page.] With this theology of suffering, it is not surprising that Jesus’ contemporaries jumped to the conclusion that he was ‘stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted’ – 53:4. But this conclusion that God was punishing him for his own sins was false.

There are two aspects of Christ’s suffering:

C.1 He experienced our common human suffering
Firstly, he experienced the suffering that is common to all of us; this is the suffering described by ‘a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering’ – 53:3, and, possibly also included in the words ‘he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows’ – 53:4. He was a real human being, living a real human life. This is the suffering that Hebrews 2 teaches was necessary for Jesus Christ to qualify as our substitute under the judgement of God, and as our representative in the presence of God.

He had to live a normal human life, including the suffering involved in a normal human life, in order to stand in our place.

He had to do the hard yards of a real human life.

He had to feel the pressure (the temptation) to give in and give up on faith in God. Otherwise his sinlessness would be meaningless.

We all live in the context of sin and suffering; so he did too. Whereas we give in to the pressure, and fall into sin and/or unbelief, he did not. He endured/suffered the pressures of human life in this post-Genesis 3 world, including the pressures generated by the sins of others, without himself sinning. By this suffering he was qualified to be the substitute and representative that we need, and to be the one offering, the one atoning sacrifice, acceptable to God. His death could achieve nothing without the perfect righteousness of his life. Not a life shielded from our common suffering, but a life lived in the presence and pressures of sin and suffering, a life subjected to the same deceptive and destructive suggestions of the evil one, as we are. Unlike us, the Servant did not believe these suggestions, and did not give in to these suggestions.

[For more detailed teaching on this – Section C in this study; and Section A in this study ].

C.2 His suffering for our sins
Secondly, there is the suffering that is unique to Jesus Christ that Isaiah describes. In verse 4 Isaiah introduces the concept that it was our griefs and our sorrows that Jesus Christ ‘took up’ and carried. He mentions the human misunderstanding of this One who suffered: the thought that his suffering was due to the just and heavy hand of God upon him. In verse 5 Isaiah lays out the real truth of the matter – that this suffering of the Christ was not due to his own sin (he had none), but to ours:

This piercing right through unto death was because of our transgressions.
This crushing out of the life was due to our iniquities.
This seeming punishment was not on his own account, but on our account, to remove the wrath of God from us and to bring us to peace with God.
This terrible wounding of the Christ, this obvious severing from the Father, healed the separation that existed between us and God.

Why, we might ask, was this necessary? Isaiah explains in verse 6:

‘All we, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way’.

That human lostness that Isaiah depicts so poignantly in Chapter One and throughout his teaching, is here summed up in a few words: we have gone astray from God; we have each done our own thing instead of doing and being what God created us to be and to do. Way back in Genesis 3 we rebelled against God and his Word; we turned our backs on him and on our true identity. This rejection of God, and all the individual sins that flow from it, incur God’s judgement, incur God’s wrath, and involve us in a disconnection from God in which there is no possibility of our ever recovering and returning.

Sin has cut us off from God, and continues to cut us off from God [Isaiah 1:15; 59:2]. And it will do so forever unless God himself intervenes and somehow reverses the judgement under which we exist.

That is what God did in this death of his Son, the Christ:

‘… the LORD has lain on him the iniquity of us all’ [Isaiah 53:6b].

He was oppressed, he was afflicted, he was slaughtered, he was judged, he was stricken by God [verses 7, 8] … because of, for, the transgressions of God’s people. God put all of our sin and its guilt upon him, along with all of the condemnation, all of the judgement, all of the punishment and penalty and all of his wrath. There is none left for us to carry, none left for us to bear: no sin still held or ever to be held against us; no guilt; no condemnation, no judgement, no punishment, no penalty, no wrath. It was all taken by Christ, the Servant.

To achieve this redemption, this forgiveness, this acquittal, this reconciliation, this peace ‘it was the LORD’s will to crush him’ [verse 10, NIV], ‘it pleased the LORD to bruise him’ [KJV]. This will, this good purpose and pleasure of God broke forth triumphant and victorious in the hand of the Christ, the suffering Servant of the Lord. Here, in this real human death, ‘the Lamb slain from the creation of the world’ (Revelation 13:8) is slain in space and time.

This substitutionary significance of Christ’s death is stated further:

Verse 10 – ‘the LORD makes his life a guilt offering’.
Verse 11 – ‘he will bear their iniquities’
Verse12 – ‘he bore the sin of many’.

This is God’s answer to our sin. This is the message of the cross. This is the work of the Christ, the suffering Servant, which, as we have seen previously, he willingly and deliberately embraced (see verse 7). This is the will and the purpose of God.

What do these New Testament verses teach about this substitutionary death of the Servant?
Matthew 26:28

Mark 10:45

Romans 3:22 – 25

2Corinthians 5:21

Galatians 3:10, 13

Hebrews 9:28

1Peter 2:24

1John 2:2

Revelation 1:5; 5:9

D. THE SUCCESS OF THE SERVANT – GOD’S ETERNAL PURPOSE ACCOMPLISHED

As we have seen above, the death of Jesus Christ for our sins was planned before the creation of the world, planned before sin entered the world. So we see in Isaiah 53 references to this purpose of God.

Isaiah 53:10 – identify the phrases that link the death of the Servant with the will or purpose of God:

‘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.’

Read Isaiah 53:10 – 12. List the statements that indicate that the Servant was successful in accomplishing God’s purpose.

 

 

 

 

The death of Christ was not an ordinary death. Nor was it an ordinary out-pouring of judgement. This was not a man dying for his own sins, receiving the just judgement due to him. This was, as we saw above, a substitutionary death, a vicarious death. The death of one who was himself sinless, standing in the place of those who are sinners. This was God remaining true to his justice, and yet at the same time justifying, acquitting the sinner [see Romans 3:21-26].

A simple, but extremely significant, question arises from this: how do we know that this amazing thing is actually true? How do we know that it really does work? How do we know that this substitutionary death is legal and valid in God’s sight?

The simple answer to this is: the resurrection.

The resurrection of the Suffering Servant is right here in this fourth Servant Song:

‘he will see his offspring and prolong his days’ [53:10]

‘After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied’ [53:11]

‘I will give him a portion among the great’ [53:12]

‘he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted’ [52:13]

‘kings will shut their mouths because of him’ [52:15].

This resurrection is also predicted in the second and third Servant Songs [Isaiah 49:1-7; 50:4-9]

‘Kings will see you and rise up, princes will see you and bow down,
because of the LORD, who is faithful,
the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you’ [49:7]

‘He who vindicates me is near’ [50:8].

Although not explicit, each of these references, in context, refers to the vindication or exaltation of the Servant, after his suffering and rejection, beyond his substitutionary death.

His resurrection is proof that the justice of God has been satisfied. His resurrection also vindicates all of his claims to be [1] without sin, and [2] the One sent from the Father and equal with Father.

Thus Paul wrote that Jesus Christ:

‘… through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead’ [Romans 1:4].

‘ … he was raised for our justification’ [Romans 4:25].

‘ … if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins’ [1Corinthians 15:17].

When we put the Servant Songs, with their message of the suffering of the Servant, alongside other references made by Isaiah to Jesus Christ, we realise that there could be no other outcome than the resurrection. Because this Suffering Servant is also the Lord of Glory:

He is the ‘Son’ who is given to us, of whom Isaiah wrote:

‘… he will be called … Mighty God, Everlasting Father …and of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end’ [9:6,7].

But in an even more astounding statement, Isaiah described Jesus Christ this way:

‘I saw the LORD seated on a throne and highly exalted …’ and heard the seraphs calling: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory’ [6:1,3; John 12:37-41].

Death could not hold this glorious Lord, not even a death in which he bore the sin of the world. He is the Lord of life. He has life in himself. John reports him saying:

‘For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself’ [John 5:26].

‘… I lay down my life – only to take it up again. No one takes it from me … I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again’ [John 10:17,18].

‘I am the resurrection and the life …’ [John 11:25].

This Suffering Servant, this risen Lord, is the one whom we honour, not only at Easter, but every day of our lives.

He accomplished the purpose for which the Father sent him: he bore our sins, he intercedes between us and God (53:12) – and we are saved, forever set free from the guilt and the penalty of our transgressions. Forever at peace with God. Forever reconnected with the Father (verse 5).

E. REFLECTION: HOW THEN SHOULD WE LIVE?

Like the first and second Servant Songs, this fourth song is followed immediately with a command to sing and shout for joy – 54:1.

At one level, much of Isaiah 54 was looking forward to the restoration of the Jews after their exile in Babylon. However, beyond that there is much here that is instructive for Christians about the spiritual salvation that we have in Jesus Christ.

Read Isaiah 54:1 – 17. Make a list of statements or concepts that express the reality of the spiritual salvation we have because of Jesus Christ and his death.
Verse 1:

Verse 4:

Verse 5:

Verse 6 – 8:

Verse 9, 10:

Verse 13:

Verse 17:

Knowing that the Servant has successfully accomplished the purpose of God, we can burst into song, we can shout for joy – and not just ‘can’, but should, for we are the recipients of his everlasting kindness. Never again will he be angry with us. Spiritually, from we have nothing to fear – not his wrath, not his judgement, not his rejection. Never again will we be abandoned, never again severed from God. No matter who accuses us, he will vindicate us – not because we are worthy and without offense, but because of the worthiness and the substitutionary death of his Servant, the Lord Jesus Christ, our Saviour. This is our heritage in Christ.