Isaiah 53 is one of the most striking and notable chapters in the Bible. It points unmistakably to a suffering Messiah. It is an arresting prophecy.
The Jews refuse a suffering Messiah and with carnal expectation look for One who shall restore the land of Israel to a position of glory and supremacy. They look for a Messiah with military genius and brilliant statesmanship. They do not look for the meek inheriting the earth. They do not realise that the sufferings of Christ of necessity must precede the glory of the Kingdom. The crown of thorns must come before the crown of glory.
So clearly does Isaiah point to a suffering Messiah that the Jewish religious leaders are hard put to to explain this chapter. So much is this so, in reading the Sacred Roll through in order in their synagogues, they purposely avoid reading Isaiah 53. It is the despair of their expositors. They cannot explain it away. They will not believe it. They deliberately refuse it. How true it is that “blindness in part is happened to Israel” (Rom. 11:25).
“He shall grow up before HIM as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: He has no form nor comeliness; and when WE shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him” (v. 2).
Note the difference between “Him” and “we.” “Him”—Jehovah Himself; “we”—the Jewish nation. How did Isaiah seven centuries before the event foresee the treatment the Jews would mete out to their Messiah, when He presented Himself as the Son of Man, who must be lifted up in atoning sacrifice on the cross? Here we unmistakably get inspiration. Only God can foresee down the centuries. God used Isaiah as His inspired pen.
“HIM”
What graphic and beautiful imagery is used here.
“He shall grow up before HIM as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground”.
Imagine the desert. The song of no bird fills the air. No cry of beast is heard. An oppressive silence lies heavy over the solitude. No blade of grass is seen. No bush breaks the skyline. Suddenly you are entranced. A beautiful plant, rooted in the sand, luxurious and exotic, to your surprise meets your eye.
Such is the Bible imagery. God looked down on the desert of this world. Desolation and sin marked everything. But lo! there was One in this dreary drab scene that rejoiced the heart of God—one, who was well pleasing in every particular. What an object for God to look down upon.
“WE”
“He has no form nor comeliness, and when WE shall see Him, there is no beauty that WE should desire Him”.
What must man be to be at such variance with God! Beautiful in the eyes of Jehovah; no beauty in the eyes of men. Jehovah’s delight; men’s execration. Surely this might be true of the rabble, you say, but not of the educated and religious! Nay, it was the very leaders of the nation, their high priests and rulers, that rent the air with their vehement cry, “Crucify Him! crucify Him.”
“Surely He has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted” (v. 4).
Matthew 8:16-17 tells us how the Lord bore griefs and carried sorrows when He exorcised demons from bodies plagued by their possession, when He healed the sick. He “went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with Him” (Acts 10:38). Yet in spite of all this gracious beneficence, the Jews in their carnality entirely misread the meaning of the cross, and believed that our Lord was smitten of God because of what HE was. But thank God the truth came out.
“But He was wounded for OUR transgressions, He was bruised for OUR iniquities: the chastisement of OUR peace was upon Him; and with His stripes WE are healed” (v. 5).
Here we have the cross, and only the cross. Here we have its true and inner meaning. Our Lord did not die for His sins, He had none, He was sinless. Why then did He die? For our sins. This is the great meaning of His death. The cross is
“The centre of two eternities,
Which look with rapt adoring eyes.”
The cross is the centre of God’s moral universe. It is the declaration of His mighty love, the upholding of His holiness and truth. How clearly this was indicated seven centuries before the crucifixion took place.
“Who shall declare His generation?” (v. 8).
“He shall see His seed” (v. 10).
The pathetic lament of verse 8 is answered by the triumphant assertion of verse 10. Our Lord was cut off in the midst of days. It seemed as though He had lived in vain. Did this mean nothing to Him? “Who shall declare His generation?” We then get verse 9 telling us of His burial, and on the other side of death, in resurrection, we get the wonderful truth, “He shall see His seed.” The grain of wheat falls into the ground only to bear much fruit. “He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied” (v. 11). What an answer to the cross! What a reward to the suffering Messiah!
Look! The seer says, “I beheld, and lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, Salvation to our God which sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb” (Rev. 7:9-10). What an answer! “A multitude that no man could number!” Every race laid under tribute to swell the triumph of the Lamb and to proclaim the mighty results of His work on the cross! What a plan is our God’s! What a conception of the Divine Mind!
“O God! the thought was Thine!
(Thine only it could be)
Fruit of the wisdom, love divine,
Peculiar to Thee.”
“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” (v. 9).
This verse is somewhat obscurely rendered, a free but faithful translation of it would run,
They would have made His grave with the wicked, but He lay with the rich in His death.
Seven centuries roll by, and the events so vividly portrayed in this wonderful chapter took place. The suffering Messiah expired on the cross between two thieves. In the ordinary course of things the three bodies would be roughly cut down from the ghastly gibbets, and unceremoniously flung into a common grave.
“They would have made His grave with the wicked.” But did God allow this? When man’s hour came men were allowed to do what they liked. They spat in His face. They plucked the hair off His cheek. They put the crown of thorns upon His head. Blood gushed from a score of wounds.
But once He had died how different. No hand but those who revered and loved Him were permitted to touch His dead body. “Joseph of Arimathea, an honourable counsellor” (Mark 15:43)—“A rich man of Arimathea, named Joseph” (Matt. 27:57)—was “a disciple of Jesus but secretly for fear of the Jews” (John 19:38). Now Joseph steps out into the open, helped by Nicodemus, the same who came to Jesus by night. They bring a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pound weight, Joseph buys fine linen. Together these two disciples of our Lord reverently take the dead body of our Lord down from the cross, and lay it in Joseph’s own new tomb “He lay with the rich in His death.” How did Isaiah know this seven centuries before it took place?
“Therefore will I divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong” (v. 12)
“SING… enlarge the place of thy tent … spare not, lengthen thy cords and strengthen thy stakes … for thy Maker is thy Husband; the Lord of Hosts is His name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel, The God of the whole earth shall He be called” (Isa. 54:1-5).
Here we come to the climax! Here is the shout of victory, the song of exultation. Israel will yet come into rejoicing and blessing. Blessing will stretch out to the whole world. But we Christians come into the blessings and joys of accomplished redemption now, and can rejoice in Isaiah 53.
Well may we
“SING.”