Isaiah 52:13 - 53:12
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
There are four Servant Songs in Isaiah, all in the second half of the book:
(some extend it to v. 9) — the Servant brings justice to the nations, gently and quietly.Isaiah 42:1–4
(some extend to v. 13) — the Servant is called from the womb and made a light to the Gentiles.Isaiah 49:1–6
(some extend to v. 11) — the obedient Servant suffers and is vindicated by God.Isaiah 50:4–9
— the Servant suffers in the place of others, and is exalted. This is where we are this morning.Isaiah 52:13–53:12
These four are the poems grouped as the Servant Songs, but the Servant theme runs across the whole comfort section of the book (roughly chapters 42–53).
When we met the Servant back in chapter 42, God delighted in him and sent him to bring light to the nations. Today we find out how he actually accomplishes that mission — and it's the last thing anyone expected.
Just before our text, Isaiah 52:1-12, God announced that he'd bared his holy arm so all the nations would see his salvation
Isaiah 52:10 “10 The LORD hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.”
— and then in the very next breath, 53:1 asks, 'to whom is that arm revealed?
The Suffering Servant
The Suffering Servant
13 Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high. 14 As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men: 15 So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider.
from Chapter 51 Isaiah has given commands that are glorious in what they mean if true but when we read them we (and Israel) are asking “but how can this happen”?
Behold or see now answers that question. “How can this happen?”—see how!
the servant of Yahweh will deal prudently or “act wisely and be successful” and when He is, He will be: raised … lifted up … highly exalted
Hard for me not to jump from an Israelite hearing a prophecy that will happen about 700 years later to me today and see: Jesus Christ and His resurrection, ascension and seated on the throne at the right hand of God
Isaiah used this kind of talk before, back in Chapter 6
Isaiah 6:1 “1 In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.”
and remember who John says He is that Isaiah saw in John 12:37-41: it’s Jesus, “high and holy and lifted up”!
Yet I’m brought back with verse 14: “You’re telling me, Isaiah, this victorious, enthroned king will get there by being beaten and abused so bad that many that see it ask ‘Is this the Servant?’ but also ‘Is this even human?’”
back in Isaiah 52:11 “11 Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the LORD.”
Isaiah said “be ye clean”—purify yourselves
here in 15 “So shall he sprinkle many nations”
The Hebrew is difficult here but I’m comfortable with sprinkle because it fits the context.
As an Israelite then, I hear sprinkle and I think: Numbers 19:18–19 “18 And a clean person shall take hyssop, and dip it in the water, and sprinkle it upon the tent, and upon all the vessels, and upon the persons that were there, and upon him that touched a bone, or one slain, or one dead, or a grave: 19 And the clean person shall sprinkle upon the unclean on the third day, and on the seventh day: and on the seventh day he shall purify himself, and wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and shall be clean at even.”
“So Isaiah, this ‘king’, so beaten he doesn’t even look human—even looking scary, is going to purify many nations?”
That explains why the kings will be dumbfounded—they’ve seen what they were told and now believe what they heard!
1 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? 2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. 3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Q1: “Who believes that Isaiah?” Q2: “And you said this servant was the ‘arm of the Lord’, who’s that revealed to?”
That Jesus will be to them and is to us, “the holy arm” of Yahweh God isn’t just an event witnessed, it’s a truth that’s only revealed by grace to the faithful!
And it’s easy to see why nobody will believe it:
He doesn’t look divine, he’s plainly human, being born and growing up part of normal family (“he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground”)
family?: Isaiah 6:13 stump → Isaiah 11:1 shoot/Branch — the felled tree of Israel with a holy seed in the stump, and the Branch growing from Jesse's cut-down line.
not a thing about him will looks spectacular or impressive and nothing about the way he looks will make them want to follow him—nothing that they (or we) look for in our leaders!
All that being the case, we see why he’s shunned and misunderstood.
he is a man of sorrows not because he's fragile, and not simply because grief happened to him — his sorrow is something he takes up in his role.
this servant, what he did, did ALL ALONE! We despised him. We rejected him. We turned our backs on him. And we ignored him!
being treated like that makes anybody sorrowful, but what did he do while we did all this?
4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 5 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. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
his sufferings, all of them: were deliberately ‘taken’ by him and were in reality ours
Matthew 8:17 “17 That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.” Jesus healed the sick
Sin is a blight on us all and damages us so deeply we don’t even know and can’t tell how broken we are:
Jeremiah hits it: Jeremiah 17:9 “9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”
Paul points it out: Ephesians 4:18 “18 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:”
But our total redemption, body as well as soul, comes from him and from his work on the cross, and in the new heaven and new earth sickness will be as completely banished as will sin
the atonement gives both physical and spiritual healing, but on God's timeline.
Matthew shows Jesus giving down-payments of the physical healing during his ministry (already); but the full bodily redemption is "not yet," it’s reserved for the resurrection and new creation.
our transgressions are wilful rebellion
our iniquities are the perverted brokenness of our human natures
our chastisement is the correction by word AND act
‘covenant of peace’ (Isa 54:10) means ‘covenant which pledges and secures peace’
so the chastisement, or punishment, of our peace is punishment which secured peace with God for us
this IS substitutionary penal atonement: Jesus took the punishment we deserved for our sins so that we could go free. Clearest OT picture is here; Barabbas in Luke is the NT picture of it.
Isaiah and us in vs 6: “To think that he would do that for people like us!”
Every one of us! With the same stupidity of a sheep without a shepherd—falling in the same ditches again and again, running to the same danger that will bring death again and again, on purpose!
stricken by God, but with the amazing purpose of laying our sin on him!
they thought he would be stricken for HIS sins—truth is He was stricken for OURS
The Servant is the solution of the LORD to the needs of sinners!
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. 8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. 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.
what was imposed in verse 4 is voluntarily accepted here
sheep not knowing any difference in the chute, go just as willingly to the slaughter as to the shearer
The amazing grace is what John points out in John 18:4 “4 Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth, and said unto them, Whom seek ye?”
Jesus went quietly to the cross not in ignorance but fully knowing the suffering and separation coming. Completely submitted to the Father’s will: Luke 22:42 “42 Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.”
Jesus goes all the way to death from that hole that tradition says may have been the prison under Caiaphas’ house
“declare his generation”: Again here, the Hebrew difficult —
some translate toward his having no descendants, and that's how I'm taking it;
some translate it as 'none of his own generation spoke up for him.'
I'm building on the KJV sense, and the contrast holds either way: he was cut off alone, and yet he brings us into a family."
He was taken away in the worst perversion of justice mankind has or will ever see;
Jesus made his grave with the wicked that deserved to die (the other two on the cross that day) in the borrowed tomb of the rich:
Matthew 27:57–58 “57 When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathaea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus’ disciple: 58 He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered.”
Not one sin: thought, word, or deed, the spotless lamb, slain for US!
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. 11 He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Yahweh’s will accomplished through His servants suffering!
“offering for sin”: the Hebrew word is literally the guilt offering or trespass offering of Leviticus 5-7 — the specific sacrifice for making reparation, for paying back a debt incurred by sin.
the Servant is the guilt-offering, the reparation payment.
Many sons brought to glory and His own glory prolonged
he's cut off, yet he sees offspring and lives on. The seed he sees is us — the "many" he justifies in v.11.
Hebrews 2:9–10 “9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. 10 For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.”
Romans 4:25 “25 Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.”
Yahweh was satisfied by what he sees because He knows EXACTLY what’d needed
That righteous ONE, My Servant, will bring righteousness to the MANY
John 6:37 “37 All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.”
No one will share the throne with Jesus but those He makes righteous are given crowns to lay at his feet!
“made intercession for the transgressors”:
started at the cross: Luke 23:34 “34 Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.”
continues now and forevermore: Hebrews 7:25 “25 Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.”
Conclusion
Conclusion
That's the scandal: the arm of the LORD revealed in a man they'd walk right past
the Servant suffers in isolation from humanity and apart from God; he suffers under our sin and under the God the Father’s hand.
A 2025 survey found that about 6 in 10 Americans say Jesus' death on the cross is the only thing that could take away the punishment for their sin — but only 4 in 10 believe it strongly.
Isaiah wrote about that trade about 700 years before it happened: 'he was pierced for our transgressions' — the punishment that should've been ours fell on him instead, so that we could be made whole."
And here's the strange part — most people don't think their sin is that big a deal. But Isaiah 53 only makes sense if it is. You don't need someone crushed in your place for something that don’t matter."
God give us grace and courage to listen to Isaiah and:
Isaiah 12:4 “4 And in that day shall ye say, Praise the LORD, call upon his name, declare his doings among the people, make mention that his name is exalted.”
