Isaiah 52:13-Isaiah 53:3
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Nativity Scenes: Why did it happen that way?
Behold, My servant will prosper, He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted.
In the book of Isaiah there are four songs about the Servant of God.
Throughout the book the servant is the messianic image.
The First Servant Song
In , The servant is described to be the “chosen one in whom My soul delights.”
There, he is the anointed one who will bring justice to the nations.
The Second Servant Song
In , he is the servant for whom it is too a small a task just to save Israel. He will be a light to the nations and His salvation will reach the end of the earth.
The Third Servant Song
We start to see what exactly this servant will be doing. In , he is the servant who is obedient and who does not turn back, even amid pain and humiliation.
The Fourth Servant Song
We are given the picture of an exalted servant. One who will be a King high and lifted up and one who present a pure and spotless bride before the Father.
The questions arise:
How will this happen? A main theme throughout Isaiah is the sinfulness of the people and the judgment of God upon them because of their sin.
How will God clothe His bride in a robe of righteousness, when she is so defiled?
How does the Lord accomplish His victory?
How will we have victory despite our sinfulness?
How can God be just, and you and I be anything other than condemned? How can we not be condemned?
This passage, this song answers that question.
Look with me in verse number 13:
Behold, My servant will prosper, He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted.
I love how he begins this song with the assurance that the Servant(The Messiah) will prosper.
Everything he intends the Messiah to do and to be, he will be and he will do.
But it isnt the type of prosperity we are thinking of.
He will prosper despite his poverty.
He had a lowly birth
lowly life
lowly death
In a sense, this should surprise us.
So far, in the Old Testament, we have witnessed nothing but failures.
Adam- Failed
thi
Noah- Failed
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob- Failed
Saul- Failed
David- failed
Solomon- Failed
Samson, Ehud, Jephthah, Othniel, Abdon, Shamgar, Jair, Ibzan, Abimelech, Gideon- failed
Samuel failed.
So far, the history of the world is littered with failures.
In fact, that what our history is about. Certainly, there are prosperous people. Certainly, there are people who are successful, but even those are surprises. It is far more normal for one to fail than to succeed. But no one, even those who have succeeded, has been without failure.
So when he says here that the servant will prosper, it should be surprising.
In verse 13, there is no mention of failure.
However, when we consider who the Servant of Isaiah is in reference to, it should not surprise us.
The servant of Isaiah is the Lord. It is the Lord Jesus Christ, and at that point, we know why he can be so confident.
That which the Lord says, he does. Every time.
God always succeeds in accomplishing His will.
And He always does what He says he will do.
In Creation, never was there a hitch in the plan. When He said Let there be light, there was not one ounce of resistance. It happened and it was good.
When God told Noah to build an ark because he was going to destroy the world, What happened? God destroyed the earth by flood.
When God told Pharaoh that He would rescue His people from Egypt, what happened? No amount of resistance of Pharoah would stop him.
When God told Jonah that He was going to Nineveh to preach to them, Jonah tried to resist, but accomplishes His will.
God does what He says. Even at times, if the plan seems different
This is why he knows he will prosper.
Character of God.
“God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?
His servant will prosper. It may not be how we picture it: but look at the end result.
“He WILL be high and lifted up and greatly exalted.”
His prospering will be a higher prospering than any other. He will be highly exalted.
But again, how?
How is Christ going to assume his exalted position?
And the how may again surprise us.
Just as many were astonished at you, My people, So His appearance was marred more than any man And His form more than the sons of men.
Just as many were astonished at you, My people. In the same way that God had chosen Israel, set them apart though they were not that impressive as a nation.
In fact, it says here that many were astonished at them.
Why would God choose Israel?
Why not Egypt? Syria? America?
Why did God choose to save Israel?
Because He loved them.
“For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. “The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the Lord brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
Deuteronomy
It says here that Israel wasn’t chosen because they were greater. It was just because He loves us.
That leads us to the next question:
Why did God choose to save you? me?
Because He loved us.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.
I’m sure many people look at me and wonder why God would have saved me and use me for His purpose.
I agree with them. Why would God do that? Because He loves me. What an overwhelming truth that is!
But lets get back to the point.
God through Israel and through others has proven that he will use the least likely to accomplish his will.
But just as God will choose to make his glory known through a nation like Israel. Or a person like me. Just as God always seems to choose the least likely, so too will be this servant.
How will he be exalted? It won’t be as we would expect exaltation.
Lowly birth
Lowly Life
Lowly death
He continues:
So His appearance was marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men.
His appearance wasn’t appealing. In others words, by all worldly standards, he would be disqualified. But not in God’s plan . in God’s plan, he uses what the world would call foolish, what the world would call poor, what the world would call weak to bring about His glory.
and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are,
but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God.
Just look at the birth of Christ. Look at the nativity
Look at His accommodations.
Look at His visitors.
Then look at his life
Look at his death
Look at his followers
Look at his actions (servant)
Despite that, Look at verse 15:
Thus He will sprinkle many nations, Kings will shut their mouths on account of Him; For what had not been told them they will see, And what they had not heard they will understand.
God will use the least likely to accomplish His plan for the nations, not just Israel.
And what is that plan?
To save a group of people fromn every nation.
Kings who had never heard will now hear of the salvation found in Christ.
God’s salvation is coming to the nations through the Suffering servant.
But will even Israel believe when the Suffering Servant arrives?
not just Israel.
Who is going to believe that? That the Savior of the world will be born in a stable.
That the savior of the world will have a carpenter as an earthly Father.
That the savior of the world will be publicly shamed and strung up on a cross.
And this is how he begins in chapter 53 by asking this very question.
Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
Isaiah asks two rhetorical questions to which we should be able to understand the obvious answer.
Isaiah 5
Who has believed our message?
Not many. Will the Jews believe?
The prophets, as a whole expected an unrepentant response from the people to whom they preached. They didn’t expect for the people to believe the message.
His preaching did no good in the hearts of these people.
And haven’t we seen that in the hearts of the Jews in the book of John. They refuse to believe the message of Christ.
No tells us they will not.
He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.
Will we believe?
When we hear the Word of God, will we respond in belief to the Gospel?
He also quotes the passage that we are in.
The only way to be apart of this Suffering Servant’s exaltation is to grab a hold of tightly in belieF to the truths of this wonderful message.
Because that is what is required for us to have the benefit of the Savior who came into the world.
Its not not enough to simply celebrate Christmas.
Everyone celebrates Christmas.
Some of the most ungodly people in our country put out Christmas albums.
Its not just enough to call yourself a Christian and come to church the Sunday around Christmas.
However, they did not all heed the good news; for Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.
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!” However, they did not all heed the good news; for Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.
Its not just enough to sing the carols.
Its as if we are saying thank you for your birth at Christmas time, but then we live as if he was never born the rest of the year.
We want to be entertained by Jesus but we do not want to worship him.
We face the same struggle of Isaiah.
Who will believe this?
Matter of fact: Paul faced this struggle as well.
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? 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!” However, they did not all heed the good news; for Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.
for “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.” 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? 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!” However, they did not all heed the good news; for Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.
For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; for “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.” 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? 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!” However, they did not all heed the good news; for Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.
The passage we just read tell us four things.
If we call upon the name of the Lord we will be saved.
We will not call until we have believed.
Faith comes by hearing the Word of God preached.
Not all heed the good news.
and thats precisely what he is getting at here. This message of Christ, the suffering servant will not be heeded.
In fact it will be rejected because Jesus will not meet the standards of the world.
Look in verse 2
Romans 10:
The only way to be apart of this Suffering Servant’s exaltation is to grab a hold of tightly in belieF to the truths of this wonderful message.
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.
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.
Look at how it describes his entrance into the world.
He will be like a tender shoot.
That is a young plant. A humble small shoot out of the ground
Turkey hunting- small little corn shoots. They don’t seem like much at that time. In fact, at that particular time they are most vulnerable.
Surely, if his enemies are to defeat Him, they can do it to him as a newborn child. Perhaps this is why Herod in has his men kill every child 2 and under.
In other words Jesus doesn’t come into the city a full grown powerful man riding a white horse.
He comes into the world as a new born child.
In his humanity, dependent upon his teenage mother and His earthly Father Joseph, and yet, in his deity as a newborn child, it is the most influential birth in the history of the world.
Let’s look at the second part of that verse.
“Like a root out of parched ground.”
This speak of the environment that Jesus came out of.
he comes forth from a people with no spiritual life.
a glimmer of hope in a dark place.
Israel was spiritually dry.
Ezekiel describes them as a valley of dry bones.
Jesus refers to them as white washed tombs.
Jesus came forth out of that.
He is the tender plant out of dry ground.
It would seem by all worldly wisdom, that his mission would be doomed to fail.
He has no stately form or majesty.
No appearance that we should be attracted to him.
The most important person who has ever entered the world will be someone that no one will want.
Nothing of world significance
Nothing of world significance
Look at verse 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.
From His birth, Herod despised him.
His own people despised him and killed him.
A man of sorrows.
He is acquainted with grief.
He was despised.
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We gave him no esteem.
And yet the beginning of this song lets us know that he will prosper.
He will be high and exalted.
Isaiah speaks of his own people when he says the did not esteem him.
The Jews rejected Christ.
We know this happened for salvation to be opened up to the Gentiles.
And all this is according the Scriptures.
But salvation comes to the gentiles and the Jews in the same way.
No one is saved on bloodline.
We are saved through belief in Christ and trusting in him for salvation.
Embrace the unlikely King who prospers. Call upon him today.
Realize that he became low for us.
May we follow His example as we make this gospel, known to the world.