Our Admission and His Silence

Introduction:

From this text, we can learn some universal realities.

They are about God and about ourselves.

We have learned Isaiah’s unbelievable message about God’s servant:

He comes from obscurity.

He has no physical attractiveness.

Israel considers him under God’s divine judgment (they are partially correct).

Israel considers him to have no value at all.

So far, the most shocking turn has happened at Isaiah 53:5.

Notice Isaiah’s admission with the repetition of “our.”

He will focus on this more, for just a little while.

An Admission of Universal Guilt

We know from the prophets that Israel, especially once God’s judgment began according to Ezekiel, tried to argue for God’s unfairness.

They saw themselves as having to pay for the sins of their fathers.

They claimed themselves as innocent.

Here, Isaiah builds an inclusio that will play an important roll in this verse.

The verse begins and ends with the same Hebrew word (all of us).

Isaiah does not try to claim that previous generations erred or that individuals should not be wrapped up in the broader sinfulness of the nation.

“All of us” he emphasizes from the outset.

Isaiah now relies upon the familiar simile of sheep.

Sheep and shepherds first comes in Numbers 20. (double check this).

David applies it to himself.

In the prophets, the leaders, both political and spiritual, are compared to shepherds who have the responsibility of leading the sheep of Israel.

It is significant that Isaiah does not try to “pass the buck” for sin.

Daniel 9 and Nehemiah 1:4.

Isaiah does not present “turning aside, every (man) to “the way of his face.” as a failure of leadership, per se. It is a personal and national failure as the terminology of “iniquity” will soon demonstrate.

An Acknowledgment of Divine Grace

Now, “the Lord” becomes the focal point of the sentence.

“Laid on him” comes from a Hiphil verb that carries one of two senses, usually, and both are found in Isaiah 53.

One occurs in Is. 53:12 where it is translated as “intercession.”

The other sense occurs here, meaning “to burden or to lay.”

“Iniquity”:

With regard to “evil (awon),” TWOT indicates the term is a collective. Although based off of the verb “to bend, to twist,” the noun refers to crooked behavior, perversion, or iniquity in its totality. “This notion of totality is also seen in the association of individual misdemeanor with that of the group” (TWOT: 2.650). In other words, the individual sin of the person cannot be cultivated out of the sin of the whole.

Neither can the term be separated from the punishment that goes with it. It is the punishment deserved for iniquity that seems to be in mind here.

Isaiah realizes that in this person, God has placed the punishment for evil. He bears the burden of everyone else’s sin.

An Unexpected Reaction

How might the Servant react to such treatment?

Isaiah 53:7 begins looking at it from his point of view. We get his experience.

Afflicted has already occurred in Isaiah 53:4.

Now, the lamb comparison returns to show how he underwent all of this without opposition or rejection.

Think of Jesus before the Sanhedrin.

Think of Jesus’ silence before Pilate.

Jesus did not make vile threats.