Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ the Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS, 16 Dec 2007, 23 Dec 2018
52:13. Look, my Servant will act prudently;
He will be high, and lifted up, and greatly exalted,
14. as when many were astonished over You,
so disfigured from man was His appearance, and His form from the sons of man,
15. so He will sprinkle many nations.
Over Him Kings will draw their mouths shut,
for what had not been recorded for them they see,
and what they had not heard, they understand for themselves.
53:1. Who has believed in what we caused to be heard?
And the arm of Jehovah, upon whom was it revealed?
2. So he went up
like the sucker before His face
and like the root from dry ground,
there was no stately form to Him, and no majesty.
And there was not [much of] an appearance that we would desire Him.
3. He was despised and was the One rejected of men - a sorrowing man also known by grief.
And like one from whom there is hiding of faces,
He was despised and we did not give Him consideration.
4. Surely our griefs He Himself carried, and our sorrows, He bore them.
Yet we, we considered Him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted.
5. However, He was being pierced from our rebellion - beaten from our iniquity.
Chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes there is healing for us.
6. All we like the flock have strayed, each has faced toward his own way.
But Jehovah interposed in Him the iniquity of us all.
7. He was oppressed and He Himself was afflicted, but He did not open His mouth,
like the lamb is led to the slaughter
and a ewe before the face of her shearers is silent.
So He did not open His mouth.
8. From the prison and from the judgment-hall He was taken, and who will comment on His generation?
For He was torn away from the land of the living,
from the rebellion of my people, the stroke went towards Him.
Don’t let the Humanists hijack your Christmas!
Here’s how they do it: they tell only half the story and then make the wrong application:
They talk about peace on earth and good will, good feelings, holidays, beauty, warmth, family, and even about a Jewish baby being born,
Then they make the application that we need to be nice to each other and “practice random acts” of kindness and make the world a better place to live.
But they leave out the other half of the story:
They leave out the fact that the human race is lost in sin and can never reach peace and goodwill. Evil gunmen are always going to roam the malls and campuses and streets – no amount of applied humanism will ever fix that problem.
They conveniently excuse their “little indiscretions” and ignore the fact that God must punish all mankind with everlasting hellfire because of their rebellion against Him.
They leave out the fact that Jesus died to take upon Himself the wrath of God so that all who would believe upon Him would not have to experience God’s punishment for their sin but would experience peace and God’s good–will instead.
That is the whole story. And that is the story that Isaiah is telling us today, in what Polycarp once called “the golden passional of the Old Testament.”
52:13. Look, my Servant will act prudently;
He will be high, and lifted up, and greatly exalted,
14. as when many were astonished over You,
so disfigured from man was His appearance, and His form from the sons of man,
15. so He will sprinkle many nations.
Over Him Kings will draw their mouths shut,
for what had not been recorded for them they see,
and what they had not heard, they understand for themselves.
The first word of 52:13 signals a transition. “Look” – pay attention to my Servant here. From here to the end of chapter 53, Isaiah meditates on Jesus the Messiah. It is for this reason that I’m lumping the last few verses of chapter 52 along with chapter 53.
The Servant’s exaltation is emphasized in v. 13 as a contrast with His humiliation in the following verses. He will be “prudent/wise,” and will thus “prosper” in what He does. The three verbs describing His exaltation in v.13, remind me of the description of God in:
Isa. 5:16 “But the LORD of hosts is exalted in justice, and the Holy God shows himself holy in righteousness.”
and 6:1 – “I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up…”
Jesus existed in the “form” of the one awesome God, as Philippians 2 teaches us, but “emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant… a man.”
And it is on this emptying and humiliation that Isaiah focuses here.
Isaiah remarks that it is an “astonishing” contrast (v.14). The word “you” - the person over whom the many are astonished - is masculine singular, and although it is possible grammatically for non-Christian Jews and the NAS to relate this to the Jewish nation, I think it is better to relate it to the much nearer antecedent, “my servant” and to all the following masculine singular pronouns speaking of Jesus.
There is a comparison going on:
v.13 speaks of the servant being lifted up
v.14 starts with “as” and compares the lifting up to a time when the many were astonished at him
then the word “so/thus” appears before the marring of the servant’s appearance
and so/thus appears again at the beginning of v.15 before the sprinkling of the many
- Jesus spoke multiple times of His crucifixion to come as a time when He would be “lifted up” (John 3:14, 12:32) – lifted up on the cross,
- as did Isaiah, I believe, in 11:10-12, 18:3, 49:22, when he wrote of God lifting up a sign that would result in all the peoples of the world coming to Him.
So I think the comparison is between the exalted state of Jesus in heaven which would have astonished anyone who could see Him there, and the lifting up of Jesus on the cross, which would astonish the many. Jesus’ body was ripped to shreds during His scourging, He was beaten black and blue with a club by the soldiers in the judgment hall, and His hair and face would have been matted with blood from puncture wounds after that crown of thorns had been pressed down on His head. The sight of such a man hanging exposed on a cross would be revolting and astonishing indeed. His face was so disfigured it didn’t even look human anymore. It would make any sensible person shudder and hide their face from the view.
From the heavenly exaltation to the cross, v.15 describes the purpose of this suffering. It is so that this Servant would sprinkle many nations and enable them to see and understand. This word for “sprinkle” comes from the Old Testament sacrifices which pictured cleansing from sin:
Leviticus 4:2-6 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If any one shall sin unwittingly, in any of the things which Jehovah hath commanded not to be done, and shall do any one of them… then let him offer for his sin… a young bullock without blemish unto Jehovah for a sin-offering. 4 And he shall bring the bullock unto the door of the tent of meeting before Jehovah; and he shall lay his hand upon the head of the bullock, and kill the bullock before Jehovah. 5 And the anointed priest shall take of the blood of the bullock, and bring it to the tent of meeting: 6 and the priest shall dip his finger in the blood, and sprinkle of the blood seven times before Jehovah, before the veil of the sanctuary.”
Numbers 19:17-19 “And for the unclean they shall take of the ashes of the burning of the sin-offering; and running water shall be put into a vessel: 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… he shall purify him…”
Ezekiel 36:24-26 explains the fulfillment of this Old Testament symbol in New Testament terminology: “For I will take you from among the nations, and gather you out of all the countries, and will bring you into your own land. And I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit...”
As Philippians 2:9 teaches, after His humiliation, Jesus would be exalted again, and every knee will bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord. Thus we come full circle back to verse 13 with a Christ who is “high, lifted up, and highly exalted.”
How would the kings, the many, the nations, see and understand this good news that they had never heard about before?
v. 7. Through those “evangelists upon the mountains, announcing peace, proclaiming goodness, causing salvation to be heard, saying to Zion, your God reigns!”
cf. Isaiah 43:21 “This people I formed for myself will recount my praise.”
49:7 “Thus says Jehovah, Redeemer of Israel, its Holy One, to the despised soul, to the one abhorred by the nation, to a servant of rulers, ‘Kings will see and they will stand up, and princes will prostrate themselves on account of Jehovah who is faithful…’”
The beginning of this fulfillment was when the shepherds and wise men “saw” the Baby Jesus there in Bethlehem on that first Christmas and proceeded to tell other people about what they saw. (Luke 2:17, Matt 2:11)
The Apostle John prefaced both his Gospel and his Epistle with the testimony that he “saw” Jesus and was writing an eyewitness account.
Later on, the Apostle Paul understood his preaching throughout the world to be a fulfillment of Isaiah 52:15: “from Jerusalem, and round about even unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ… as it is written, ‘They shall see, to whom no tidings of Him came, And they who have not heard shall understand.’” (Romans 15:19-21)
By the way, perhaps half of the world’s population has not heard this very good news. Does that concern you?
53:1. Who has believed in what we caused to be heard?
And the arm of Jehovah, upon whom was it revealed?
2. So he went up
like the sucker before His face
and like the root from dry ground,
there was no stately form to Him, and no majesty.
And there was not [much of] an appearance that we would desire Him.
3. He was despised and was the One rejected of men - a sorrowing man also known by grief.
And like one from whom there is hiding of faces,
He was despised and we did not give Him consideration.
Who has believed our report?
The answer to the questions in verse 1 are found five verses back in 52:10, “Jehovah has bared His holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God.” (cf. 40:5)
I believe that 53:1 builds on the previous verse and these are the “many” who were sprinkled clean from sin and are now reflecting upon the sacrificial work of Jesus with understanding. They are the ones heeding Isaiah’s many commands to “listen” to God’s word. However, “the many” means “not all.”
The apostle John saw this principle at work during the time of Christ: “The many asked… ‘The Son of man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of man?’ Jesus therefore said unto them, ‘Yet a little while is the Light among you… While you have the Light, believe on the Light, that you may become sons of light.’… But though He had done so many signs before them, yet they did not believe on Him, that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke, ‘Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed?’ … 41 Isaiah said these things, because he saw His glory; and he spoke about Him. Nevertheless even of the rulers many believed on Him…” (John 12:34-42)
After the time of Christ, Paul carried on that same message
and found similar results. Many believed; many did
not.
Romans 10:15-17 “and how shall they preach,
except they be sent? even as it is written, ‘How beautiful are
the feet of them that bring glad tidings of good things! But they
did not all hearken to the glad tidings. For Isaiah says,
‘Lord, who hath believed our report?’ So belief comes
from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.”
Do you believe the Bible’s report about Jesus is true? It is the only way to reach the peace and good-will that everybody talks about at Christmas.
Verse 2 and following describes what it was like for Jesus to empty Himself of His heavenly glory and be found in the form of a man:
He gave up His “stately form and majesty,” the same awesome majesty that Isaiah says God has in 2:10,
Jesus walked in obscurity on earth.
He lived in the dry land of Palestine (cf. 41:18 & 52:9),
Born in a tiny Asian village to a powerful monarch, a
wealthy businessman, a learned doctor, well, to a
carpenter,
Laid in a feed troth for cattle as a baby, and even once He was grown, didn’t own a place to lay His head, (Luke 9:58)
When He got hungry, He had to rummage through wheat fields with the poorest of the poor (Mat. 12:1).
Anyone who didn’t realize that He “had the words of life” (John 6:68) would easily misjudge Jesus as a nobody.
They “despised and rejected Him,” “turned their faces” from Him and did not give Him a second thought (v.3).
The “desires” of most of the people were oriented toward the more sensational religions that offered political power (43:17), sexual excitement (1:29) and attractive images (44:9), but they should have been oriented instead toward the word of God.
They were “giving consideration” to great men (2:22), when they should have been giving consideration to God.
They were “pointing their faces toward their own way” (v.6) rather than “facing up to God” (45:22).
As a result, they missed the boat.
Don’t go and miss the boat too. Christmas isn’t about drawing excitement out of the things and people in this world, but rather about drawing our excitement out of the relationship Jesus gives us with God!
4. Surely our griefs He Himself carried, and our sorrows, He bore them.
Yet we, we considered Him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted.
5. However, He was being pierced from our rebellion - beaten from our iniquity.
Chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes there is healing for us.
6. All we like the flock have strayed, each has faced toward his own way.
But Jehovah interposed in Him the iniquity of us all.
7. He was oppressed and He Himself was afflicted, but He did not open His mouth,
like the lamb is led to the slaughter
and a ewe before the face of her shearers is silent.
So He did not open His mouth.
8. From the prison and from the judgment-hall He was taken, and who will comment on His generation?
For He was torn away from the land of the living,
from the rebellion of my people, the stroke went towards Him.
Verses 4-6 give a series of strong contrasts between He/Jesus – and we/us.
He the carrier, we the misconstruers,
He the pierced healer, we the iniquitous rebels,
He the sacrificial lamb, we the straying flock
But the two contrasting parties intersect. Jehovah “imposed our iniquities upon Him.” (v.6)
When my niece Tabitha was a little girl, she memorized Isaiah 53:6 and quoted it like this, “Oh me a sheep, I’m gone away. I get a 53 cents!” It’s easy to comprehend a little child misunderstanding the passage, yet there are lot of adults in this world who miss the point of Isaiah 53:6.
It’s very important that we see Isaiah’s point about why Jesus died. There are three things you have to understand as the context before you can understand why Jesus died:
First it is important to understand what sin is:
Isaiah uses three words in this chapter to describe sin:
פשע = transgressions/offenses/rebellion (v.5,8) – crossing a line
עוֹן = iniquity, to exert oneself for vanity (v.6,8) – being a jerk
חטאת = miss the mark (v.12) – not being good enough
The Westminster Catechism defines sin as “any want of conformity to or transgression of the law of God.” (SC#14) The law being the Bible, a summary of which can be found in the 10 commandments.
Second, we need to realize that we are sinners:
Psalm 14:3 “They are all gone aside; they are together become filthy; There is none that doeth good, no, not one.”
Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God;”
“All” means you too. Even one small lie, one small thing stolen, one angry thought, one act of disobedience to an authority, one selfish desire is enough to identify you as a sinner.
Finally we need to realize the penalty for sin:
Ezekiel 18:4 – “…the soul that sins, it shall die.”
Romans 6:23 – “the wages of sin is death”
Sin necessitates death. Nothing else can satisfy God’s justice. Anyone who thinks their good deeds can balance the scales has missed the Gospel! Only your death can balance the scales.
So with those three points of context, we can understand that the death of Jesus on the cross was a fulfillment of the penalty God instituted for sin. It was not just an exemplary suffering. It was not a mistake. It was the plan of God from eternity past to provide a way that we could be saved from the penalty of death that we would incur upon ourselves by our sin.
ILLUSTRATION on substitionary atonement: My Dad tells the story of the time one of his brothers had messed in his pants and left the pants in a closet. When his dad discovered the malodorous item, he lined all the kids up on a bench and told them that they couldn’t go out to play until someone ‘fessed up to doing the dirty deed. Upon a clean confession, the offender would be promptly spanked. My seven uncles and aunts all looked at Grandpa’s spanking belt, and nobody said a word. Finally, my Dad, who had not done it, but who was itching to get out and go fishing, broke the silence. “I did it.” He took the spanking and the real offender got off free. On a small scale, this is what Jesus did for us.
For those who believe in Jesus, we’re sinners like the rest of the world, but Jesus was punished for our sin and we enjoy blessing as though we had not sinned. Theologians use the phrase “substitionary atonement” to describe this concept. Christ as our substitute vicariously atoned for our sin by taking the punishment for our sin upon Himself. That’s what the phrase “Chastisement of our peace” means (v.5): He was punished so that we could have peace with God! (We still receive some consequences from our sin, but that’s a different subject.)
The good news is that there is healing! (v.5) There is forgiveness. There is the offer of all guilt removed! Our Christian faith, although it starts with the gloom and doom of sin, focuses on this wonderful news of peace and goodwill toward men. When you have the whole Biblical story like this, it makes the silly humanistic gospel pale in comparison!
“Bearing shame and scoffing rude,
in my place condemned He stood,
sealed my pardon with His blood,
Halleluiah, what a savior!” (Philip Bliss)
Isaiah 43:25 “I, I am He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.”
As we approach Christmas Day, let’s remember the whole story; don’t stop short with the announcement of the angels or the birth of the baby Jesus; take the story in its fullness, right down to His death on the cross, because that is why He came to earth.
This Christmas let us “turn our faces” toward Jesus, “consider Him,” “desire Him.” Continue to believe this report from God’s word and carry this good news to the world so that more will believe!
It is true that God’s law is Just. It is true that I have violated that law. It is true that I deserve eternal death as the punishment for my sin, but it is also true that Christ suffered eternal death in my place, and it is true, true, true that I am forgiven and I am healed!