Download Messiah in the Old Testament: The Suffering and Glory of the Servant

Bethel Christian Fellowship
Fair Lawn, NJ
The Suffering And Glory Of The Servant
Isaiah 52:13 – 53:12
Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday
March 25 and 27, 2016
There are four Messianic passages in the second part of Isaiah that are often referred to as the
four Servant Songs (Isa. 42:1-4; 49:1-7; 50:4-9; 52:13-53:12). To be sure, there has been much
debate about the servant’s identity. The traditional view of Judaism, for example, understands
the servant to be a collective picture of Israel. But it is apparent from Jesus’ own statements and
the rest of the New Testament authors that all of them understood the Servant to be none other
than Jesus, the Messiah.
The fourth of these songs is, in fact, the most frequently cited Old Testament passage in the New
Testament. “Undoubtedly,” writes Walter Kaiser, “this is the summit of Old Testament
prophetic literature. Few passages can rival it for clarity on the suffering, death, burial, and
resurrection of the Messiah” (The Messiah In The Old Testament). This climatic fourth song
(52:13-53:12), therefore, celebrates the gospel of Jesus Christ (Cf. 1 Cor. 15:3-4).
There really is no better time of year to focus upon the significance of this song than Good
Friday and Resurrection Sunday. On Good Friday, our thoughts naturally turn to the suffering of
the Servant, our Crucified Savior. On Resurrection Sunday we then look to the glory of the
Servant, our Risen Savior. As most commentators point out, the song consists of five stanzas,
each of which is three verses long.
A. The Exaltation and Humiliation of the Servant (52:13-15): “See, My Servant will act wisely;
He will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted. Just as there were many who were appalled
at Him – His appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and His form marred beyond
human likeness – so He will sprinkle many nations, and kings will shut their mouths because of
Him. For what they were not told they will see, and what they have not heard, they will
understand.” This opening stanza is a summary of everything that will be revealed in the
following four stanzas (53:1-12); verses 1-12 of chapter 53, therefore, will elaborate on these
three verses.
1. The triumphant exaltation of the Servant is summarized in verse 13. Three successive events
are in view: “He will be raised” (His resurrection), “and lifted up” (His ascension), “and highly
exalted” (His glorification at the right hand of God the Father).
2. The appalling humiliation of the Servant is then summarized in verses 14-15. His disfigured
and marred appearance will make Him hardly recognizable as a man. Yet a day will come when
even the kings of many nations “will shut their mouths” in awe of Him, as they begin to
understand the purpose of His sufferings: “For what they were not told they will see, and what
they have not heard, they will understand” (v. 15). This is the Old Testament message of the
Gospel that will be revealed in the following four stanzas of this song (53:1-12). It is not
surprising, then, that the Apostle Paul quotes verse 15 to explain why he was carrying the Gospel
of Christ farther and farther into the Gentile world (Romans 15:20-21):
“It has always been my ambition to preach the Gospel where Christ was not known,
so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation. Rather, as it is written,
‘Those who were not told about him will see, and those who have not heard will
understand.’”
B. The Rejection of the Servant (53:1-3): “Who has believed our message and to whom has the
arm of the Lord been revealed? He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of
dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we
should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with
suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”
1. The emphasis of verse 1 is on the unbelief of Israel. Isaiah, as a representative of his people,
is expressing dismay that so few believe the message that he is now proclaiming (Cf. 52:13-15):
“Who has believed our message, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” These
are rhetorical questions expecting negative answers.
2. The reasons for Israel’s unbelief, and their subsequent rejection of him, are then given in
verses 2-3. It’s important to note that everything that Isaiah is portraying about the Servant is
now being written in the past tense. In the mind of Isaiah, what he is describing is so vivid and
sure to happen that he portrays it as already having taken place. There would be nothing about
the Servant’s lowly background or outward appearance that would cause Israel to be attracted to
him. On the contrary, he would be despised and rejected among men.
The unbelief that Isaiah here depicts is the same unbelief found all about us today.
Men say pleasant and complimentary things about the Lord of Glory. They will
praise His ethics, His teaching, declare that He was a good man and a great prophet,
the only one who has answers to the social problems that today confront the world.
They will not, however, acknowledge that they are sinners, deserving of
everlasting punishment, and that the death of Christ was a vicarious sacrifice,
designed to satisfy the justice of God and to reconcile an offended God to the sinner.
Men will not receive what God says concerning His Son. Today also, the Servant
is despised and rejected of men, and men do not esteem Him.
(E. J. Young, The Prophecy of Isaiah, Volume III)
C. The Substitutionary Suffering and Death of the Servant (53:4-6): “Surely he took up our
infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by Him, and
afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the
punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like
sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the
iniquity of us all.”
1. This third stanza is the very heart of the song. It introduces the truth about the Servant’s
sufferings. Everything that happened to Him was what should have happened to us. Acting as
His people’s substitute, the Servant took upon Himself the bitter consequences of their sin.
“We” thought He was being “punished by God” (v. 4), but it was our “punishment” that was
placed “on him” (v. 5). “The first person pronouns throughout this stanza are impressive” (NIV
Study Bible notes).
2. Not only did the Servant take upon Himself our punishment for sin, but in taking it, He
“brought us peace.” Because of our sins, God was not at peace with us; now, through faith in our
sin-bearing substitute, He is: “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we
might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21).
D. The Submission of the Servant (53:7-9): “He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open
his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And who can
speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgressions
of My people he was stricken. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his
death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.”
1. In verse 7, the servant submits to his unjust suffering and trial, without any word of
complaint; in verse 8, he submits to his death – he is “cut off” from the land of the living “for the
transgression” of God’s people; in verse 9, he submits to his burial. The New Testament
confirms that all of this has been fulfilled in Jesus, the Messiah. He remains silent when unjust
charges are brought against Him by the Jewish Sanhedrin (Mark 14:60-61); the same is true
when He stands before Herod (Luke 23:8-9) and then Pilate (Mark 15:4-5). Then, having been
executed as a criminal, He is taken down from the cross and laid in the tomb of a rich man,
Joseph of Arimathea (Matt. 27:57-60).
2. Verses 7-8 were also the ones that the Ethiopian eunuch was reading when Philip came upon
him (Acts 8:32-34). When the Ethiopian asked to whom Isaiah 53:7-8 referred, Philip “began
with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus” (Acts 8:35).
E. The Exaltation of the Servant (53:10-12): “Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause
him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and
prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand. After the sufferings of his
soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge My righteous servant will
justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give him a portion among the
great, and he will divide the spoils among the strong, because he poured out his life unto death,
and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession
for the transgressors.”
1. If the Lord’s will is for the life of the Servant to be poured out as a guilt-offering for sin
(v. 10a), then how will He see His (spiritual) offspring? If He is dead, how can His days be
prolonged, so that “the will of the Lord will prosper in His hand?” (v. 10b) The only way these
things can happen is that after He has suffered and died, He “will see the light of life and be
satisfied” (v. 11a). This is a clear indication that the Servant will be raised from the dead.
2. The conclusion to this song (53:12) echoes its introduction (52:13). It gives us the assurance
that the mission of the Servant will be triumphant. Because He is the victor, conquering sin and
death, the Servant “will divide the spoils with the strong.” Having given His life in the place of
His sheep, thereby bearing “the sin of many” and “interceding for the transgressors,” they will
share eternal life with Him. Therein lies the victory that He won on Resurrection Sunday.
The resurrection of the Servant means that the offering up of His life was a sacrifice acceptable
to God. It proves that His death was enough – enough to atone for our sins, to reconcile us to
God, and to present us holy in His presence. The good news of the empty tomb is that the Lord’s
Servant won this great victory – and that sin, death, and the devil lost.
In the lesson presented on Lord’s Day 17 of the Heidelberg Catechism (1563), the answer to
Question 45 gives three basic reasons why the resurrection of the Son of God is such good news.
The question reads as follows: “How does Christ’s resurrection benefit us?” Here is the answer:
First, by His resurrection He has overcome death,
so that He might make us share in the righteousness
He obtained for us by His death.
(Rom. 4:25; 1 Cor. 15:16-20; 1 Peter 1:3-5)
Second, by His power we too
are already raised to a new life.
(Rom. 6:5-11; Eph. 2:4-6; Col. 3:1-4)
Third, Christ’s resurrection
is a sure pledge to us of our blessed resurrection.
(Rom. 8:11; 1 Cor. 15:12-23; Phil. 3:20-21)