The Suffering Servant of Yahweh: a Stunning Prophecy: Isaiah 53

May I suggest that you take a few minutes and read Isaiah 52:13-15 and Isaiah 53:1-12? If you do my post today will be superfluous. Go ahead and do it. Then if you have more time later to come back to this, feel free. See you in a bit.




This is a stunning portion of God's Word for many reasons. Because it describes the experience of Christ with such poignant detail, it became in the minds of the early church, one of the most important Old Testament texts.

Here are some vital facts and statistics about this prophecy:
1. It is made 700 years before Christ was born.
2. It was understood to be a Messianic prophecy by many Jewish scholars before (and is some cases long after) the coming of Christ. Later, because of its striking connections to Jesus, revisionist interpretations were created.
3. It includes no less than 10 specific predictions that were fulfilled in the experience of Christ, including His resurrection!
4. It is cited no less than 12-15 times in the New Testament.
5. It gives a clear declaration of the atoning, sacrificial death of Christ in behalf of sinners, making it a stunningly clear gospel text in the Old Testament.

Above all this Scripture shows the amazing love of Christ for us; for me. May I suggest that you go back and insert your name and a first person singular pronoun throughout Isaiah 53 wherever it fits? Let me help you do this:

He was despised and rejected by [me];
a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom [I hid my face]
he was despised, and [I] esteemed him not.

Surely he has borne [my] griefs
and carried [my] sorrows;
yet [I] esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.

But he was wounded for [my] transgressions;
he was crushed for [my] iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought [me] peace,
and with his stripes [I am] healed.

... like sheep [I] have gone astray;
[I] have turned [to my] own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity [which was mine].
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.

By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
stricken for [my] transgression...?
And they made his grave with the wicked
and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.

Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;
he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, [God's] servant,
make [me] to be accounted righteous,
and he shall bear [my] iniquities.