4-Day Commentary Challenge - Isaiah 52:13-53:12 Sample

   

THE SERVANT WOUNDED

During His ministry on earth, the Lord Jesus entered sympathetically into the griefs and afflictions of men. This is the meaning of the first part of verse 4, as clearly explained in Matthew 8:17. There is no warrant for supposing that healing is “in the atonement,” as some erroneously teach from this verse. Christ healed every manner of sickness and disease among the people, but He died for our sins, not for our illnesses. The godly remnant of Israel in a future day continue their prophetic musings:

Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. (vv. 4, 5)

Here is substitution. Israel in Christ’s own day thought that He deserved to die. He was accused of and condemned for blasphemy. He was considered smitten of God deservedly. Nevertheless He died, not for Himself, but for others, and this prophecy is the assurance that Israel will someday realize this blessed truth. This is the heart of this wonderfully symmetrical second part of Isaiah. There is no higher truth than this—that the sinless Son of God died on the cross for sinful man. One can fully understand why Isaiah is called the prophet of the gospel.

All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. (v. 6)

One day the Lord Jesus looked compassionately upon the multitudes of Israel “like sheep without a shepherd” (Matt. 9:36). “Every one to his own way . . .”. That is what men want. They think that they are free, that they are working out their own destiny; instead, they are lost.

God in His infinite grace provided salvation for us wandering sheep. Christ died for our sins. The expression “laid on him” means literally “to cause to strike with great force.” Paul explains it in these words:

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Cor. 5:21)

Peter comments on this passage:

And He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed. For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls. (1 Peter 2:24–25)

THE SERVANT CUT OFF

The Lord Jesus was not an unwilling victim, compelled to go to the cross. No, He was the voluntary sacrifice. All the path from glory to Calvary was illuminated by His “Behold, I have come . . . to do Your will, O God” (Heb. 10:7).  All through the centuries since Moses’s time the Passover lambs had been killed, all pointing forward to Someone, yet giving only a silent and cryptic witness. Now that Someone is revealed, and the sequence is perfectly clear. From Isaiah 53:7 to John 1:29 is but a step:

Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

The prophecy proceeds to speak of the thoughtlessness of His generation. “Cut off out of the land of the living.” Condemned by His own people, yet graciously bearing their transgressions. Daniel was likewise to speak of the cutting off of Messiah (Dan. 9:26). With what seemingly irrelevant details prophecy is sometimes concerned! Yet that which appears to be irrelevant furnishes proof of the genuineness of the prophecy. There could be no accidental fulfillment of such a prediction as this. He who was crucified between two malefactors was buried in the tomb of a rich man, Joseph of Arimathea (Matt. 27:57).