WHO IS THE SUBJECT OF ISAIAH 52.13 – 53:12
1). INTRODUCTION
The book of Isaiah provides us with the most comprehensive prophetic picture of Jesus Christ in the entire Old Testament. Amongst other things, it includes the full scope of His life: the announcement of His coming (Isaiah 40:3–5), His virgin birth (7:14), His proclamation of the good news (61:1), His sacrificial death (52:13–53:12), and His return to claim His own (60:2–3). Because of these and numerous other christological texts in Isaiah, the book stands as a testament of hope in the Lord, the One who saves His people from themselves.
Of the foregoing Messianic references none is as controversial and hotly contested as chapter 53 and the last part of chapter 52 from verse 13.
To Christians this passage spanning 15 verses is an amazing Messianic portrayal. But to Jews, Muslims, atheists, those of other faiths and none, it means something else. Here, if you are willing to explore this “obscure” passage with an open mind here, is an opportunity to consider it afresh.
Isaiah 52:13-15 (KJV)
[13] “Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.
[14] As many were astonished at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men:
[15] So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider.”
Isaiah 53:1-12 (KJV)
[1] “Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?
[2] For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
[3] He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
[4] Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
[5] But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
[6] All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
[7] He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
[8] He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken
[9] And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
[10] Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
[11] He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
[12] Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”
Those words were written over 2700 years ago. Yet many people who read them today find that they jump off the page. If nothing else, the chapter is packed with incredible drama, heroics and pathos. But many people find a personal challenge in these words that is interwoven with the questions: who is this person and what in the world was he doing?
They are questions worth considering for oneself, but it may also be helpful to see the progression of opinions given by Jewish rabbinic tradition. For these are the custodians of the Jewish Scriptures it is still “their book” after all. But these changes are reflective of how modern Judaism has almost nothing in common with the Second Temple era, for reasons explained here in another post.¹
2). WHAT THE EARLY RABBIS SAID
Some of the first written interpretations or targums (ancient paraphrases on biblical texts) see this passage as referring to an individual servant, the Messiah, who would suffer. Messianic Jewish talmudist, Rachmiel Frydland, recounts those early views:
“Our ancient commentators with one accord noted that the context clearly speaks of God’s Anointed One, the Messiah.”
The Aramaic translation of this chapter, ascribed to Rabbi Jonathan ben Uzziel, a disciple of Hillel who lived early in the second century c.e., begins with the simple and worthy words:
‘Behold my servant Messiah shall prosper; he shall be high, and increase, and be exceeding strong: as the house of Israel looked to him through many days, because their countenance was darkened among the peoples, and their complexion beyond the sons of men (Targum Jonathan on Isaiah 53, ad locum).’”
We find the same interpretation in the Babylonian Talmud:
“What is his [the Messiah’s] name? The Rabbis said: His name is “the leper scholar,” as it is written, “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him a leper, smitten of God, and afflicted.” (Sanhedrin 98b)
Similarly, in an explanation of Ruth 2:14 in the Midrash Rabbah it states:
“He is speaking of the King Messiah: “Come hither” draw near to the throne “and dip thy morsel in the vinegar,” this refers to the chastisements, as it is said, “But he was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities.”
The Zohar, in its interpretation of Isaiah 53, points to the Messiah as well:
“There is in the Garden of Eden a palace named the Palace of the Sons of Sickness. This palace the Messiah enters, and He summons every pain and every chastisement of Israel. All of these come and rest upon Him. And had He not thus lightened them upon Himself, there had been no man able to bear Israel’s chastisements for the trangression of the law; as it is written, “Surely our sicknesses he has carried.” (Zohar II, 212a)
The early sages expected a personal Messiah to fulfill the Isaiah prophecy.
IT IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE TWO THINGS AT THIS POINT:
(A) THAT NO ALTERNATIVE INTERPRETATION WAS APPLIED TO THIS PASSAGE UNTIL THE MIDDLE AGES.
(B) THERE HAS NEVER BEEN ANY OTHER INDIVIDUAL PERSON THAT HAS FULFILLED THESE PROPHETIC WORDS APART FROM JESUS.
3). VIEWS ON ISAIAH 53 IN THE MIDDLE AGES
By the 11th Century, a completely different view was presented. This view was popularized by the French Jewish commentator Rabbi Shlomo Itzchaki, who lived one thousand years after Jesus (Born 1040 A.D.)
Rashi held the position that the servant passages of Isaiah referred to the collective fate of the nation of Israel rather than a personal Messiah. Some rabbis, such as Ibn Ezra and Kimchi, agreed. However, many other rabbinic sages during this same period and later—including Maimonides—realized the inconsistencies of Rashi’s views and would not abandon the original messianic interpretations.
The objections these rabbis put forth to Rashi’s view were threefold:
(I) First, they showed the consensus of ancient opinion.
(II) Second, they pointed out that the text is grammatically in the singular tense throughout. For example, “He was despised and rejected…he was pierced for our transgressions…he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,” and so on.
(III) Third, they noted verse 8 of chapter 53. This verse presents some difficulty to those who interpret this passage as referring to Israel. It reads:
“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 transgression of my people he was stricken.”
Were the Jewish people, God forbid, ever “cut off from the land of the living”? No! God promises that Israel will live forever:
“Only if these decrees [the sun to shine by day, the moon and stars to shine by night, etc.] vanish from my sight,” declares the Lord, “will the descendants of Israel ever cease to be a nation before me.” (Jeremiah 31:36)
Likewise, it is impossible to say that “for the transgression of my people he was stricken” since “my people” clearly means the Jewish people. If verse 8 refers to Israel, then are we to read that Israel is stricken for Israel because of Israel’s sin? How can the sin-bearer and the sinner be the same? Likewise, how can Israel be the servant, the one who “had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth” (Isaiah 53:9)? Israel is not now, nor ever has been, without sin—the Scriptures are replete with examples of Israel’s disobedience.
All of these inconsistencies troubled many rabbis and they expressed their opinions of Rashi’s view in no uncertain terms. Rabbi Moshe Kohen Iben Crispin of Cordova, who lived in the fourteenth century, said of the Israel as servant interpretation, it “distorts the passage from its natural meaning” and that Isaiah 53 “was given of God as a description of the Messiah, whereby, when any should claim to be the Messiah, to judge by the resemblance or non-resemblance to it whether he were the Messiah or not.”
Ibn Crispin said, “This rabbi described those who interpret Isaiah 53 as referring to Israel as those … “having forsaken the knowledge of our Teachers, and inclined after the `stubbornness of their own hearts,’ and of their own opinion, I am pleased to interpret it, in accordance with the teaching of our Rabbis, of the King Messiah. This prophecy was delivered by Isaiah at the divine command for the purpose of making known to us something about the nature of the future Messiah, who is to come and deliver Israel, and his life from the day when he arrives at discretion until his advent as a redeemer, in order that if anyone should arise claiming to be himself the Messiah, we may reflect, and look to see whether we can observe in him any resemblance to the traits described here; if there is any such resemblance, then we may believe that he is the Messiah our righteousness; but if not, we cannot do so.”
4). CONTEMPORARY RABBINIC VIEWS
Yet to this day, many rabbis persist in citing Rashi as the definitive word on how to interpret the servant of the Lord in Isaiah 53. Needless to say this is the school of thought that Muslims appeal to. Others admit the weakness of this view and say that the passage applies to an individual. They usually cite the prophet Isaiah himself, King Cyrus, King Hezekiah, Josiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Moses, Job or even some anonymous contemporaries of Isaiah as the one spoken of by the prophet.
As you go through the proposed list of people this passage describes, ask yourself: which one was totally blameless throughout his life? Which one died for the sins of others? Which one lives today? What do I think? Am I willing to dismiss Jesus as the one whom the prophet foretold? Then ask yourself again, why is this passage omitted from the regular synagogue readings?
Could it be because countless Jewish followers in Yeshua (Jesus) have come to believe in him after studying this very passage? If you were to survey one hundred Jews who believe Yeshua is the Messiah, you’d get a very different opinion about the identity of this servant in Isaiah. And you would probably find that a large percentage of them found this passage extremely influential in their thinking.
Leah is a 25-year-old Jewish woman who was searching for answers to her spiritual questions. When faced with the question, Was Jesus who he claimed to be? she wanted the answer to be no. Leah confessed, “I’m starting to see that Jesus is the Messiah, but if I accept it, I’m also rejecting my father, who did not believe in Jesus. I loved him more than anyone else in this world—I can’t do it.”
When challenged to read Isaiah 53, Leah found her dad’s old, faded Tenach. Opening it to the passage in question, she made two astounding discoveries. First, the passage really did sound like it was describing Jesus. And second, her father had circled the entire chapter. And in the margin he had written: “messianic prophecy—Yeshua is Messiah.”
Leah just had to ask…”Who is Yeshua?” When she understood that Yeshua is the Jewish way to say Jesus, it dawned on her. It was a convincing passage, indeed, and even her father had not been able to dismiss it. Within two weeks, she acknowledged that Jesus fit the description of the suffering servant.
In 1922, the late David Baron, a British Jewish believer in Jesus who was well-versed in rabbinics, wrote in the preface to his exposition of Isaiah chapter 53:
“…it is beyond even the wildest credulity to believe that the resemblance in every feature and minutest detail between this prophetic portraiture drawn centuries before his [Jesus’] advent and the story of his life, and death, and glorious resurrection as narrated in the gospels, can be mere accident or fortuitous coincidence.”
5). THE PARALLELS SUMMARISED:
Here we see the striking evidence about how Jesus, and only Jesus, could fulfill this very important part of the Jewish Scriptures. Going through them ask yourself how they can apply to a nation, as the sceptics argue.
ISAIAH PREDICTED THAT THE SERVANT … 700 YEARS LATER IS THE MESSIAH WHO …
# would be disfigured by suffering (52:14; 53:2-3)
FULFILLMENT: Jesus was struck, spat on and mocked, and bore the scars of crucifixion (Mark 15:17-19)
++++++++++++++++++++++
# would come from humble beginnings (53.2)
FULFILLMENT: Jesus grew up in Nazareth, a city with a very poor reputation; and not where the Messiah was expected to come from (Luke 2:39-40)
++++++++++++++++++++++
# would be rejected by many (53:1,3)
FULFILLMENT: while on the cross, Jesus was mocked, blasphemed and reviled, even by those who were crucified with him (Matthew 27:39-44)
+++++++++++++++++++++
# would bear our sins and suffer in our place (53:4-6,11)
FULFILLMENT: Jesus “…himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.” (1 Peter 2:24)
+++++++++++++++++++++
# would heal many (53:4-5)
FULFILLMENT: Jesus healed many (Matthew 8:16-17)
+++++++++++++++++++++
# voluntarily took our punishment upon himself (53:6-7)
FULFILLMENT: Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11)
+++++++++++++++++++++
# remained silent during his suffering (53:7)
FULFILLMENT: Jesus did not try defend himself to Herod, Pontius Pilate or the Sanhedrin (Matthew 26:62-64; 27:11-14; Luke 23:9)
++++++++++++++++++++++
# would die (53:8,12)
FULFILLMENT: Jesus died on a cross (Mark 15:37; John 19:33-34)
++++++++++++++++++++++
# they made His grave with the wicked
# would be buried with a rich man (53:9)
FULFILLMENT: Jesus body would, but for the intervention of Joseph, have been subjected to the standard ignominious disposal of an unmarked even a mass grave assigned to criminals. But He was buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, a rich man (Matthew 27:57-60). Criminals don’t get laid to rest in a tomb.
++++++++++++++++++++++
# would not remain dead, but see his seed, prolong his days and be exalted (53:10-11)
FULFILLMENT: Jesus rose from the dead three days after the crucifixion and still lives today and millions of people see themselves as his spiritual seed (Matthew 28:1-10)
+++++++++++++++++++++++
6). NEW TESTAMENT REFERENCES TO ISAIAH 53
The New Testament writers clearly understood the significance of Isaiah 53.
Matthew 8:14-17; John 12:37-41; Luke 22:35-38; 1 Peter 2:19-25; Acts 8:26-35; Romans 10:11-21 make up the six passages of Scripture which contain seven quotations from Isaiah 53. But before we examine them a few words about the format of Isaiah and context of chapter 53.
The book of Isaiah divides into seven sections, the fifth section being chapters 40 to 48 and the sixth section chapters 49 to 57. Although these two sections both end with the same words: ‘There is no peace… to the wicked,’ the wickedness referred to has a different form in the two cases—idolatry in the fifth section and Israel’s faithless rejection of Messiah in the sixth section.
In chapters 40 to 48 Israel is several times referred to as Jehovah’s servant, but was a failing one, having fallen into idolatry and become blind to the glory of Jehovah and deaf to His word. Cyrus, the King of the Persians, is brought before His people as Jehovah’s shepherd and anointed, and His instrument for the destruction of Babylon, the great source of idolatry.
However, in chapter 42:1-4 the Messiah is brought before God’s people as God’s perfect Servant. He is the one who in the time to come will make a full end of idolatry, which Cyrus did not, and in whose Name the Gentiles will trust. These verses are quoted in Matthew 12:18-21 where they present the meekness and gentleness of Christ. He did not force Himself upon unwilling Israel but, as the verses in Matthew 11 show us, accepted this from and gave thanks to the Father who hid these things from the wise and prudent, but revealed them unto babes (Matthew 11:25-26).
While chapters 40 to 48 of Isaiah make no explicit reference to the rejection of the Messiah by Israel this is very clearly the primary subject in chapters 49 to 57. The Messiah is the Servant who laboured in vain, and whom the nation abhorred (49:4-5). His ear was opened and He was an obedient and faithful servant who suffered at men’s hands as a consequence (50:4-9). This ill-treatment was extreme—‘His face was so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men’ (52:14).
So by the time we get to chapter 53 the stage has already been set. Isaiah 53 shows this and even deeper suffering. Of the nine chapters in the sixth section, this is the central one. A well-known author wrote of it as etched on every Christian’s heart and perhaps that is still true today. Most Christians could quote at least a part of it and know that it speaks of the sorrow and suffering of the Lord Jesus, Israel’s Messiah.
At His baptism Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power and Matthew chapters 8 and 9 show Him exercising that power. In chapter 8 He cleanses the leper, heals the centurion’s servant and rebukes the fever under which Peter’s mother-in-law was suffering. Then, ‘When the even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick’ (Matthew 8:16).
Matthew makes it clear that this was the fulfilment of Isaiah 53:4 ‘Himself took our infirmities, and bore our sicknesses.’ This is remarkable because it shows that these actions involved more than the bare exercise of power. Jesus in His human spirit first entered fully under the burden of every condition that He then went on to relieve. And what He experienced then has fitted Him for the priestly service that He exercises towards His people now. Our Lord Jesus was never personally ill (illness is a fruit of sin) but these verses show that He knows perfectly how the burden of weakness and illness affects us.
Therefore ‘we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin’ (Hebrews 4:15).
In John 12:37-41 the writer quotes Isaiah 53 and other passages from Isaiah:
‘But though he had done so many miracles (signs) before them, yet they believed not on him: That the saying of Esaias [Isaiah] the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report? and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed?’ Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said again, He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them. These things said Esaias, when he saw his glory, and spake of him.”
There are eight signs in John’s Gospel chapter 5 , and each of these draw attention to the Person of Christ. The first was when the Lord Jesus turned water into wine. It says that ‘This beginning of signs did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and displayed his glory…’ (John 2:11). John tells us that ‘many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that, believing, ye might have life through his name’ (John 20:30-31). Here in John 12 He is referred to as ‘the arm of the Lord’. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are each and all God but Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, showed by these signs that He was God personally present there in Israel. In the face of this overwhelming evidence however, the leaders of the nation were nevertheless unbelieving. As a consequence they were hardened judicially. Isaiah 6.10 is quoted to show this: ‘He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.’ It is added by John that ‘These things said Esaias, when he saw his (God’s) glory, and spake of him.’
The rejection of Jesus by the leaders in Israel would culminate in His crucifixion. Jesus referred to this on a number of occasions in order to prepare the disciples for what was coming (Luke 9:22; 17:25; 22:15). They were slow in understanding His plain words, and continued to cling to their Jewish hopes. In Luke 22:35-38 Jesus quoted Isaiah 53:12 ‘this that is written must yet be accomplished in me, And he was reckoned among the transgressors: for the things concerning me have an end.’
Instead of introducing the kingdom in power and glory He would suffer humiliation and shame and be put to death. Thus far He had been kept safe by God, but this preservation was going to be withdrawn and men would do to Him whatever they wanted (Psalm 16:1; Luke 4:28-31; John 8:58-59; 10:34-40; Matthew. 17:12). This would be the case for the disciples too. They had lacked nothing because they had been with Him and He had sent them forth. Now they would be identified with a rejected and crucified Messiah and would have to look to God for themselves in a way that they had not done before.
There are different aspects of the sufferings of Christ but the verses in 1 Peter 2:19-25 show us the two standout themes —His suffering from men for righteousness sake and in the three hours of darkness upon the cross His suffering from God for sins. In relation to these, Peter quotes two separate verses from Isaiah 53.9: ‘Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth.’ Peter is exhorting Christians to live consistently, showing that it is better to live lives that are pleasing to God and to suffer as a consequence, than to suffer because of inconsistency.
In connection with His suffering for sins Peter quotes part of Isaiah 53.5: ‘by whose stripes ye were healed.’ It is important to understand that this does not refer to what men did to the Lord. They ploughed long furrows on his back, scourging him with a bone or metal tipped whip (Psalm 129:3; Matthew 27:26). That was terrible enough but what Isaiah 53.5 refers to was far more terrible because it describes the judgement that God laid on him because of the sins He was bearing: ‘he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.’
Next in Acts chapter 8 we find the Ethiopian eunuch who had gone up to Jerusalem to worship. He was returning and took back with him a precious scroll of Scripture. The evangelist Philip was directed to where the Ethiopian was and to join himself to his chariot. Luke records the conversation that followed. The Eunuch was reading Isaiah 53 verses 7 and 8: ‘He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth: In his humiliation his judgement was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? For his life is taken from the earth.’ These verses emphasise the unrighteous and perverted judgement passed on to Christ and the way in which he received everything from God—not protesting His innocence or arguing against the sentence but quietly submitting to the injustice knowing that there was a deeper purpose in view. Beginning at the same scripture Philip preached Jesus to the Ethiopian, which notably was effective and he received Christ and was baptised.
Finally to the parenthetical chapters 9, 10 and 11 in Romans which are occupied with Israel as a people. They show that their unbelief has opened the door to the blessing of the Gentiles. God is no longer requiring righteousness from men under the law but is sending out the gospel. The gospel is the revelation of His righteousness in blessing repentant sinners that come to Him through faith in Christ. In the verses referred to in chapter 10 seven quotations from the Old Testament are brought forward in relation to it. Paul writes quoting Isaiah 53.1:
“But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias [Isaiah] saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?” (Romans 10.16)
Paul quotes from Isaiah to emphasize again that blessing is reaching the nations as a consequence: ‘I was found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me’ (Isaiah 65:1). Of Israel, however, He has to say: ‘All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people’ (Isaiah 65:2).
It should be noted that, just as Isaiah 53 is concerned with Israel’s treatment of their Messiah through unbelief, so it is the sins of the believing remnant of Israel that are particularly in view in verse 5: ‘he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.’ Peter applies this statement to the Jewish Christian converts in his first epistle, as we have seen. They formed a part of the Jewish remnant according to the election of grace at the present time (Romans 11:5). And the words of Isaiah 53 will be taken up by the believing remnant of Israel in the time to come. They will take with them words (including the words of Isaiah 53) when they turn to God in the realization of what they did to their own Messiah, and what He did for them in suffering for their sins so as to make their blessing possible.
7). SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
Isaiah 53 is only one of numerous passages from the Old Testament which herald the coming Messiah, but the prophetic Book of Isaiah has more than any other and is unique in having this entire chapter (plus 3 verses from chapter 52) devoted to Him.
Early Rabbinic thought is that the passage refers to the Messiah, only much later, in response to counter Christian influence did the alternative view emerge trying to ascribe it to the nation of Israel. But this doctrine leaves many unanswered questions and anomolies. It is only in the person of Jesus that we find a fulfillment which makes sense of the passage.
To Muslims who want to assert that the chapter is about Israel, we can identify 10 reasons why this cannot be so, summarised thus (see footnote ² for a more detailed explanation):
??Use of personal pronouns “he” and “we” in 53.3-8. Inserting Israel in their place makes no sense. If the servant is righteous yet dies for Israel’s transgressions, how can Israel die vicariously for her own sins? Israel has never died.
?? Israel is distinct from the suffering servant. Israel observed the suffering of the righteous servant (53.3-6), The servant died for the sins of the Jewish people (53.8).
?? The guilt offering had to die and was substitutionary. Neither fits Israel who God promised would live forever. (Jeremiah 31.35-37)
?? The servant dies a vicarious and substitutionary death (53.4-6, 8,10,12). He suffers for the sins of others. The language is personal and makes no sense applied to the nation.
??The suffering servant “sprinkles” many nations (the Gentiles) in 52.15. The Hebrew word for sprinkle is repeatedly used for the sprinkling of the blood of the sacrifice which was always offered “for and on behalf of”. This clearly signifies a blood offering. Again inapplicable to the nation.
??The suffering servant has qualities never true of Israel:
# Innocent – he did no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth (53.4-6,8b,9b)
# He is called “Tsadeek ahvdee” (My Righteous Servant) it is the only place this expression is found throughout the Bible.
# The silent sufferer.Silent and unprotesting like a lamb (53.7) Israel always cried out against the inhumanity of people.
??The servant is depicted as suffering for and on behalf and in the place of others. Israel always suffered for her own disobedience never in place of, or for the sins of others.
??Israel (the Jewish people) were promised that if they obeyed God they would be greatly blessed, if disobedient they would be cursed. If Israel was the righteous servant of Isaiah it would have been impossible for her to have suffered as she did.
??In this passage the suffering servant bore the sins of the people so they would not have to bear their own sins.(53.4-6,8.10,12). The Gentiles were never deemed innocent after the Jews suffered at their hands.
?? Isaiah 53.1 “refers to the suffering servant as “the Arm of the Lord”. There are 37 references to the Arm of the Lord in the Tanakh. Never does that phrase refer to Israel. The Arm of the Lord ACTS ON BEHALF OF ISRAEL.
Lastly to our sceptical Jewish and Muslim readers please note Occam’s razor is the principle that entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity. In Isaiah 53:6 let us not reduce entities beyond what the grammar allows.
MAKE NO MISTAKE: The suffering servant is a person. #JESUS_is_the_SUFFERING_SERVANT
Footnotes:
¹ ? THE APOSTASY OF MODERN JUDAISM 20 October 2022
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² The Ten Reasons in Detail
1. The consistent use of pronouns in the passage makes it clear that the suffering servant is an individual who is distinct from the Jewish people to whom Isaiah was speaking. Throughout the passage, the suffering servant is always referred to in the singular (he, him, himself, and his), while the people of Israel are referred to in the plural (we, us, and our) or simply as “my people.” Thus, the suffering servant cannot be Israel. For example, Isaiah 53:3-8 states:
He was despised, and forsaken of men, a man of pains, and acquainted with disease, and as one from whom men hide their face: he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely our disease he did bear, and our pains hecarried; whereas we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded because of our transgressions, he was crushed because of our iniquities: the chastisement of our welfare was upon him, and with his stripes we were healed.
All we like sheep did go astray, we turned every one to his own way;
And the Lord hath made to light upon him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed, though he humbled himself, and opened not his mouth; as a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that is before her shearers is dumb; yea, he opened not his mouth.
By oppression and judgment he was taken away, and with his generation who did reason? For he was cut off out of the land of the living, for the transgression of my people to whom the stroke was due.[1]
In addition, when “Israel” is inserted for the pronouns, the passage makes no sense. For example, the servant is righteous yet is dying for Israel’s transgressions. (See, for example, verses 8 and 11.) Either Israel is righteous or she isn’t, not both. In addition, Israel cannot die vicariously for her own sins.
2. Israel is distinct from the suffering servant for three additional reasons:
a. In this passage, Israel observed the suffering of the righteous servant. (See, for example, verses 3-6.) b. The suffering servant died for the transgressions, or sins, of the Jewish people. This is seen in the closing sentence of Isaiah 53:8, which says:
For he was cut off out of the land of the living, for the transgression of my people to whom the stroke was due.
Clearly, “my people” is Isaiah’s people, the people of Israel. The passage would make no sense if the suffering servant were Israel. In that case, Israel would die for Israel’s sins. In other words, Israel would have gotten what she deserved, which makes no sense. The entire passage speaks of the suffering servant suffering and dying for, on behalf of, or in place of Israel.
c. In verse 10, the suffering servant is offered as an “asham,” or guilt offering. Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, or Jewish Bible, the guilt offering was never Israel, nor could it ever have been Israel. The guilt offering, or “asham,” was always offered on behalf of or in place of the one who had committed the trespass or sin.[2] It was never offered for or on behalf of the asham itself. (No one could ever be an “asham” for his or her own sins.) An asham offering was always offered by an individual and never by the nation of Israel. (See Art Scroll commentary on Leviticus, volume 1.) In addition, the offering had to be without blemish, or sinless. Because the offering was without blemish, it was always offered for the sins of someone other than the asham itself. For all of these reasons, Israel cannot be the suffering servant who offers himself as an asham offering.
3. The “asham” always had to die. Likewise, the suffering servant clearly died. See Isaiah 53:8, 9, 10, and 12. He was “cut off out of the land of the living,” he had a grave; he was with the rich “in his death;” and he “poured out his soul unto death.” However, Israel never died. In fact, it is impossible for Israel to ever die, because G-d promised Israel that she would live forever. (See, for example Jeremiah 31:35-37.)
4. The suffering servant suffered a vicarious and substitutionary death (Isaiah 53:4-6, 8, 10, 12). He suffers for the sins of others, so they need not suffer for their own sins. Nowhere in the Jewish Bible nor in Jewish history do we ever see Israel suffering for, on behalf of, or in place of the Gentiles, so that the Gentiles do not have to suffer. Israel often suffered at the hand ofGentiles or because of Gentiles, but never for, on behalf of, or in place of the Gentiles. Israel suffers, but she always suffers for her own sins.
5. The suffering servant “sprinkles” many nations (or Gentiles) in Isaiah 52:15. The Hebrew word for sprinkle is repeatedly used for the sprinkling of the blood of the sacrifice, which was always offered for, on behalf of, or in place of Israel.[3] Israel’s blood was never “sprinkled”, as Israel could never be a sacrifice for herself.
6. The suffering servant has qualities that were never true of Israel:
a. The suffering servant is depicted as being innocent. He did no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth (Isaiah 53:4-6, 8b, 9b). Israel is never told she would suffer for being innocent. (See, for example, Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28.) In addition, Israel is never depicted as being innocent. A cursory reading through Judges, I and II Samuel, I and II Kings, I and II Chronicles, and all the prophets make this abundantly clear. (See, for example, Isaiah 59:1-15, esp. verses 4-7 and Psalm 14:3. These are just two of hundreds of examples that could be cited.) That was why so many sacrifices were needed. Israelwas never righteous, or even close to being righteous. Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, Israel is pictured as continually rejecting God and being repeatedly judged for her sins. This is in sharp contrast to the suffering servant of Isaiah 53, who is portrayed as an innocent sufferer.
b. The suffering servant is the most righteous person described in Scripture. In Isaiah 53:11, he is called “Tsadeek ahvdee”, or “My righteous servant.” This is the only place in the entire Hebrew Bible where this phrase is used. It certainly is never used of Israel. In addition, neither Abraham, Moses, David, nor any other prophet or ruler was ever called “Tsadeek ahvdee”, or “My righteous servant” in the Hebrew Bible—except for the suffering servant of Isaiah 53. Only one righteous or without any blemish could die as a sacrifice for sin. However, no normal human was ever considered righteous on his or her own. (See, for example, Psalm 14:2-3 and Psalm 53:2-3.) This suffering servant must, therefore, be someone greater than Abraham, Moses, or David. It is no wonder that the great majority of rabbis throughout the ages concluded that this righteous servant was none other than the Messiah of Israel.
c. The suffering servant is depicted as being a silent sufferer, in that, like a lamb, he did not protest his execution nor did he defend himself (verse 7). He, instead, suffered willingly and voluntarily. While Israel has suffered immeasurable persecution, she has never done so willingly or voluntarily. Israel has always cried out against the inhumanity of people against her.
7. In this passage, the suffering servant is depicted as suffering for, on behalf of, or in place of others. This was never true of Israel. In the Jewish Bible, every time Israel suffers, including the Babylonian captivity and the present day Dispersion or Diaspora, Israel suffered for her own disobedience—not for the sins of others.
8. The Jewish people (Israel) were promised that if they obeyed G-d, they would be greatly blessed. Only if they were disobedient would they be cursed. (See, for example, Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28.) If Israel were the righteous servant of Isaiah 53, it would have been impossible for her to have suffered and died under the conditions and in the manner described in this passage.
9. In this passage, the suffering servant borethe sins of the people, so they would not have tobear their own sins or be judged for them (Isaiah 53:4-6, 8, 10, 12). If the servant is Israel and the people are the Gentiles, then the Gentiles would not need to be punished for their sins, as they would have been vicariously borne by Israel. This has never been the case. The Gentiles were never deemed innocent after Jews suffered at their hands. Instead, they were judged for mistreating Jewish people. (See, for example, Genesis 12:3, Numbers 24:9, and Jeremiah 46:28.)
10. Isaiah 53:1 refers to the suffering servant as “the Arm of the Lord.” There are 37 references to the Arm of the Lord in the Tanakh. Never does that phrase refer to Israel. The Arm of the Lord acts on behalf of Israel, but is never Israel. Among other things, the Arm of the Lord redeems and delivers Israel when Israel is not able to deliver herself. (See, for example, Exodus 6:6, Exodus 15:16, Deuteronomy 4:34, 5:15, 9:29, 26:8, II Kings 17:36, Psalm 44:3, and Ezekiel 20:33-34.) Clearly the suffering servant, the Arm of the Lord, cannot be Israel.
Conclusion
For these ten reasons, the passage cannot refer to Israel. Therefore, as leading rabbis have held throughout the centuries, the passage must refer to a special individual—the Messiah—who would suffer and die as the ultimate sacrifice or atonement.
1). INTRODUCTION
The book of Isaiah provides us with the most comprehensive prophetic picture of Jesus Christ in the entire Old Testament. Amongst other things, it includes the full scope of His life: the announcement of His coming (Isaiah 40:3–5), His virgin birth (7:14), His proclamation of the good news (61:1), His sacrificial death (52:13–53:12), and His return to claim His own (60:2–3). Because of these and numerous other christological texts in Isaiah, the book stands as a testament of hope in the Lord, the One who saves His people from themselves.
Of the foregoing Messianic references none is as controversial and hotly contested as chapter 53 and the last part of chapter 52 from verse 13.
To Christians this passage spanning 15 verses is an amazing Messianic portrayal. But to Jews, Muslims, atheists, those of other faiths and none, it means something else. Here, if you are willing to explore this “obscure” passage with an open mind here, is an opportunity to consider it afresh.
Isaiah 52:13-15 (KJV)
[13] “Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.
[14] As many were astonished at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men:
[15] So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider.”
Isaiah 53:1-12 (KJV)
[1] “Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?
[2] For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
[3] He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
[4] Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
[5] But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
[6] All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
[7] He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
[8] He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken
[9] And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
[10] Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
[11] He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
[12] Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”
Those words were written over 2700 years ago. Yet many people who read them today find that they jump off the page. If nothing else, the chapter is packed with incredible drama, heroics and pathos. But many people find a personal challenge in these words that is interwoven with the questions: who is this person and what in the world was he doing?
They are questions worth considering for oneself, but it may also be helpful to see the progression of opinions given by Jewish rabbinic tradition. For these are the custodians of the Jewish Scriptures it is still “their book” after all. But these changes are reflective of how modern Judaism has almost nothing in common with the Second Temple era, for reasons explained here in another post.¹
2). WHAT THE EARLY RABBIS SAID
Some of the first written interpretations or targums (ancient paraphrases on biblical texts) see this passage as referring to an individual servant, the Messiah, who would suffer. Messianic Jewish talmudist, Rachmiel Frydland, recounts those early views:
“Our ancient commentators with one accord noted that the context clearly speaks of God’s Anointed One, the Messiah.”
The Aramaic translation of this chapter, ascribed to Rabbi Jonathan ben Uzziel, a disciple of Hillel who lived early in the second century c.e., begins with the simple and worthy words:
‘Behold my servant Messiah shall prosper; he shall be high, and increase, and be exceeding strong: as the house of Israel looked to him through many days, because their countenance was darkened among the peoples, and their complexion beyond the sons of men (Targum Jonathan on Isaiah 53, ad locum).’”
We find the same interpretation in the Babylonian Talmud:
“What is his [the Messiah’s] name? The Rabbis said: His name is “the leper scholar,” as it is written, “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him a leper, smitten of God, and afflicted.” (Sanhedrin 98b)
Similarly, in an explanation of Ruth 2:14 in the Midrash Rabbah it states:
“He is speaking of the King Messiah: “Come hither” draw near to the throne “and dip thy morsel in the vinegar,” this refers to the chastisements, as it is said, “But he was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities.”
The Zohar, in its interpretation of Isaiah 53, points to the Messiah as well:
“There is in the Garden of Eden a palace named the Palace of the Sons of Sickness. This palace the Messiah enters, and He summons every pain and every chastisement of Israel. All of these come and rest upon Him. And had He not thus lightened them upon Himself, there had been no man able to bear Israel’s chastisements for the trangression of the law; as it is written, “Surely our sicknesses he has carried.” (Zohar II, 212a)
The early sages expected a personal Messiah to fulfill the Isaiah prophecy.
IT IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE TWO THINGS AT THIS POINT:
(A) THAT NO ALTERNATIVE INTERPRETATION WAS APPLIED TO THIS PASSAGE UNTIL THE MIDDLE AGES.
(B) THERE HAS NEVER BEEN ANY OTHER INDIVIDUAL PERSON THAT HAS FULFILLED THESE PROPHETIC WORDS APART FROM JESUS.
3). VIEWS ON ISAIAH 53 IN THE MIDDLE AGES
By the 11th Century, a completely different view was presented. This view was popularized by the French Jewish commentator Rabbi Shlomo Itzchaki, who lived one thousand years after Jesus (Born 1040 A.D.)
Rashi held the position that the servant passages of Isaiah referred to the collective fate of the nation of Israel rather than a personal Messiah. Some rabbis, such as Ibn Ezra and Kimchi, agreed. However, many other rabbinic sages during this same period and later—including Maimonides—realized the inconsistencies of Rashi’s views and would not abandon the original messianic interpretations.
The objections these rabbis put forth to Rashi’s view were threefold:
(I) First, they showed the consensus of ancient opinion.
(II) Second, they pointed out that the text is grammatically in the singular tense throughout. For example, “He was despised and rejected…he was pierced for our transgressions…he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,” and so on.
(III) Third, they noted verse 8 of chapter 53. This verse presents some difficulty to those who interpret this passage as referring to Israel. It reads:
“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 transgression of my people he was stricken.”
Were the Jewish people, God forbid, ever “cut off from the land of the living”? No! God promises that Israel will live forever:
“Only if these decrees [the sun to shine by day, the moon and stars to shine by night, etc.] vanish from my sight,” declares the Lord, “will the descendants of Israel ever cease to be a nation before me.” (Jeremiah 31:36)
Likewise, it is impossible to say that “for the transgression of my people he was stricken” since “my people” clearly means the Jewish people. If verse 8 refers to Israel, then are we to read that Israel is stricken for Israel because of Israel’s sin? How can the sin-bearer and the sinner be the same? Likewise, how can Israel be the servant, the one who “had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth” (Isaiah 53:9)? Israel is not now, nor ever has been, without sin—the Scriptures are replete with examples of Israel’s disobedience.
All of these inconsistencies troubled many rabbis and they expressed their opinions of Rashi’s view in no uncertain terms. Rabbi Moshe Kohen Iben Crispin of Cordova, who lived in the fourteenth century, said of the Israel as servant interpretation, it “distorts the passage from its natural meaning” and that Isaiah 53 “was given of God as a description of the Messiah, whereby, when any should claim to be the Messiah, to judge by the resemblance or non-resemblance to it whether he were the Messiah or not.”
Ibn Crispin said, “This rabbi described those who interpret Isaiah 53 as referring to Israel as those … “having forsaken the knowledge of our Teachers, and inclined after the `stubbornness of their own hearts,’ and of their own opinion, I am pleased to interpret it, in accordance with the teaching of our Rabbis, of the King Messiah. This prophecy was delivered by Isaiah at the divine command for the purpose of making known to us something about the nature of the future Messiah, who is to come and deliver Israel, and his life from the day when he arrives at discretion until his advent as a redeemer, in order that if anyone should arise claiming to be himself the Messiah, we may reflect, and look to see whether we can observe in him any resemblance to the traits described here; if there is any such resemblance, then we may believe that he is the Messiah our righteousness; but if not, we cannot do so.”
4). CONTEMPORARY RABBINIC VIEWS
Yet to this day, many rabbis persist in citing Rashi as the definitive word on how to interpret the servant of the Lord in Isaiah 53. Needless to say this is the school of thought that Muslims appeal to. Others admit the weakness of this view and say that the passage applies to an individual. They usually cite the prophet Isaiah himself, King Cyrus, King Hezekiah, Josiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Moses, Job or even some anonymous contemporaries of Isaiah as the one spoken of by the prophet.
As you go through the proposed list of people this passage describes, ask yourself: which one was totally blameless throughout his life? Which one died for the sins of others? Which one lives today? What do I think? Am I willing to dismiss Jesus as the one whom the prophet foretold? Then ask yourself again, why is this passage omitted from the regular synagogue readings?
Could it be because countless Jewish followers in Yeshua (Jesus) have come to believe in him after studying this very passage? If you were to survey one hundred Jews who believe Yeshua is the Messiah, you’d get a very different opinion about the identity of this servant in Isaiah. And you would probably find that a large percentage of them found this passage extremely influential in their thinking.
Leah is a 25-year-old Jewish woman who was searching for answers to her spiritual questions. When faced with the question, Was Jesus who he claimed to be? she wanted the answer to be no. Leah confessed, “I’m starting to see that Jesus is the Messiah, but if I accept it, I’m also rejecting my father, who did not believe in Jesus. I loved him more than anyone else in this world—I can’t do it.”
When challenged to read Isaiah 53, Leah found her dad’s old, faded Tenach. Opening it to the passage in question, she made two astounding discoveries. First, the passage really did sound like it was describing Jesus. And second, her father had circled the entire chapter. And in the margin he had written: “messianic prophecy—Yeshua is Messiah.”
Leah just had to ask…”Who is Yeshua?” When she understood that Yeshua is the Jewish way to say Jesus, it dawned on her. It was a convincing passage, indeed, and even her father had not been able to dismiss it. Within two weeks, she acknowledged that Jesus fit the description of the suffering servant.
In 1922, the late David Baron, a British Jewish believer in Jesus who was well-versed in rabbinics, wrote in the preface to his exposition of Isaiah chapter 53:
“…it is beyond even the wildest credulity to believe that the resemblance in every feature and minutest detail between this prophetic portraiture drawn centuries before his [Jesus’] advent and the story of his life, and death, and glorious resurrection as narrated in the gospels, can be mere accident or fortuitous coincidence.”
5). THE PARALLELS SUMMARISED:
Here we see the striking evidence about how Jesus, and only Jesus, could fulfill this very important part of the Jewish Scriptures. Going through them ask yourself how they can apply to a nation, as the sceptics argue.
ISAIAH PREDICTED THAT THE SERVANT … 700 YEARS LATER IS THE MESSIAH WHO …
# would be disfigured by suffering (52:14; 53:2-3)
FULFILLMENT: Jesus was struck, spat on and mocked, and bore the scars of crucifixion (Mark 15:17-19)
++++++++++++++++++++++
# would come from humble beginnings (53.2)
FULFILLMENT: Jesus grew up in Nazareth, a city with a very poor reputation; and not where the Messiah was expected to come from (Luke 2:39-40)
++++++++++++++++++++++
# would be rejected by many (53:1,3)
FULFILLMENT: while on the cross, Jesus was mocked, blasphemed and reviled, even by those who were crucified with him (Matthew 27:39-44)
+++++++++++++++++++++
# would bear our sins and suffer in our place (53:4-6,11)
FULFILLMENT: Jesus “…himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.” (1 Peter 2:24)
+++++++++++++++++++++
# would heal many (53:4-5)
FULFILLMENT: Jesus healed many (Matthew 8:16-17)
+++++++++++++++++++++
# voluntarily took our punishment upon himself (53:6-7)
FULFILLMENT: Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11)
+++++++++++++++++++++
# remained silent during his suffering (53:7)
FULFILLMENT: Jesus did not try defend himself to Herod, Pontius Pilate or the Sanhedrin (Matthew 26:62-64; 27:11-14; Luke 23:9)
++++++++++++++++++++++
# would die (53:8,12)
FULFILLMENT: Jesus died on a cross (Mark 15:37; John 19:33-34)
++++++++++++++++++++++
# they made His grave with the wicked
# would be buried with a rich man (53:9)
FULFILLMENT: Jesus body would, but for the intervention of Joseph, have been subjected to the standard ignominious disposal of an unmarked even a mass grave assigned to criminals. But He was buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, a rich man (Matthew 27:57-60). Criminals don’t get laid to rest in a tomb.
++++++++++++++++++++++
# would not remain dead, but see his seed, prolong his days and be exalted (53:10-11)
FULFILLMENT: Jesus rose from the dead three days after the crucifixion and still lives today and millions of people see themselves as his spiritual seed (Matthew 28:1-10)
+++++++++++++++++++++++
6). NEW TESTAMENT REFERENCES TO ISAIAH 53
The New Testament writers clearly understood the significance of Isaiah 53.
Matthew 8:14-17; John 12:37-41; Luke 22:35-38; 1 Peter 2:19-25; Acts 8:26-35; Romans 10:11-21 make up the six passages of Scripture which contain seven quotations from Isaiah 53. But before we examine them a few words about the format of Isaiah and context of chapter 53.
The book of Isaiah divides into seven sections, the fifth section being chapters 40 to 48 and the sixth section chapters 49 to 57. Although these two sections both end with the same words: ‘There is no peace… to the wicked,’ the wickedness referred to has a different form in the two cases—idolatry in the fifth section and Israel’s faithless rejection of Messiah in the sixth section.
In chapters 40 to 48 Israel is several times referred to as Jehovah’s servant, but was a failing one, having fallen into idolatry and become blind to the glory of Jehovah and deaf to His word. Cyrus, the King of the Persians, is brought before His people as Jehovah’s shepherd and anointed, and His instrument for the destruction of Babylon, the great source of idolatry.
However, in chapter 42:1-4 the Messiah is brought before God’s people as God’s perfect Servant. He is the one who in the time to come will make a full end of idolatry, which Cyrus did not, and in whose Name the Gentiles will trust. These verses are quoted in Matthew 12:18-21 where they present the meekness and gentleness of Christ. He did not force Himself upon unwilling Israel but, as the verses in Matthew 11 show us, accepted this from and gave thanks to the Father who hid these things from the wise and prudent, but revealed them unto babes (Matthew 11:25-26).
While chapters 40 to 48 of Isaiah make no explicit reference to the rejection of the Messiah by Israel this is very clearly the primary subject in chapters 49 to 57. The Messiah is the Servant who laboured in vain, and whom the nation abhorred (49:4-5). His ear was opened and He was an obedient and faithful servant who suffered at men’s hands as a consequence (50:4-9). This ill-treatment was extreme—‘His face was so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men’ (52:14).
So by the time we get to chapter 53 the stage has already been set. Isaiah 53 shows this and even deeper suffering. Of the nine chapters in the sixth section, this is the central one. A well-known author wrote of it as etched on every Christian’s heart and perhaps that is still true today. Most Christians could quote at least a part of it and know that it speaks of the sorrow and suffering of the Lord Jesus, Israel’s Messiah.
At His baptism Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power and Matthew chapters 8 and 9 show Him exercising that power. In chapter 8 He cleanses the leper, heals the centurion’s servant and rebukes the fever under which Peter’s mother-in-law was suffering. Then, ‘When the even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick’ (Matthew 8:16).
Matthew makes it clear that this was the fulfilment of Isaiah 53:4 ‘Himself took our infirmities, and bore our sicknesses.’ This is remarkable because it shows that these actions involved more than the bare exercise of power. Jesus in His human spirit first entered fully under the burden of every condition that He then went on to relieve. And what He experienced then has fitted Him for the priestly service that He exercises towards His people now. Our Lord Jesus was never personally ill (illness is a fruit of sin) but these verses show that He knows perfectly how the burden of weakness and illness affects us.
Therefore ‘we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin’ (Hebrews 4:15).
In John 12:37-41 the writer quotes Isaiah 53 and other passages from Isaiah:
‘But though he had done so many miracles (signs) before them, yet they believed not on him: That the saying of Esaias [Isaiah] the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report? and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed?’ Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said again, He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them. These things said Esaias, when he saw his glory, and spake of him.”
There are eight signs in John’s Gospel chapter 5 , and each of these draw attention to the Person of Christ. The first was when the Lord Jesus turned water into wine. It says that ‘This beginning of signs did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and displayed his glory…’ (John 2:11). John tells us that ‘many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that, believing, ye might have life through his name’ (John 20:30-31). Here in John 12 He is referred to as ‘the arm of the Lord’. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are each and all God but Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, showed by these signs that He was God personally present there in Israel. In the face of this overwhelming evidence however, the leaders of the nation were nevertheless unbelieving. As a consequence they were hardened judicially. Isaiah 6.10 is quoted to show this: ‘He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.’ It is added by John that ‘These things said Esaias, when he saw his (God’s) glory, and spake of him.’
The rejection of Jesus by the leaders in Israel would culminate in His crucifixion. Jesus referred to this on a number of occasions in order to prepare the disciples for what was coming (Luke 9:22; 17:25; 22:15). They were slow in understanding His plain words, and continued to cling to their Jewish hopes. In Luke 22:35-38 Jesus quoted Isaiah 53:12 ‘this that is written must yet be accomplished in me, And he was reckoned among the transgressors: for the things concerning me have an end.’
Instead of introducing the kingdom in power and glory He would suffer humiliation and shame and be put to death. Thus far He had been kept safe by God, but this preservation was going to be withdrawn and men would do to Him whatever they wanted (Psalm 16:1; Luke 4:28-31; John 8:58-59; 10:34-40; Matthew. 17:12). This would be the case for the disciples too. They had lacked nothing because they had been with Him and He had sent them forth. Now they would be identified with a rejected and crucified Messiah and would have to look to God for themselves in a way that they had not done before.
There are different aspects of the sufferings of Christ but the verses in 1 Peter 2:19-25 show us the two standout themes —His suffering from men for righteousness sake and in the three hours of darkness upon the cross His suffering from God for sins. In relation to these, Peter quotes two separate verses from Isaiah 53.9: ‘Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth.’ Peter is exhorting Christians to live consistently, showing that it is better to live lives that are pleasing to God and to suffer as a consequence, than to suffer because of inconsistency.
In connection with His suffering for sins Peter quotes part of Isaiah 53.5: ‘by whose stripes ye were healed.’ It is important to understand that this does not refer to what men did to the Lord. They ploughed long furrows on his back, scourging him with a bone or metal tipped whip (Psalm 129:3; Matthew 27:26). That was terrible enough but what Isaiah 53.5 refers to was far more terrible because it describes the judgement that God laid on him because of the sins He was bearing: ‘he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.’
Next in Acts chapter 8 we find the Ethiopian eunuch who had gone up to Jerusalem to worship. He was returning and took back with him a precious scroll of Scripture. The evangelist Philip was directed to where the Ethiopian was and to join himself to his chariot. Luke records the conversation that followed. The Eunuch was reading Isaiah 53 verses 7 and 8: ‘He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth: In his humiliation his judgement was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? For his life is taken from the earth.’ These verses emphasise the unrighteous and perverted judgement passed on to Christ and the way in which he received everything from God—not protesting His innocence or arguing against the sentence but quietly submitting to the injustice knowing that there was a deeper purpose in view. Beginning at the same scripture Philip preached Jesus to the Ethiopian, which notably was effective and he received Christ and was baptised.
Finally to the parenthetical chapters 9, 10 and 11 in Romans which are occupied with Israel as a people. They show that their unbelief has opened the door to the blessing of the Gentiles. God is no longer requiring righteousness from men under the law but is sending out the gospel. The gospel is the revelation of His righteousness in blessing repentant sinners that come to Him through faith in Christ. In the verses referred to in chapter 10 seven quotations from the Old Testament are brought forward in relation to it. Paul writes quoting Isaiah 53.1:
“But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias [Isaiah] saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?” (Romans 10.16)
Paul quotes from Isaiah to emphasize again that blessing is reaching the nations as a consequence: ‘I was found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me’ (Isaiah 65:1). Of Israel, however, He has to say: ‘All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people’ (Isaiah 65:2).
It should be noted that, just as Isaiah 53 is concerned with Israel’s treatment of their Messiah through unbelief, so it is the sins of the believing remnant of Israel that are particularly in view in verse 5: ‘he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.’ Peter applies this statement to the Jewish Christian converts in his first epistle, as we have seen. They formed a part of the Jewish remnant according to the election of grace at the present time (Romans 11:5). And the words of Isaiah 53 will be taken up by the believing remnant of Israel in the time to come. They will take with them words (including the words of Isaiah 53) when they turn to God in the realization of what they did to their own Messiah, and what He did for them in suffering for their sins so as to make their blessing possible.
7). SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
Isaiah 53 is only one of numerous passages from the Old Testament which herald the coming Messiah, but the prophetic Book of Isaiah has more than any other and is unique in having this entire chapter (plus 3 verses from chapter 52) devoted to Him.
Early Rabbinic thought is that the passage refers to the Messiah, only much later, in response to counter Christian influence did the alternative view emerge trying to ascribe it to the nation of Israel. But this doctrine leaves many unanswered questions and anomolies. It is only in the person of Jesus that we find a fulfillment which makes sense of the passage.
To Muslims who want to assert that the chapter is about Israel, we can identify 10 reasons why this cannot be so, summarised thus (see footnote ² for a more detailed explanation):
??Use of personal pronouns “he” and “we” in 53.3-8. Inserting Israel in their place makes no sense. If the servant is righteous yet dies for Israel’s transgressions, how can Israel die vicariously for her own sins? Israel has never died.
?? Israel is distinct from the suffering servant. Israel observed the suffering of the righteous servant (53.3-6), The servant died for the sins of the Jewish people (53.8).
?? The guilt offering had to die and was substitutionary. Neither fits Israel who God promised would live forever. (Jeremiah 31.35-37)
?? The servant dies a vicarious and substitutionary death (53.4-6, 8,10,12). He suffers for the sins of others. The language is personal and makes no sense applied to the nation.
??The suffering servant “sprinkles” many nations (the Gentiles) in 52.15. The Hebrew word for sprinkle is repeatedly used for the sprinkling of the blood of the sacrifice which was always offered “for and on behalf of”. This clearly signifies a blood offering. Again inapplicable to the nation.
??The suffering servant has qualities never true of Israel:
# Innocent – he did no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth (53.4-6,8b,9b)
# He is called “Tsadeek ahvdee” (My Righteous Servant) it is the only place this expression is found throughout the Bible.
# The silent sufferer.Silent and unprotesting like a lamb (53.7) Israel always cried out against the inhumanity of people.
??The servant is depicted as suffering for and on behalf and in the place of others. Israel always suffered for her own disobedience never in place of, or for the sins of others.
??Israel (the Jewish people) were promised that if they obeyed God they would be greatly blessed, if disobedient they would be cursed. If Israel was the righteous servant of Isaiah it would have been impossible for her to have suffered as she did.
??In this passage the suffering servant bore the sins of the people so they would not have to bear their own sins.(53.4-6,8.10,12). The Gentiles were never deemed innocent after the Jews suffered at their hands.
?? Isaiah 53.1 “refers to the suffering servant as “the Arm of the Lord”. There are 37 references to the Arm of the Lord in the Tanakh. Never does that phrase refer to Israel. The Arm of the Lord ACTS ON BEHALF OF ISRAEL.
Lastly to our sceptical Jewish and Muslim readers please note Occam’s razor is the principle that entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity. In Isaiah 53:6 let us not reduce entities beyond what the grammar allows.
MAKE NO MISTAKE: The suffering servant is a person. #JESUS_is_the_SUFFERING_SERVANT
Footnotes:
¹ ? THE APOSTASY OF MODERN JUDAISM 20 October 2022
m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=538354181627589&id=100063590342443
² The Ten Reasons in Detail
1. The consistent use of pronouns in the passage makes it clear that the suffering servant is an individual who is distinct from the Jewish people to whom Isaiah was speaking. Throughout the passage, the suffering servant is always referred to in the singular (he, him, himself, and his), while the people of Israel are referred to in the plural (we, us, and our) or simply as “my people.” Thus, the suffering servant cannot be Israel. For example, Isaiah 53:3-8 states:
He was despised, and forsaken of men, a man of pains, and acquainted with disease, and as one from whom men hide their face: he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely our disease he did bear, and our pains hecarried; whereas we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded because of our transgressions, he was crushed because of our iniquities: the chastisement of our welfare was upon him, and with his stripes we were healed.
All we like sheep did go astray, we turned every one to his own way;
And the Lord hath made to light upon him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed, though he humbled himself, and opened not his mouth; as a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that is before her shearers is dumb; yea, he opened not his mouth.
By oppression and judgment he was taken away, and with his generation who did reason? For he was cut off out of the land of the living, for the transgression of my people to whom the stroke was due.[1]
In addition, when “Israel” is inserted for the pronouns, the passage makes no sense. For example, the servant is righteous yet is dying for Israel’s transgressions. (See, for example, verses 8 and 11.) Either Israel is righteous or she isn’t, not both. In addition, Israel cannot die vicariously for her own sins.
2. Israel is distinct from the suffering servant for three additional reasons:
a. In this passage, Israel observed the suffering of the righteous servant. (See, for example, verses 3-6.) b. The suffering servant died for the transgressions, or sins, of the Jewish people. This is seen in the closing sentence of Isaiah 53:8, which says:
For he was cut off out of the land of the living, for the transgression of my people to whom the stroke was due.
Clearly, “my people” is Isaiah’s people, the people of Israel. The passage would make no sense if the suffering servant were Israel. In that case, Israel would die for Israel’s sins. In other words, Israel would have gotten what she deserved, which makes no sense. The entire passage speaks of the suffering servant suffering and dying for, on behalf of, or in place of Israel.
c. In verse 10, the suffering servant is offered as an “asham,” or guilt offering. Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, or Jewish Bible, the guilt offering was never Israel, nor could it ever have been Israel. The guilt offering, or “asham,” was always offered on behalf of or in place of the one who had committed the trespass or sin.[2] It was never offered for or on behalf of the asham itself. (No one could ever be an “asham” for his or her own sins.) An asham offering was always offered by an individual and never by the nation of Israel. (See Art Scroll commentary on Leviticus, volume 1.) In addition, the offering had to be without blemish, or sinless. Because the offering was without blemish, it was always offered for the sins of someone other than the asham itself. For all of these reasons, Israel cannot be the suffering servant who offers himself as an asham offering.
3. The “asham” always had to die. Likewise, the suffering servant clearly died. See Isaiah 53:8, 9, 10, and 12. He was “cut off out of the land of the living,” he had a grave; he was with the rich “in his death;” and he “poured out his soul unto death.” However, Israel never died. In fact, it is impossible for Israel to ever die, because G-d promised Israel that she would live forever. (See, for example Jeremiah 31:35-37.)
4. The suffering servant suffered a vicarious and substitutionary death (Isaiah 53:4-6, 8, 10, 12). He suffers for the sins of others, so they need not suffer for their own sins. Nowhere in the Jewish Bible nor in Jewish history do we ever see Israel suffering for, on behalf of, or in place of the Gentiles, so that the Gentiles do not have to suffer. Israel often suffered at the hand ofGentiles or because of Gentiles, but never for, on behalf of, or in place of the Gentiles. Israel suffers, but she always suffers for her own sins.
5. The suffering servant “sprinkles” many nations (or Gentiles) in Isaiah 52:15. The Hebrew word for sprinkle is repeatedly used for the sprinkling of the blood of the sacrifice, which was always offered for, on behalf of, or in place of Israel.[3] Israel’s blood was never “sprinkled”, as Israel could never be a sacrifice for herself.
6. The suffering servant has qualities that were never true of Israel:
a. The suffering servant is depicted as being innocent. He did no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth (Isaiah 53:4-6, 8b, 9b). Israel is never told she would suffer for being innocent. (See, for example, Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28.) In addition, Israel is never depicted as being innocent. A cursory reading through Judges, I and II Samuel, I and II Kings, I and II Chronicles, and all the prophets make this abundantly clear. (See, for example, Isaiah 59:1-15, esp. verses 4-7 and Psalm 14:3. These are just two of hundreds of examples that could be cited.) That was why so many sacrifices were needed. Israelwas never righteous, or even close to being righteous. Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, Israel is pictured as continually rejecting God and being repeatedly judged for her sins. This is in sharp contrast to the suffering servant of Isaiah 53, who is portrayed as an innocent sufferer.
b. The suffering servant is the most righteous person described in Scripture. In Isaiah 53:11, he is called “Tsadeek ahvdee”, or “My righteous servant.” This is the only place in the entire Hebrew Bible where this phrase is used. It certainly is never used of Israel. In addition, neither Abraham, Moses, David, nor any other prophet or ruler was ever called “Tsadeek ahvdee”, or “My righteous servant” in the Hebrew Bible—except for the suffering servant of Isaiah 53. Only one righteous or without any blemish could die as a sacrifice for sin. However, no normal human was ever considered righteous on his or her own. (See, for example, Psalm 14:2-3 and Psalm 53:2-3.) This suffering servant must, therefore, be someone greater than Abraham, Moses, or David. It is no wonder that the great majority of rabbis throughout the ages concluded that this righteous servant was none other than the Messiah of Israel.
c. The suffering servant is depicted as being a silent sufferer, in that, like a lamb, he did not protest his execution nor did he defend himself (verse 7). He, instead, suffered willingly and voluntarily. While Israel has suffered immeasurable persecution, she has never done so willingly or voluntarily. Israel has always cried out against the inhumanity of people against her.
7. In this passage, the suffering servant is depicted as suffering for, on behalf of, or in place of others. This was never true of Israel. In the Jewish Bible, every time Israel suffers, including the Babylonian captivity and the present day Dispersion or Diaspora, Israel suffered for her own disobedience—not for the sins of others.
8. The Jewish people (Israel) were promised that if they obeyed G-d, they would be greatly blessed. Only if they were disobedient would they be cursed. (See, for example, Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28.) If Israel were the righteous servant of Isaiah 53, it would have been impossible for her to have suffered and died under the conditions and in the manner described in this passage.
9. In this passage, the suffering servant borethe sins of the people, so they would not have tobear their own sins or be judged for them (Isaiah 53:4-6, 8, 10, 12). If the servant is Israel and the people are the Gentiles, then the Gentiles would not need to be punished for their sins, as they would have been vicariously borne by Israel. This has never been the case. The Gentiles were never deemed innocent after Jews suffered at their hands. Instead, they were judged for mistreating Jewish people. (See, for example, Genesis 12:3, Numbers 24:9, and Jeremiah 46:28.)
10. Isaiah 53:1 refers to the suffering servant as “the Arm of the Lord.” There are 37 references to the Arm of the Lord in the Tanakh. Never does that phrase refer to Israel. The Arm of the Lord acts on behalf of Israel, but is never Israel. Among other things, the Arm of the Lord redeems and delivers Israel when Israel is not able to deliver herself. (See, for example, Exodus 6:6, Exodus 15:16, Deuteronomy 4:34, 5:15, 9:29, 26:8, II Kings 17:36, Psalm 44:3, and Ezekiel 20:33-34.) Clearly the suffering servant, the Arm of the Lord, cannot be Israel.
Conclusion
For these ten reasons, the passage cannot refer to Israel. Therefore, as leading rabbis have held throughout the centuries, the passage must refer to a special individual—the Messiah—who would suffer and die as the ultimate sacrifice or atonement.