The Suffering Servant of Isaiah
No study of the cross in the T’nach is complete without a consideration of the Suffering Servant of Isaiah, who not only dies for sin and transgression but is also exalted. Isaiah, chapter 53 especially, is the counterpoint to Psalms 22 and 110. As the centre chapter of this most remarkable section of Isaiah’s writing (chapters 40 to 66), it is clearly the beating heart of his message of consolation. It describes the price that will be paid by the Servant of YHWH to enable the mercy of God to be exercised while the righteousness of God is protected. It is one of the most important passages, perhaps the most important passage that the prophetic writings of the T’nach have given us. In some senses it could claim to be the deepest and the loftiest. That it applies to the Messiah of Israel, Jesus of Nazareth is clear. He was in focus in 42.1-7
“Behold! My Servant whom I uphold, My Elect One in whom My soul delights! I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles. He will not cry out, nor raise His voice, Nor cause His voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed He will not break, And smoking flax He will not quench; He will bring forth justice for truth. He will not fail nor be discouraged, Till He has established justice in the earth; And the coastlands shall wait for His law.” Thus says God the Lord, Who created the heavens and stretched them out, Who spread forth the earth and that which comes from it, Who gives breath to the people on it, And spirit to those who walk on it: “I, the Lord, have called You in righteousness, And will hold Your hand; I will keep You and give You as a covenant to the people, As a light to the Gentiles, To open blind eyes, To bring out prisoners from the prison, Those who sit in darkness from the prison house. ”
Matthew records the events that fulfilled the first section of this prophecy;
“And great multitudes followed Him, and He healed them all. Yet He warned them not to make Him known, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: “Behold! My Servant whom I have chosen, My Beloved in whom My soul is well pleased! I will put My Spirit upon Him, And He will declare justice to the Gentiles. He will not quarrel nor cry out, Nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets. A bruised reed He will not break, And smoking flax He will not quench, Till He sends forth justice to victory; And in His name Gentiles will trust” (Matt. 12:15–21).
Simeon also refers to the Isaiah prophecy when, inspired by the Holy Spirit, he said,
“For my eyes have seen Your salvation Which You have prepared before the face of all peoples, A light to bring revelation to the Gentiles, And the glory of Your people Israel.” (Luke 2:30–32) This makes direct reference to Isaiah 49.6 which reads: “Indeed He says, ‘It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob, And to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles, That You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth’” (Isaiah 49:6). This helps to direct our attention to the central theme of this study, which is, that the sacerdotal structure of Israel was designed to be salvific for the world, not just the nation. The execution of the Messiah, ordered on the Temple mount at the instigation of the High Priest, and performed within sight of the Temple, was in fulfillment of those prophetical pointers that indicated that the sacrifice, which was within the priestly culture of Israel, should benefit all peoples, as Isaiah reported the words of YHWH: “You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth”.
Chapter 53 is especially pertinent to our purpose in that it describes in some detail the decease of the Servant. Accepting that it applies to Jesus, the first three verses refer to His life and His ultimate rejection by the nation’s leaders. “He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him” (Is 53:3).
Verses 4-9 is the central message, describing as it does a substitutionary sacrifice, in accordance with the principles on which the Hebrew religion was founded—from the Passover sacrifice at the time of the exodus from Egypt, to the Levitical offerings that were the cornerstone of the Tabernacle and Temple ministry. Verse 4 reads; “Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted” (Is 53:4). The word ‘stricken’ in this verse and again in verse 8, “For the transgressions of My people He was stricken”, helps us understand what was entailed in Jesus, the Lamb of God, bearing away the sins of the world. It is a word used in connection with leprosy—leprosy being understood as the stroke of God against sin. Because of Satanic activity, our first parents had disobeyed the clear command of God and incurred the consequence that God said would follow, “…in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Gen.2.17). They did not immediately fall to ground but were subject to a ‘living death’, a process of dying; the Hebrew could be translated, “dying you will die”. Leprosy, also called ‘the living death’, was considered a visual of the stroke of God in the Garden. The Hebrew for leprosy, ‘tsara’ath’, is related to the Arabic word that signifies ‘to strike down or scourge’. Tsara’ath (leprosy) was considered the scourge of God. This truth is re-emphasized in the T’nach where God judged individuals who rebelled against His will and struck them with leprosy. When Miriam rebelled, “... the anger of the LORD was aroused …and … suddenly, Miriam became leprous, as white as snow” (Num.12:10). Uzziah contracted leprosy when he discarded the priestly protocol contained in the Mosaic law: “leprosy broke out on his forehead … because the LORD had struck him” (2 Chron.26.19).
Two words that are strongly connected with leprosy are ‘naga’ (touch, reach, strike); and its derivative ‘nega’ (stroke, plague, disease). In Leviticus chapter 13, there are instructions for the diagnosis of leprosy, and in chapter 14 instructions for the performance of those rituals required in those cases of leprosy that had been cured. In these two chapters ‘nega’, translated ‘plague’ in the KJV and sometimes ‘plague’ and sometimes ‘sore’ in the NKJV, is used some eighty times. Again, the connection is - the plague (nega) of leprosy is the visual of the stroke of God. In Isaiah 53, both these words occur, but there the plague is sin, and because of that plague, God’s Messiah must suffer God’s stroke, that is, He was ‘smitten of God’. The substitutionary aspect is emphasized. To repeat—of the Suffering Servant it says, “He was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due” (Isa.53:8). And again, “Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted” (Isa.53:4). In connection with the image that sin is a plague; the Isaiah passage equates salvation to healing: “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed”. (53:5)
It is evident that the provision of salvation for humankind through a substitutionary sacrifice was not an exercise in fire-fighting, undertaken by God because He had been taken unawares by the activity of Adam and his posterity. He knows the end from the beginning (Isa.46.10). Not only did He know that the sacrifice would take place, but He knew when, where, and how. So much so, that He included the date in the prophetic calendar He gave to the Jewish nation, and He included details of the execution in the T’nach. When the Ethiopian statesman read from this very chapter of Isaiah’s narrative of the Suffering Servant, “He was led as a sheep to the slaughter ... For His life is taken from the earth” (Acts 8:32,33), he asked the question, “... of whom does the prophet say this, of himself or of some other man?” (Acts 8:34) The only answer that could be given is—He is referring to Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah of Israel, the Son of God and the Savior of the World.
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