The Suffering Servant (Isa 52:13ff) Part 1

Well, here we are. May 22, 2011.

That's what my watch says anyways. And of course, most of you know that we've been enduring a period of time where, well, at least some people in our society have been focused on certain eschatological speculation, shall we say.

And yesterday, outside the offices of Family Radio over in California, we had a group of atheists show up and they had,

I hope they spent a lot of money on this personally, but they had had human -shaped balloons made and they filled them with helium and released them at 6 o 'clock outside the offices of Family Radio.

And yet, here we are and it's May 22nd and there are a lot of people in the world today that are a little more skeptical about things prophetic.

Americans have a pretty deep -seated skepticism about people predicting the future in the first place.

Despite the scholarly magazines at the checkout counters at the grocery store, most of us really, you know, have a little problem.

I don't really think that most of those folks know what's going on. And as you may know,

I had said for about a decade that a particular individual, now aged 89, really did not have any idea what was going on.

And yet, the problem is that concept of knowing the future.

Well, the Bible says that's God's business. And yet, sometimes He does tell us something about the future.

And my concern is that many people today are really wondering, has God ever let anyone know what was going to happen in the future with certainty?

Well, I have a sermon illustration, a physical sermon illustration. I'm going to show it to you right here.

Now, that doesn't really do you much good, does it? You're a little far away, but that is an image from the

Dead Sea Scrolls. Most of us have heard of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Dead Sea Scrolls, this is from the

Great Isaiah Scroll. In fact, ironically, this one column here in the middle, and this is,

I can zoom in on this, I can translate this, actually. It's amazing how clear it is. That one column contains our text for today.

And this was written before Jesus was ever born. Sometime in the century or so prior to the birth of Christ, so about 2 ,100 years ago, a scribe took a piece, a scroll, and he wrote out these words in the

Hebrew language. You can see it's all consonants. There are no vowel pointing or anything. Well, you can't see that, but you're just going to have to take my word for it that that's the case.

A long time ago. Now, it is interesting. It does sort of illustrate the difference in our generations.

I was thinking about this. There's my sermon illustration, and here's Pastor Frey's sermon illustration.

A little bit of a difference, but you know, we're both going the same direction.

That's the important part. I'm not sure how he can connect that to Isaiah 52 and 53, but he didn't intend to anyway, so I hope there's nothing alive in there.

It's been down there for about, what, about 10, 12, 15 years now? I'm not sure how long it's been there. So much for sermon illustrations, and let's go to the text.

I'm not going to say let's turn to Isaiah 53, because you and I are accustomed to that.

How many times? I've lost count. How many times have we read Isaiah 53 before the

Lord suffered? But it's not really Isaiah 53. Turn with me to Isaiah 52, verse 13.

As I mentioned last Lord's evening, before the Lord's Supper, I read this text, already thinking

I would be reading through this and you would be looking at it today in the Lord's Day of Services.

And you may recall, I made the brief comment that it's somewhat unfortunate how the verse and chapter divisions were made at this point.

Because we think of Isaiah 53, actually this oracle of the servant, the suffering servant, begins in chapter 52, verse 13, and extends all the way through chapter 53.

And so our thoughts today will be focused upon a text that we know very well, and that can be somewhat dangerous, because you do know it very well.

You have heard it read over and over and over again, so the danger is that the mind can wander, because well,

I know this, it would be like preaching a sermon on John 3 .16, you know, you're going to have to open your

Bible, right? And yet, how well do we really know? And how deeply have we really considered these words?

You see, I think they fit perfectly together with where I started, because we have a healthy skepticism about someone who says they know what's going to happen in the future.

Now theologically we know that God knows the future, in fact the whole argument of the book of Isaiah is that one of the things that separates

God from the false gods is that the true God not only knows the past, and why the past happened the way that it happened, but he knows the future as well, and the idols, well they just, they don't know anything at all, actually.

And that's one of the charges that is brought against them. But here we have a text, and remember what

I said, we saw the Dead Sea Scroll, that was written about a hundred years before Jesus. And yet the words that the scribe wrote down, that we can continue to read to this day, had been written at least half a millennium before that.

In fact, if you were a good conservative Bible scholar, you would say they were written about 700 years before the birth of Jesus.

Now, for 700 years, as evidenced by the scroll itself, the people of God read these words.

And they wondered what they meant. They tried to make application, they tried to understand what is it that the prophet was saying here?

It was in the middle of a context, and there's discussion about the restoration of the people of Israel, but you read these words, and what

I want us to do is we read them this time. Normally we just get up on a Sunday evening, and we read through the text, and we make automatic connections, because we have the bread, and we have the fruit of the vine in front of us, and we're going to partake the

Lord's Supper, we just make automatic connections. But as I read through this section this morning, for a moment, try to put yourself in the position of the faithful Jewish follower of Yahweh, 200 years before the birth of Jesus.

How would you have understood these words? What would they have meant? What would they have communicated to you? They are clearly prophetic.

They're speaking about the future. See, you and I, when we read these, we read them backwards.

We read them back into time, and we have all this light, we have all this fulfillment, and you see what we're dealing with here is a prophecy that was completely fulfilled.

Unlike yesterday, where there were entire websites set up, such as rapturefailed .org,

to demonstrate that one man who had rejected the

Church, and rejected truth, and rejected wisdom, and seemingly thought he knew more about the

Bible than anyone had ever known, rather than the prophetic speculations of one little man, what we have here is we have fulfilled prophecy.

We look back upon it, but what was it like to look forward to its fulfillment?

Keep that in mind as we read these words, beginning in chapter 52, verse 13.

Behold, my servant will prosper. He will be high, and lifted up, and greatly exalted, just as many were astonished at you, my people.

So his appearance was marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men. Thus he will sprinkle many nations.

Kings will shut their mouths on account of him, for what had not been told them they will see, and what they had not heard they will understand.

Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

For he grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of parched ground. He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to him.

He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

Like one from whom men hide their face, he was despised, and we did not esteem him.

Surely our griefs he himself bore, and our sorrows he carried, 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.

All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way. But the

Lord, Yahweh, has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him.

He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so he did not open his mouth.

By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And as for his generation, who considered?

He was cut off by the land of the living for the transgressions of my people to whom the stroke was due.

His grave was assigned with wicked men, yet he was with a rich man at his death, because he had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in his mouth.

But the Lord was pleased to crush him, putting him to grief. If he would render himself as a guilt -offering, he will see his offspring, he will prolong his days, and the good pleasure of the

Lord will prosper in his hand. As a result of the anguish of his soul, he will see it and be satisfied.

By his knowledge, the righteous one, my servant, will justify the many, as he will bear their iniquities.

Therefore, I will allot him a portion with the great, and he will divide the booty with the strong, because he poured out himself to death and was numbered with the transgressors, yet he himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors.

I hope you listened very carefully, because if you did, you may have noticed a number of things.

First of all, if this is prophetic, why is it so often in the past tense? He did this, he did that, but then it goes into a future, if he will do this, then this will happen.

Would it really have been all that easy to be a Jewish interpreter? To be looking at these texts?

When we look at how the Jewish people themselves have interpreted this, it's very interesting to note that the earliest documented interpretation we have of this text actually comes from a

Christian, as in how the Jews interpreted this text. It's from Origen, and Origen had a lot of encounters with Jewish people, and he said, they interpret this as the nation of Israel.

Now, actually, when you get into a period of time when you have more Jewish writing, rabbinic writing, that is one view, and it's very popular today if you share this text with a

Jewish person. Oh, this is the nation of Israel. Israel is

Yahweh's suffering servant, and elsewhere in the book of Isaiah, Israel is described as God's servant, there's no question about that.

But then you have the oddity of how it is that his people's sins are laid upon his people.

It really doesn't work to do that, as we'll see, but keep that in mind, because if you ever do speak with a

Jewish person, a person who actually follows the Jewish religion, as you may know, there's a lot of different forms of Judaism today, there aren't all that many who follow a very conservative view, where they actually believe that the

Tanakh, the Torah, the Nevi 'im, the Ketanim, the Law, the Prophets, the Writings, there aren't very many of them anymore that actually believe that these things are divine in origin, in the sense of being truly

Scripture. In fact, you probably should be aware of the fact that a large portion, a majority of people in the land of Israel today don't really believe in God, don't believe and practice the

Jewish religion. But there are those, and we do have opportunities of speaking with them, and there's probably no other passage of Scripture that has brought more genetically

Jewish people, culturally, religiously Jewish people, to the foot of the cross than the suffering servant oracle of Isaiah 52 .13

through chapter 53. So we need to keep that in mind. Who is this servant?

There are some Jewish rabbis that identify it as Jeremiah. Others as the people of Israel.

There are others who identify it as the coming Messiah. But that ran into an immediate problem.

Because you see, the Messiah, the Messiah is victorious. The Messiah is anointed of God, and he causes the nations to bow down, and this one, whoever is spoken of here, we did not esteem him.

We consider him stricken of God, inflicted. This is a suffering servant.

During the great persecutions that the

Jewish people have endured over the years, a concept developed where they began to view their own sufferings as an atonement for the rest of the world.

They had to find some meaning in what was going on in their lives. And so some of the rabbis who died during the

Holocaust prayed that their deaths would have an atoning effect for the world.

An interesting concept, is it not? Now one thing is for certain, we know where the

Christians went with this. We know how the Christians understood this particular text.

For example, Isaiah 52 .15 is cited in Romans 15 .21.

But as it is written, they who had no news of him shall see, and they who have not heard shall understand.

So there the Apostle Paul sees in the proclamation of the Gospel, in Isaiah 52, a fulfillment in the proclamation of his day.

Isaiah 53 .1 is cited in John 12 .38. This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet who spoke,

Lord, who has believed our report, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? This in that section where John identifies

Jesus as Yahweh, clearly the early church sees this as a fulfillment in Jesus.

Romans 10 .16, however, they did not all heed the good news, for Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our report?

And so Paul saw in the unbelief expressed in Isaiah 53 .1,

a fulfillment amongst the Jews of his day. Isaiah 53 .4

is cited in Matthew 8 .17. This was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet. He himself took our infirmities and carried away our diseases.

This in the ministry of Christ. Isaiah 53 .5

is quoted, in fact, if you just look at 1 Peter 2, it's almost a complete exegesis interpretation of the suffering servant's oracle.

Isaiah 53 .5 is quoted in 1 Peter 2 .24, and he himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness, for by his wounds you were healed.

Peter's entire sermon here, his entire discussion is based upon this. Same thing in verse 6, is in the very next verse, 1

Peter 2 .25, for you are continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.

Isaiah 53 .7 is cited in Acts 8 .32. Now the passage of scripture which he was reading, this is talking about the

Ethiopian eunuch, was this, he was led as a sheep to slaughter, and as the land before its shearer is silent, so he does not open his mouth in humiliation, his judgment was taken away, who will relate his generation, for his life is removed from the earth, this being from the

Greek Septuagint. And the eunuch answered Philip and said, please tell me of whom does the prophet say this, of himself or someone else?

Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this scripture, he preached Jesus to him.

At the very least, looking at Acts chapter 8, you would think we would want to be able to do what

Philip did. And beginning from this scripture, preach Jesus to others.

In fact, it crosses my mind, maybe as you go to work this week, there might be someone who likes to sort of tweet you about your

Christianity, or say something. Maybe they'll say something like, ha ha ha, what's the date today?

Looks like that Bible of yours missed it again, huh? Well, no, the Bible didn't miss anything.

A fellow by the name of Harold Camping certainly did, but isn't it interesting? You know,

I was just looking at a past description this weekend that absolutely nailed it 700 years for the events described.

You might want to take a look at that with me. It might be something you might want to consider doing. And then from this text, preach

Jesus. And that's the way to go. That same text is alluded to in Matthew 26 -63,

Mark 14 -61, John 19 -19, and 1 Peter 2 -23. And finally the ninth verse is cited in 1

Peter 2 -22, who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in his mouth.

There is one thing that is absolutely certain. The New Testament writers see in this text one of the clearest, most compelling prophecies fulfilled in the life of Jesus.

And in fact, as we read it, did it not sound like something that was written by someone who had stood at the very foot of the cross?

Who had observed the life and ministry of Christ? And now having observed that great self -sacrifice, writes down these events, and yet there is no question, even given the most liberal understanding of things, that these words were written long, long before the birth of Christ and along the events of his life.

I mean, I don't know anybody, honestly, no matter how liberal they are, that thinks that this text was written any closer to the time of Christ than at the,

I mean, the most radical might say 400 years. We would say 700 years.

Even the most radical would say 400 years. And so did these words have a meaning?

Did they communicate something? What is the origin of this kind of writing?

See, for you and I, it's just easy to say, oh, the Old Testament prophesied the coming of Jesus and the ministry of Jesus. We move on from there.

But you see, when we read this text, when we rejoice in its fulfillment before the

Lord's Supper, there's more to it than sometimes

I think we allow to meet the eye. Yes, we believe that God can communicate

His truth. But it is quite clear that He has communicated His truth in such a way in the past that He gave to His prophets.

And how much did Isaiah understand? How much could he have exegeted this text and made application until the coming of Christ?

I don't know. But you see, God's not limited to that in the first place. God can communicate with clarity in His Scriptures, and since He is the

Lord of history, He fulfills the promises

He made. Now, I had decided that I was going to work through Isaiah 53 before all the events this past week and how much time it ended up taking up.

And as most of you know, I wrote a book about this whole thing 10 years ago, and I debated this man, and so I've been doing radio programs and all the rest of this kind of stuff.

But it's fascinating to me, the prophecies of God and how these things work together. Because see, one of my great concerns over what has taken place this week is that no honest -hearted person, if there is such a thing outside the grace of God, would accuse us of falsehood because one man in one small little group with a lot of radio stations came up with a prophecy.

But the reality is, people look at this and they go, see, there's just no reason to look to the

Bible for any information or promises about the future.

Stop thinking like that. When we live in a land, did you see the

Gallup poll that came out two days ago? The first time in the history of the

Gallup poll, a majority of respondents in the United States of America support same -sex marriage.

53%. It was 68 % against in 1996.

Now it's 53%. That's the land we live in. And I would argue that much of that is directly associated with the fact that the young people of our day have been so completely soaked in a secular, worldly viewpoint that the idea that there is a transcendent meaning to marriage or a

God that can say, this is right, this is wrong, seems foolishness to them. And it seems just as foolish to them.

To think that a book, or actually a series of books, writings, letters, epistles, put together 2 ,000 years ago, could have any relevance for us today, let alone could it tell us anything about tomorrow.

And yet, for 700 years, the followers of God read these words and they wondered, who is this servant?

Who is this one who has no stately form that we should look upon him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to him?

Who is this one who was despised and forsaken of men? Is this someone in the future?

Is this someone in the past? They looked at these words and they believed that the words were true, even while waiting to understand what the words referred to.

Here we have clear evidence that God did, beyond a shadow of a doubt, give accurate, thorough revelation about a future event for the benefit of His people.

Is that not the repeated message we have in the New Testament? Does not Paul say, why were these things written for us?

They were written for our edification, for our encouragement.

That's why God has preserved the Scriptures. He has a purpose for them amongst His people, His Church.

And He gave us these prophecies. He gave us these things, and I know there have been people who have abused that.

It's been amazing to watch these people. There are people who just are imbalanced.

All they care about is trying to figure out what's going to happen tomorrow, and reading the newspaper or the internet to identify this person as that person, and they just have this insatiable desire to know about tomorrow.

You know what a Christian should know about tomorrow? Jesus will be Lord then too. Serve Him. Period. End of discussion.

That's what the Christian should be concerned about tomorrow. But you see, these same

Scriptures, the same Scriptures that for 700 years told us what was going to happen in Christ.

These aren't the only ones. Of course, we can read this one. The second song, we can read the other prophetic

Scriptures as well. But this one is so long, and so complete, and so in -depth. For 700 years it was there.

Why then would we believe that the promises of His coming are now null and void?

We weren't a part of this foolishness.

In fact, to be honest with you, one of your elders, who was one of the primary people that called this guy a false prophet for a decade before this, wasn't fun doing the research

I had to do to write books about herald camping. Ever listen to herald camping for hours on end? Talk about suffering.

Oh, it's fun. I mean, we have old people to say, oh, just don't blame us.

But, the fact is, we live in a world where people say, this can't happen.

And how can it change someone's life when they can encounter a Christian and say, let me show you a place where it did.

Let me tell you what it says about you and I. Let me tell you what the Bible says about what you and I need to do.

The fact that Jesus Christ is coming again. Nobody knows that they are the hour, and anyone who tries to come up with some prophetic mishmash, like herald camping did, deserves the mockery that he will be experiencing for the rest of his early life.

Remember, this wasn't his first time. You see, we can take these texts, and we can take the opportunity to use it as a stepping stone to preach

Jesus. And that's what we need to do. And so, as we go through this, and obviously, you're looking at me going, okay, there's a lot more verses than there are minutes left before noon.

Obviously, as you know, I like to do two -part service. It also gives you another reason to come back to see me.

Because we'll actually get a chance to get into looking at each one of these verses and its fulfillment and what it means, and we'll also very briefly try to note some of the objections that people make.

But I want to get a brief start on it. Try to get into it so that we're not too rushed this evening.

But I want to look at the text, and we can honestly present it to others. First of all, please notice something.

Behold, my servant will prosper. Sometimes you'll be told that there are some verses in Isaiah 53 that use a plural, and so this is the people of Israel.

The only places where plurals are used is when, for example, it talks about death and blood and things like that.

That's a Hebrew idiom that has nothing to do with there's more than one servant here.

It's a Hebrew idiom that very frequently, for example, if you have an experience of violent death, the word death would put it in the plural.

That's just how the Hebrew language expresses things. There's nothing in this text that points us to anything but an individual who is the servant of Yahweh.

Is the nation of Israel ever identified as the servant of Yahweh?

Yes. Will there be any reason to think that Israel is the servant here?

The answer will be no. There will be numerous objections to the idea that the nation itself could be under discussion here.

Now the translation I read to you is the New American Standard. There might be some differences. I'll make reference to those as we work through them.

But notice something interesting. Before there's any mention of suffering, there is a brief mention of exaltation.

Behold, my servant will prosper. He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted.

Now why would that be? Could this be, as I personally am convinced is the case elsewhere in Isaiah, where in the prophecy of the coming of the

Messiah you have that statement, a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us.

Child born, natural, normal human language, a son will be given to us.

How could the prophetic scriptures even begin to encompass the glory of this one who is coming?

This one who is the God man. This was one who was high, lifted up, greatly exalted.

And yet, there is a humiliation. There is, I think as we have in Philippians chapter 2, that incarnation, that laying aside of the glory that was his.

Because remember, John himself is going to quote from Isaiah chapter 6, from the same book of prophecy, to say that the one that Isaiah saw sitting upon the throne, lofty and lifted up, exalted, who was it?

It was Jesus according to John. And so he preexisted. He had an exalted existence.

Then, verse 14, in the New American Standard it says, Just as many were astonished at you, my people.

And my people is in italics in the New American Standard. This is a possible way of understanding the text.

In other words, the writer is saying, just as many were astonished at you, my people, that is, at Israel.

Israel has been put under the dominion of Babylon, etc., etc., and there is this great humiliation that comes along.

So, in the same way, his appearance was marred more than any man in his form, or the sons of men.

So it could be that the writer is saying, yes, the nations have expressed astonishment at you,

Israel, but even more so at my servant, whose appearance was marred more than any man in his form, or the sons of men.

That is one possible interpretation. Because when it says, at you, astonished at you, that is the second person singular.

But there are others who would say, no, this is actually being addressed to the servant.

And just as we would switch between second and third person in addressing someone and then describing what happened to them, that's what's going on here as well.

So, in other words, just as many were astonished at you, that servant, so his appearance was marred more than any man in his form, more than the sons of men.

We can take it either direction. The point is, there is an astonishment. There is something happens to the servant.

His appearance is marred more than any man in his form, more than the sons of men.

Now what is this marring? What is this, what's going to happen to him?

Well, I think we have more information about this in the following verses.

But it has to be in some way related to verse 15, which says,

Thus he will sprinkle many nations. What?

How indeed could the believing Jewish person have understood that?

Think about it for a moment. Sprinkle many nations? See, you and I, we just automatically make the connections because we're looking at it this direction, they were looking at it this direction.

You and I, it's pretty easy, but we have so much more to go on.

But just because we have so much more to go on doesn't mean that what we see as fulfillment isn't what was there to begin with.

He will sprinkle many nations. How? With what?

And many nations? That sounds like it's related to the promises of blessing back from Genesis 12, 15.

Somehow this Abraham, he's going to have descendants as many as the sand and the sea, and there's going to be this blessing upon the nations.

This blessing is going to come through him somehow. The nations. Here the prophetic view already expands beyond just the people of Israel.

Something he's going to do will allow him to sprinkle many nations. Kings will shut their mouths in account of him for what had not been told them they will see, and what they had not heard they will understand.

Something's going to happen. This exalted servant who all of a sudden becomes marred, he sprinkles many nations and something happens to where kings, doesn't seem to be

Israelite kings, seems to be kings outside of the

Jewish context, they will be silenced because they will see something, they will understand something that they had not been told or heard before.

Something new is going to happen that's going to impact the nations, even to kings.

Again, what would the Jewish person have understood? You and I can look back and go,

I see the fulfillment. Sprinkle many nations.

Here we are 2 ,000 years later after the time of Christ, 2 ,700 years after the writing of these words, what nations do not have a

Christian father? As the sun has gone across God's earth today, do we not often pray,

O Lord, we are thankful to join the throng of people, who in every tongue known to man have lifted the praise of Jesus Christ.

We now can see, but you see these words spoke of this long before the events themselves.

There is something that's going to transcend just the Jewish people in this suffering circle.

Once that is said, then we have the question, who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of Yahweh been revealed?

Who has believed? Then we get into the 53rd chapter. So that's what we'll do this evening.

We'll work through the rest of chapter 53. But I hope at least this morning what you hear is

God has given to us His word and in His word there are these tremendous texts that were true long before the events they describe ever took place.

Christians are described in Titus chapter 2 as those who are eagerly awaiting, longing for the appearance of our great

God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Do not allow the ravings of a man who has rejected all godly counsel and wisdom.

Do not let his ravings and the world's mocking of it cause you to be embarrassed, to be described by the words of Titus 2 .13.

We need to confess and we need to remain firm as being amongst those who eagerly await the appearance of our great

God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Let's pray together. Indeed, our glorious Heavenly Father, we thank

You for Your word and we thank You that You are the Eternal One whose decree forms the very fabric of time itself.

So that as You can reveal to Your prophets, as You can reveal in the scriptures what is true about what's currently going on,

You likewise can speak to that which will take place.

We thank You for fulfilled scripture. We thank You for this suffering servant passage. And Lord, we ask that as we may indeed have opportunity in the coming days to give testimony that yes, we do believe that Christ is coming again.

May we do so with boldness and may we do so with Your blessing for we know apart from Your Spirit, our words can accomplish nothing.

Lord, we ask that You would bring honor and glory to Yourself. We pray in Christ's name, Amen.