Bruised for Our Iniquities — William MacDonald

I'll never forget that last conference, it was a time when God was really working in my life in a very special way, and it was a joy to come here and see the marvelous meshing of the wheels of the gears, the miraculous converging of circumstances, God giving guidance to me in a very definite way.

I'm very happy to be here, too, with Brother Anna, and hopefully with Brother Arvid Inge. I don't know how someone whose name began with M got on the platform with two who begin with A, but I hope I don't break anything but the alliteration at the conference.

Isaiah 52:13–15 and the Suffering Servant

Shall we turn to Isaiah chapter 52? How could we do better on this day known as Good Friday than just to have a devotional study in this beautiful section of the Word of God? We've read Isaiah 53, so just let me read the last three verses of Isaiah 52, beginning with verse 13.

Behold, my servant shall deal prudently. He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high. As many were astonished at thee, his visage was so large more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men.

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. Isn't it passing wonderful that at least 700 years before the birth of the Lord Jesus, Isaiah, by the Spirit of God, should pen these wonderful words that we're so familiar with, and yet that we never tire of?

When I read this, I know the Bible is the Word of God. People say to me, how do you know the Bible is the Word of God? I answer, because I read it. And truth is self-absenticating, and this has the ring of truth about it.

Behold, my servant shall deal prudently or wisely. This takes us back to the first advent of the Lord Jesus, doesn't it? My servant shall deal wisely, and whoever dealt more wisely than the Savior of the world, wise in all his words and wise in all his deeds, never came to the end of the day and wished he had done something that he hadn't done, or wished that he had spoken something that he hadn't spoken.

The perfect servant of Jehovah. Dealing wisely and prudently in all his ways. It says, he shall be exalted and extolled and be very kind. He shall be exalted, I believe that refers to his resurrection from the dead.

Extolled, the revised version says, and lifted up. But I believe that refers to his ascension to the right hand of God. And be very high, and I believe that refers to the position that God has given him at his own right hand and the decree that at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow.

Exalted, resurrection. Lifted up, ascension. Be very high, glorification at the right hand of God. And then, once again, going back to his earthly pathway, it says, as many were astonished at thee. Why?

Well, they gazed at him on the cross of Calvary, and they were startled by the depths of his suffering. That's what the verse says. They were astonished by the depths of his suffering, because his visage was marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men.

And the margins of some of the Bible suggest that he was so abused of men that his form was scarcely recognizable as that of a man. Just think of that. Just think of the Lord of life and glory coming into this world and enduring the terrible suffering of the cross and enduring such contradiction of sinners against himself.

Christ’s Two Comings: Suffering and Glory

The Spirit of God here telescopes the two comings of the Lord Jesus. In verses 13 and 14, you have his first coming. In verse 15, you have his second coming. And this is often the way of the Spirit of God to skip over from one to the other with nothing more than a comma or a colon, as we have it in this case.

And the connection is this. Just as many were astonished when he came the first time because of the depth of his suffering, so many will be astonished when he comes the second time because of the height of his glory.

So shall he startle many nations. And we believe that that moment isn't far off. First the rapture, but then he'll come in power and great glory. And men will see that the man of Calvary, the man of sorrows, was the Lord of life and glory.

So shall he startle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths at him. The rulers of this earth will be dumbfounded in that day when they see him descending from heaven in power and great glory attended by myriad escorts of glorified saints.

Why? Because that which had not been told them shall they see. These kings are Gentile kings. They were really outside the pale. The great covenants had not been made to them. The promise of the Messiah had not been made to them.

That which had not been told them, they shall see. That which they had not heard, shall they consider. They weren't like Israel, with all this wealth of information made known to them. But they'll look up, and they'll see the carpenter of Nazareth coming now as King of kings and Lord of lords.

Israel’s Remnant Recognizes the Messiah

But then in the first verse of chapter 53, and incidentally there is no break here, we have the redeemed remnant of Israel thinking it all over in better days. And Israel here is saying, who has believed our report?

What report is that? Well, it's the report of the coming of the Messiah. Israel's looking back. Israel now on the threshold of the kingdom is looking back and mourning over the fact that when the Lord Jesus came the first time, hearts were not open to receive him.

And the answer to that question, who has believed our report, is not many. Just a handful. Just a faithful band of godly souls who were waiting for redemption in Israel. Who has believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?

The arm of the Lord speaks of the power of the Lord. The power of the Lord in saving grace. And the question is, to whom is the power of God in salvation revealed? Well, it has to be the same answer as the answer to the first question, because they go together.

Only those who believe the report experience the saving power of Jehovah. Of course, really the arm of the Lord is the Lord Jesus Christ himself, isn't he? And so we might say, to whom is he revealed?

But the answer is, not many. For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant. This is beautiful. The Lord Jesus, an exotic tender plant, growing up in this jungle of sin, before the delighted gaze of God the Father.

A wonderful thing, isn't it? To think of the Lord Jesus during those thirty silent years in Nazareth. Thirty years of absolute perfection. And at the end of it, God opens heaven. God is at work and can contain himself no longer.

And he opens heaven and says, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. It is as if the eye of God looked down and watched his footsteps for thirty years, and then at the end he says, I can find no fault in him.

The Messiah as a Root Out of Dry Ground

He shall grow up before him as a tender plant. And it says, as a root out of a dry ground. The dry ground is the nation of Israel, wouldn't you think? The nation of Israel. A most unlikely soil. Something like Israel today.

I imagine that Israel in that day was just as Israel is today, with no heart for the Lord Jesus, only hostility. Hard for us to believe that most of those dear people in Israel today, and most of God's ancient people throughout the world today, don't even believe in the existence of God.

Only a small remnant really do. A remnant of a remnant. And so I think I can understand what Isaiah is saying here. A root out of a dry ground. A most unlikely soil at that time, as it were, to produce the Messiah.

And then it says, he hath no form nor comeliness. And when we shall see him, no beauty that we should desire him. Doesn't this boggle your mind to think that the only lovely person who ever came into the world, the only truly beautiful person who ever came into the world, and yet men had no eyes to see his beauty.

You know, there's a tremendous lesson I feel in this for us. Looks are often deceiving, aren't they? I suppose that's one of the greatest lessons we have to learn, and one of the hardest lessons we have to learn in life.

Looks are deceiving. Someone has said there's no such a thing as the perfect stranger. That means you go through life and you see a person, and maybe that person's rather attractive, rather handsome, rather you say, I'd like to know that person.

And you get to know him and find he has the disposition of a dill pickle. And you think, well, maybe I shouldn't have judged according to appearances. But we do, don't we? We judge according to appearances.

And Israel did that with the Lord Jesus when he came into the world. They judged him according to his outward appearance, and they said, we don't see any beauty to attract us to him. Let this be a lesson to us, dear friends, because the Lord Jesus still walks the dusty lanes of this world in humble attire.

And sometimes the Savior draws near to us in the guise of some of his dear people, and outwardly there's not very much to attract. You can't judge a book by its findings, and you can't judge a person by his outward appearance.

He hath no form nor comeliness, and when we shall see him, no beauty that we desire him. This is repentant Israel now looking back and saying, oh, the disgrace of it all. He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

Amazing that the creator and sustainer of the universe coming into this world should be so treated by the creatures whom his hands have made, creatures who depended on him for every breath they drew. Yet he's despised and rejected of men.

The Man of Sorrows Bears Our Grief

Isn't it wonderful that when the Lord Jesus came into the world, he should have this title, a man of sorrows. A man of sorrows, as we've been singing this morning, who knew what grief was. That's really what it means.

A man of sorrows who knew what grief was. We hid it that were our faces from him. I'll tell you the depth of meaning in that, we hid it that were our faces from him. It means as one turns from a repulsive, repugnant sight, just think of it.

Israel in all its sin, in all its idolatry, in all its unfaithfulness to God, turning its face, and we need not apply it just to Israel, but to ourselves as well, in our unregenerate state. We hid as it were our faces from him.

He was despised, and we esteemed him not. Israel saying he was despised by all the people, and we ourselves really had no appreciation for him. The Christ of God, the anointed one of Israel. But now Israel comes to realize the wrong of it all.

The remnant is here crying out in a still future day, surely he hath borne our grief and carried our sorrows. The emphasis here of course is on the hour. He wasn't suffering for sins that he had committed, but we realize now he bore our grief and carried our sorrows.

This was partially fulfilled in the life of the Lord during his earthly ministry when he went about healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, and hearing to the deaf, and causing the lame to leap, but more fully, at the cross.

Yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. What does that mean? Well it means that as we stood there at the cross, and we saw him lifted up there between heaven and earth, we judged that God was punishing him for sins that he had committed.

Stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. This was the great mistake, the great misunderstanding. And the next verse clears it up and says, oh no, that isn't why he was there. He was wounded for our transgressions.

Bruised for Our Iniquities: Substitutionary Atonement

Bruised for our iniquities. Incidentally, I think in these verses that the Spirit of God exhausts the language of injuries that can come to a human being. I understand medically speaking there are five different kinds of wounds, and you have all five in the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus.

I think that suggested in these words, he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace, that means the chastisement that was necessary in order that we might have peace, was laid upon him.

And by his stripes, we are healed. Why isn't that wonderful? The substitutionary work of the Lord Jesus. And what a wonderful thing it is that healing should come to us through all the suffering and indignity that he endured.

Here the physician takes the medicine, and the patient is healed. By his stripes, we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. Ah, this is it. This is getting down to the nub of the matter. All we like sheep have gone astray.

We have turned everyone to his own way. The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Israel's eyes are now anointed with divine eyesalves, as ours are. And we see the true meaning of Calvary. We did all the sinning, and he did all the saving.

The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. No human mind will ever be able to understand throughout all eternity what's included in those words. No tongue would ever adequately be able to tell forth the deep, deep meaning of those words.

The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. It's as if you, and I, and every other person in the universe who has ever lived, or who is living, or whoever will live, were to die this death. It's all those deaths compounded into one when the Savior took our sins on the cross of Calvary.

Someone has said, and I believe rightly, that all that the Lord Jesus endured at the hands of men was nothing but a gentle caress compared to what he endured at the hands of God for our sins. Let me say that again.

All that the Lord Jesus endured at the hands of men was nothing but a gentle caress compared to what he endured at the hands of God for your sins and mine. And I believe that's true. And I believe that's all included in these wonderful words.

The Lord, Jehovah, has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. We bow today and worship when we see the restraint of the Lord Jesus. All the false charges that were brought against him, he never said a word.

Silent in the face of lies and accusations. Only that one time when the high priest put him under oath to testify, the Lord Jesus, as a godly Jew, testified because the law said to do it. But apart from that, he opened not his mouth, brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as the sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth.

The Willing Lamb of God

But there's a very wonderful way in which the Lord Jesus was different from every other lamb, every other sacrificial sheep, and that is that he was a willing one. I'll never forget standing in Istanbul, Turkey one day at the time when the Muslims were having their feast of Ramadan, and they take a sheep out and they slaughter it right out in front of their house.

And this is in commemoration, they say, of the time that Abraham offered up Ishmael for a sacrifice. Their theology is a little defective there. And a few other ways, too. But I tell you, it was really one of the most moving sights.

I had a young American friend with me. He couldn't watch it. He had to turn away. And I believe there are a lot of people here in the room today who couldn't stand to see that innocent sheep being slaughtered like that.

How much more should we be moved by the death of the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world. But not one of those animals that was ever offered on Jewish altars was ever willing. That's a wonderful thing, isn't it, about the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus.

He said to God the Father in that wonderful dialogue that we have in the book of Hebrews, he says, Oh Father, I know that you were never ultimately satisfied with those sacrifices and offerings offered under the law, and so I come.

You've given me a body, and I come, and I delight to do your will, oh God, even if I know what that will means. Wonderful, isn't it? All the way to Calvary he went for me because he loved me so. How greatly Jesus must have loved us to bear our sins in his body on the tree.

Christ’s Unjust Trial and Burial

And it says in verse 8, he was taken from prison and from judgment. In the King James it says he was taken from prison and from judgment. You say, that's strange, he never was allowed prison. Well, I think that's the point.

No matter how wicked a criminal, a malefactor is, he's at least allowed a certain amount of time in prison. But Jesus wasn't. Oh no. It was a hurried trial taking place during the middle of the night, which was strictly illegal as far as Israel was concerned.

I think it means he was hurried away from prison and from justice. He was hurried away from prison and from justice, or we would say he was denied a fair trial. That's what it is. I notice the revised version says, by oppression and judgment he was taken away.

Who shall declare his generation? Well, seemingly no one ever would. A young man, 33, unmarried, cut off in the prime of his life. Who shall declare his judgment that this is the end of him? And I suppose the wicked heart of men said that.

We'll never hear from him again. His cause will soon perish, for he was cut off out of the land of the living. Ah, but Israel can't end the sentence there, and neither should we. For they say that for the transgression of my people was he stricken.

I think you know that many Jewish people today suggest that the servant in this chapter is Israel. Israel is the nation who suffered all the things that are described here. Unfortunately, it doesn't fit, does it?

It says, for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And if he is Israel, who is referred to by my people? And then it goes on to say, and they made his grave with the wicked. I believe it should be, they made his grave with the wicked, but he was with the rich in his death.

They made his grave with the wicked. That is, they planned to throw his body, perhaps down into the valley of Hinnom, where the perpetual fires were burning. And there it would either be burned or be eaten by foxes.

But God had other plans. They made his grave with the wicked, but he was with the rich in his death. And God saw that he who came from the virgin's womb was buried in a virgin tomb. Why? Because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.

All the glory of God, all the divine attributes of God, demanded that the Lord take over, that Jehovah take over, that he was buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, and raised from the dead the third day according to the scriptures.

Resurrection and the Fruits of Christ’s Victory

Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. And please, when you come to this verse, don't think of God taking delight in it. I don't think that's the point. As if God took some sadistic delight in what was happening.

It pleased him. He saw fit to bruise him. Don't you think that's what it means? The Lord saw fit to bruise him in his wonderful eternal purposes. He had put him to grief. It was part of the divine plan of God for the salvation of you and me.

When thou shalt make, or when his soul shall be made an offering for sin, when men come, trust him as Lord and Savior, rest on the efficacy of that wonderful work that he accomplished there in the cross of Calvary, he shall see it.

He'll go, oh, it wasn't the end of him after all. We have resurrection implied in verse 10, if not stated. Up above they said, who shall declare his generation? Verse 8. The answer comes echoing back in verse 10.

He shall see his seed. And who is his seed? All of those who have come to him in simple, trusting faith and acknowledged him to be the only Savior and Lord. He shall prolong his days, ah, living in the power of an endless life, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

What a lovely thing. It's true today, and it will be true in the millennial kingdom of our Lord and Savior. Jesus Christ, the pleasure of the Lord, all that God gives him to do will prosper in his hand.

He shall see of the travail of his soul. That is, he shall see the wonderful results that flow from his substitutionary work there on the cross of Calvary, and he shall be satisfied. Isn't that wonderful?

The Lord Jesus, surrounded by the hosts in heaven worshiping him for all eternity, he thinks of all he went through on the cross, and he's completely satisfied. He says, By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many.

This may be understood in two ways. First of all, by his knowledge, by what he knows. That is, he went to the Father morning by morning and received instructions from the Father, and those instructions led him on to Calvary and to the tomb.

And this laid the foundation for our justification. By his knowledge and obedience to the will of God, he justifies many. Or, you can understand that, by the knowledge of him. By the knowledge of him shall my righteous servant justify many.

That is, when men come to know him. Whom to know is life eternal. And when men come to know him and acknowledge him, then he reckons them righteous on the basis of the work at Calvary, for he shall bear their iniquities.

It says, Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoiled with the strong. Who are the great and who are the strong? Well, dear friends, I'd like to suggest this morning, that's you and me.

That's all of us who have the brand mark of redemption upon us. You say, God will not share his glory with another. No, he won't. And this isn't a question of sharing his glory. It's a question of sharing the fruits of his wonderful victory at Calvary.

He's going to share them with the redeemed for all eternity. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoiled with the strong. Why? Because he had poured out his soul unto death.

And he was numbered with the transgressors there on the cross between the two seas. And he made, he made, he bared the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. He cried, Father, forgive them.

Gratitude for Christ’s Sacrifice

For they know not what they do. What then shall we say to these things? Well, my heart responds this morning, O Christ, thy bleeding hands and feet, thy sacrifice for me. Each wound, each tear demands my life, a sacrifice for thee.

Well might the sun in darkness hide and shut his glories in when Christ, the mighty maker, died for man, the creature's sin. Thus might I hide my blushing face while his dear cross appears, dissolve my heart in thankfulness, and melt my eyes in tears.

But drops of grief will ne 'er repay the debt of love I owe. Dear Lord, I give myself away. Tis all that I can do.