The Book of Isaiah

Hebrew Study

Explanation

The chapter opens with a sigh: "Who hath believed our report?" The message of a suffering Savior is so unexpected that few receive it. And "to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?" God's saving power, His mighty "arm," is not what people expected. They looked for a conquering king; God sent a "tender plant... a root out of a dry ground", something small and easily overlooked, growing in unpromising soil. The Servant had "no form nor comeliness... no beauty that we should desire him." He did not draw crowds by His looks or status. Worse, He was actively "despised and rejected of men", not merely ignored but scorned. He was "a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief," so familiar with pain that suffering marked His whole life. People "hid as it were our faces from him," turning away as from something shameful. The world's verdict on the Servant was total dismissal: "we esteemed him not." The One who carried the salvation of God was counted as nothing.

Gospel Focus

This is Jesus, exactly as He came. He did not arrive in imperial splendor but as the carpenter's son from Nazareth, of whom men asked, "Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?" (John 1:46). "He came unto his own, and his own received him not" (John 1:11). The very rejection Isaiah names was fulfilled: "he was despised, and we esteemed him not." And notice the profound truth hidden here: "the arm of the LORD," God's own saving power, was revealed in this despised man. This is the mystery of the gospel, that the Almighty came in lowliness. For the Apostolic believer this is the wonder of the incarnation: "God was manifest in the flesh" (1 Timothy 3:16), and that flesh was a "man of sorrows." The one true God did not stand aloof from our pain; He entered it, became "acquainted with grief," and let Himself be despised, so that He could save the very ones who esteemed Him not. If you have ever felt overlooked, rejected, or acquainted with grief, know that your Savior walked that road first, and He walked it for you.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

These three verses are the center of the whole Bible's message of salvation, and every line drives home one truth: the Servant suffered in our place. "Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows." The pain He bore was ours. At first the onlookers misread it, "we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted", they assumed He was being punished for His own sins. But the truth is the opposite: "he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities." He was pierced and crushed, but the cause was our rebellion, not His. "The chastisement of our peace was upon him", the punishment that purchased our peace with God fell on Him, "and with his stripes we are healed." Then verse 6 gives the reason we needed such a substitute: "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way." That is sin defined, each of us insisting on our own path. And the remedy: "the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." God gathered the guilt of every straying sheep and laid it on the one Servant. This is substitution, our sin transferred to Him, His suffering counted for us.

Gospel Focus

There is no clearer picture of the cross in the Old Testament. Every pronoun preaches: he was wounded for our transgressions; the chastisement of our peace was upon him. Peter, who watched Jesus die, quotes this passage directly: "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree... by whose stripes ye were healed" (1 Peter 2:24). Paul says it in his own words: "he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him" (2 Corinthians 5:21). This is the great exchange, our sin laid on Christ, His righteousness given to us. And here we must speak carefully as Apostolic believers. "Smitten of God" and "it pleased the LORD to bruise him" do not describe two separate persons, one God punishing another. The one true God provided Himself as the sacrifice. "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself" (2 Corinthians 5:19). At Calvary the LORD who laid our iniquity on the Servant was Himself present in that Servant, bearing in His own flesh the penalty of our sin. Just as Abraham said, "God will provide himself a lamb" (Genesis 22:8), so God did, coming in flesh to be the Lamb. Your sin was laid on Him; His healing is yours. Have you believed this report?

Hebrew Study

Explanation

Now the prophecy turns to the Servant's trial and death. Under "oppressed" and "afflicted" treatment, He "opened not his mouth." He did not argue, curse, or plead; "as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth." His silence is the willing surrender of the sacrifice. He was "taken from prison and from judgment", swept away by a perversion of justice, "and who shall declare his generation?" Who would speak up for Him, or even understand His origin? He was "cut off out of the land of the living", plainly killed, and once again Isaiah stresses the reason: "for the transgression of my people was he stricken." Even His burial was foretold with startling precision: "he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death." He was condemned to die among criminals, yet laid to rest in a rich man's tomb. And the reason His death could atone is His sinlessness: "he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth." Only a spotless Lamb could bear the sin of others.

A common objection must be met right here: many say the Servant is not the Messiah at all, but the nation of Israel, suffering among the Gentiles. But the passage will not allow it. The Servant suffers "for the transgression of my people" -- He is plainly distinct from the people, stricken in their place, not identical with them. He is utterly sinless, having "done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth," which no prophet ever said of the nation, whose exile Isaiah everywhere lays at the door of her own sins. He suffers silently and willingly, "he opened not his mouth," unlike Israel, who cried out bitterly under her oppressors. He truly dies -- "cut off out of the land of the living" -- and is buried in a rich man's grave, then lives again to "see his seed" and "prolong his days"; a scattered nation does not die, get buried, and rise. And the "we" who confess "he was wounded for our transgressions" are Israel herself, marvelling at Another in her midst. The Servant is one righteous Person suffering for the many, and the New Testament names Him without hesitation: Jesus of Nazareth, of whom Philip, opening "at the same scripture," "preached unto him Jesus" (Acts 8:35).

Gospel Focus

The precision of these verses is astonishing. At His trials Jesus was largely silent, "he answered him to never a word; insomuch that the governor marvelled greatly" (Matthew 27:14), fulfilling "he opened not his mouth." Peter points to this exact silence as our example: "when he was reviled, reviled not again" (1 Peter 2:23). John the Baptist named Him by this very image, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). The reason His death saves is His sinlessness, "he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth", and Peter confirms it word for word, "Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth" (1 Peter 2:22). Most striking of all is verse 9: crucified between two thieves ("with the wicked"), Jesus was buried in the new tomb of Joseph of Arimathaea, "a rich man" (Matthew 27:57-60), "with the rich in his death." Seven centuries in advance, Isaiah named both the company of His death and the wealth of His grave. This is no vague poem; it is the crucifixion of Jesus described before it happened. The spotless Lamb went silently to the slaughter for the transgression of His people, for you.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

The final section opens with a staggering statement: "it pleased the LORD to bruise him." The crushing of the Servant was no accident and no mere miscarriage of justice; it was God's deliberate saving plan. His soul was made "an offering for sin," the guilt offering that pays sinners' debt. But the tone quickly turns from death to life. Though "cut off," the Servant "shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days", impossible for a dead man, unless He rises. Beyond the grave He lives, sees a vast family of the redeemed, and "the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand." He will "see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied", looking back on His agony, He will count it worth every pang because of the souls it saved. And what does He accomplish? "By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities." He makes many righteous by carrying their sin. Therefore God exalts Him, giving Him "a portion with the great" and "the spoil with the strong." The reasons are gathered in the last verse: "he hath poured out his soul unto death... he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors." The Servant dies, rises, justifies, reigns, and prays for sinners still.

Gospel Focus

The last three verses carry us from the cross to the empty tomb and beyond. "He shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days", the Servant who was "cut off" lives again; this is the resurrection of Jesus, written centuries early. And His resurrection is fruitful: He "shall see his seed," a countless family of the born-again, and He will be "satisfied" with the harvest of His suffering. The great gospel word appears plainly, "by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many", justification, the sinner declared righteous, comes through the Servant who "bare their iniquities." Paul builds his whole doctrine on this: "by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous" (Romans 5:19). Jesus Himself claimed verse 12 on the night He was betrayed, quoting it as "he was reckoned among the transgressors: for the things concerning me have an end" (Luke 22:37). And the chapter's final phrase describes His ongoing work at this very moment: He "made intercession for the transgressors." The risen Christ "ever liveth to make intercession" for us (Hebrews 7:25). The same one true God who laid our sin on the Servant now, in that risen and glorified Man, pleads our cause. The suffering Servant is the exalted Lord Jesus, and He is praying for you right now. Believe the report, and be justified.