Behold, My Servant – Isaiah 53

Introduction

I invite you to open your Bibles to Isaiah 53, and I thank Brother Jim for his kind words. Words that I don’t deserve, and yet, too, I appreciate him pointing you to Scripture and to God’s word. So maybe we can arrange a year and a half meeting on Proverbs. But I do appreciate his quotation, which he did as well with as I do. Any list of Old Testament prophecies fulfilled in Jesus is incomplete if it doesn’t include the whole Old Testament. In just a moment, we’ll be reading from Isaiah 52 and 53. I do appreciate very much the elders and the opportunity that they have given me to speak this week. It has been a privilege. I appreciate all of you who have come and worship the Lord with us.

And all of you who have listened closely and given me ideas and asked me questions. Sometimes hard questions, but I appreciate it nonetheless. It has been a blessing to be here, and may God bless each of you. It has been a special blessing to get to eat with uh the the Kleins and uh Miriam and Kathy yesterday morning and potluck at the Dukes uh yesterday afternoon that several of you participated in, and Aaron has already cautioned me that he hopes that I am very hungry for uh this afternoon. But thank you very much for all of that, and I know many of others would have had us had you had more time. And it is good to see Greg and Kashka and to see them doing well.

Um Brother Harkwriter, I ran into him recently, and he said that a prophet is without honor in his own country, but Greg seems to be an exception to that. And that is, that is good. And it’s been good to be with Ken and Deedra as well. They have been extremely hospitable, very gracious, and we have enjoyed the time with them, with all of you all. And I should say more than that, I am sure. But I want to tell you, if we all make it to heaven, we’ll have plenty of time to praise God and to enjoy one another’s presence. God, God bless you all. All the Old Testament points to Jesus. I’m going to try. First of all, we’re going to read the text, beginning in Isaiah 52 and verse 13 to the end of Isaiah 53.

And I beg you to pay careful attention to that. Because as I was taught many years ago in Dixon, Tennessee, and the most important part of a sermon is a scripture reading. Pay careful attention as we read the text.

At the end, we will seek to say who is the fulfillment of this passage. But in Isaiah 52, beginning with 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 startle or sprinkle many nations. There’s a difference there in some versions. 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. Isaiah 53. 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, and like one from whom men hide their faces. He was despised, and we did not esteem him. Surely our griefs he himself bore, and our sorrows he carried. Yet we esteem him smitten, 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 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 the slaughter, and 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 that he was cut off from the land of the living, for the transgression of my people to whom the stroke was due. His grave was a sign with wicked men. He was with a rich man in his death, because he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. But the Lord was pleased to crush him, putting him to grief. He would render himself as a guilt offering. He would see his offspring, he would 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 many, and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will allot him a portion with the great.

Many, and he interceded for transgressors. Beginning around Isaiah 40 and 41, this book has introduced the servant of the Lord, God’s servant. There are some cases where this servant is explicitly said to be the people of Israel. In Isaiah 41, verse 8, but you, Israel, my servant. Jacob, whom I have chosen, descendant of Abraham, my friend. In Isaiah 44, verses 1 and 2. But now listen, O Jacob, my servant, and Israel whom I have chosen. Thus says the Lord who made you and formed you from the womb, who will help you. Do not fear, O Jacob, my servant, and you, Jesserin, whom I have chosen. Sometimes the servant is specifically said to be Israel. However, sometimes the servant is a remnant within the people of Israel who will seek to win Israel and the nations to God.

For example, in Isaiah chapter 49, verses 5 and 6, and now says the Lord, who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him in order that Israel might be gathered to him. For I have honored, for I am honored in the sight of the Lord, and my God is my strength. In verse 6, he says, It is too small a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, to restore the preserved ones of Israel. I will also make you a light of the nations, so that my salvation will reach to the ends of the earth. You may notice at verse 6 is quoted in Acts 13, verse 47 in the New Testament. But the point I’m trying to stress, sometimes a servant is Israel, sometimes a servant is a remnant within Israel who’s going to win the nation back to God.

1. Unimpressive in His Appearance

But sometimes the servant is more specific than that. In this particular case, in Isaiah 52, 13 to Isaiah 53, verse 12, I believe we will see that the servant is one person. But what does the text say of this servant? One of the things the text says is this servant would be unimpressive in his appearance. In verse 2 of Isaiah 53, 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. There is nothing about the appearance or the form of this servant that attracts our attention. The Bible doesn’t frequently mention the looks of the characters involved. If it does mention their looks, it is often because it plays a part in the story.

It is interesting, though, that there are several men in the Old Testament that are said to be good looking, and generally they were people who were kings or who were aspiring to be kings. You see that, for example, about Saul in 1 Samuel 9, 1 and 2, about David in 1 Samuel chapter 16 in verse 12, Absalom, who made a bed for his father’s throne in 2 Samuel 14 in verse 25. And Adonijah, who tried to become king in 1 Kings 1, verses 5 and 6. These people attracted others. People followed them because of their form, because of their appearance. Leaders of the people are generally viewed as ones who need to be good looking, or at least moderately so. But in this particular servant, he was not going to fulfill that at all.

This particular servant has no stately form or appearance.

He doesn’t draw us to him by the way he looks.

2. Despised and Forsaken of Men

Despised. Isaiah 53, verse 3. He was despised and forsaken of men. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And like one from whom men hide their faces. He was despised. And we did not esteem him. This servant who was unimpressive in his appearance. Did you notice in verse 3 the text says he is like one from whom men hide their face? Maybe because he looks so hideous, or because no one wanted to be identified with him, they hide their face from him. But notice there in verse 3, at the beginning of the verse, and then again at the end of the verse, the Bible says he was despised. He was despised and forsaken of men. And then at the end, he was despised, and we did not esteem him.

3. He Suffered Intensely

Have you ever known what it’s like to walk into a room and to feel like everyone in that room hated you or despise you. This servant was acquainted with that feeling. He was despised and forsaken of men. He was despised. And we did not esteem him. And this servant who is described in Isaiah 53 suffered intensely. Beyond my ability to relate. Look at some of the terms that are used in this text. In Isaiah 53, verse 5, he was pierced. He was pierced. In verse 5, he was crushed. In verse 5, he was chastened. In verse 5, he was scourged. A horrible, horrible punishment. Yet this servant suffers all of this. He’s pierced, he’s crushed, he’s chastened, he’s scourged. The text tells us in verse 7, he was oppressed and he was afflicted.

He was mistreated horribly. In verse 10, the term crushed again. It tells us the Lord was pleased to crush him, putting him to grief. Putting him to grief. Verse 11 mentions the anguish of his soul, anguish, grief, crushed, pierce.

Describe.

4. Totally Innocent, Suffering for Us

And yet, for those who despised him, for those who did not esteem him, they thought he’s getting what he deserves. This is exactly what he deserves. He deserves to suffer this intensely. He deserves to experience all this rejection and pain. Notice what verse 4 says in the middle part of the verse, we esteemed him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. We thought he was smitten of God. We thought God is judging him and God is giving him what he deserved. How difficult would it have been to be in Job’s position. In Job to know that you had been blameless and upright and walk with God to experience great calamity and to have friends who come who came and made accusations against Job and said, Job, if you hadn’t sinned, you wouldn’t be experiencing this.

How difficult would that have been for Job to bear? This servant bears something similar. He is suffering intensely as well. And all people and many people think he’s getting what he deserves. It serves him right. But that wasn’t the case. That wasn’t the case with this servant. This servant did not deserve what he was getting. This servant was totally innocent. Verse 7, he was oppressed and he was afflicted. Yet he did not open his mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. And like a sheep before his shears is silent. He does not open his mouth.

This servant who suffered so intensely, this servant was like a lamb led to the slaughter. Some have related the experiencing experience of visiting a slaughterhouse for cattle. And they said, at the slaughterhouse for cattle, the mooing, the lowing is deafening. At the slaughterhouse for pigs, the squealing is deafening. But if you were to visit a slaughterhouse for lambs, the silence is deafening. And this one was like a lamb led to the slaughter. He did not open his mouth. In verse 9, the text tells us he had done no violence, nor was any deceit found in his mouth. Don’t you get sick at your stomach? When you hear a story of someone who was executed for a crime, and later through sophisticated DNA testing, it is found out that he wasn’t guilty?

That he never committed the crime that he was punished for? That’s a sickening feeling. This one who suffered so intensely, this one had done no violence, no violence. Nor was any deceit found in his mouth. And yet he suffered so.

Of Isaiah 53. This servant is said to be a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. But why was he a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief? Well, look at verse 4. Our griefs he himself bore, and our sorrows he carried. He was bearing, he was carrying our griefs and our sorrows. That’s why he was a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief. Why was he pierced in verse 5? He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. He was chastened for our well-being. He was scourged because of us, and by his scourging we are healed. All of these emphasize to us that this servant was innocent, and he was suffering for what we had done that was wrong. We talked about him being led as a sheep to the slaughter in verse 7.

But notice in verse 6, there’s also a mention of sheep. In verse 6, all of us like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. We are like sheep in going astray and getting lost. Those who are shepherds could tell you how easily sheep get lost and how easily they follow the wrong path. We are like that. He is like a sheep in suffering without protest. He was struck in verse 8 for the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due. In verse 11, he will bear their iniquities. And in verse 12, he interceded for transgressors. The text is emphasizing as strongly as it possibly can the total innocence of this sufferer and how he suffered for us, for our wrongs, for our sins.

5. He Suffered Absolutely Without Protest

And he suffered absolutely without protest. Again, this is the idea of him being led as a lamb to the slaughter, as a sheep before his shears is silent. So he did not open his mouth. I know everyone that is able to understand my voice has suffered in some way, in some capacity. Let me ask you a question. Have you ever protested your suffering? Have you ever complained about your suffering? Have you ever protested even when you knew you deserved your suffering? We have illustrations of that in the Bible as early as Genesis 4. When Cain is asked, Where is your brother Abel? He says, I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper? The Lord says, What is this you have done? The voice of your brother’s blood is cry to me from the ground, and I’m going to make you a vagrant and fugitive in the earth, and the ground will not yield its fruit.

And Cain protested. Cain says, My punishment is greater than I can bear. His punishment was not greater than the crime. His crime was killing his brother. He is made a wanderer and stranger in the earth. And God even provides him with special protection, putting a mark upon him that whoever finds Cain and kills him will be punished sevenfold more. He protested when he was guilty. And I have to acknowledge to you.

When I deserved it.

6. High and Lifted Up: This One Is God

That is language that is used of a victor of a conqueror after the battle has been fought. After the battle has been fought and the victory has been won, they divide up the portion among themselves. They divide up the spoils of war, the booty of war. They divide that up among themselves. And here the servant who has been crushed, who has been afflicted, who has been oppressed, this suffering, the servant who has suffered without protest, this servant is appeared now not as a victim, but as a victor he has overcome. Let me tell you one other thing about this servant. Go back to Isaiah 53. Excuse me, Isaiah 52, verse 13. 52, verse 13. Behold, my servant will prosper. He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted.

He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted. Three terms used there of the servant in Isaiah 52 and verse 13. I want to particularly focus on the terms that are used that are translated high and lifted up. Those two words are used together three other times in the book of Isaiah. Three other times, and I want to show you where they are. The first is in Isaiah 6 and verse 1. In Isaiah 6 and verse 1, the Bible says, in the year of King Isaiah’s death, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with a train of his robe filling the temple. The words that are used and translated high and lifted up in Isaiah 52 verse 13 are used in Isaiah 6 and verse 1, and they are translated in the New American Standard, lofty and exalted.

In the year of King Uzziah’s death, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted. Look at Isaiah 33, verse 10. Isaiah 33, verse 10. The Bible says, in Isaiah 33, 10, now I will arise, says the Lord. Now I will be exalted, I will be lifted up. I will be exalted, I will be lifted up. Those are the words translated high and lifted up in Isaiah 52 and verse 13. Who is speaking here? I will arise, says the Lord. One more passage.

And then the third passage is Isaiah 57 and verse 15. In Isaiah 57 and verse 15, thus says the high and exalted one, and there are words, thus says the high and exalted one who lives forever, whose name is holy. I dwell on a high and holy place, and with one with the contrite and lowly of spirit, in order to revive the spirit of the lowly, to revive the heart of the contrite. Who is this high and exalted one? Who is this one whose name is holy? Who is this one who dwells on a high and holy place? And with the one who is humbled and contrite of heart. Who is it? These words are used together four times in the book of Isaiah. We’ve discussed the other three, and the other one was Isaiah 52, 13.

This is the point I’m trying to make. This servant is described in terms that are only used to describe God in the book of Isaiah. This servant who would suffer so intensely that the people would look at and say, He’s getting what he deserves. This one is God. You remember Philip had gone down to Samaria and preached there. The Bible tells us the angel of the Lord called him away from preaching at Samaria to go to a desert road and to preach to one man. As he sees a chariot, the Spirit says, Go and join yourself to that chariot. He runs to that chariot. As he runs, he hears a man reading out loud. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before his shears is silent.

So he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation, his judgment was taken away. And who shall declare his generation? And this man, a powerful official from the Nathan of Ethiopia, he’s reading this text. And he says to Philip, Of whom does this man speak? Of whom does the prophet speak? Is he speaking of himself? Or is he speaking of someone else? And Philip opened his mouth and from that same scripture preached to him Jesus. He preached to him Jesus. Jesus is the fulfillment of everything we’ve talked about. From Isaiah 52, 13 to 53, 12. He is the one who is despised and rejected of men, who suffered so intensely and yet suffered without protest. Remember, Pilate and Herod are awed by Jesus’ silence when he stands before them.

Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of this passage. And the New Testament points that out several times, quoting, Who has believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord been revealed, among other places in Romans 10 and verse 16. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening of our well-being was upon him. And by his stripes we are healed. Peter quotes that in 1 Peter 2 and verse 24. And in 1 Peter 2, verse 22, he quotes from Isaiah 53 and verse 9 that he had done no violence, nor was any deceit found in his mouth. Here is the story of Jesus and his sufferings, and yet his triumphant resurrection as he would arise victorious over death in the grave.

Conclusion

Here is this story written seven hundred years before it took place.

But I trust the person who related it to me.

One day he heard a co-worker talking to another co-worker about Jesus. And he was reading from the book of Isaiah. He was reading these words that we’ve just read today. He was reading to his coworker to say that the Old Testament told the story of Jesus 700 years before it ever took place. The Jewish man kind of lied to himself. He said, that’s not in the Bible. He didn’t say that out loud. Because he was just overhearing the conversation. He was just passing by, but he listened enough and heard a Bible. Well, he went home and looked in his Bible and it was there. He also had a Hebrew Bible. He had a Hebrew Bible, could read that Bible. And he says, Well, I know it’s not here.

And he opened his Bible up, his Hebrew Bible, and lo and behold, it was there. His first thought would be, man, those Christians are crafty. They not only got this story of the Old Testament, they somehow squeezed it in the Hebrew Bible. He had some connections with prominent rabbis in Jerusalem. He sent these rabbis scrolls of the prophet Isaiah and said, What I would like for you to do is read this over for me. And if you see a particular page and you think it belongs in the text, you just sign your name at the bottom of it. The purpose for all of this was just to check on this text in Isaiah 52, 13 to Isaiah 53, verse 12. That was his whole purpose.

Fully expecting that rabbi to discount this section. But lo and behold, he had signed it. And he had acknowledged this belongs in the text of Scripture. And he says, This is obviously talking about Jesus. Who else could it be talking about? At that point, he ceased resisting. He ceased fighting.

And he decided that he would follow Jesus of Nazareth as the Jewish Messiah promised on the pages of the Old Testament. Yes, all the Old Testament speaks of him. But perhaps no place more clearly than this passage. There may be some of you who have followed along closely with us today, and you know as well as I do that this is speaking of Jesus. And yet you may still be in your sins. You know what I hope your response is to this lesson? I hope your response is the same of the Ethiopian eunuch when he heard Philip preach about Jesus. See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized? I hope that’s your response. Because you know that you need to turn from your sins of repentance.

You need to be baptized into Him. And I want to tell you if you do that today, you can be just like that eunuch in Acts 8, who went on his way rejoicing. You can rejoice. You can praise God that He has forgiven all your sins. We invite you to come as we stand and sing.