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Of
all the chapters in the OT which describes the Messiah's suffering and
death, ISAIAH chapter 53 is the most famous.
If the entire Bible were like
the Holy Temple (with many courts and chambers), the 53rd chapter of
Isaiah would be its Holy of Holiest.
The
Ethiopian eunuch was reading Isaiah 53, when Philip the evangelist
explained to him how Jesus fulfilled the chapter’s Theme ...and the
eunuch "went on his way rejoicing” (Acts 8:28, 39).
This chapter may be divided into 4 parts:
(1)
HIS LOWLY PERSON
(Isa. 53:1-3)
(2)
His Substitutionary Atonement
(Isa. 53:4-6)
(3)
His Voluntary Submission
(Isa. 53:7-9)
(4)
His Final Triumph
(Isa. 53:10-12)
We shall speak on verses 1-6 this week, and on verses 7-12 next week.
I. HIS LOWLY PERSON
(vs. 1-3)
=The Rejection of the
Servant
1:1
Who hath believed
our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?
Isaiah the prophet
starts with a lament. With
prophetic foresight he looked at Jewish history (including world history).
And today the Jewish people are still waiting for the Messiah...
1:2a
For he shall grow
up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground:
First, Isaiah
described Jesus' physical condition (then he would describe Jesus' inner
soul and spirit).
"Grew up like a
tender plant"--Jesus did not come to earth fully grown (like Adam
& Eve). He was to be born in Bethlehem and "grew up" in
Nazareth.
"DRY GROUND"
could refer to Palestine, which was an enslaved, downtrodden, disheartened
back-corner of Roman empire, east of the Mediterranean Sea. For those who go to the Holy Land today, even after 2,000 years,
the Holy Land is nowhere like New York or Singapore. It is "dry ground."
Jesus did not come to live in luxury; He was born to die.
Perhaps few people
today know why the face of Lincoln is engraved on the American penny
rather than on one of the larger coins...
It was a great way for America to
honor one of its greatest presidents—Abraham Lincoln—by placing his
face on the most lowly coin of the United States.
There would be more
pennies minted than any other one coin, and consequently there would be
more of them in the pockets of the common people. As someone has said:
“The Lord must love the common people, He has made so many of them.”
1:2b
he hath no form
nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we
should desire him.
This verse is not
talking about His lack of physical beauty. Surely, Jesus must have been the handsomest Man who ever lived on
earth. His face was sinless,
the only sinless Person on earth. He
must have had perfect human body and was spotlessly beautiful.
From ancient history
comes this description of Jesus Christ—
"There is among
us in land of Judea a man of great virtue called Jesus Christ...
"A man of
tall stature and comely, with a very reverend countenance. His hair the
color of chestnut, curling about his shoulders ... his forehead plain
& very delicate ... his face w/o spot or wrinkle, beautiful, with a
lovely red ... his nose and mouth forked ... his beard thick but not long
...
"[H]is eyes quick and clear... his look innocent and mature ... his body
proportioned and excellent ... when speaking, very temperate, modest and
wise ...
"A man of singular beauty, surpassing the children of men."
But what did Isaiah
then mean when he said Christ "had no beauty ..."?
It meant that--
(1) People did not
think Him beautiful because He interfered with their sinful lives. By His uncompromising teachings, His pure and holy look, yea the
very manner of His sinless life, He put people to shame. The Jews excused themselves by saying "Is not this the
carpenter?” (Mark 6:3).
(2) Due to His
lifetime suffering and sorrow, culminating at the Cross, His physical
visage became marred more than any man. (We shall later study the depths
of His inner suffering).
1:3a
He is despised
and rejected of men; A MAN OF SORROWS, and acquainted with grief:
What a phrase to apply
to the Son of Man!
In the Bible, we never
read about Christ laughing. But we read about Jesus weeping (John 11:35).
And yet, we know that surely He smiled and did laugh. Why? Because the children liked to approach Him.
The Bible did not say
He laughed, perhaps because His life was really one overwhelming life of
sorrow and suffering
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We often do have
sorrows in our lives, many unexplained and illogical things happen to us.
And yet we also have joys and happy "breaks."
BUT Christ's sorrow
was constant, lifelong, rejected sorrow; and culminating at the Cross.
Finally, when soldier
pierced His side, "blood and water" came forth---signifying He
died of a broken heart.
1:3b
and we hid as it
were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Pilate told the people
to "Behold the Man” (John 19:5), BUT the people chose instead Barabbas the
murderer, not Jesus.
And that Friday
morning, below the Cross, Roman soldiers bartered His clothes among
themselves. No one cared,
when the Son of God died that day.
II.
His Substitutionary Atonement (vs. 4-6)
=The atonement of
the Servant
Here, in these 3
verses are found 9 times the words: “for our, our, we, us all.” And
herein lies all the eternal hopes of mankind.
Confused people have
said: "There are hundreds of religions today--how can we know which
is right?"
The answer is: There are only 2 religions—one saying
“Do this or do that” and the other says “It is already done in
Christ.”
The answer is simple: Do you want to try saving yourself--or
to be saved by the Son of God?
At the end of the
day, man cannot save himself, He needs a Saviour.
1:4a
Surely he hath
borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows:
Why did Christ heal
so many people when He came to earth? It was to demonstrate His ability
to cure the soul. The physical ministries of Christ were pledges of the
full results of Calvary (Matt. 9:6). Christ is the Great Physician; and
the Cross is our only place of cure.
1:4b
yet we did esteem
him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted
People of Jesus'
times thought that He was dying for Himself. The Roman soldiers made sure of that by crucifying Him between 2
thieves.
1:5a
But he was
wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities:
Here is the CENTRAL
VERSE of this whole chapter! It speaks of Christ’s substitutionary
atonement. Here is the true reason for Christ’s suffering: it was for
others.
The word
"pierced" in Hebrew denotes violent & painful death. The
Hebrew vocabulary has no stronger word. "Crushed" means to
break, crush, shatter. The prophet Isaiah, under inspiration, did not
use "hanged,” or “beheaded" but "pierced."
Actually, the Jews
did not know the method of crucifixion until the Romans introduced it to
them.
Crucifixion was not allowed to Roman citizens, because it was a
most terrifying way to die. The nails purposely did not touch the mortal
points of the body. It was
inflicted to cause and extend suffering and agony as long as possible,
before death intervene.
Cicero, the ancient
Roman orator said: "Let the very name of the cross be far away from
Roman citizens, not from their bodies only, but from their thoughts,
their eyes and their ears."
And because Christ
was sinless, He could atone for the sins of the world.
1:5b the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with
his stripes we are healed.
Ironically, His
physical wounds and strips would bring healing to us.
During forest fires, firemen would first burn off the area around
it, and fire would not come over the burned area, simply because it had
already been burned.
We need not worry
about God's wrath. For,
when we stand at Calvary, we stand where God's wrath had already burned
on His Son.
In a Sunday School
class, a young student asked: "How could one person die for the
sins of the whole world?" The
wise teacher took a 1-cent penny on one hand, and showed the diamond
ring on her other hand. The diamond looked so small, yet it was worth
much, much more than that penny. The
difference is in the intrinsic, inherent nature of the items.
Jesus Christ was the
Son of God--that made the difference!
And today, if you
have not truly accepted Christ as your personal Saviour, why not accept
Him right now. In the
quietness of your own heart, pray this prayer: “Dear Jesus, I am a
sinner and cannot save myself. Come
into my heart and be my Saviour. I now accept you into my heart and
life.”
And the Bible
promises: “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be
saved” (Romans 10:13). If we have already accepted Christ as Saviour,
we want to thank God for sending His only begotten Son in substitutional
atonement for sin.
“Seeing then that
we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the
Son of God …Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace,
that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need”
(Hebrews 4:14, 16).
(To
be Continued)
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