Before getting into this study it’s worth mentioning that Biblical Hebrew does not have clear cut verb tenses like English, where we can speak of past, present and future. In Hebrew it depends heavily on context, with two main verb forms, either perfect or imperfect.
In the perfect form it often points to things that are complete, that have already happened or are simply established facts. The imperfect form is often used for things that are incomplete, ongoing, or anticipated. This presents problems to English translators, and in this study we may well find ourselves moving from past to present to future and back again within a few verses.
God is outside of time, and is present at all events, past present and future. There is no concept of ‘now’ with God. so when we come to discuss Jesus and our salvation it is a past event, a present reality and a future certainty – all at the same time.
In our last study we saw that because of their sins God’s holy people had been sold into captivity, like a wife sold to pay her husband’s debts. But we finished looking forward to a time when their punishment was complete and the Redeemer will come.
Isaiah 52
1 Awake, awake, Zion, clothe yourself with strength!
Put on your garments of splendour, Jerusalem, the holy city.
The uncircumcised and defiled will not enter you again.
2 Shake off your dust; rise up, sit enthroned, Jerusalem.
Free yourself from the chains on your neck, Daughter Zion, now a captive.
3 For this is what the Lord says:
‘You were sold for nothing, and without money you will be redeemed.’
Jerusalem had been laid waste, her people taken into captivity. But that is about to change. The Lord looks on her as if she is asleep, covered in dust. So wake up! Get washed, put on you best clothes and regain your rightful position as my holy city.
4 For this is what the Sovereign Lord says:
‘At first my people went down to Egypt to live; lately, Assyria has oppressed them.
5 ‘And now what do I have here?’ declares the Lord.
‘For my people have been taken away for nothing, and those who rule them mock,’
declares the Lord. ‘And all day long my name is constantly blasphemed.
6 Therefore my people will know my name; therefore in that day they will know
that it is I who foretold it. Yes, it is I.’
Those who had taken God’s people into captivity thought they were invincible – that they could rule the world. But as we have seen, God was simply using them for a time to bring punishment to those who had turned their backs on him. But shortly ‘in that day’ that will all change. And people will have to admit that it had all been foretold by the Lord himself.
7 How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news,
who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation,
who say to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’
Many sermons have been preached on this verse!
But what a lovely picture it paints – people coming down off a threatening mountain bringing the good news of peace and salvation – when God had taken his rightful place again and will again lead his people in righteousness.
8 Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices; together they shout for joy.
When the Lord returns to Zion, they will see it with their own eyes.
9 Burst into songs of joy together, you ruins of Jerusalem,
for the Lord has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem.
10 The Lord will lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations,
and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God.
It is going to be an wonderful sight when the people of Jerusalem return. Never before have captives been able to freely return home. The surrounding nations will simply stand by amazed at the power of the Lord to bring salvation to his people.
Here God has rolled up his sleeves to personally intervene.
11 Depart, depart, go out from there! Touch no unclean thing!
Come out from it and be pure, you who carry the articles of the Lord’s house.
12 But you will not leave in haste or go in flight;
for the Lord will go before you, the God of Israel will be your rear guard.
And you won’t have to creep out, or run away! You will march out confidently, in your own time, and what’s more you will also be able to bring back all the temple treasures that had been stolen. And the Lord himself will not only go ahead of you, he will also cover your backs.
Now here we have another misplaced chapter break – personally I would have started chapter 53 here!
Now it is God himself who is speaking of Jesus as his servant.
13 See, my servant will act wisely; he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted.
I’ve broken several of these following verses apart, because it helps in our understanding.
Here in verse 13 we are told that whatever we may think concerning the events that led to the death and resurrection of Jesus, he at all times acted wisely. Not man’s wisdom, but God’s. Yes he was ‘raised and lifted up’ when he was crucified, but as a result he was also then ‘raised and lifted up and highly exalted’ in triumph!
But note too that he is not referred to as my son, but rather my servant. He had serious specific work to do, and now he has to be an obedient servant
14 Just as there were many who were appalled at him – his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being and his form marred beyond human likeness –
Now we begin to be introduced to the intense suffering of our Lord.
Note too that in verse 13 we were looking into the future, but here we are in the past. Our salvation is already an accomplished fact.
15 so he will sprinkle many nations, and kings will shut their mouths because of him.
For what they were not told, they will see, and what they have not heard, they will understand.
Sprinkle is an odd word. Some translators think it relates to the actions of the priest sprinkling blood or water as a symbolic act of cleansing and have changed it to ‘cleanse’. Other translations have startle, surprise or astonish – which might seem more appropriate reading the whole verse. It speaks of the astonishment of people who suddenly understand what had previously been hidden from them. Even Kings will be shocked into silence.
Isaiah 53
1 Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground.
Now it seems to be Isaiah speaking. He is still wondering who will respond to his message. Will the people recover and flourish as before?
During the years that will follow the exile and return, the royal line of David would appear to have died out, like a land parched by many years of drought; leaving no green shoots, only a few broken stumps. Here he reminds people of all he has prophesied, right from the beginning that A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. (Isaiah 11:1)
But unlike the natural attractiveness of new growth,
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
I find these verses harsh. But it is the harsh reality of the way many people treated our Saviour, and still do today – ‘despised and rejected’.
4 Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.
Such love.
Yes he was punished by God, as he bore the full crushing weight of our iniquities – our sins. Only that way could we avoid the punishment that was rightfully ours, and be healed, and experience peace with God.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
We like to think that we are good people, kind people – which is probably true to an extent. But Isaiah 64:6 tells us ‘All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.’ And Romans 3:9 has ‘There is no one righteous, not even one’. Compared to the holiness of God, we simply don’t match up. ‘each of us has turned to our own way’. But Jesus loves us so much he was prepared to suffer and die in order for us to be made righteous in the sight of God.
7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
Jesus had nothing more to say. His accusers had not listened in the past, and had now decided he had to die. Well in that, he was in agreement. It was for this he had come.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested?
How fickle were the crowds The week began with them welcoming him with shouts of ‘Hosannah’ and ‘blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord’.
By the end of the week, with one voice their cry was ‘crucify him’. No-one protested.
For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished.
Notice again the word punished. Not simply a sacrifice for our sins, Jesus had to suffer the punishment that we had earned.
9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
The King of kings and Lord of lords was treated as a common criminal. For him, no lavish funeral procession or magnificent tomb. Rather, a borrowed tomb that was convenient to hastily take an inconvenient body.
Here, Isaiah can’t understand. Why had he been found guilty? – he had done no wrong.
Note the word ‘crush’ again. As well as the physical suffering, there is a hint that mentally and psychologically he was crushed. His suffering was complete – dead and buried.
and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.
11 After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied;
by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.
But what is this? he is alive again! His Light of life cannot be extinguished! He will go on to have many children, all of them justified by his righteousness, whose iniquities are paid for.
Look at verse 11 again: can someone explain what is contained in that word ‘satisfied’?
12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Note ‘I will’ ‘he will’ God himself will restore Jesus to his rightful position. Like a great general, receiving the spoils of battle, Jesus will receive much more – having been reduced to a common criminal, he is now exalted to his rightful position, as Saviour of the world. No-one else could ever claim that.
