THE SUFFERING SERVANT OF GOD
Meditations in Isaiah 52:13 to 53:12
GOD'S GLORIOUS SERVANT

"See, my Servant will act wisely, he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted."
Isaiah 52:13

THESE fifteen verses in Isaiah are one of the most glorious parts in all the Bible. The subject of these verses is our Lord Jesus Christ, who is for the believer the most precious subject of all. John Newton in his well known hymn expresses this preciousness - How sweet the name of Jesus sounds, in a believers ear; it soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds, and drives away his fears. There are few passages in the Bible that speak so clearly and wonderfully to the suppliant sinner of the sweetness of Jesus. Though justified we are still sinners, justified sinners, and our rest and hope is always and only in Jesus, our Saviour.

The passage speaks of the Servant of God. There is no doubt that the Servant spoken of in these verses is our Lord Jesus Christ. Parts of this passage are quoted in the New Testament so many times as referring to Jesus, that there leaves no room for doubt that Jesus is the Servant of God. When Philip meets the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts he finds the eunuch reading these verses in Isaiah. We are told that from this scripture Philip preached, to the eunuch, Jesus. If there is any lingering doubt, we have only to read the verses to meet with the most amazing prophecy. The life and particularly the suffering and death of Jesus is so accurately and in detail laid before us. From these verses the Servant could be no one else than Jesus. Remembering the detail in the passage we cannot but be amazed that these specific details of the suffering, death and burial of Jesus could be prophesied so accurately over 400 years before they took place. We can be left in no doubt that God's plan of salvation in Christ, right down to the smallest detail, was planned and purposed before the foundation of the world.

In our text for this sermon, the first verse of this passage concerning the Servant of God, it is the glory of the Servant that we have set before us. It sums up for us the whole victorious work of Jesus. This is a common characteristic of Scripture, where the whole subject is set before us, before the details are told. The passage starts with the word 'SEE'. We are called upon to behold Jesus, the Servant of God, and behold him in all the glory of his victory over sin, Satan, death and Hell. Let us together behold his glory.

This first verse of this prophecy which is our text for this meditation, is by way of a summary of the whole prophecy. In this one verse we look at the whole. The verse commences with the word 'see'. By this we understand that we are called upon to look on the Servant, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. We are to see him in all the glory of his person and work. We are to look upon him not just as a matter of interest, but to see him as the Servant of God who has been sent to be a blessing to us, to be our mighty deliverer. We are to see him in the way he became our deliverer in his suffering and death, and to understand the mighty work he did for us, which frees us from our sins totally and forever. We are to see him in the magnitude of his suffering and humiliation, and understand the amazing love which is poured out upon us. We are to see the infinite depth of God's love - How greatly Jesus must have loved me to bear my sin in his body on the cross.

The servant was sent to serve. He is God's servant doing God's will. We are meant to see this fact, that the mercy and grace of God is revealed in the servant’s ministry. Jesus was doing the Father's will. We are to see also that the servant came to serve us, unworthy though we are - to see him giving his life for us in a tremendous work of total and everlasting salvation. We are meant to see the servant given by God for us for the comfort of our souls, as we see the servant redeem us, so that we may receive eternal life and dwell in the light and love of God forever.

The passage is a revelation. It is to bring us into the light and love of God. It is a revelation of hope and assurance, of eternal security. We are meant to see what God has done for our souls. So as we read and meditate let us do it in prayer, that God may cause us to see, by opening the eyes of our mind, heart and soul, that we may see Jesus and see in him crucified as our powerful and everlasting Saviour.

These three words encompass the whole work of Jesus, the servant of God. It follows him from his birth to his triumphant death on the cross. Jesus acts as our servant redeemer. All his acts are wise, because they accomplish the impossible - how sinners can justly be forgiven and saved.

In the first place that Jesus acted wisely tells us that he acted in such a way that the devil was never ever able to overcome him, trap him, or cause him to sin. The devil brought all his wiles to bear on Jesus. Satan brought all his massive intellect to bear in order to trap Jesus. The wisdom of Jesus saw through all his plans to defeat him and so lived without sin. How important this was. If Satan could have trapped Jesus into one sin, as he trapped Eve, then Jesus would have been a fool and the devil by his wisdom would have overcome the second Adam and held humanity under his dominion forever. We see this wisdom of Jesus plainly in his victory over the temptations of Satan in the 40 days in the wilderness. We see the supreme wisdom of Jesus as he sees through all the ploys and deception the devil puts in his way through the Pharisees, and answers them and so acted without sin.

Then Jesus acted wisely in that he fulfilled all the plan and purpose of God for the redemption of sinners. The deepest of problems engaged the mind of God as he looked in love on fallen humanity. His love determined to forgive, but how could forgiveness be achieved without denying his justice and destroying his holiness. God must forgive justly if he would retain his personal integrity and remain a holy God. Yet not to forgive would also tear his heart apart. How profoundly wise is the plan God devised, which supremely sets forth his love and his holiness. God determined to bear the just punishment for sin in himself. This was the only course because none but true holiness could fully satisfy divine justice. Jesus acted wisely. He did not shirk this monumental task. He did not shirk the pain and the suffering and the humiliation. Although he was in agony and torn apart in horrible suffering, he never failed in every act and part of that great work to atone for sin, so that God may manifest his love in the pardon of sinners. We see the wisdom and the love when we hear in our souls the word of God - Yours sins, which are many, are forgiven. Yet the love is poured out in the sacrifice of the servant, the only begotten Son of God.

The words 'acted wisely' the margin in the NIV version of the Bible tells us can be translated 'will prosper'. This was a prophetic utterance which foretold the certain victory of Jesus. In the coming of the servant of God into the world to win redemption for sinners, he would prosper in all of this great work, and fulfil to the full and to the last detail all that was required to redeem us now and for eternity. The servant would so prosper that the evil one, through the acts of the servant of God, would have taken from him all his power and authority to hold sinners in his power and dominion. They would be freed forever, and raised to the life that Adam lost when the sentence of death fell on him, and all his posterity, after the sin in the Garden of Eden.

The second half of our text, which we come to now, assures us that the servants work would and did prosper, and achieved everlasting redemption.

As referring to Jesus, the Servant of God, these three happenings have exact and clear meaning. Jesus was raised from the dead at his resurrection; he was lifted up from the earth into the heavenly glory at his ascension; and he was highly exalted when he was raised to the throne and sat down at the right hand of God. This is the triumph of the Servant and the sinners everlasting assurance and hope.

Firstly, the fact Jesus was raised, lifted up and highly exalted tells us the estimation and declaration of God the Father concerning the wise acts of the Jesus during his incarnate life on earth. God declares by this exaltation of Jesus that Jesus did indeed act wisely. God declares that Jesus completed perfectly and in full all the work the Father had set him to do to purchase the redemption of sinners. This exaltation of Jesus tells us that God declares that the life of Jesus was a perfect expression of his law, and that Jesus not only never broke any precept of the law of God in the least detail, but also in his life, Jesus exalted the law of God and showed forth its glory and perfection and loveliness. Jesus' life was not just a negative thing of not sinning. It was also the positive thing of expressing in life the wonder and glory of the holiness of God. So Jesus rightly could say to his disciples - he who has seen me has seen the Father.

This exaltation of Jesus further tells us that God declares the death and sacrifice of Jesus as a complete and full payment for all the debt due to the law of God on account of the sin of all the world. God laid on Jesus the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:6). God made Jesus responsible vicariously and in our place, for the sin of the world. Jesus accepted the responsibility for all that sin before the judgement seat of God. Jesus accepted the guilt of this sin and took upon himself the responsibility to bear the punishment due. Jesus agreed, in our place, to fulfil all the just desert on account of the sin of the world. When he died he was bearing the punishment for sin. He was satisfying the justice and holiness of God. He was taking upon himself all the just claims of the law and paying the debt in full. Having accepted this responsibility, there would be no way that Jesus could have been raised from death if he had not fully atoned for sin. Having accepted the responsibility for the sin of the world, he must suffer the punishment, until all the sin of the world had been atoned for, and the law of God totally satisfied. The exaltation of Jesus is the declaration of the Great Law Giver and the Holy One, that Jesus had indeed fulfilled perfectly this monumental task, and opened the way to heaven to all believers.

Thirdly the exaltation of Jesus, and specially that he has been placed on the throne of the universe and all authority has been placed in his hands, tells us and assures us that God has placed in the hands of Jesus the authority to dispense the redemption he had won at so great cost, and to pour out the forgiveness he had won upon all believers. God gave to Jesus the redeemed before the foundation of the world. Jesus from the throne of God pours out his Spirit to bestow forgiveness and life on them. So we read in Romans 8:29,30 "For those God foreknew he also predestined to conform to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the first born among many brethren. And those he predestined he also called; and those he called he also justified; those he justified he also glorified."

The exaltation of Jesus is the victorious Christ pouring out the benefits of the redemption he won upon this fallen and stricken world, and through his victory it is declared that whosoever believes on Jesus has everlasting life and has passed from death to life.

So is set forth the wondrous glory of the Servant of God, our Lord Jesus Christ. He is glorious in his person as the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being. He is glorious in his victorious work and is set forth as our almighty redeemer. He is glorious on the throne ordering all things in heaven and earth until all his elect, those for whom he has died, have been gathered into that everlasting glory.