THE SUFFERING SERVANT OF GOD
Meditations in Isaiah 52:13 to 53:12
THE TRUTH CONCERNING THE SERVANT’S SUFFERING

"By oppression and judgement, he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken."
Isaiah 53:8

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IF we had never seen the Bible or read the Gospels, and we came across the history of the life of Christ written by secular historians, I wonder what we would make of the history, and what impression the suffering and death of the Jesus would make in our minds. No doubt we have come across the record of a number of people who have suffered and been executed, and we have made some evaluation of the record, and the question our text places before us is - ‘what would we make of the plain story of the suffering’s of Jesus?’ and ‘would this be the right one’.

The prophet Isaiah is inspired to face this problem and give us a true and corrective understanding concerning Jesus’ death.

The detail of the words of this verse may appear, on close examination, rather obscure. It is for this reason I believe the only wise way to look at this verse is to do it with an overall view. If we do this the first three sentences to the words ‘land of the living’ give us a description of Jesus suffering while on earth. Then in the last sentence the prophet gives us the real meaning of this suffering.

The first three sentences tell us that Jesus faced a judicial trial, together with oppressive treatment, i.e. the scourging, the spitting upon, the crown of thorns, the mocking etc.. We are told that he was cut off from life in his prime - cut off from the land of the living - and so how can we speak of any descendants following from him, for his life was cut off in his prime. He could not have any family, not could we expect that he would have any following in history, specially as in his death he is portrayed as a criminal. However we know from history that Jesus won and continues to win a vast following of his believing people.

In the last sentence the prophet tells us that Christ’s death was a judicial one, and that it was a judgement on sin, but that Jesus was suffering, not for any sin he had committed, but for the sins of his people. This puts a whole new complexion on his suffering, which the bare facts do not suggest.

The way the verse is quoted in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 8:33), in the account of the Ethiopian Eunuch reading this passage from Isaiah, is slightly different but it has a similar emphasis and meaning.

Again we find this prophecy of Isaiah 53 accurate in the details of the suffering of the Servant, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Jesus was oppressed. There was not justice in the judicial action against him. The history in the Gospels and in secular history of the time bears testimony to the goodness and kindness of Jesus. It bears testimony concerning the hate of the Jewish authorities towards Jesus, and clearly shows that the trial of Jesus was heavily weighted against Jesus so that true facts could not be presented or accepted. False witnesses were used, and even though their testimony contradicted itself, yet the Chief Priest pressed on to find some plausible lie or half truth with which to convict Jesus.

The trial before the Roman governor was equally flawed. It is plain that Pontius Pilate, the governor plainly saw that Jesus was innocent, and that the Jews had brought him for trial out of envy, yet he was more concerned with pleasing the Jews, than with justice and right.

It is an historical fact that Jesus was only just over 30 years old when he was crucified and so his life was cut short and he was given no time to have descendants, physical or spiritual.

This is a facet of this prophecy which is wholly remarkable. How could such accurate prediction be given so long before the event happened - in fact over 400 years. There is nothing lest than a true divine stamp on this writing. Only the one who holds all things, even time, in the hollow of his hand, could know the future in this way. The facts of history tell us of God, who orders all things by the word of his power, and knows the end from the beginning. Further such prophecy as this reveals to us that God is in control of the world and history, and that he has a plan for the world. We are able to deduce also that this plan is a purpose of love and salvation for us who are the doers of wrong.

The injustice of the suffering is all too plain. We may shrug our shoulders and say - well, it does happen like that so often. It is easy to say that Jesus was a man who was overtaken by misfortune, who could not pit himself and his vision against the vileness and prejudice of human kind. However we have seen time and again from this prophecy in Isaiah that Jesus gave himself up to this suffering by intention. It was an intention of great love.

We are faced here with one of the most profound aspects of the Bible revelation. The love of God towards sinners, and the amazing depth of that love that God was willing to die in order to redeem sinners. Jesus would never have been condemned if the courts and judicial system of his time had acted justly. If Jesus had never died then no human being would be delivered from the eternal death and misery that is our due because of sin, and which we are born into from the moment we begin human existence.

The apostle Peter in his sermon on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the church speaks of this profundity. We read in Acts 2:23 "This man (Jesus) was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross." It was God’s purpose that Jesus should die, and die a judicial death in punishment for sin, so it was God’s purpose that he should be brought before a judicial court and condemned by it, and then crucified.

The Jews acted wickedly, as this verse in Acts plainly states. The chief priest and the Roman governor acted sinfully in the case of Jesus. Nor did they act by compulsion from outside of them as though they were under an hypnotic influence that they could not resist. They acted responsibly and knew what they were doing, and wanted to do this evil. Yet it was God’s purpose, and so it had to happen, and it was sure to happen because God’s infinite wisdom and love was behind it all.

We can never fully understand this, nor fully explain how at one time God’s purpose made this happening certain, yet on the other hand the Jews and the Romans did what they wanted to do and were entirely guilty of their unjust act. What we can say it that the Jews and the Romans acted according to their inner nature - this fallen corrupt nature which is being human - and that at the point when they condemned Jesus, God left them entirely on their own, withdrawing his controlling grace, so that they acted entirely on their own according to their fallen nature. The bible reveals that God, in common grace throughout the world, acts to control human corruption, in order to prevent the world descending into hell before the final judgement.

Awful injustice took place. That injustice was entirely blameworthy. Yet God’s purpose of redeeming love was carried out in it.

History tells the historical facts, and these alone cannot interpret for us what was really happening when Jesus was condemned and crucified. History portrays truly a monumental miscarriage of justice, and human impotence before such injustice. However the true facts are different.

The death was a judicial one. Jesus was dying and suffering to pay the price of sin. However the sins Jesus was suffering on account of were not his own but the sins of his people - for the transgressions of my people he was stricken. In verse 6 of this chapter in Isaiah the prophet is inspired to write - and the Lord laid on him (Jesus) the iniquity of us all. As the Jewish court was carrying out its travesty of justice, and as Pontius Pilate was passing his wicked sentence, Jesus was also standing before the judgement of God. At that judgement God laid upon his Son the sins of all his people, and made Jesus responsible for all their debt and wickedness. God then passed his pure judicial sentence upon that sin, the sentence we sinners deserve to suffer, and pronounced the penalty of death and hell upon his only beloved Son.

On earth the Roman authorities sent Jesus to his cruel death. They made him carry his cross to the place of execution. They drove cruel nails through his flesh, and hung Jesus up to die. Yet they did not have control of life and death in Jesus. It is true that they killed his body in a most cruel way, but that was only part of the death Jesus endured and suffered. Jesus died eternal death. Jesus suffered separation from God the Father which is that eternal death and hell. For Jesus this was far, far more severe than all humanity going to hell for ever, because he was being separated from God, his Father, in whom he was united with bonds of life and love which pass our comprehension. The eternity Jesus suffered was because he was severed and parted from God who is eternal. So God visited on Jesus in full and completely all the transgressions of his people.

The apparent impotence of Jesus before his human persecutors is only apparent. The truth is that God purposed Christ’s death for the sins of his people, and Jesus, in obedience to his Father, agreed to give his life a ransom for many. Jesus gave himself for our sins. He was not helpless before human forces he could not withstand.

Jesus died for ‘my people’, that is God’s people. Isaiah prophesied when the Jews understood that they were God’s people, and that all the rest of the population where excluded from such a privilege. However we cannot read the bible intelligently without perceiving that this understanding of who God’s people are is not correct. God chose the Jewish nation and separated them from the rest of humanity for a purpose, and that purpose was the redemption of the world, and this sense the Jews became God’s people. However this understanding of God’s people is not the true understanding. The Old Testament history makes plain that the Jewish people showed over and over again how far they were in nature and spirit from being God’s people. Also God made plain to Abraham that the blessing of redemption went far beyond the Jewish nation.

The truth is that the bible reveals that God’s people are from every race in the world. Jews are God’s people, and so are people of every other people or nation in the world. Who out of all the people in the world are the chosen of God, for whom Christ died, we do not know. That they are as the stars of the sky for multitude we know from the promise to Abraham. Further we know that the Gospel of salvation in Jesus, through his dying for us, is offered by God freely to all.

In the end the eternal counsel of God in this matter can never be known to us in the world of time. All we know is that all who believe in Jesus will be saved and are the people of God, and that the offer of salvation is made to all. We also know from the Gospels that the faith of a grain as small as a grain of mustard seed is sufficient to bring salvation to the one who has it. Let us rest in this wonderful love and mercy, and make sure we respond to that love and close with Christ by faith and receive him as our Saviour.

What should be our response to all that this verse has brought before us. The bible revelation is not just for interest or to exercise the mind. The bible calls for a response and a reaction. Let our response be one of faith with repentance, so that in sorrow for our sins, and acknowledging our guilt before God, we claim the dying of Jesus as our salvation, and rest our souls on his work for us. Let us become God’s people by faith in the Saviour.

Then in the words of a hymn by John Newton - Let us love, and sing, and wonder. Let us praise the Saviour’s Name. Let us sing with love and thankfulness in our hearts to God for his gracious love in Christ towards us, and let us allow such praise and wonder to spill from us all the time to others that they may behold something of the Saviour and his salvation.