Address: “Isaiah, Chapter 53” (John Carter)
(Delivered in Regent Hall, 1958)
Dear Brethren and Sisters, may we regard this evening’s
study as being in the nature of an exposition or meditation. Let us first
consider, through the eyes of the prophet Isaiah, what was fulfilled in him who
was the servant of God; and realise how closely his work is connected with
ourselves. We may then, through the very word that God has given to us, feel
something of that, which those men felt who accompanied with the Lord; when out
of the wealth of his understanding of the Word of God, he opened up unto them
the scriptures. They were able to say: “Did not our heart burn within us,
while he talked with us by the way.” So may it be that the Word of God
will have a like effect of that on us tonight, as we study it together; that our
appreciation of it may be enlarged, our spiritual understanding deepened and our
hearts more aglow in response to the wonderful things that God has done in Jesus
Christ our Lord.
HEZEKIAH’S ILLNESS
The prophet Isaiah, as we know, ministered in the days of
Uzziah, Jotham Ahaz and Hezekiah. Uzziah was that king who entered into the holy
place daring and presuming upon the office of priesthood, only to withdraw
himself hurriedly as he was smitten by God, with the leprosy mounting up on his
face. Perhaps we can solve something of the chronology of this period by
recognising that Jotham would reign as co-ruler with his father Uzziah, who must
have been withdrawn from public service because of the leprosy which came upon
him. But leprosy was not limited to King Uzziah. We are told of Hezekiah
himself, that he was smitten with something for which the word boil is
used, in what the prophet told him to do, by way of healing. But it is generally
considered that Hezekiah himself at this time was suffering from what is known
as elephantiasis, a form of leprosy in which the limbs swell and blacken and
thus resemble the legs of an elephant, from which the name of ‘this
particular form of leprosy is taken.
There were circumstances in Hezekiah’s life which
provided a kind of background (I use the words, a kind of background,
advisedly) to what the prophet had to say. The king was smitten— smitten
with leprosy, and the words that are used in this prophecy, “We esteemed
him stricken” — “For the transgression of my people was
he stricken” are words that are used peculiarly in the 13th and
14th chapters of Leviticus, in which sanitary regulations governing skin
diseases are provided; wherein the priest had to diagnose what were infectious
diseases. It is a word that is peculiarly applied to leprosy. But when a case
was healed of leprosy, it was the province of the priest to pronounce the man
healed, and the very word that occurs in those chapters concerning leprosy is
the word that occurs here: “with his stripes we are
healed.”
Here then in the circumstances of the king’s life, was
something which provided the language of this chapter in these respects, but not
only so, the king himself was the subject of a prolonging of days, even
as the prophet speaks of the greater than Hezekiah. He shall prolong his days
for there was an extension of life given to him. But at the time his malady
afflicted him he was not married. He hadn’t taken the necessary steps for
ensuring a succession to the throne and immediately after his recovery he
married Hephzibah and the marriage is commemorated in the words of Isaiah in a
later chapter where he speaks of the land being Beulah and
Hephzibah. “The Lord delighteth in thee and thy land shall be
married,”—playing upon the name of the one who became the wife of
Hezekiah. Then sometime afterwards Manassah was born and he saw his seed and
there alas the parallel breaks down very sadly indeed. But here were
circumstances which did suggest somewhat, the meaning of the words of the
prophet.
HEZEKIAH HEALED
But there is one further point which I think is interesting in
connection with this parallel and that is found in the second book of Kings,
Chapter 20. In the 5th verse we read, where God is speaking, to the prophet:
“Turn again and tell Hezekiah the captain of my people, thus saith the
Lord the God of David thy father; I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy
tears, behold I will heal thee. On the third day thou shall go up unto
the House of the Lord.” You will remember that Paul, in opening the 15th
chapter of his first letter to the Corinthians said: that the first things he
preached to them was that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures,
and that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the
scriptures. (Suppose we put to ourselves the exercise of finding how many
passages there are in the Old Testament, that Christ would rise the third day
according to the scriptures.) Paul tells us that he demonstrated to the
Corinthians from the scriptures that Christ would rise the third day. Well there
was one in connection with the offering of the first sheaf to which Paul himself
alludes in the same chapter, where he says: “Christ the first fruits,
afterwards they that are Christ’s at his coming, then the end.” A
clear reference to the three feasts of Israel. He tells us that in the parable
of the calendar, the cycle of the agricultural ingathering in Israel’s
life was a prefiguration of God’s ingathering by resurrection from the
dead. But the first sheaf was offered on the morrow after the sabbath on the
third day. May not one of the references to the third day be found in the
experience of Hezekiah, whose prolonging of days in entering into the House of
the Lord was on the third day.
Be that as it may, I think it is evident that there were, in
the circumstances of Hezekiah’s life, that which did provide a kind of
parallel to what the prophet is speaking about.
JESUS AS A SERVANT
Now, and much more importantly, we turn to what the prophet
had to say concerning the greater servant of God, the Lord Jesus. Now we must
notice that this prophecy is one of what are known as the servant prophecies of
Isaiah. They begin with the 42nd chapter. “Behold my servant whom I
uphold, mine elect in whom my soul delighteth.” and the important
thing in connection with that verse is that word for word for the Greek
translation of those words in Isaiah, they are what we are told in the gospels,
what the Almighty said when Jesus was baptised: “This is my beloved son
in whom I am well pleased.” Here we have the first identification
of the servant from the Almighty Himself. But as we read on in these servant
prophecies we observe that there is an ever clearer recognition of the fact that
the servant must suffer. He shall not fail nor be discouraged is a mere
suggestion, but the reference that he should be cut off for the covenant of the
people is more than a hint that, through his death, the covenants of God would
be confirmed.
In the 50th chapter, verse 6. we are told however, that
“he would set his face like a flint and hide not his face from shame and
spitting”. The one to whom that had come was the pattern student, the one
whose ear was always open to hear God’s word and to attend upon His word.
More than that it was one who could say, and say it in his own right: “He
is near that justifieth me.” Those words imply that the servant of God
would be the sinless one: for he is the only one of whom it could be said in his
own right that God would justify him. For to justify is to pronounce righteous
and God could look upon His Son and recognise that there were no hidden
motives or secrets, away from Him.
Therefore God could exalt him and vindicate him and justify
him. It is written in this chapter that by his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. It is on the basis of
our sins forgiven for Christ’s sake that we are justified or esteemed by
God as righteous, but that, by the forgiveness of sins. But it is written
concerning the servant of God, “that he would be near.” who would
justify him and the particular bearing of that upon the Lord’s own life
and experience we shall see bye and bye.
JESUS ACKNOWLEDGES THE SERVANT’S ROLE
The word “servant” is one that comes out in the
Lord’s own utterances, hidden a little by the variant usage of language in
our Authorised Version. In the context where he speaks of brethren serving one
another he tells us that the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto or using
the same word, came not to be “served” but to serve and to
give his life a ransom for many. So speaking the Lord identified his work
with that of a servant and the very word “many” comes from this
chapter. As it does also in another reference when he said, taking the wine
which was one of the cups at the Jewish passover, and transforming it into the
memorial of his own work, he said, “This is the blood of the new covenant
shed for many for the remission of sins.” The use of that word
“many” by Jesus in those two passages and others too. turn our minds
back to these phrases in this prophecy of Isaiah and I believe are a clear
allusion to them. That is to say, the very phrasing of the prophet so permeated
the mind of the Lord Jesus that his very language echoes the words of the
prophet Isaiah. That word “many” should never be read without
thinking of its background in this chapter.
But there are other specific allusions, as for example in Acts
chapter 4, verse 27. The disciples are assembled and are in prayer to God:
“For of a truth against thy holy child. Jesus, whom thou hast
anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of
Israel, were gathered together, for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel
determined before to be done.” Then the last sentence of verse 30:
“signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child,
Jesus.” The word “child” there is the translation of a
word that means “boy” and just as in the colonial sense, where white
people have coloured servants and they have a house boy, or so many boys on
their staff, so the Greek word here translated “child” which means
“boy” is used in the sense of “servant”. That is to say
it wasn’t used in the sense of a descendant from a parent, but in the
sense of being one of the domestics or servants. The revisers recognising that,
they have here given us the word servant “of a truth against thy holy
servant, Jesus”. “By the name of thy holy servant,
Jesus.” That too is a distinct allusion to the servant prophecies of
Isaiah.
THE SERVANT TO BE EXALTED
There are one or two others that we shall more specifically
look at when we come to them. But just as we have turned to these phrases in the
New Testament, to find linkage with this prophet, so the prophet’s words
himself will turn us elsewhere, in order that we might catch the allusion that
he is making. Now we will turn to verse 13 of chapter 52 and continue along,
stopping here and anon to turn to other passages which throw light upon the
statements of the prophet: trying to understand his meaning, trying to fathom
the connection between the various statements he makes, so that we can see the
development of a theme, and a purpose through the chapter.
“Behold,” he says, “my servant shall deal
prudently” (or “prosper” as the margin has it) the word that
is used when Joshua had to lead them into the inheritance. If you do this, said
God, “thou shalt prosper in all thy ways,” and here is
another Joshua to lead them into an inheritance. “He shall be exalted and
extolled and be very high.” Now in the 6th chapter of Isaiah: In the very
year that Uzziah, the leprous king, died, the prophet had a vision of the
king-to-be. “In the year that Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a
throne; high and lifted up and his train filled the temple.” When John
quotes some later words of this chapter in his gospel, he says, “These
things spake Isaiah when he saw his glory and spake of him” (John 12:41).
So John tells us in his gospel that Isaiah was speaking of the glory of Christ
here and that “the Lord high and lifted up.” (6:1) is the
manifestation of the Eternal in the one who would sit upon David’s throne.
He saw him sitting upon a throne. He was not only a king upon his throne but in
contrast to this king who had presumed upon the office of priesthood, this one
is not only king but also priest, by virtue of Divine appointment. His train, or
as the margin has it, “his skirts,” filled the temple. The words
“his skirts” are priestly robes, for the king here “high
and lifted up” is not only the King of the age to come, but being
after the order of Melchisedec he is a king upon his throne and a priest upon
his throne. That it refers to the Millennial age is clear, because the third
verse tells us:
“One cried unto another and said, Holy, Holy, Holy is
the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.”
When then, Isaiah says (52:13), concerning this servant of
God, that “he shall be exalted and lifted up,” he is telling
us that this servant is none other than the one who is going to be king, whom he
saw enthroned, when the earth shall be filled with the Glory of God and that
threefold description of Holiness will ascend to the Almighty. But how, and in
what way, is there going to be this manifestation of the Almighty? The answer
comes in a surprising way and the surprise deepens as we go through the chapter.
“As many,” says the prophet, “were astonied at
thee,” and just as the word “as” implies as a
counter point the word “so”; just to that extent must our minds
travel on until we find that word “so”. “As many
were astonied at thee” and the “so” comes in the
opening words of verse 15. If any of you mark your Bibles I suggest you put
parenthesis marks around, “His visage was so marred more than any man and
his form than the sons of men,” because they are a parenthetic explanation
of why men were astonied at him. The prophet says: “as many were
astonied so shall he sprinkle many nations.” There is a contrast
quantitatively; as many (individuals) so shall he sprinkle many
nations.
HIS VISAGE MARRED BY SUFFERING
But why were the many astonied at him. The answer comes in
that parenthetic explanation: “His visage was so marred more than any
man and his form more than the sons of men.” This, as I have said,
comes as a surprising piece of information here, and we have to ask how, and in
what way, was it fulfilled. First of all I think we must recognise that the Lord
normally must have been a healthy person. He had a goodly heritage. He lived
according to the laws of life and we may be sure there were no abuses whatever
in his life We may think of him as being in the fullness of healthy manly vigour
when he began his ministry. But we are not left just to that inference. I think
that the very fact that the women were so ready to bring their children to him
shows that there must have been a charm and a comeliness and a graciousness
about him. In fact we are told they wondered at the gracious words that
proceeded out of his mouth, in fulfilment of the prophetic Psalm: “Grace
is poured into thy lips.” So we can think of him as winsome and
attractive; one that won the confidence of men and women by his grace and his
kindness and the general character that beamed out of him.
How then must we understand these words. I think against that
background, and remembering what the prophet has to say as his theme develops,
we are made to understand how they were fulfilled. The prophet is dealing with
the closing hours of the life of the servant of God and in those closing hours
these words were fulfilled. We can begin to trace their fulfilment when we think
of him leaving the city after he had instituted his supper; after he had spoken
the words of those (13th onward to the 17th) chapters of John. We think of him
lingering a while maybe in the temple courts, for they were opened at midnight
at the passover season; and perhaps that was the very safest place after they
had arisen and gone in to speak the other chapters (the 16th and 17th) of John.
Then the journey down into the valley, dark with shadows, and John points out in
the 18th chapter in a picture that he draws; that there, was a picture of the
Lord going down into the darkness.
The other gospel writers tell us of the agony when he sweats,
as it were, great drops of blood. The writer to the Hebrews gives a little item
of information which the gospel writers do not. He tells us that “with
strong crying and tears, he made supplication to Him, who was able to save
him out of death and was heard in that he feared.” Men have gone through a
crisis in life and have come out of it with lined faces, sometimes with bleached
hair and an impress has been left upon them that has never left them. But who
has gone through a crisis like that which the Lord went through in Gethsemane.
Reverence demands that we do not seek to penetrate too far. But surely it was
something outside the ordinary experience of ordinary men, that it produced such
an effect upon him. It was bound up with his work which was to be consummated on
the morrow, for there the battle was won. There the determination was reached
that the cup must not pass from him for it was not the Father’s will that
it should be.
It was, incidentally (and perhaps this helps along the
explanation) the anniversary of that dark night of the Lord when the passover
lamb was slain. The anniversary was not on the morrow of that. It was when he
was in Gethsemane that there was the anniversary, day for day. for that dark
night in Egypt when the passover lamb was slain. May it not be that even there,
was the beginning of his sufferings, which were only consummated on the day
afterward. Sufferings bound up, inscrutable though it may be, with the work that
he had to do as the Lamb of God that beareth away the sin of the world.
When we think of how God views sin, and here in him is going to be provided the
way whereby sin can be removed, can we possibly think that in some way the full
horror of what sin meant and of the tremendous burden that lay upon him, as he
was meeting the cross, met there, in the Lord’s consciousness, as he
pleaded with the Father. We cannot think for a moment that he came out of
Gethsemane without the effects of the struggle being present upon his
countenance. Yet the determination was made that enabled him, with that
wonderful composure, to go through all that followed on the day
afterwards.
But even there things were done that added to his appearance,
when that crown of thorns was pressed upon his head. It wasn’t done gently
and the thorns were really thorns, if the traditional plant of the crown of
thorns was correct. For it had spikes an inch long which would leave their scars
upon his brow. Then when we remember that he hid not his face from spitting, we
can well see how the words of the prophet were fulfilled: “that his
visage was so marred more than the sons of men” (Isa.
52:14).
It may be from this point of view, that we need not think of
Pilate as jesting or mocking or many other words which have been used. in an
attempt to define Pilate’s feeling, as he led Jesus out of the Judgment
Hall and put him there before the Jews. Wasn’t there something possibly of
wonder and pathos in his words. What a sad and sorry spectacle this man of
sorrows must have then presented after all he’d gone through, as Pilate
said, “Behold the man.” There was no compassion in their
hearts towards him, because it had been written that they had to esteem him
stricken and smitten, of God. But there he was and there is the
appeal of Pilate to behold him and to behold the man, as he was bearing the
sorrows that came upon him.
MANY NATIONS SPRINKLED
But that this work was bound up with the work of Jesus as
“the Lamb of God taking away the sin of the world” is apparent when
we go on to the next verse and take up that word “so”. As
many were astonied at this which was done in connection with him, “so
shall he sprinkle many nations.” The word
“sprinkle” has given occasion to discussion, but here again
the scriptures themselves help us. The word is used again and again in the book
of Leviticus. It is used for example, in connection with the work of the day of
Atonement, when the high priest had to sprinkle the blood of the atoning
sacrifice upon the mercy seat. Following that, we can see, that just as in that
sprinkling, there was the application of the atoning sacrifice in type; so here,
in regard to this servant of God. When we are told, “So shall he
sprinkle many nations,” we must not follow the words in their literal
connotation. It means to say, he will bring to bear upon them, the effects of
his work, which will be for the reconciliation of them towards God, for their
atonement with God. The sprinkling was the application of the sacrifice in the
appointed way, in whatever form it may have taken in the various symbolic
ordinances of the law. Here, this one has to sprinkle many nations and the
“many” in the one case is the contrast to the
“many” in the other. But the fact that it is nations,
enlarges the scope beyond the Jewish nation and in fact takes us back to the
Abrahamic promises, where God said, “In thee and in thy seed shall all
nations of the earth be blessed.” So shall he sprinkle many nations
and that that is the correct interpretation, is borne out by the use by Paul of
the subsequent words of this verse, in his letter to the Romans.
The prophet says, “Kings shall shut their mouths at him;
for that which had not been told them they shall see; and that which they had
not heard, shall they consider.” We turn to Romans chapter 15 and note
Paul’s application of these verses at verse 20. “So have I
strived,” says Paul, “to preach the Gospel, not where Christ was
named, lest I should build upon another man’s foundation. But as it is
written, to whom he was not spoken of, they shall see; and they that have not
heard shall understand.” So the Apostle uses the words of the prophet in
his own preaching and for bringing to the knowledge of men, the Gospel of
Christ.
Now that being Paul’s usage of them, we turn back to the
prophet and find that, with the interpretation of the word sprinkle, we have
given, the chapter and the verse is in perfect harmony throughout. He shall
bring to bear the effects of his sacrificial work upon nations, for the word of
the Gospel of Christ will be preached to kings and to all that live and that
which they have not heard, they shall consider; in the proclamation of the
Gospel of their salvation at that time.
We see then from these opening verses, that the prophet is
dealing with one who is going to be exalted and enthroned; who is going to be a
King and a Priest; who will go through dire sufferings in the process of his
work. But the outcome of it will be that many nations will come within the scope
of his redeeming work.
Now from that background we move on to a consideration of
chapter 53, which continues the theme. In view of the largeness of what the
prophet has indicated, he asks the question, “Who hath believed our
report.” You see he has just said at the end of verse 15 of Chapter 52
that kings will hear it. All nations will hear it.
A ROOT OUT OF DRY GROUND
Now he turns back to the circumstances of the servant, as he
was manifested at first. Was he then going to receive such a reception. If
ultimately kings will shut their mouths at him, if ultimately nations will
receive of the benefit of his work; what would be his reception, when he
appeared? So he asks, “Who hath believed our report and to whom
is the arm of the Lord revealed?” (verse 1). Is it to be to nations
then; is it to be to the one nation? Or when he comes will there be a failure to
understand and a failure to appreciate him? Well, says the prophet, consider. He
won’t come as men expect such a one to come. It is expected that those who
are heirs to royal thrones will be born in kings’ palaces. Was this one to
be born in high estate? Was the attention of all nations concerned with the
birth? Not at all. “He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and
as a root out of a dry ground” (verse 2). So God arranges His schemes,
that no flesh should glory in His presence.
The Apostle tells us that the Jews looked for a sign and the
Greeks sought after wisdom. Supposing the one whom God raised up to be a
Redeemer had come in the way the Jews looked for him, marked by wondrous signs
and displays of power. He would have attracted to him those who loved such
display; those who were questing for powers themselves. It would have appealed
to a certain type of men and women. Suppose he had come as the Greeks looked for
him; in the world of intellectual achievement; in the schools of dialectics in
which the Greek delighted. He would then have come to a still more limited group
of people.
God’s intention was that the appeal, bound up with the
work of this servant, should be universal and it could only come to low and high
alike, by the servant coming in the lowliest of estates; so that those that were
high might be humbled; that the humble might receive him with glad hearts. That,
in all the working of the purpose, God alone might be glorified. For it is
God’s purpose that no flesh should glory in His presence. So it was that a
maiden, living in the remote parts of Galilee, in a little village of Nazareth,
tucked away among the hills above the plain of Ezdraelon; that such a maiden was
chosen to be the mother of the Lord. The child was born in David’s royal
city, but so much was he a tender plant and a root out of a dry ground, that
there was no room for them in the inn. The kahn or the inn consisted of two
levels of floor, the lower level where the animals rested and fed, and a
slightly raised level, say three or four feet above the ground, where the people
who lodged at the inn (or the Kahn) lay down, using their outer clothes for
covering for the night to sleep. Along the edge of that raised level was the
trough in which the food of the animals was placed, and there the new born child
was laid;
No reception in kings’ palaces. No acclaim as is to be
expected of a royal personage. But as one out of a dry ground.
From another point of view, a story which is told about a
Roman Emperor, who, hearing of the fame of Jesus, asked that all of that line
should be brought before him; still illustrates the point from another aspect.
For there were gathered to the emperor as many as could be found of
David’s descendants and they were so manifestly of the peasant class, that
it was so clear that they could not be possible claimants to royalty, and that
they wouldn’t in the least way be likely to raise the standard of revolt,
or lead any agitation or revolution; that the emperor dismissed them from his
presence. “A root out of a dry ground.”
ARM OF THE LORD
In that sense we interpret the words, “He hath no
form nor comeliness, no beauty that we should desire him” (verse 2).
There were not those features about him that men looked for as desirable
elements from a human point of view in connection with the offices to which this
man will some day ascend. Now in contrast, “he is despised and rejected
of men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (verse 3). While
he was the Arm of the Lord and the Servant of God, men hid their
faces from him, and esteemed him not. We might, to see the full significance of
that, ponder for a moment or two, what is implied in that word, the Arm
of the Lord. The arm of a man is, of course, a part of his body. The arm of
a man is that which he stretches out to help and the Arm of the Lord is
what God has done to help. But just as the arm of a man is connected with the
man, so pursuing the figure, we must see that there is some intimate connection
between the Lord Jesus and the Almighty, to justify the term, “the Arm
of the Lord” in connection with Jesus. Although not explicit, we
believe it is fully implicit in the use of that figure, that Jesus was the Son
of God. It is indeed indicated in the 52nd chapter, that this manifestation of
God’s power in His holy Arm, was for men’s salvation. Listen to the
10th verse of chapter 52: “The Lord hath made bare His holy arm in
the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the
salvation of our God.” That is, of course, a beautiful illustration of the
parallelism that characterises Hebrew speech. “He has made bare His holy
arm in the eyes of all the nations and all the ends of the earth shall
see” and parallel with the holy arm is “the salvation of
God”, for here was the Saviour.
God has stretched out His arm in raising up a Son to be a
Saviour, because we could not have been provided with a saviour apart from it,
because no human being could have possibly lived the life of perfect obedience,
that would ensure resurrection from the dead; and so provide one in whom could
be vested the power to raise others also.
When the Arm of the Lord was revealed and the Son of
God came this is how men treated him. We might stop for a second to think of the
evidential value to the truth of the record in this fact. You can’t
imagine any prophet, looking forward and speaking of one to come, who would be
the Son of God, who of himself would depict such a treatment as is here
described. Would he not naturally have described him as being in some way
recognised and acclaimed and approved and exalted by men. I think we should. How
comes it that the prophet has delineated such an opposite reception. It was as
the prophet foretold, but the message could only be of God, who would reveal
this which was so contrary to what would naturally have happened, as men would
view it. But there was a Divine reason and that reason has already emerged from
what we have considered in connection with his work, of sprinkling many nations.
He was to be the one through whom redemption would come. So it is said, He bore
our griefs and carried our sorrows.
ESTEEMED A LEPER
Yet men looked upon him as an outcast and a leper. Not
as a leper in fact but like as a leper as being an outcast. A leper was an
outcast and yet in fact we were; not literally lepers but such as were leprous
by sin, in that our sins were as a leprosy. “By his stripes we are
healed.” You will remember, as we pointed out, that word was taken
from that figure of leprosy. But we are healed because of him, because
“he was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our
iniquities” (Isa. 53:5). There was no iniquity in him. There
were no transgressions in him. Why should the Lord have to suffer in the way
that he did? Because God appointed that in him there should be declared His
righteousness. And it could only be by one who was there, just where we are, in
respect of our inheritance from Adam who could declare God’s righteousness
(but we are involved in that) and so provide the way so that our sins could be
forgiven. But the prophet doesn’t enter into that explanation. He states
the simple fact that he bore our griefs and carried our sorrows. Not that they
were transferred to him as such, but that as a result of his work they are taken
away. But we would make a sad mistake if, while we have said that they were not,
and could not be literally transferred to him that there was no burden upon him,
in providing the condition for their removal.
BEARING OUR INFIRMITIES
Let us look at two passages in the New Testament. One in
Matthew 8:17: Jesus had been healing and “when the evening was come they
brought to him many that were possessed with devils and he healed all that were
sick; that it might be fulfilled that was spoken by Esias the prophet,
Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses.” Was there no
sense of labour, no welling up of compassion for these people, that led him to
do it? Of course there was. Since we are told that on one occasion he perceived
that virtue had gone out of him, perhaps we may infer that his toilsome healing
work was not without a sense of giving of himself as he did the work. Not
only in the welling up of his large compassionate heart, as he looked upon them
as sheep having no shepherd and as he entered into the feeling of their
sufferings; but in the very giving of something in the physical power involved
in doing this work of healing as he perceived that virtue had gone out of
him.
BEARING OUR INIQUITIES
The other passage is in Peter’s first epistle, chapter
2. At verse 20, he says, “What glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for
your faults, ye shall take it patiently? If, when you do well and suffer for it,
ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. For even here unto were ye
called; because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we
should follow in his steps. Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his
mouth; who when he was reviled, reviled not again; (and Peter is looking back at
Isaiah 53 here). When he suffered he threatened not; but committed himself to
Him that judgeth righteously.” (We will refer to this passage a
little later.) “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on (or
to) the tree, that we being dead to sins should live unto righteousness;
by whose stripes ye were healed.” You will observe how Peter is
quoting that. Then he quotes again, “ye were as sheep going astray,”
and since we are sheep, he is the shepherd although he is the Lamb of God
by a beautiful introversion of Divine figures. “Ye were as sheep going
astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.”
“Who, his own self, bare our sins in his own body to the tree” and
that explains how it was done, that when his body was nailed to the tree, there
was a declaration of a Divine purpose, as a condition upon which our sins are
forgiven. It was because, Son of God as he was, that the Lord’s body was a
body belonging to the Adamic race, dying because of sin, Adam’s sin. There
is the inheritance, there is the entail.
There in that voluntary going to the cross, (this is the
nerve of it, brethren and sisters), he declared the righteousness of
God. So then in a figure (just as it is in a figure that the blood of Jesus
cleanses us from sin for blood can cleanse nothing in itself), he bore our sins
in his body to the tree. But it was because his body could rightly go
there and that he could go there voluntarily, that he could bare our
sins, and our sins could be forgiven for his sake. That is Peter’s
explanation of what we are reading in this prophecy. The Lord hath laid on him
the iniquity of us all. “We have turned,” he says, “everyone
to his own way, like sheep.” What does it mean to say that we have turned,
everyone to his own way. Adam chose his own way at the beginning and we have all
repeated Adam’s mistake of going our own way.
What’s the alternative to going our own way?
There’s the Lord’s way and who alone chose the Lord’s way, but
the Lord’s anointed himself. That’s the contrast; we’ve chosen
our own way; he chose the Lord’s way. “Not my will but thine be
done.”
HIS SUFFERING AND TRIAL PUBLICISED
Now since this is to happen to the servant of God; how could
it be arranged, that this could be done in such a way, that the Divine objects
could be brought to men. The Lord could have retired to the wilderness and in
the presence of the Angels, say, have laid down his life. Would that have
achieved the Divine purpose? So far as the offering of himself. But that was not
the whole of the purpose, because this, you see; what the Son was doing: this
that the servant of God was doing, was something that dynamically concerned men
and women and therefore it had to be done in such a way, that the very fact of
it, as well as the effects of it, were brought to bear on men and women. Now how
could that be done? Only by some publicity attaching to the way our Lord laid
down his life. There must be some publicity. Paul gets the idea when writing to
Galatians, after he has been speaking. “I am crucified with
Christ,” he says, “O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you
that you have so soon turned away, before whom Christ was evidently set
forth—and the word is “placarded”, that expresses the
word “placarded” like the placards in the street that are
designed to force themselves upon your attention. They’re there to
attract your attention, to bring to bear with all that power, that the person
who has the placard put there, wishes you to notice. It was just so here. It was
necessary that, in some way the Lord should die; that the facts of his death
were so evident that men were constrained to look at them. But how could
it be accomplished? Well the prophet indicates how God did accomplish
it.
“He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he opened not
his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment” (Isa.. 53:7,8).
So the death of the Servant had to be associated with judicial forms, a
procedure of judgment; and there is perhaps no other way that can so focus
attention upon the issues as a judicial procedure. How our papers publicise the
decisions of the courts. How interested the people of ancient times were, as
they gathered around the open space of the market, within the gates, to hear the
decisions of the judges. How the oral decisions of the judges in ancient times
were impressed upon the minds of the people and became, as it were, unwritten
laws, for their social life. When the judgment assumed more detailed forms,
still more was the floodlight of publicity on what was done. So in the eyes of
the whole nation of Israel, the facts connected with Jesus were brought to bear
in an inescapable way.
We have mentioned the multitudes that assembled in Jerusalem
for the passover. Josephus says two million people. I’m not
concerned” whether this figure is accurate or not. The fact that he can
name such a figure impresses us with the fact that the place must have been
crowded; and all that crowd knew of the judicial procedure. But it was a
judicial procedure that was a scandal to justice. He is afflicted and he opened
not his mouth, for the procedure of justice was wrong. The jurisprudence of
Israel had built up a series of regulations to safeguard the interests of the
prisoner, the charges had to be made by witnesses; no trial should be by night;
no trial should be clandestine and a host of other details, everyone of which _
was disregarded, as the whole system was torn to tatters by the attitude of the
rulers of Israel. When the Lord stood before Pilate, who confessed that he found
no fault in him, he had him scourged, which. was a crime, for an innocent man to
be subjected to. Still more was it a crime, that Pilate should pronounce him
innocent and then allow him to be condemned to the gallows.
“He was taken from prison and from
judgment” (verse 8) and vet Peter tells us that while he was there, he
wasn’t stood before Pilate or Annas or Caiaphas. “He committed
himself,” says Peter, who saw the Lord in the judgment hall and
didn’t know what the Lord was doing, unless it had been revealed to him,
“he committed himself to Him that judgeth righteously.” The
Lord’s mind was not centred on Herod or Pilate, Annas or Caiaphas, it was
centred on his Father in heaven and he knew that He would vindicate
him. Surely at that time, the words must have been in his mind, “He
is near that justifieth me” and how abundantly the Father justified
him when presently he was “raised from the dead and exalted to His own
right hand.”
“Who shall declare his generation?” A question
that suggests that he, being cut off, there would be a termination of his life
and a termination of all succession with him. “He was cut off out of
the land of the living; for the transgression of my people was he
smitten” (verse 8). Here then is going to be a seedless man apparently
without a posterity. Yet we shall be told presently “he shall see his
seed” but we’ll wait till we get there, noting merely the fact
the question asked.
AN HONOURABLE BURIAL
But now there is another problem. If it was by judicial
procedure that the Lord had to meet his death, in order that there might be this
publicity attaching to it, that God required for His purposes and since it was
the custom in the New Testament times, that the body of one crucified should be
cast out into Gehenna; how could the Lord’s purpose, that His holy one
should not see corruption, but should he raised from the dead, be accomplished
again, with due regard, not only of the decorum of the matter, but also the
facts to be established? The answer is in the prophet. It is wonderful, brethren
and sisters, when we face these issues and look at these problems, how the
answers come in the prophecy of Isaiah. “He made his grave with the
wicked,” crucified with malefactors, and “with a rich
man was his tomb”. The prophet tells us why that and it may seem at
first obscure why! “Because he had done no violence, neither was there
deceit in his mouth.” Why was it, because of his sinlessness, he had to
share a rich man’s tomb? Because if there hadn’t been a man of
sufficient influence and with that rare courage at that time, to go to Pilate
and beg the body of Jesus, there would have been no honourable burial for
the Son of God. But God foresaw its need and provided for it. Thus it was that
two men were there who summoned up their courage and came out of their secret
discipleship. The one to go and buy what was a princely amount of,
spices.
A MULTITUDINOUS SEED
“When he shall be made an offering for sin, he shall see
his seed (his seed) (verse 10), and who shall declare his
generation?’’ Jesus said before Pilate, knowing that his work would
go on, “he that is of the Truth heareth my voice.” What a sublime
declaration that was in such a crisis. “What is Truth?” said Pilate,
and Jesus answered, “he that is of the Truth heareth my voice” (John
18:37). But this isn’t the end, there is going to be a succession of men
who hear the Truth, the Truth for which I’m standing, the Truth which is
being illustrated and embodied in me. There will be adherents of this. The
contemporary writer with Isaiah in the Psalms (45:16) says, “Instead of
thy fathers shall be thy children, whom thou mayest make princes in all the
earth.” “He shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days and the
pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand” (verse 10). Then we
get another word that is rather significant: “He shall see of the
travail of his soul and shall be satisfied” (verse 11).
“Travail” is distinctly the woman’s lot in life.
“I will multiply thy sorrow and thy conception.” How strangely that
the figure of travail should be used here, and yet it’s right. For travail
is the toil from which comes the new birth, the new order or the new being as
the case may be. Here out of this man’s sufferings is going to emerge new
things, a new creation and therefore it’s travail.
But since we are looking at this by meditation as well as
devotion, might we think also that the word leads us to this. Here he was
suffering the effects of what had come by sin, dying; “Cursed is the
ground for thy sake; thorns and thistles shall it bring forth unto thee”
(Gen. 3:17). There were thorns upon his brow and to complete the cycle
pertaining to the consequences that came by sin, here is the travail too, the
travail of soul. Thus from his sufferings emerges a new creation and he will be
satisfied when he sees it. This is the practical effect that, “by his
knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many for he shall bear their
iniquities” (verse 11).
Now we must stop for a moment, for “bear their
iniquities” takes us back to the day of Atonement when two goats were
taken, both for the Lord, one slain and then the priest confessed all the sins
and iniquities and transgressions upon the head of the live goat. Then by a fit
man it was taken away into a land that was uninhabited, the land of
forgetfulness. As is the offering for sin so is the goat that bears away to
forgetfulness our sins. “For he shall bear their
iniquities.”
JESUS HIGHLY EXALTED
So God will divide him a portion with the great, the immortal
great, because of his work. The strong who are immortally strong seeing they
have been exalted because of him; and that because he has poured out his soul
unto death, because he had been numbered with transgressors and because he has
borne the sin of many. “He poured out his soul unto death.” Do you
recall the expression in Philippians where Paul harks back to this. It is lost
in our Authorised version. But another version is so common that it ought to
suggest it to us at once. Here it is in Philippians 2, verse 5, “Let this
mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God (as
the arm of the Lord) thought it not a thing to be grasped at (R.V.) to be
equal with God.” “Ye shall be as gods” was said at the
beginning and they grasped at it. But he emptied himself, a reference to
“he poured out his soul unto death” (Isa. 53:12). “He
emptied himself and took upon him the form of a servant,” as these servant
prophecies required, “and was made in the likeness of men and being found
in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, the
death of the cross wherefore God has (and mark again how Paul gathers up the
words of the prophecy) “Highly exalted him.” “He shall
be lifted up” and “very high” and that because
he has poured out his soul unto death. The offerer for sin is the priest.
“He made intercession for the transgressors.”
Well, brethren and sisters, perhaps we have been able to
suggest a few lines of thought in connection with this very very wonderful
prophecy. If it humbles our pride as we see God’s work in Christ Jesus; if
it makes our hearts glow at the wonder of His grace, in providing such a one for
our sins, surely the Word of God has not been written in vain.
