Just as God Promised

Read the verses and many people will swear they come from the New Testament.

“He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. …
“[H]e was pierced for our transgressions,  he was crushed for our iniquities …
“He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth …
“He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death …”

The words read like an eyewitness description of what happened to Jesus before, during and after His crucifixion.

Yet these words were written more than 700 years before Jesus was born. These verses come from what scholars call the fourth Servant Song of the Book of Isaiah. The term “Suffering Servant” is frequently used to describe the passage. The complete text is Isaiah 52:13–53:12, and these verses are the closest thing to the cross of Christ found in the Old Testament. Perhaps that is why portions of the text can be found in all four of the Gospels, as well as in Acts, Romans, Philippians, Hebrews and 1 Peter.

In Israel recently, a group of Alabama Baptists visiting the Holy Land was told the verses describe the nation of Israel, an interpretation that has grown popular since the Holocaust. It is true that the Servant in some parts of Isaiah refers to the people of God, or Israel. But not here. Several technical issues argue against such an interpretation. More importantly, the text is clear that the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53 is not Israel. Throughout the chapter, the Suffering Servant is described as the innocent suffering for the guilty. The Servant is the perfect sacrificial lamb described in Leviticus 5–6.

No one contends that Israel, as a people, was such a lamb. Like all others, Israel has always been characterized as falling short of the glory of God.

Perhaps that is why ancient scholars such as the great and pivotal Moses Maimonides wrote in the Letter to the South that Isaiah 53 referred to “King Messiah.”

But he would be a strange king. People would have trouble believing he was a king. His body would be disfigured and his form unlike any man’s (Isa. 52:14). Ancient rabbis tried to understand such a Suffering Servant or king, and some concluded he would be a “leper messiah.” They had no idea what a Roman cat-o’-nine-tails could do to a body.

By the time the words of Isaiah 53 were written, the house of David had been cut down like a giant tree felled by an ax. But from the roots of God’s promise of an everlasting throne to David’s seed, a tender shoot would grow. Maimonides called it “a sucker.” From an unlikely source, God would surprise the world with His message of reconciliation. Misfortune would be the constant companion of this King Messiah. And so it was with Jesus. His family thought Him crazy. The temple priests plotted His death. His hometown friends rejected Him. Even places such as Capernaum where He performed miracle after miracle refused to believe in Him, and its unbelief earned it a curse (Matt. 11:20–24).

Of Himself, Jesus said, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.” Surely He was acquainted with grief.

The writer seems astonished as he pours out verb after verb describing the actions inflicted on this king: took, carried, stricken, smitten, afflicted, pierced, crushed and more. Finally the writer declared that “all … have gone astray.” But in taking on “the iniquity of us all,” this Suffering Servant — this King Messiah — brought all back together again.

In Philippians 2:8, Paul wrote, “And being found in appearance as a man, [Jesus] humbled Himself and became obedient to death — even death on a cross!” In that death, He was pierced first by spikes through His hands and feet, a crown of thorns around His brow and then a spear to His side. The event was marked by disdain and ridicule. Some shouted for Him to “save Himself” as He saved others. He was spat upon as people found perverse joy in His torture.

But there was another side to this experience. Jesus said of His life, “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord” (John 10:18). He told Peter that He could call legions of angels to protect Him but He did not (Matt. 26:53).

Instead, like that perfect sacrificial lamb, Jesus went to His own slaughter without a word or a whimper — “He opened not His mouth.” The guiltless taking on Himself the guilt of the world. He who knew no sin was made to be sin that we might be saved (2 Cor. 5:21). Jesus died — “cut off from the land of the living” — for our transgressions.

Maimonides’ King Messiah would be assigned a grave with the wicked. And Jesus was. He died between two thieves. Like all who died that way, His body was to be cast into the Valley of Gehenna to be burned with the rest of the garbage. Yet this Suffering Servant was also to be with the rich in His death (Isa. 53:9).

It was Joseph of Arimathea, a rich man, who claimed the body of Jesus and buried it in his own tomb, a place where no other had yet been laid. How like Isaiah’s words were the circumstances of Jesus’ death, even down to the smallest detail.

Does the Lord will suffering as Isaiah 53:10 contends? Yes. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed “not as I will, but as You will.” Earlier He told Nicodemus that “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” In the crucifixion, those words became reality.

Jesus’ suffering was not useless suffering. It was suffering with a purpose. It was willing suffering. Jesus’ suffering brought salvation for all who believe on the name of the only begotten Son of God. Isaiah wrote that even though the Suffering Servant died, he would “see the light of life and be satisfied.” That is a description of Easter. On the third day, the One into whose care Jesus committed His soul reached into the grave and raised His Son to life eternal. Sin was overcome. The grave was defeated. Salvation was offered to all who believe.

And now the Suffering Servant, the King Messiah, Jesus the Christ sits at the right hand of God making intercession for all who will believe. As Isaiah said, He is satisfied.

And it all happened just as God promised more than 700 years earlier. Praise be to God.