He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed (53:5). Yet this exaltation does not occur in a manner that human beings would expect. But its going to happen in a surprising way. God launches his case, claiming to be the Creator of the world and Lord of history. Awareness Servant leaders are aware of themselves and those around them. Tis mercy all! Whether by attribution or by allusion, this book stands behind much of the New Testament. 1-3) While "the arm of the Lord" indicates the Lord's power, the promised Savior from God would grow up as a "young plant" (53:2). On this note the stanza ends. The prophet reports that the Servant was innocent. Verse three reports that he was despised, that is, looked down on, held in contempt, as well as rejected. While the death and resurrection is the climax of these prophetic passages, these aspects of the Suffering Servant were realizedin the Messiahs entire life. God is going to return to his land by crossing the great tract of wilderness that lay between Babylon and Jerusalem. David, Jeremiah, Job, and countless others, including us we must confess, are not silent under pain. 51-52). What is success? We do not seek suffering. This grand theme is announced in the first verse. As a result, they walk in darkness and the ways of death. Instead, it focuses on the response of the Israelites to this great announcement of hope. Your email address will not be published. The Servant is not lifted high because of some kind of outer beauty or evident regal stature, for He is "marred, beyond human semblance" (v. 14) and has "no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him" (53:2). Why was this Servant the unique sample of silence under suffering? A growing alliance of worship leaders and creatives committed to building spaces for awakening. Tenacity ("stick-to-it-ness") This, more than anything else, has beaten many a would-be . In this section they realize that the suffering is vicarious. Centuries after this oracle was written our divine Lord came and fulfilled to the letter the words of this prophecy. John Calvin comments on today's passage as to why salvation through the Suffering Servant is so despised the world over: "The loftiness of the mystery is a reas The unfolding picture of the Servant is predicted to cause astonishment among the nations, and silence the kings of the earth (52:15). Isaiah told the exiles this would happen through the work of the Suffering Servant (52:1353:12). He had no guilt of his own, and no doubts of God. If here the servant is the remnant that was suffering because of the sins of the whole nation, then the passage could only in general terms be applied, for their suffering did not redeem the nation, their suffering did not justify. Ed. But thats not what happened, and chapter 48 is wholly dedicated to making this point. he wanted to maintain his good name. him as a Suffering Servant (one who is obedient even unto death). When Jesus came and began to heal the sick and cast out demons, the gospel of Matthew identifies Jesus with the Suffering Servant, who took our infirmities and bore our diseases (Matt. It is in the presence of the Crucified One, Gods Suffering Servant, that we finally begin to see the full contours of Gods great plan. The context of Israel and exile The presence of honor-shame themes in the Servant Songs should be expected. Get your copy from our store here. In C. S. Lewiss well-known story The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the evil witch demands the life of young Edmund, who had been revealed as a traitor. Praying and seeking to see/behold his love for me, and experience his love that along can transform me. It is serviceservice to God. No, humiliation is the path for the Suffering Servant's exaltation. It properly describes a rare phenomenon or syndrome in which a person with a severe mental handicap displays genius-like ability in a narrow field or area. He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering (53:3). It spoke to me. The Suffering Servant: Scapegoat or Example? Proceedings of the Irish Biblical Association 4 (1980):59-67. This is the one message which can render any pain tolerableGod willed itit is his pleasure. What we discover, however, is that Jesus fulfilled these roles in ways that were unexpected. by Hans Goedicke. In this view human beings with the exception of the first man and woman are victims, exposed constantly to the perils of a created order gone away. The poem that follows this dramatic announcement is the famous suffering servant poem of Isaiah 53 (to be precise, it goes from Isaiah 52:13-53:12). The pain was his in consequence of the sin that was oursthat is, the suffering was vicarious. That is not a popular teaching; it is not a truth that we remember or hold dear to our hearts. We allow suffering in others or ourselves to blind us to the fact of the reasons and purposes for sufferings. There are many wonderful things we can say about God. They say he at first appeared to them as an insignificant low-life, god-forsaken and rejected by people. Tis mercy all, the Immortal dies! Gelston, A. Yet the nation of Israel was unrighteous (1:120; Rom. We confess that we deserve it, or complain that we do not. Jesus rebukes him Get behind me Satan, for you are not judging as God, but as men do (Mk. Therefore, the Suffering Servant stands in marked contrast to the human expectations of Jesus' contemporaries, whether they be His disciples or His enemies. In contrast to human experience God reveals in his Servant that suffering is fruitful, that sacrifice is practical. All rights reserved. So the effect of the suffering of our Lord is full atonement. Santala, Risto. What do I do about calling a priest father at my Catholic University? The Lord may call on us to suffer and even perhaps to die. ESV Study Bible, fn. Its the story of Gods defeat of evil so that you and I can be rescued from the human condition, the death we see all around us, and that which we find inside ourselves. The servant of the Lord is sustained by the Lord. Christ did not need to say that He was the Suffering Servant because what He did and said made that clear. Theres a reason why the poem of Isaiah 53 is introduced with the phrase good news, and theres also a good reason why all four stories of Jesus in the New Testament were eventually called The Good News or The Gospel. Its the strangest good news you will ever hear, but also the best news. But thats not where the poem goes. We will never hate our sin enough to leave it. No one else could remain silent under pain. View our current career opportunities. The Suffering Servant establishes justice through instruction, a word that refers, above all, to the Ten Commandments. Nicholas, great point here! God would have to establish His kingdomHis blessed presence would have to break into history, removing the transgressions that kept His people from seeing His face and guaranteeing their heavenly citizenship forever. In the ever growing clear vision of the Messiah, the Hebrew prophet introduces Yahweh's Servant (42:1-4; 49:1-6; 50:4-9; 52:13-53:12). 2:2). 53:4). On the contrary, the fifth stanza begins, Gods will and pleasure was in it. struggle to complete his mission first appears vain and his striving fruitless, but he come to recognize that all depends on God that salvation is God's work, not his alone and that his faithfulness to his call will result in his glorification. 42:1-9; 49:1-13; 50:4-9; 52:13-53:12). This is the point the prophecy makes about the Servants sufferingsthey are practical. On the other hand, a person's suffering is the direct consequence of his or her violation of God's laws. ________. What follows is a very famous biblical poem: In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. A servant is someone who carries out the will of another. There are several important themes that are found in these passages. The context is God restoring Israel out of exile to Jerusalem. He is an instrument of Gods salvation to all nations. The first line of each of the sections gives a summary of that section. Fr. Source for information on Suffering servant: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions dictionary. Your God reigns as king! See, his reward is with him, and his recompense accompanies him. And now it appears, hes showing up on the scene after the exile. JSOT Supp 1. In a world of discourse where the subtext is taken for granted, it can be presupposed and is most powerfully present when it is only alluded to, providing the allusions are appropriate. Interested in joining the Ligonier team? Your email address will not be published. It was applied to Jesus. The song goes on to declare that the Servant will suffer on behalf of another: Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows (53:4). There are four passages in Isaiah that highlight this fifth major figure, which is mysteriously known simply as the Suffering Servant. Later, after the resurrection, Philip encountered an Ethiopian eunuch in his chariot, reading the Suffering Servant song from Isaiah 53. Analyzes how john proctor is a man of noble stature. 53:9). (2m 55s) 9055 Views SHARE (Isa 45:16-17, NIV), Do not fear, for you will not be ashamed;do not be discouraged, for you will not suffer disgrace;for you will forget the shame of your youth,and the disgrace of your widowhood you will remember no more. All of their messianic hopes seemed to be dashed to the ground. Elena Maria Vidal. A series of short talks on theological topics from a wide variety of Christian professors, pastors, speakers, and theologians. It is in the arms of His great embrace that we discover what it really means to be a child of God, adopted into His family. We have no healing for our souls, no removal of our sins, no justification before God, apart from the penal suffering of Christ, the substitutionary death in which he took our sins upon himself. This is what the poem in Isaiah 42 is all about. He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young. It was Israel who rejected Gods servant, and they led him to his death and killed him (Isaiah 53:7-9). The earliest believers were totally disillusioned when Jesus was sentenced to die upon the cross. The beginning of the poem is in the voice of God and belies a deep sense of relation between God and the servant. Such a thing is almost unheard of in the Old Testament. Your email address will not be published. Summary and Evaluation of Bultmanns View on the Use of Isaiah 53 by Jesus and the Early Church. Indian Journal of Theology 20 (1971):98-108. He reveals who he is through what he does. Soggin, J. Alberto. The details of this will be discovered in 53:1-9. At the conclusion of his public ministry, He gathers the disciples in the upper room for the Last Supper at which point He established the Holy Eucharist whereby His disciples would henceforth be able to understand the meaning of His entire life: that is on Good Friday, when He was to be crucified, God would speak his final and complete word about the meaning of love and the mystery of God to the human race. The Countenance of the Servant of the LORD, Was It Marred? JQR 65 (1975):217-220. But that realization would take belief and revelation. 53:7). John Mark captures Jesus on the move. Up to now the servant has been Israel, the remnant, Cyrus, the prophet, and ultimately a prophecy of the Messiah. THE PREACHING OF THE WORD OF GOD. Who can explore his Aslan knew a deeper magic from before the dawn of time. That knowledge was that if a willing victim who had committed no treachery offered up his life for the traitor, then death itself would be overturned. Every year we gather together to be restored, refreshed, and reignited by the Holy Spirit. The idea was that the exile would have chastened and purified Israel (as Isaiah spoke about in Isaiah 1) so that they would become a light to the nations (42:6) and unleash Gods justice into the world. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Seedbed sells resources, but we give away far more in resourcing than we sell. This is very intelligible, because it is based on love. Why does the Bible call it good news, and why should we? He was the Servant who was prophesied to come who would bear the sins of others for their redemption.

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