ISAIAH 53

Isaiah 53, prophesies God’s merciful plan to send his Servant to die for the sins of His people:

We all, like sheep, have gone astray,each of us has turned to our own way;and YEHOVAH has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. (Isaiah 53: 6-7)

Here we find the painful imagery of the Lamb of God who willingly suffers for the sins of the sheep who have gone astray. Just a few lines later, though, Isaiah joyously predicts the Messiah’s victory over death and ultimate redemption of sinners:

After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied;
by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,
and he will bear their iniquities.

Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,
and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. (Isaiah 53:11-12, NIV)

Isaiah 53 is very rich, and to many of us it is very familiar. But you might be surprised to discover the implications of one widely overlooked line. Look again at the beginning of verse 12:

I will give him a portion among the great,
and he will divide the spoils with the strong. (NIV)

In many English translations, this sounds like weak praise. God’s Servant deserves to be among the great, but he’s just one hero among many. He should get a prize for his efforts, along with others who are “strong.”

Isaiah 53:12: Therefore I will give him a portion with the great, and he will divide the spoil with the strong because he poured out his soul to death and he permitted himself to be counted among the transgressors. Yet he himself carried the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.

Several scholars, however, think that this translation doesn’t communicate what the original Hebrew is saying. * Listen to how this line is translated in the JPS (Jewish Publication Society) version:

Assuredly, I will give him the many as his portion,
He shall receive the multitude as his spoil.

The speaker here is Yehovah Elohimi - God, and the Servant is not just “among the great.” He’s being given the multitudes. He’s not dividing his spoil with others; the people are his spoils. He’s being given the people because of his suffering on their behalf.

Wow. Isn’t this a stunning thought? The Suffering Servant doesn’t just deserve mild praise, he deserves to have multitudes of people to be given to him.

You may never have conceived of such a thing, giving a crowd of people to someone as a gift. But we find this same imagery in another significant place in Scripture:

I have installed my king on Zion, my holy mountain….
Ask me, and I will make the nations your inheritance,
the ends of the earth your possession.
(Psalm 2: 6, 8)

Psalm 2 is a messianic prophecy in which God announces that he has anointed his true King, the Messiah. As Yehovah's king is appointed to reign, he is “given” the nations as a gift. The people aren’t just his subjects, they are his “possession.”

A King Who Suffers for his Kingdom

Note: What a strange place to find this imagery. The victorious messiah of Psalm 2 seems to be the utter opposite of the suffering servant in Isaiah 53. Some Jewish traditions split them altogether, imagining that two different messiahs must come: the “Messiah ben Joseph” who suffers, and the “Messiah ben David” who reigns in power.

But if you read Isaiah 53:12 as being about Yehovah’s Servant being “given the multitudes,” these two messianic visions become one. First the Servant suffers to redeem his people, and then he is proclaimed as Yehovah’s true King. The multitudes that he is given are the people whose sins he became a sin-offering sacrifice for. In effect, he’s “purchased” them with his shed blood, and as a result they became his slaves and as his slaves - slaves of righteousness. It is because of the Messiah’s suffering as the only sinless man fulfilling the commission his God and Father Yehovah gave him, that he is given rulership over the kingdom of God!

We find this idea in the New Testament in places like Acts 20:27, where it says that the Messiah “purchased” the called-out Assembly with his own blood. Paul puts it this way: “You are not your own; you were bought at a price.” (1 Corinthians 6:23.) And the apostles often spoke of themselves as doulos Christou, “slaves of the Messiah.”

As much as it chafes our modern ears to be called “slaves,” it sounds like Jesus’ death on the cross did not just pay for our sins, it purchased our very lives. If we have received him as our Saviour and Lord, we obey him as his slaves bought and paid for by his shed blood at the stake [cross]

We are his slaves, we’re not our own [we have died to self].

What does this mean for how we live?

Not Just for Me Personally

We western individualists like to read the Bible as if it was written to each one of us all by ourselves. We sing praises to the Messiah for dying for “me personally,” and “paying for my sins.” Certainly, that’s true! But the biblical world thought in terms of we much more than my. That’s why the Bible speaks of the Messiah purchasing an entire kingdom through his sin-offering sacrificial death.

This year as you celebrate the Messiah Jesus resurrection, remind yourself of the glorious scene in Revelation when the “Lamb” of Isaiah 53 finally takes his place on the throne of David at Zion:

Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain,
standing at the centre of the throne,
encircled by the four living creatures and the elders.
They sang a new song, saying,

“You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals,
because you were slain,
and with your blood you purchased for God
persons from every tribe and language
and people and nation.
You have made them to be a kingdom
and priests to serve our God
and they will reign on the earth!”

Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels,
numbering thousands upon thousands,
and ten thousand times ten thousand.
… In a loud voice they were saying:

“Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain,
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength
and honour and glory and praise!”  (Revelation 5:6, 9-12)

~~~~~

* See Isaiah III Volume 2 / Isaiah 49-55 by Jan Koole, Leuven, Belgium: Peeters, 1998, pp. 336-339. Over four pages are spent analyzing this one line, explaining that while the translation we find in the NIV is admissible, it’s less likely to be correct as the one in the JPS Tanakh.

The Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament from the third century BC, reflects this same interpretation, reading Isaiah 53:12 as:

“Because of this, he will inherit the many, and to the mighty he will apportion the spoils.”