ISAIAH 53

Isaiah 53, prophesies God’s shocking plan to send his Servant to present himself as a sin-offering sacrifice, shedding his blood and dying so that humanity would be reconciled to his God and Father Yehovah, and open the door for their sins to be forgiven. Isaiah 53:6-7:

We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD - 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 are silent, so he did not open his mouth.

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

Notice: Psalm 2:6,8: 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 is a messianic prophecy in which God announces that he has anointed his true King, His anointed one, the Messiah. As God’s – 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

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. if you read Isaiah 53:12 as being about God’s – Yehovah’s Servant being “given the multitudes,” these two messianic visions become one. First, the Servant suffers to redeem his people, and Second, he is proclaimed God’s true Messiah - King. The multitudes that he is given are the people whose sins he atoned for. In effect, he’s “purchased” them, they are bought and paid for by the blood he shed when he offered up himself to his God and Father Yehovah as a sin-offering sacrifice. It is because of the Messiah’s suffering that he is given rulership over the kingdom of God!

As much as it may chafe our modern ears to be called “slaves,” Jesus’ death on the cross did not just pay for our sins, it purchased our very lives,  we are his slaves and as such have become slaves of righteousness. If we’ve received him as our Savior and Lord, we place ourselves under his kingship as his slaves. We are his, we’re not our own. A slave obeys the words of his master and as such we obey the word that God - Yehovah gave to Jesus to give to us to follow and obey!

What does this mean for how we live?

This year as you celebrate the Messiah’s resurrection during the Feast of Passover, remind yourself of the glorious scene in Revelation when the “Lamb” of Isaiah 53 finally takes his throne:

Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing at the center 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 honor and glory and praise!”  (Revelation 5:6, 9-12)