Isaiah 53 has long been recognized as one of the most significant prophecies about the coming Messiah. This prophecy was explicitly fulfilled by Jesus Christ over 700 years after Isaiah wrote it. Truly this proves the authenticity of God’s authorship of the Scripture for who really doubts that Isaiah penned these words well before Jesus even lived? After all, the Jews included the book of Isaiah in their compilation of holy writ well before his birth. I pause to say this because we must understand that God wrote the Bible in order to withstand the great deceptions coming against us in these wicked days. Following is Isaiah’s prophecy concerning the coming of Jesus, but note that the prophecy is not limited just to his first coming. It includes important information about the time just ahead of us when Jesus will assume his dominion over the earth.
The Sin-Bearing Servant
13 Behold, My Servant shall deal prudently;
He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high.
14 Just as many were astonished at you,
So His visage was marred more than any man,
And His form more than the sons of men;
15 So shall He sprinkle[b] many nations.
Kings shall shut their mouths at Him;
For what had not been told them they shall see,
And what they had not heard they shall consider.
53 Who has believed our report?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant,
And as a root out of dry ground.
He has no form or comeliness;
And when we see Him,
There is no beauty that we should desire Him.
3 He is despised and rejected by men,
A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
4 Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He opened not His mouth;
He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,
And as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
So He opened not His mouth.
8 He was taken from prison and from judgment,
And who will declare His generation?
For He was cut off from the land of the living;
For the transgressions of My people He was stricken.
9 And they[c] made His grave with the wicked—
But with the rich at His death,
Because He had done no violence,
Nor was any deceit in His mouth.
10 Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him;
He has put Him to grief.
When You make His soul an offering for sin,
He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days,
And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.
11 He shall see the labor of His soul,[d] and be satisfied.
By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many,
For He shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great,
And He shall divide the spoil with the strong,
Because He poured out His soul unto death,
And He was numbered with the transgressors,
And He bore the sin of many,
And made intercession for the transgressors. (Isaiah 52:13-53:12 NKJV)
But, why is it that God inserted this prophecy about the coming Messiah here, right in the midst of foretelling the future of his barren bride? It is because his Bride brings forth seed into the earth. The Bride is about to give birth to the sons of God who will rule with the very power and authority of Jesus himself. Immanuel, God with us, is about to be revealed. This is the wonderful and awesome event which all creation has awaited since man fell into bondage to sin. (Note: please read my recent study on Immanuel for more information about this)
The most important aspect of this passage, of course, concerns Christ’s sacrifice for our sins. Without that sacrifice we would never have been able to serve God with our whole hearts and minds. Even now this is impossible because we only received the “earnest” of the Holy Spirit when we believed in Jesus. But, the time of resurrection from the dead, glorification of the flesh, and fulness of the Holy Spirit is now at hand for those who have “mourned” their carnal nature and who have diligently yearned for God’s perfection, his justice and righteousness, his truth and love. Having done all within our power (which is not much!), now stand in faith and watch God perform his work, his very strange work which few have understood.
