53
📚Who has believed our report?And to whom has the arm
of the LORD 📖 been revealed 📖?
53:1 Here is one of the most wonderful chapters in the Bible. It sets forth the sufferings and death of Christ for sinners 700 years before He came into the world. Compare Ps 22. This verse speaks of the unbelief of Israel concerning the message of the Messiah (John 12:38; Rom 10:16). This message in part appears in the last 3 verses of chapter 52.⚜
2 📚For he will grow up before him
like a tender plant,
and like a root 📖 out of dry ground.
He has no striking form or majesty,
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 considered him stricken,
smitten by God 📖, and afflicted.
5 📚But he was wounded 📖 for
our transgressions,
he was bruised for
our wicked deeds;
the chastisement 📖 for our peace was
on him,
and by his wounds we are healed 📖.
6 📚All we like sheep have gone astray;
each one of us has turned
to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the wickedness of us all.
53:6 Going astray from God and turning to one’s own way is the sin that is the root of all other sins, and all men since Adam have been guilty of it – Gen 3:6; Rom 5:12; Ps 58:3; 95:10; 119:67, 176; Jer 2:13; Rom 3:12; 1 Pet 2:25. Going astray is described as iniquity in the next sentence. All of our iniquities, including going astray, were caused to fall on Christ (compare Lev 16:20-22).⚜
7 📚He was oppressed and he was
afflicted,
but he did not open his mouth.
He was brought like a lamb 📖
to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before her shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
53:7 Verses 3-6 describe Christ’s sufferings. This verse speaks of how patiently He endured them. He did not murmur or complain or defend Himself (Matt 27:12-14; Mark 14:60-61; 15:5; Luke 23:8-9; John 19:8-10; 1 Pet 2:21-23).⚜
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 transgression of my people
he was struck 📖.
9 📚And he made his grave 📖 with the wicked,
and with the rich at his death,
though he had done no violence,
and no deceit 📖 was in his mouth.
10 📚Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him.
He put him to grief.
When you make his soul an offering
for sin,
he will see his offspring,
he will prolong his days 📖,
and the pleasure of the LORD will prosper
in his hand 📖.
53:10 From this verse we see that those who afflicted and killed the Lord Jesus were instruments in God’s hands. Men made Him suffer and put Him to death, but God was behind them working out His will. See Acts 2:23; 4:27-28. God was thus working through the actions of wicked men in order to make Christ a guilt offering for the sins of men (see Lev 5:14-15; Rom 3:25; 8:3; 2 Cor 5:21; Heb 9:12-14; 10:14; 1 John 2:2; 4:10). This “pleased” Him, not, of course, in the sense of being happy at Christ’s sufferings, but because it was the one way to save human beings. And in all this Christ was not an unwilling victim, but put His Father’s will above all else (Matt 26:39; John 10:17-18; Heb 10:5-7).⚜
11 📚He will see the travail of his soul,
and will be satisfied 📖.
By his knowledge 📖 my righteous servant 📖
will justify 📖 many 📖,
for he will bear their wicked deeds.
53:11 In this verse and the next Jehovah Himself is speaking about the Messiah.⚜
12 📚 Therefore I will allot him a portion
with the great,
and he will divide 📖 the plunder 📖
with the strong,
because he poured out his soul
to death 📖,
and he was numbered 📖
with the transgressors,
and he bore the sin of many 📖,
and made intercession
for the transgressors 📖.
53:12 Dividing spoils among the great and with the strong suggests a battle and victory and plunder from the battle. This verse indicates that the preceding verses describe warfare. In His suffering and death the Messiah was fighting for His people against their enemies (Satan and his followers). Compare Col 2:15; Heb 2:14-15. The “great” and the “strong” are those called His offspring in v 10, the justified in v 11, many nations in Isa 52:15. On “strong” compare Matt 12:29. They will be great and strong because He makes them so.⚜