Sunday School Lesson 11 - Isa. 53:1-12 - GOD JUSTIFIES
LAST WEEK: In Isa, 49:1-13, we covered the second Servant Song where we learned that God's unnamed "Servant" has been called to both a near future mission and a far future mission. The servant's near future mission related to leading the exiles (i.e., the tribes of Israel) from Babylonia and other regions of the Ancient Near East back to original Promised Land. The servant's future eschatological mission was a call (i.e., be a "light") to all the nations of the world to receive God's salvation (i.e., eternal life by faith in God's servant, Jesus Christ). Accomplishment of these two missions by God's servants will ultimately complete the restoration of all things as God had created them to be. The main point of application to you and me, is that, (1) as Christian believers, every one of us is by definition God's servant and (2) our mission today in the here and now is to call sinners out of the darkness into the light of God's salvation.
TODAY: The previous Servant Songs of Isaiah all point towards the depiction of the "suffering servant" that we will cover today in Isa. 53:1-12. As we learned last week, some of the Servant Songs speak of "Israel" as the servant but some also speak in terms of unnamed individuals. While Jewish scholars over the ages have speculated that the person in question is a collective term for Israel or possibly prophets like Isaiah or Jeremiah, it becomes increasingly clear that neither the nations nor any of human prophets could fulfill the role of the "suffering servant" whom Isaiah portrays in Chapter 53. When we arrive at this chapter, the Servant is clearly an amazingly perfect individual, and only Jesus Christ, the Son of God, can and does perfectly fit this description. Incredible really.
Read Isa. 53:1-3 - HE HAS NO STATELY FORM OR MAJESTY
1 Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? 2 For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of dry ground; He has no stately form or majesty That we would look at Him, Nor an appearance that we would take pleasure in Him. 3 He was despised and abandoned by men, A man of great pain and familiar with sickness; And like one from whom people hide their faces, He was despised, and we had no regard for Him.
v. 1: "Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?" - This is a rhetorical question, the implied answer to which is NO ONE! I mean, who would believe that the boy David could fell a giant? Or that Moses, a man with no army, could crush the massed forces of Egypt? Or that Gideon, with only 300 men, could defeat a Midianite army of 32,000. So, who would believe that a man who died on a cross would rise from the dead? As it turns out, however, "the arm of the LORD"-i.e., God's almighty power and authority-has been revealed and believed by countless billions of people all over the earth....and it continues to this day.
v. 2: "For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of dry ground; He has no stately form or majesty That we would look at Him, Nor an appearance that we would take pleasure in Him." - When we imagine great leaders, we picture someone physically imposing, ruggedly handsome in the most cases. And we wonder what Jesus looked like. Well, since he was born to a Semitic woman, He was most likely dark-skinned, dark-eyed, and dark-haired, not at all like the blue-eyed, lighted-hair images we see in picture books. This verse tells us that His looks were very ordinary, even homely; not someone you'd pick out in a crowd.
v. 3: "He was despised and abandoned by men, A man of great pain and familiar with sickness; And like one from whom people hide their faces, He was despised, and we had no regard for Him." - This accurately describes Jesus following His arrest and trial. His disciples had disappeared like the mist. The crowds that He drew had turned against Him. He'd been beaten and scourged to the point that His back had been turned into a bloody ruin, His face had been disfigured almost beyond recognition, and He was wearing a crown of thorns that had turned His scalp into helmet of blood. His appearance was so revolting that it caused people turn away in disgust.
APPLICATION 1: It's a sad truth that approximately 5.4 billion people in this world still don't believe our report. As God's servants, it's up to us to spread this report: to tell all people that God loves them and has a plan for their life. The plan is simple: Believe in God's Servant, Jesus Christ and confess Him as your Lord and Savior.
Read Isa. 53:4-6 - HE WAS PIERCED FOR OUR OFFENSES
4 However, it was our sicknesses that He Himself bore, And our pains that He carried; Yet we ourselves assumed that He had been afflicted, Struck down by God, and humiliated. 5 But He was pierced for our offenses, He was crushed for our wrongdoings; The punishment for our well-being was laid upon Him, And by His wounds we are healed. 6 All of us, like sheep, have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the wrongdoing of us all To fall on Him.
v. 4a: "However, it was our sicknesses that He Himself bore, And our pains that He carried; " - In this context, the terms "sicknesses" and "pains" are metaphors for bondage to sin. Therefore, it isn't the Servant's own sickness or His own pain that crushes Him down, but ours-yours and mine.
v. 4b: "Yet we ourselves assumed that He had been afflicted, Struck down by God, and humiliated." - But we-people in general-have not returned the favor. Although he has taken on himself all of our sin debt, we-the human race-have neither recognized nor accepted what He has done for us. We only see a wretched person who apparently got what He deserved, a man judged for His crimes. Like the case in point when Pilate asked the crowd, "What then shall I do with Jesus," they all said to him, "Let Him be crucified!" (Mt. 27:21-22).
v. 5a: "But He was pierced for our offenses, He was crushed for our wrongdoings;" - This verse reiterates v. 4 but uses language for sin rather than sickness, and with it, the Servant reveals to us a God's-eye view of our true condition, allowing us to see the spiritual cancer that permeates the core of our very being: We might not need help with our physical problems, but in terms of our spiritual condition, we are definitely mortally ill-spiritually ignorant and hellbound!
v. 5b: "The punishment for our well-being was laid upon Him, And by His wounds we are healed. " - God's servant did not submit to punishment out of helplessness or incapacity (He had the power to save Himself); no, He made a deliberate choice to defeat the penalty of sin for once and for all time. As Paul explains it, "Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him" (Rom. 5:9). How did the substitutionary death of God's servant-Jesus-do this? Since God is holy and cannot tolerate sin, He planned a process of substitutionary atonement-i.e., He would accept a substitute for our sin-so that we may be accepted and restored once again to full fellowship with Him. And Jesus' death on the cross completed the transaction.
v. 6a: "All of us, like sheep, have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way;" Sheep are very dim-witted animals, oblivious to potential dangers and prone wander away and get lost, and they are pathetically helpless against any predators. Human are similar: we wander around on our "own way," aimlessly oblivious to the predatory dangers of sin; in a word, we are lost.
v. 6b: But the LORD has caused the wrongdoing of us all To fall on Him." - This is yet another reference Jesus' substutionary atonement for humanity on the cross. He has taken on all of our lost-ness-our wrongdoing. Peter said, "For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls" (1 Pet. 2:25).
APPLICATION 2: As human beings, we might not need help with our physical condition, but in terms of our spiritual condition, we are doomed. Humans, like sheep, aimlessly wander on their way (i.e., they are spiritually ignorant) while being oblivious to the ultimate impact of sin-damnation.
Read Isa. 53:7-9 - YET HE DID NOT OPEN HIS MOUTH
7 He was oppressed and afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth. 8 By oppression and judgment He was taken away; And as for His generation, who considered That He was cut off from the land of the living For the wrongdoing of my people, to whom the blow was due? 9 And His grave was assigned with wicked men, Yet He was with a rich man in His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth.
v. 7: "He was oppressed and afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth." - Although Jesus allowed Himself to be led to the cross silently and without resistance, like a lamb facing slaughter, Jesus knew what awaited Him. Twice it says He didn't "open His mouth," which was highly out character for a Jew condemned to death, who would have been weeping and wailing.
v. 8a: "By oppression and judgment He was taken away;" - Since Jesus was innocent of any type of crime and sentenced to the maximum penalty of capital punishment, His trial and judgment were a gross mockery of both the Judean and Roman standards of fair justice.
v. 8b: "And as for His generation, who considered That He was cut off from the land of the living" - This phrase has multiple interpretations: That He suffered death; that He had lost to His Jewish birthright; or that He died without leaving any children. They all imply a pointless life.
v. 8c: "For the wrongdoing of my people, to whom the blow was due?" - This reiterates the Servant's substitutionary atonement for the sins of the people and every other indignity that could be suffered by a Jewish man.
v. 9a: "And His grave was assigned with wicked men," - Even if people weren't too deserving in life, we tend to think of them kindly and honor them in death; however, God's servant-Jesus-who had been subjugated and broken in life, will likewise be denied an honorable burial in death.
v. 9b: "Yet He was with a rich man in His death," - Isaiah uses some wordplay here: the term "rich man" is associated with being wicked, which is a common theme with many OT writers because many men acquired their wealth by sinful means. Contrast this with the wealthy Joseph of Arimathea who gave Jesus an honorable burial by placing Him in his own family tomb (Mt. 27:57-60).
v. 9c: "Because He had done no violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth" - This verse reaffirms the assertion of v. 8 stating that God's servant was innocent of any wrongdoing and the perversion of justice that led to His death. Peter later remarked, "while being abusively insulted, He did not insult in return; while suffering, He did not threaten, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously; and He Himself brought our sins in His body up on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live for righteousness; by His wounds you were healed. (1 Pet. 2:23-24). This prophecy is so incredibly accurate that you would think Isaiah had seen these events unfold in-person. Amazing.
APPLICATION 3: Many people today are guilty of misjudging Jesus. If people today will simply look at all the evidence on record about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, it's very possible that they might see the "light" and the "truth" about Him.
Read Isaiah 53:10-12 - MY SERVANT WILL JUSTIFY THE MANY
10 But the LORD desired To crush Him, causing Him grief; If He renders Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand. 11 As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, For He will bear their wrongdoings. 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 life unto death, And was counted with wrongdoers; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, And interceded for the wrongdoers.
v. 10a: "But the LORD desired To crush Him, causing Him grief;" - We might think that the LORD GOD of all creation would be outraged at the perversions visited upon His Servant, but that isn't the case. Neither has the LORD been inattentive or disinterested, permitting a great evil that should never have happened. Instead, the LORD willed that the Servant be crushed in agonizing pain. It all happened because the LORD willed it. Why? The LORD takes responsibility for what appears to be an abominably evil deed because He intends to make something good of it-something redemptive.
v. 10b: "If He renders Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days," You may recall from Lev. 6:1-7 that a guilt offering was made for a "breach of faith" and "sins in any of the holy things," and required the offender to make reparation for the harm caused. In this instance the Servant's life is being offered up as reparation (i.e., payment) for the sins of humanity! This is what scholars call a divine reversal. God reversed the world when He raised His Servant from the dead, and in so doing, confirmed everything His Servant did and said.
v. 10c: "And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand." - In the foregoing phrase, the promise was that God's Servant would prosper-i.e., "see His offspring... prolong His days." Now, the promise is that, through the Servant's work, "the good pleasure (i.e., will) of the LORD will prosper." So, what is God's will? Jesus, as God's Servant, tells us that its God's will that the world might be saved, "so that everyone who believes in Him [His Servant] will not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:16b).
v. 11a: "As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied;" - God's Servant will not remain in the anguish of darkness (death) but will see light (i.e., live eternally). God's Servant, seated at God's right hand (Rom. 8:34), will know the glorious outcome of His sufferings and will find satisfaction in the knowledge of what His work has accomplished.
v. 11b: "By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, For He will bear their wrongdoings." Notice that "My Servant" is titled as "the Righteous One," signifying that Jesus led a sinless life. And what the Servant has accomplished is the transformation of many from an unrighteous to a righteous state, i.e., "will justify the many" (approx. 2.3+ billion today) which He brought about by bearing "their wrongdoings" (their sins).
v. 12a: "Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, And He will divide the plunder with the strong," - As a consequence of the Servant's faithfulness, God will reward Him. Where the Servant had been oppressed, afflicted, and cut off from the land of the living, He will now be given "a portion with the great And He will divide the plunder with the strong." These are poetic descriptions of the very exalted reward the Servant will receive as "King of Kings and Lord of lords" (Rev. 19:16).
v. 12b: "Because He poured out His life unto death, And was counted with wrongdoers;" - This describes the price God's Servant paid to carry out His Father's will. Jesus Himself said, "For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me" (John 6:38).
v. 12c: "Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, And interceded for the wrongdoers." - This summarizes what God's Servant accomplished by pouring Himself out to death and allowing Himself to be numbered among the "wrongdoers." In that process, He saved many-"interceded for the wrongdoers"-who were delivered from the consequences of their sins. As saved Christians, because of this, we can proclaim, "O victory in Jesus, My Savior, forever!"
APPLICATION 4: As God's servants, it's our assigned responsibility to save the entire world. As God's appointed servants, it's our job to keep on sharing Isaiah's report-the gospel message-until Jesus returns. We serve a big God who has made all of us-servant partners for a very big job. How do we do this? One life at a time.
