Isaiah 52:13-53:12 is quite possibly the most remarkably passage in the Old Testament. It is Isaiah’s great and climactic reflection upon the Suffering Servant. The New Testament applies it to Jesus Christ. Consider some of what the prophet predicted:
1. The Suffering Servant will be lifted up from the earth (52:13)
2. The Suffering Servant will be abused to the point of physical disfigurement (52:14)
3. The Suffering Servant will make atonement for people from many nations (52:15)
4. The Suffering Servant will be worshipped by kings (52:15)
5. The Suffering Servant will be born and will grow up in an ordinary way (53:2)
6. The Suffering Servant will look like an ordinary, average person (53:2)
7. The Suffering Servant will suffer rejection and reviling from his people (53:3)
8. The Suffering Servant will experience sorrow and grief (53:3)
9. The Suffering Servant will not be recognized for who he is and what he is doing (53:3)
10. The Suffering Servant will be pierced for our sins (53:8)
11. The Suffering Servant will be punished so that we can have peace with God (53:5)
12. The Suffering Servant will bring salvation and healing to his people (53:5)
13. The Suffering Servant will bear the sins of his people as a substitute (53:6)
14. The Suffering Servant will bear his burden without complaint (53:7)
15. The Suffering Servant will be convicted by a dishonest court (53:8)
16. The Suffering Servant will be assumed cut off and without descendants (53:8)
17. The Suffering Servant will be buried in a rich man’s tomb (53:9)
18. The Suffering Servant will die as an innocent man (53:9)
19. The Suffering Servant will die because it is the Lord’s will (53:10)
20. The Suffering Servant will see his spiritual offspring (53:10)
21. The Suffering Servant will live beyond his death (53:10)
22. The Suffering Servant will accomplish all the Lord’s will (53:10)
23. The Suffering Servant will make many righteous before God (53:11)
24. The Suffering Servant will win a great victory and share blessings and gifts with his people (53:12)
25. The Suffering Servant will make intercession for sinners (53:12)
This was written more than 600 years before Jesus was born.
Does that get your attention?
It’s supposed to.
“The former things I declared of old; they went out from my mouth, and I announced them; then suddenly I did them, and they came to pass. Because I know that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew and your forehead brass, I declared them to you from of old, before they came to pass I announced them to you, lest you should say, ‘My idol did them, my carved image and my metal image commanded them.’
“You have heard; now see all this; and will you not declare it? (Isaiah 48:3–6 ESV)
You have heard and seen these things – and will you not declare it?
What an amazing God we serve! What a Savior! What a Gospel! Truly we have a story to tell to the nations!
Thanks be to God!
Paul Carter
P.S. Most of what I blog on here at Adfontes flows out of what I’m reading and talking about over at Into The Word. If you’d like to join the conversation you can check out the podcast here and you can find the 2 year version of the Robert Murray M’Cheyne (RMM) Bible Reading Plan here. I’d love to have you join us!
