Isaiah 52:13 Suffering Servant - For The Glory of Jesus

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Suffering Servant

The Suffering Servant is a prophecy of Jesus Christ.

This is a Bible Study. Have your own Bible handy to look up the references mentioned.

If you do not have a Bible, I invite you to go to BibleGateway.com https://www.biblegateway.com/ or another online Bible.

Isaiah 52:13-15; 53:1-12

“This section contains unarguable, incontrovertible proof that God is the author of Scripture and Jesus the fulfillment of messianic prophecy.” (MacArthur, John, The MacArthur Bible Commentary. [Nashville, Thomas Nelson Inc., 2005], 824)

Isaiah 52

13. “This may be the best-known text in the Old Testament. It is in many ways the most difficult to translate, interpret, and understand.” [Max Anders and Trent C. Butler (2012). HOTC Vol. 15: Isaiah. B&H Publishing Group. Retrieved from https://read.lifeway.com]

“The Servant suffered and died, but He did not remain dead. He was ‘exalted and extolled, and [made] very high.’…What looked to men like a humiliating defeat was in the eyes of God a great victory (Colossians 2:15).” (Wiersbe, Warren W, The Bible Exposition Commentary: Old Testament Prophets. [Colorado Springs: David C Cook, 2002], 59)

“The picture of exaltation, praise, and success must remain in our mind as we read everything else about the servant. Fame and fortune should come his way. He would receive accolades otherwise reserved for God himself.” [Max Anders and Trent C. Butler (2012). HOTC Vol. 15: Isaiah. B&H Publishing Group. Retrieved from https://read.lifeway.com]

The Prophet

14. “The prophet wanted us to seek the message that the text seeks to bring to his audience with his poem and to see how that message can continue to speak to us in light of our experiences with God.” [Max Anders and Trent C. Butler (2012). HOTC Vol. 15: Isaiah. B&H Publishing Group. Retrieved from https://read.lifeway.com]

“They were horrified at the physical appearance of the servant and told him so to his face. He no longer looked like a human being. What could have caused this? How could such a person expect exaltation and success?” [Max Anders and Trent C. Butler (2012). HOTC Vol. 15: Isaiah. B&H Publishing Group. Retrieved from https://read.lifeway.com]

15. “Are the nations horrified at his physical appearance, or are they stunned to silence by the military might that he brings against them? Or has the servant attained such a high position that all other international dignitaries must wait to be spoken to before they can speak (Job 29:8-9)? As is true with so much of the Servant Songs, the text is mysteriously ambiguous.” [Max Anders and Trent C. Butler (2012). HOTC Vol. 15: Isaiah. B&H Publishing Group. Retrieved from https://read.lifeway.com]

“Just as the servant’s future is different from all expectations, so is that of the group testifying to and surrounding the servant.” [Max Anders and Trent C. Butler (2012). HOTC Vol. 15: Isaiah. B&H Publishing Group. Retrieved from https://read.lifeway.com]

Isaiah 53

“The first nine verses will tell us of the suffering of the Savior. The remainder of the chapter tells the satisfaction of the Savior.” (McGee, J. Vernon, Thru the Bible: Volume III. [Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1983], 311)

One should read what McGee has to say about Isaiah 53 starting on page 310 in the above volume. It is too lengthy to repeat here so I encourage you to read that section.

1. “Isaiah 53 describes the life and ministry of Jesus Christ (vv. 1-4), His death (vv. 5-8) and burial (v. 9), and His resurrection and exaltation (vv. 10-12).” (Wiersbe, Warren W, The Bible Exposition Commentary: Old Testament Prophets. [Colorado Springs: David C Cook, 2002], 59)

In the first part of the verse Isaiah asks, “Who hath believed our report?” [KJV]

“Jesus took the place of the guilty sinners and paid the price for their salvation.” (Wiersbe, 59)

“A suffering deity is contrary to man’s thinking.” (McGee, 312)

“There is a peculiar fascination about this fifty-third chapter of Isaiah. There we see One suffering as no one else ever suffered. There we behold One in pain as a woman in travail.” (McGee, 312

Bared Arm

“Isaiah enlarges upon his first question by asking further, ‘To whom is the [bared] arm of the Lord revealed?’ [KJV] ‘Bared arm’ means that God has rolled up His sleeve, symbolic of a tremendous undertaking.” (McGee, 313)

“When God redeemed man, it required His ‘bared arm,’ for salvation was His greatest undertaking. One of the objections offered to God’s salvation is that it is free.” (McGee, 313)

“Man can pay nothing, nor does he have anything to offer for salvation. The reason that it is free for man is because it cost God everything. Redemption is an infinite task that only God could perform. Salvation is free, but it certainly is not cheap.” (McGee, 313)

“God’s powerful arm functions positively to rule the earth when he comes to reign. It will bring forth God’s salvation to his people and to those living at the ends of the earth.” (Smith, Gary V., The New American Commentary, Volume 15B, Isaiah 40-66. [Nashville, B & H Publishing Group, 2009], 444)

2. The Servant “is compared to a young ‘shoot’ and a ‘root’ coming out of the ground, a metaphor that stands in sharp contrast to other metaphors that could be used (a stately grand oak).” (Smith, 444)

“Because Jesus Christ is God, He is the ‘root of David,’ but because He is man. He is the ‘offspring of David’ (Revelation 22:16).” (Wiersbe, 59)

Jesus was “born in poverty in Bethlehem and grew up in a carpenter’s shop in despised Nazareth (John 1:43-46).” (Wiersbe, 60)

“Nothing about His physical appearance made Him different from any other Jewish man.” (Wiersbe, 60)

Despicable

3. “Now this story about the life of the Servant tells how people treated him as a despicable person.” (Smith, 446)

“‘Despised describes how contemptible, despicable, and revolting he was considered by some.” (Smith, 446)

“This Servant was also a man of ‘pains’ and ‘suffering,’ expressions that suggest that he was mistreated physically or mentally (cf. 52:14).” (Smith, 447)

“Suffering was not something that he was just peripherally acquainted with on the rare occasion; it was a pivotal factor in his life. When people mentioned this Servant, people would automatically connect him to this time of suffering.” (Smith, 447)

“‘Like a person from whom faces should be veiled (hidden), he was despised and not respected by anyone’ (author’s translation). He was physically sick and either hideous to look at or dangerous to be around because of his sickness. His fellow citizens avoided him and saw no worth in him.” [Max Anders and Trent C. Butler (2012). HOTC Vol. 15: Isaiah. B&H Publishing Group. Retrieved from https://read.lifeway.com]

References

In this article Scripture quotations taken from KJV.

MacArthur, John, The MacArthur Bible Commentary. Nashville, Thomas Nelson Inc., 2005
Max Anders and Trent C. Butler (2012). HOTC Vol. 15: Isaiah. [B&H Publishing Group. Retrieved from https://read.lifeway.com]
McGee, J. Vernon, Thru the Bible: Volume III. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1983
Smith, Gary V., The New American Commentary, Volume 15B, Isaiah 40-66. Nashville, B & H Publishing Group, 2009
Wiersbe, Warren W, The Bible Exposition Commentary: Old Testament Prophets. Colorado Springs: David C Cook, 2002

Salvation Isaiah 53:12 Servant

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