Adult Class
December 2006-May 2007
Isaiah
Lesson 21: The Servant Brings Salvation
In the previous section, we saw that God had promised a special servant to bring salvation to Israel and the entire world. That would be an exciting promise to anybody, but especially to the Israelites living under the shadow of Assyrian threat. Yet it raised myriad questions, too, about the timing of the Messiah, his character, his work, what all of that would mean to Judah and to the world, and how people should prepare for His coming. God turned His attention to all that in Isaiah 52:13-56:8.
Isaiah 52:13-53:12—The Servant: His description and His work
The coming Servant will “act wisely,” that is, He is correct and right in what He does. He will be exalted, honored and glorified—but not by people. In fact, even the common people cared nothing for Him and His appearance was wounded so that He hardly looked human. Yet He will “sprinkle,” make holy, many nations and not only the common people, but even kings will be amazed by Him.
Isaiah stands as the representative of God’s people, and nobody seems to believe this proclamation. The coming Servant hails from a very humble background, but Isaiah seems here to hearken very deliberately to something he said much earlier (11:1) about the one coming from the line of David. This One will be nothing special, not continuing David’s handsome appearance (1 Samuel 16:18). However, this is not primarily about a physical description of the Messiah, but a note about the estimation of the people.
He was held in low regard and was a “man of sorrows,” both physical and spiritual. People did not find Him pleasant to look at and many considered Him truly unexceptional. Today it is true that people think of Jesus as a “good man” or a “Master Teacher,” or even a holy guide for our lives, but very few consider themselves to be sinners worthy of death and in need of a Holy Savior.
The sorrows of the Servant belonged to us, yet we looked at His suffering and concluded that He was suffering for His own sin! It was our punishment He accepted, and we are healed by His wounds. He carried our sins. The reference to “sheep” recalls two things about sheep in Isaiah’s time: 1) They were widely and correctly held to be foolish and, 2) They were very frequently used as sacrificial animals. This Servant made no objection, but went to His death as a sacrifice.
He was taken to His death in a subversion of justice. He was unrighteously victimized. People considered Him to be a criminal worthy of His punishment, yet He was buried with the elite of the day. All of this was not the will of sinful man, but the will of Almighty God. The Servant will yet live and see His descendants. He will justify many, bearing their sins. He freely gave up His life; nobody took it from Him by overwhelming force. And He will be glorified for His service because He allowed Himself to be the sin offering for many.
This chapter is very clearly fulfilled in the life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. This prediction furnishes a rich theology of atonement that explains much about the events of the New Testament. Laying the gospel accounts of Jesus’ life, passion and resurrection over this chapter reveals a glorious majesty to what seemed a travesty.
Isaiah 54—The Family of God: Invitation to Jerusalem
God held out a glorious future for the Jews even though the matter looked perfectly hopeless to human eyes. He indicated that there would be many descendants and that God, Himself, would bring them back home and restore them to His favor. He has power to do this. He promised that He would never again utterly reject them all. He will uphold His covenant with them, a covenant that is established in righteousness.
In order to inspire the people of Judah with the glory that God intended, He spoke to them in language that they would appreciate—about the establishment of the city of Jerusalem, its security and peace, its protection and its glory. All of this was to impress upon the people that God had their future in His mind and that it was an envious future, a hope to draw them ever forward in their faithfulness to His covenant.
Isaiah 55—The Family of God: Invitation to the Gentiles
Yet God had indicated earlier that the salvation He would provide would not be confined to the Jews, but extend to all the nations of the earth (49:6, 22). So, He calls to all those who have no spiritual riches at all to come to Him to obtain what has lasting value for life and health. They are again urged to reject the service of idols, those things that can do nothing to satisfy, and to join into the everlasting covenant that was promised to David. In His tremendous splendor, the Servant will call the nations to God.
The nations are urged to seek God, turn to righteousness and gain pardon. They are urged to give up other ways and other thoughts and adopt God’s ways and thoughts. His ways and thoughts are infinitely above all human beings. In truth, God’s ways and thoughts are above ours. Nobody would have devised a plan for the salvation of humanity that would compare with God’s plan. Nobody would have chosen a way of life that mirrored His way for us, and nobody would have suggested a purpose and goal of humanity that God has woven into His creation.
Just as God’s will is done in nature, with rainfall and sunshine working together to bring food from the earth, so His word will fulfill all His desire. In fact, the word, which proceeds from the mouth of God, is truly God-breathed, as Paul described it to Timothy (1 Timothy 3:16-17). The great promise to the Gentiles is not couched in language about Jerusalem, for which they would have no special attachment, but in descriptions of a renewed Eden, a garden from which humanity had its joyous origins.
Isaiah 56:1-8—Prepare for this great hope!
The call is to all humanity: This great salvation from God is near, so prepare yourself with justice and right conduct! Those who know God must keep the covenant! Those who seem alienated from God and those who seem hopeless of any future must understand that they are called to fellowship with God and a future that is glorious beyond any human expectation. These people will be blessed with great honor and there are many, many more such people to come! This call is for all nations and the House of the Lord will be called a House of Prayer for all nations!
This is the glory that God has in mind for all human beings. They are to come to Him, to obtain redemption and restoration, and to be changed into what people were always intended to be. It is beyond the effort of any person to reform and recapture the glory that God gave us at the beginning. He must present us with that glory as a gift. And that is the work of the Servant revealed in these chapters.