Contributor: Peter Folikwe

INTRODUCTION
Last week we had an insightful study of God’s comfort and assurance/promises of salvation for Zion (physical and spiritual) in Isaiah 51 and deliverance for Jerusalem in Chapter 52. Two major take outs from the study were God’s desire for us to live holy and that we do not get discouraged in the face of provocation. Chapter 52 gave a summary of the whole prophecy, and contains in brief the whole story of Messiah's sufferings and the glory which should follow.

Towards the end of chapter 52, the sin bearing Servant of God was introduced. Today, we shall be reviewing Vicarious Sacrifice of Christ, Jehovah's Servant: Is 53:1-12. With continuation from Is 52:13 - end, without necessarily repeating what we learnt last week.

The vivid account of the prophecy recorded by Isaiah in chapter 53 of the coming of the Messiah - Jesus, the servant of God, His sufferings, His sanctification and glorification proved beyond reasonable doubt Jesus is the Messiah and the soon coming King.
By definition Vicarious simply mean “suffering by one person as a substitute for another”. As a righteous King, Jesus was to suffer for the sins of others.

Isaiah 52:13-15
“Behold, My Servant shall deal prudently; He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high. Just as many were astonished at you, So His visage was marred more than any man, And His form more than the sons of men; So shall He sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths at Him; For what had not been told them they shall see, And what they had not heard they shall consider.”

• Described as a servant - He came humbly to serve not to be served.
• Deal prudently - He will achieve His purpose of purging us of sin.
• He shall be exalted and extolled very high - He will be glorified.
• His visage was marred more than any other man - His sufferings and torture we brutal, yet was without sin.
• Sprinkle many nations - His blood shall atone for the sins of many. He will be offering His blood as sacrifice for nations.

Verses 1-3
“Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, And as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him, There is no beauty that we should desire Him. 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.”

Isaiah is here asking in verse 1, who will believe a contradiction that a suffering Messiah will turn out to be a Saviour of mankind.
The Word of the Lord being revealed talks to the strength and might of the coming Messiah, despite His ported weakness and suffering has the power to save. The Centrepoint of our Christian faith is our ‘believe’. Having an unquestionable faith in the risen Lord. 2 Chron 20:20
“………“Hear me, O Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem: Believe in the Lord your says God, and you shall be established; believe His prophets, and you shall prosper.”

He came weak and vulnerable like a tender plant. He was to be killed by Herod, but they fled with to Egypt. 1Cor 1:27 tells us “God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty”

• As a root out of dry ground - There were no records major spiritual activities or incidents in Israel before Jesus suddenly came to the scene.
• He has no form or comeliness - There was nothing physically special about Him, and He is not to come as a royal king. He was ultimately born in a manger.

Verse 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.”

Isaiah - a Jew, here is writing to his fellow Jews about a future deliverer who they will reject. A prophecy that eventually came to past. Not only was he rejected by the Jew, Gentiles whom he also died for rejected him. Isiah further described Him as despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. His sorrows and griefs were for the fallen, desperate condition of humanity.
And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him”: Mankind naturally hid their faces from His purity and humility.

Verse 4 Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted.

Our greatest grief and sorrows He was to bear was our sins. We esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. Isiah’s prophecy here is that during His travails to the cross, when he was beaten, scorched and eventually crucified, the Jew believed that He was suffering for His sins - blasphemy. Little did they know that God simply looked away from Him because of the enormous sins of the world He decided to shoulder.

Verse 5 “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.”

The film Passion of the Christ, by Mel Gibson tried to dramatically display the excruciating torture our saviour Lord Jesus experienced on His way to and on the cross. He went through all these torture because of my sins.
Chastisement of my peace simply meant that I was at war with God for reasons of sin, until He brought peace between me and God. Here we see His Vicarious Sacrifice - substitutionary atonement for our sins.

Verse 6 “All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”

We like sheep gone astray means, we have strayed away from our maker because of our sinful ways. God decided to place all our iniquities on Him.

Verse 7 “He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth.”

He had the powers to release Himself but chose to be a lamb led to the slaughter. Even when false accusers libel led against Him, He offered no defense . He needed to be condemned and crucified for our sins.

Verse 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 transgressions of My people He was stricken.”

He was cut off from the land of the living. He was killed extrajudicially. Again for our transgressions He was stricken.

Verse 9 “And they made His grave with the wicked— But with the rich at His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was any deceit in His mouth.”

He was crucified with and like a criminal. The tomb where He was buried was for the rich.

Verse 10 “Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.”

It pleased God to see Him bruised and crucified because, of the ultimate peace of seeing the sins of the world taken away. Seeing His seed is seeing rebirths in Christ: 2Cor 5:17.
Prolonging His days talk to His resurrection from the dead. This is one place in the Old Testament, the resurrection of Jesus Christ was prophesied.

Verse 11 “He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear their iniquities.”

His death and resurrection brought us justification. A sincerely born again Christian is absolved from the wrath of God because of justification.

Verse 12 “Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, And He shall divide the spoil with the strong, Because He poured out His soul unto death, And He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore the sin of many, And made intercession for the transgressors.”

Again this verse clearly resonate with Phil 2:9-11. His name is revered among the high and might up until today and forever. Here we see that He bore the sins of many; not everybody. Only those who believe on His works of salvation.

CONCLUSION
The prophecy of Isaiah was undeniably accurate of the death, resurrection, sanctification and glorification of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Modern Rabis have tried denying the obvious, but the Deas Sea scroll of Isiah that they can never deny keeps haunting their foolish denial of the truth that we have in Christ Jesus.
Glory be to God for what Jesus did for us on the cross of Calvary.