Isaiah 53:1. Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?
It is sometimes the lot of God's most faithful servants to labour unsuccessfully. As old Thomas Fuller quaintly says, «He maketh some to be as the clouds that empty their rain over Arabia the stony while others are pouring down their showers over Arabia the happy.» Yet we are accepted with God, not according to our success, but according to our faithfulness. Still, no true minister of Christ can be contented unless men believe his report. It will be a matter for sighing and groaning if unbelief be the only answer to our earnest declarations concerning Christ.
Isaiah 53:2. For he
That is, Jesus
Isaiah 53:2. Shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
Carnal minds are unbelieving minds. They are so because the beauties of Christ are spiritual, and in their natural state they have not the power to discern them. Jesus Christ has no loveliness in the eyes of self-righteous, self-sufficient men. What do they want with a Saviour? What do they care for his atoning sacrifice? They cannot truly admire the love and the holiness of Jesus Christ, for they do not know their own unloveliness or their own unholiness. Alas! that God's own Son, who is the loveliest of all beings, should be without form or comeliness to unspiritual eyes.
Isaiah 53:3. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrow, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
While the Redeemer was here below, his state of poverty, obscurity, suffering, and shame, was of such a character that few would believe in him, and even those, who afterwards received him, at the first did not so. He was despised; and we, even we, his own people, esteemed him not. Christ has forgiven us for all this, but shall we ever forgive ourselves? O eyes, shall ye ever cease to weep over your former blindness? O heart, shalt thou ever cease to grieve over thy former hardness? He, who was heaven's darling, was despised and rejected of men, and we partook in the guilt, for we also despised and rejected him.
Isaiah 53:4-5. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chatisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes, we are healed.
It is substitution, you see, all through, Christ suffering instead of us, the Innocent dying for the guilty, the Lord of glory bearing the sin of rebellious men. Why do men cavil at this precious truth? It is their only hope of salvation. Why do we still have to say, «Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?» But those who are enlightened from above, and led to see their own state of ruin, and their absolute need of a Saviour, will rejoice to know that the Lord hath laid help upon One who is mighty, and that he hath anointed his only-begotten Son to stand in our room, and place, and stead.
Isaiah 53:6. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
There is a universal sin: «All we like sheep have gone astray.» There is also a personal sin, a sin peculiar to each individual: «We have turned every one to his own way.» But Christ gathers up the sin, all kinds of sin of all sorts of men, and of his whole Church it is truly said, «The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.»
Isaiah 53:7. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not mouth:
When a word could have released him, he would not speak it. His was indeed golden silence. Oh, the wondrous eloquence of that patient speechlessness when he stood before Herod and Pilate, and answered them not a word! He could have spoken with such authority as to have called legions of angels from heaven for his protection, or a single word of his could have destroyed his enemies, as the leaves of autumn lie withered and dead; but «he opened not his mouth.»
Isaiah 53:7-8. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearer is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation?
Who shall speak up for him? It was the custom of the Jews, when a man was condemned to death, to allow a certain interval, during which the heralds went through the streets, and made proclamation that, if any man knew any reason why the criminal should be spared, he should at once appear at the court, and declare it. Someone often came forward, with one plea or another, in arrest of judgment; but when our Lord was condemned to death, none would speak up for him.
Isaiah 53:8-9. For he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked,»
Dying between two thieves, as though he had been the greatest criminal of the three: «He made his grave with the wicked,»
Isaiah 53:9. And with the rich in his death;
Lying in the new tomb of Joseph of Arimathaea.
Isaiah 53:9. Because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
If he had used either violence or deceit, he might have escaped; but because he was harmless and true, therefore must he die.
Isaiah 53:10. Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed,
The grain of wheat, sown in the ground, abides not alone, but brings forth much fruit. Our blessed Saviour presented both soul and body as an offering for sin, but he knew what he was doing, for «he shall see his seed,»
Isaiah 53:10. He shall prolong his days,
Up from the grave did he arise in newness of life, and back to heaven did he return to life immortal: «He shall prolong his days,»
Isaiah 53:10-11. And the pleasure of the LORD shall proper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied:
Christ did not die in vain. He will never miss the great object of his death, you may depend upon that. Those drops of blood are far too precious to fall in vain upon the earth.
Isaiah 53:11. By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many;
That is, by their knowledge of him, by their trusting him, many shall be justified, and saved.
Isaiah 53:11. For he shall bear their iniquities.
How very express this is, that Christ does not merely bear the punishment of his people, but their iniquities, too! There is a literal substitution of Christ in the place of his people, and a most distinct imputation of their sin to him, and of his righteousness to them.
Isaiah 53:12. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death; and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Blessed Intercessor, let thine almighty intercession avail for each one of us, for thine own name's sake! Amen.