THE MESSIAH’S SUFFERINGS

ISAIAH 53

He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open his mouth; He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth

(Isaiah 53:7).

Yesterday we saw that the victory of God’s Servant was to come through His sufferings. Isaiah 53 is one of the clearest descriptions of the sufferings of Jesus found in the Bible. We can only look at a few aspects of His sufferings today, which He bore as He paid the penalty for our sins.

Isaiah says that He was a man of sorrows, familiar with suffering. He also says that Jesus did not have a beautiful face that would attract people. The burden of our sins weighed down on Him, with the result that many people regarded Him as ugly—quite a contrast to the glory and beauty God originally designed His image, humanity, to bear. Just as we tend to turn away from disfigured people to avoid looking at them, so the crowd avoided looking at Jesus as He bore our sins.

Like Job before Him, Jesus was regarded by the crowd as smitten by God for His sins. The crowd did not recognize that it was for their transgressions that He was being crushed. God placed our sins on Him, and that has made possible the victory of God and transformation of the world.

One of the hardest trials we can endure is false accusation. We instantly leap to defend ourselves when we are wrongly accused. But Jesus, we are told, did not open His mouth to defend Himself when He was wrongly and hatefully accused.

The text twice says that He was oppressed (53:7–8). Remember that in Isaiah 1 the prophet began by condemning Israel for oppressing the poor. Now Jesus becomes one of the oppressed poor, in order to gain the victory over the oppressors by dying for their sins.

Every Jew looked forward to children, but Jesus was cut off and had no descendants (53:8). Yet two verses later (53:10), Isaiah tells us that “He will see His offspring.” Though Jesus had no physical children, all of redeemed humanity are given to Him as His adopted sons and daughters. God rewarded His Servant by giving Him the spoil, the whole earth, that He might divide it and give it to His offspring (53:12).

CORAM DEO

Ezekiel 10–12

Hebrews 11:1–20

WEEKEND

Ezekiel 13–17

Hebrews 11:21–12:29

Psalm 22 is a chillingly accurate prophecy of the agony Christ suffered on the cross. Today and this weekend reflect on the high cost our Savior paid for our redemption from sin and death.

For further study: 1 Corinthians 1:27–31 • Colossians 1:14; 20–22

WEEKEND