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, he shall prolong [his] days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
10. Yet it pleased grief ] The sentence must be a restatement of the fact that the Servant has suffered by the will of Jehovah, this being repeated in order to introduce the explanation of Jehovah’s purpose in imposing chastisement upon him. The second clause, he hath put him to grief, represents a single Hebrew word, which is vocalised and translated by the LXX. as the noun for “sickness” ( Isa 53:3). The meaning intended by the punctuators is probably “he hath made him sick” (R.V. marg.), although the form is anomalous and the syntax uncertain. Since it is too short to form an independent line, it must be closely attached to what precedes: hence the rendering of Dillmann and others, “It pleased Jehovah to crush him incurably,” i.e. grievously (cf. Mic 6:13; Nah 3:19). This is perhaps the best that can be made of the received reading, but it is most probable that the textual derangement which prevails in these verses begins here.
when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin ] Rather “if (or when) his soul should present a guilt-offering.” The difficulty here does not lie in the analogy of the guilt-offering, for this probably signifies nothing more than has been already expressed in plain words, that the Servant’s death is the means of removing guilt ( Isa 53:4-6). It does not appear that the distinctive ritual and function of the guilt-offering ( ’shm, see Lev 5:14 ff., &c.) throws any light on this passage. The chief difficulty is the hypothetical character of the sentence, of which no satisfactory explanation has been given. No doubt the atoning effect of the sufferings is the condition of Jehovah’s great purpose being attained, but the condition has been already fulfilled, whereas it is here spoken of as an event which is, if not problematic, at least future. The subject is ambiguous, but on every ground it is better to suppose that “his soul” is subject than that Jehovah is addressed. Ewald and Cheyne, however, prefer to read (with the change of a consonant) “when he shall make his soul a guilt-offering.”
he shall see a seed (cf. Gen 50:23) he shall prolong his days ] i.e. shall enjoy long life. His “seed” are the true spiritual Israel of the future, those who by his means are converted to the knowledge of Jehovah.
the pleasure (i.e. the purpose, see on Isa 44:28) of the Lord ] the establishment of the universal religion, the eternal salvation. The verse returns on itself by repetition of the opening idea (as Isa 53:3 ; Isa 53:6-7) “palindromically,” as Delitzsch would say.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
10 12. These difficult verses describe, partly in the prophet’s own words and partly in those of Jehovah, the Divine purpose which is realised through the sufferings of the Servant. In Isa 53:10-11 it is impossible to trace a clear connexion of ideas; the grammar also is peculiar, and in all probability there is considerable textual disorder. The main thought, however, is that the Servant is to be the instrument in establishing the true religion, by removing the burden of guilt and bringing many to righteousness. As the reward of his sufferings he will enjoy a brilliant future and have a numerous spiritual offspring. He will become a great power in the world, attaining a position like that of a mighty conqueror. The idea of a resurrection from the dead appears to be necessarily implied. If the Servant be a personification of Israel, this is merely a figure for national restoration from exile; but if he be an individual, then his resurrection must be accepted as a literal fact, just as his death must be literally understood.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him – In this verse, the prediction respecting the final glory and triumph of the Messiah commences. The design of the whole prophecy is to state, that in consequence of his great sufferings, he would be exalted to the highest honor (see the notes at Isa 52:13). The sense of this verse is, he was subjected to these sufferings, not on account of any sins of his, but because, under the circumstances of the case, his sufferings would be pleasing to Yahweh. He saw they were necessary, and he was willing that he should be subjected to them. He has laid upon him heavy sufferings. And when he has brought a sin-offering, he shall see a numerous posterity, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper through him. The Lord was pleased with his sufferings, not because he has delight in the sufferings of innocence; not because the sufferer was in any sense guilty or ill-deserving; and not because he was at any time displeased or dissatisfied with what the Mediator did, or taught. But it was:
1. Because the Messiah had voluntarily submitted himself to those sorrows which were necessary to show the evil of sin; and in view of the great object to be gained, the eternal redemption of his people, he was pleased that he would subject himself to so great sorrows to save them. He was pleased with the end in view, and with all that was necessary in order that the end might be secured.
2. Because these sufferings would tend to illustrate the divine perfections, and show the justice and mercy of God. The gift of a Saviour, such as he was, evinced boundless benevolence; his sufferings in behalf of the guilty showed the holiness of his nature and law; and all demonstrated that he was at the same time disposed to save, and yet resolved that no one should be saved by dishonoring his law, or without expiation for the evil which had been done by sin.
3. Because these sorrows would result in the pardon and recovery of an innumerable multitude of lost sinners, and in their eternal happiness and salvation. The whole work was one of benevolence, and Yahweh was pleased with it as a work of pure and disinterested love.
To bruise him – (See the notes at Isa 53:5). The word here is the infinitive of Piel. To bruise him, or his being bruised, was pleasing to Yahweh; that is, it was acceptable to him that he should be crushed by his many sorrows. It does not of necessity imply that there was any positive and direct agency on the part of Yahweh in bruising him, but only that the fact of his being thus crushed and bruised was acceptable to him.
He hath put him to grief – This word, hath grieved him, is the same which in another form occurs in Isa 53:4. It means that it was by the agency, and in accordance with the design of Yahweh, that he was subjected to these great sorrows.
When thou shalt make his soul – Margin, His soul shall make. According to the translation in the text, the speaker is the prophet, and it contains an address to Yahweh, and Yahweh is himself introduced as speaking in Isa 53:11. According to the margin, Yahweh himself speaks, and the idea is, that his soul should make an offering for sin. The Hebrew will bear either. Jerome renders it, If he shall lay down his life for sin. The Septuagint renders it in the plural, If you shall give (an offering) for sin, your soul shall see a long-lived posterity. Lowth renders it, If his soul shall make a propitiatory sacrifice. Rosenmuller renders it, If his soul, that is, he himself, shall place his soul as an expiation for sin. Noyes renders it, But since he gave himself a sacrifice for sin. It seems to me that the margin is the correct rendering, and that it is to be regarded as in the third person. Thus the whole passage will be connected, and it will be regarded as the assurance of Yahweh himself, that when his life should be made a sacrifice for sin, he would see a great multitude who should be saved as the result of his sufferings and death.
His soul – The word rendered here soul ( nephesh) means properly breath, spirit, the life, the vital principle Gen 1:20-30; Gen 9:4; Lev 17:11; Deu 12:23. It sometimes denotes the rational soul, regarded as the seat of affections and emotions of various kinds Gen 34:3; Psa 86:4; Isa 15:4; Isa 42:1; Son 1:7; Son 3:1-4. It is here equivalent to himself – when he himself is made a sin-offering, or sacrifice for sin.
An offering for sin – ( ‘asham). This word properly means, blame, guilt which one contracts by transgression Gen 26:10; Jer 51:5; also a sacrifice for guilt; a sin-offering; an expiatory sacrifice. It is often rendered trespass-offering Lev 5:19; Lev 7:5; Lev 14:21; Lev 19:21; 1Sa 6:3, 1Sa 6:8, 1Sa 6:17). It is rendered guiltiness Gen 26:10; sin Pro 14:9; trespass Num 5:8. The idea here is, clearly, that he would be made an offering, or a sacrifice for sin; that by which guilt would be expiated and an atonement made. In accordance with this, Paul says 2Co 5:21, that God made him to be sin for us ( hamartian), that is, a sin-offering; and he is called hilasmos and hilasterion, a propitiatory sacrifice for sins Rom 3:25; 1Jo 2:2; 1Jo 4:10. The idea is, that he was himself innocent, and that he gave up his soul or life in order to make an expiation for sin – as the innocent animal in sacrifice was offered to God as an acknowledgment of guilt. There could be no more explicit declaration that he who is referred to here, did not die as a martyr merely, but that his death had the high purpose of making expiation for the sins of people. Assuredly this is not language which can be used of any martyr. In what sense could it be said of Ignatius or Cranmer that their souls or lives were made an offering ( ‘asham or hilasmos) for sin? Such language is never applied to martyrs in the Bible; such language is never applied to them in the common discourses of people.
He shall see his seed – His posterity; his descendants. The language here is taken from that which was regarded as the highest blessing among the Hebrews. With them length of days and a numerous posterity were regarded as the highest favors, and usually as the clearest proofs of the divine love. Childrens children are the crown of old men Pro 17:6. See Psa 127:5; Psa 128:6 : Yea, thou shalt see thy childrens children, and peace upon Israel. So one of the highest blessings which could be promised to Abraham was that he would be made the father of many nations Gen 12:2; Gen 17:5-6. In accordance with this, the Messiah is promised that he shall see a numerous spiritual posterity. A similar declaration occurs in Psa 22:30, which is usually applied to the Messiah. A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation. The natural relation between father and son is often transferred to spiritual subjects. Thus the name father is often given to the prophets, or to teachers, and the name sons to disciples or learners. In accordance with this, the idea is here, that the Messiah would sustain this relation, and that there would be multitudes who would sustain to him the relation of spiritual children. There may be emphasis on the word see – he shall see his posterity, for it was regarded as a blessing not only to have posterity, but to be permitted to live and see them. Hence, the joy of the aged Jacob in being permitted to see the children of Joseph Gen 48:11 : And Israel said unto Joseph, I had not thought to see thy face; and lo, God hath showed me also thy seed.
He shall prolong his days – His life shall be long. This also is language which is taken from the view entertained among the Hebrews that long life was a blessing, and was a proof of the divine favor. Thus, in 1Ki 3:14, God says to Solomon, if thou wilt walk in my ways, and keep my statutes and my commandments, as thy father David did walk, then I will lengthen thy days (see Deu 25:15; Psa 21:4; Psa 91:16; Pro 3:2). The meaning here is, that the Messiah, though he should be put to death, would yet see great multitudes who should be his spiritual children. Though he should die, yet he would live again, and his days should be lengthened out. It is fulfilled in the reign of the Redeemer on earth and in his eternal existence and glory in heaven.
And the pleasure of the Lord – That is, that which shall please Yahweh; the work which he desire and appoints.
Shall prosper – (See the notes at Isa 52:13, where the same word occurs).
In his hand – Under his government and direction. Religion will be promoted and extended through him. The reward of all his sufferings in making an offering for sin would be, that multitudes would be converted and saved; that his reign would be permanent, and that the work which Yahweh designed and desired would prosper under his administration.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 53:10-11
Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him
It pleased the Lord to bruise Him:
The Lords hand was supreme in the business–
1.
In respect of His appointing Christs sufferings. It was concluded in the counsel of God that He should, suffer.
2. In respect of the ordering and overruling of His sufferings. He, who governs all the counsels, thoughts and actions of men, did, in a special manner, govern and overrule the sufferings of the Mediator; though wicked men were following their own design, and were stirred and acted by the devil, who is said to have put it into the heart of Judas to betray Christ–yet God had the ordering of all who should betray Him, what death He should die, how He should be pierced, and yet not a bone of Him be broken.
3. In respect of His having had a hand actively in them (Joh 19:11; Mat 27:46; Rom 8:32; Zec 13:7). (J. Durham.)
The good pleasure of God in redemption
The good pleasure of God. Which the prophet marks to show–
1. That all the good that comes by Christ to sinners is bred in the Lords own bosom.
2. The concurrence of all the Persons of the Trinity in promoting the work of the redemption of sinners. (J. Durham.)
The Divine complacency in the sorrows of Christ
There are many expressions in Scripture, which, without explanation, are repugnant to human instincts of justice, and shocking to our intuitions of love. This is a case in point. He had done nothing overtly or morally to deserve severity, yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him. It revolts our first feeling of equity and compassion; and when the statement is applied to Him of whom we are taught that God is love, we shrink at the sternness of the words. Had it been said the Lord found it necessary to put Him to grief, it would, have been mysterious enough, and we should have found ourselves asking Why? and catechizing our speculative ideals of Divine equity and of moral necessity. But to read that it pleased the Lord to inflict this bruise and to impose this grief is a riddle which seems as harsh as it is contradictory. (A. Mursell.)
The unity of the Father and the Son in atonement
All this confusion and injustice arises from sustaining too literally in our minds the figure of duality which excludes the Father from participation in the sacrifice, and the Son from the acquiescent willinghood of its executive. It is not the punishment of an innocent Son by an angry Father that we have to consider, but rather the co-operation of the entire Godhead in the tragedy of sorrow out of which the redemption of mortality was born. Under the figure of Father and Son, the Deity devoted the full strength and tenderness of the Divine character and resource to the salvation of our race. And, in this respect, there was, and ever will be, a Divine complacency in the sorrow and suffering from which that redemption sprang. (A. Mursell.)
Christs complacency in the Divine sorrows
Our topic is the Divine complacency in the sorrows of Christ. It will bear transposition; and we can speak of Christs complacency in the Divine sorrows. Here is a blending of pleasure and pain, of joy and sorrow, as full of mystery as of love, but the key to whose mystery is carried in the bosom of its love. The sorrows of Christ were endured in pursuance of the settled and ancient purpose of God. Not of the purpose of a Father to afflict His Son, but of the purpose of the Divine Creator to redeem His universe. There was a compact of pity and of power in the heart and arm of God as soon as man had lapsed, that his lapse should be atoned and his fall restored. The Creator was not to be baffled in His plan. His life was bound up in that of His Maker; and because He lived man must live also. Not only because He loved us, but because He would not be defeated, did the mind of Deity set itself to untie the knot which the serpent had encoiled around the creature of Gods image. (A. Mursell.)
Divine love and Divine suffering
1. The sorrows which atonement involved became a source of complacency to the Divine mind, inasmuch as the Lord foresaw their certain issues.
2. Nor could this complacency in sorrow fail to be augmented by the thought of the universal interest those sorrows would awaken. Earth, for whose sake they were endured, was the last to show that interest.
3. This complacency was made complete because the sorrows it confronted removed the barrier from the exercise of infinite beneficence and love. What is more tantalizing to a soul aflame than love restrained? (A. Mursell.)
The bruising of the Son of God the pleasure of His Father
I. WHOM DID JEHOVAH BRUISE?
II. HOW DID HE BRUISE HIM?
III. WHY DID HE TAKE PLEASURE IN BRUISING HIM?
1. That He might execute His pleasant decrees.
2. That He might fulfil His pleasant promises.
3. That He might redeem the chosen objects of His love.
4. That He might promote His Son to the highest honours.
5. That He might exalt His own glory to the uttermost. (W. Taylor.)
The bruising of Jesus
The Father was pleased to bruise Emmanuel.
I. BECAUSE OF THE HOLY SUFFERERS PERFECT SYMPATHY WITH HIS PURPOSE, as being the vindication of the Divine holiness, the magnifying of the Divine law, and the upholding of the Divine government.
II. BECAUSE UNDER THIS BRUISING JESUS WAS MANIFESTING THE DIVINE LOVE AND SYMPATHY FOR AND WITH US–perfect as it was Gods, and yet true brotherly, as it was mans.
III. BECAUSE OF WHAT HE DESIRED TO SEE IN US. (J. Wylie, D.D.)
Gods purpose in the awful tragedy of the Cross
It is so utter a perversion of justice, so signal a triumph of wrong over right, so final a disappearance into oblivion of the fairest life that ever lived, that men might be tempted to say, God has forsaken His own. On the contrary. Gods own will and pleasure have been in this tragedy. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him. The line as it thus stands in our English Version has a grim, repulsive sound. But the Hebrew word has no necessary meaning of pleasure or enjoyment. All it says is, God so willed it. His purpose was in this tragedy. (Prof. G. A. Smith, D.D.)
Christs sufferings; their cause, nature and fruits
The prophet is still dealing with the Jews scandals. Whilst you look only to the outward meanness and sufferings of Christ, you overlook the design of God in Him.
I. THE WILL OF GOD. It pleased the Lord to bruise Him, etc., that is the cause of His sufferings.
II. THE NATURE OF HIS SUFFERINGS. When Thou shall make His soul an offering for sin.
III. THE FRUITS OF HIS SUFFERING. (T. Manton, D.D.)
Christs sufferings Divinely ordained
All the sufferings of Jesus Christ were laid on Him by the ordination and appointment of, God the Father. This appears by Scripture, which asserts–
1. The choice of Christs person, and the designation and deputation of Him to the office of Mediator (Isa 42:1; Joh 6:27; Ro 1Pe 1:20).
2. The bestowing the person of Christ upon us, so that He was made ours Joh 3:16).
3. The determining of all the sufferings of Christ; not a sorrow, but God had it in His thoughts before all worlds (Act 2:23; Luk 22:22; Act 4:27-28).
4. There are some expressions which seem to imply as if there were more than a bare knowledge and permission in this great affair, as if there were some kind of action in Christs sufferings. It will be worthy the inquiring, then, what acts of God, what efficiency there was from Him towards the sufferings of Christ?
(1) Thus far God concurred, by a withdrawing of His presence and the sight of His favour.
(2) By sustaining the wicked instruments in their natures, beings, and actings, whilst they were drawing out their spite and violence against Christ (Act 17:28; Joh 19:11).
(3) By serving His love and glory by their wickedness, that bruised and afflicted Christ.
The reasons of this point are–
1. Because all things fall under His decrees and the care of His providence, and therefore certainly this matter of Christ does.
2. Because this was the special design and contrivance of Heaven to bring forth Christ into the world; all other dispensations looked this way. (T. Manton, D. D.)
Gods eternal pleasure revealed in Christ
The plot of the Gospel was long since drawn in heaven, and lay hid in Gods breast, till He was pleased to copy out His eternal thoughts, and give the world a draught of them. (T. Manton, D. D.)
God working His own counsel through human agency
How is the creature to blame, then, for smiting and bruising of Christ? Or if to blame, how is God clear?
1. For the creatures blame. They are faulty–
(1) Because God s secret thoughts and intents are not their rule. Hidden things belong to God; and it is He that worketh according to the counsel of His own will.
(2) They had other ends, though God turned it for good. With wicked hands ye have taken, and crucified, and slain.
(3) Gods decrees did not compel them to evil; it implieth things will be, though it doth not affect them.
2. For the justifying of God when He judgeth. His justice cannot be impeached, because He infuseth no evil, enforceth to no evil, only ordaineth what shall be. His goodness cannot be impeached for suffering things which He can turn to such advantage for His own glory and the creature s good. God s decrees are immanent in Himself, working nothing that is evil in the creatures. (T. Manton, D. D.)
When Thou shalt make His Soul an offering for sin
Christ an offering for sin
1. It is here supposed that there is sin on the person, and that wrath due for sin is to be removed.
2. That there is an inability in the person to remove the sin, and yet a necessity to have it removed, or else he must suffer.
3. The intervening, or coming of something in the place of that person who is guilty of sin, and liable to wrath.
4. The acceptance of that which interveneth by God, the party offended, and so a covenant whereby the Lord hath condescended to accept that offering. (J. Durham.)
Christ a guilt-offering
(R.V., marg.):–Hebrews asham (Lev 5:14; Lev 6:7), to be carefully distinguished from the sin-offering (Hebrews chattah, Lev 4:1; Lev 5:13). Sin is viewed as a sacrilege, an invasion of God s honour: the asham is the satisfaction paid for it, viz the innocent life of the Righteous Servant. (Prof. S. R. Driver, D. D.)
The guilt-offering
There is a historical passage which, though the term guilt-offering is not used in it, admirably illustrates the idea. A famine in Davids time was revealed to be due to the murder of certain Gibeonites by the house of Saul. David asked the Gibeonites what reparation he could make. They said it was not a matter of damages. But both parties felt that before the law of God could be satisfied and the land relieved of its curse, some atonement, some guilt-offering, must be made to the, Divine law. It was a wild kind of satisfaction that was paid. Seven men of Sauls house were hung up before the Lord in Gibeon. But the instinct, though satisfied in so murderous a fashion, was a true and a grand instinct–the conscience of a law above all human laws and rights, to which homage must be paid before the sinner could come into true relations with God, or the Divine curse be lifted off. (Prof. G. A. Smith, D.D.)
The Monarch self-surrender, a trespass-offering and a sin-offering
What this suffering meant, the prophet indicates in several phrases which we will link together. His soul shall make a guilt-offering (Isa 53:10). He shall bear their iniquities (Isa 53:11). He bare the sin of many (Isa 53:12). These three expressions are derived from the Mosaic ritual; the first, from the trespass-offering, the second, from the law concerning the scapegoat, the third from the sin-offering. Inasmuch, however, as the sending away of the scapegoat was a part of the ceremonial connected with the sin-offering on the great day of atonement, we may let the second and third expressions blend into one. And then we get the thought that this suffering Servant would at once fill up the varied meanings of the sin-offering and of the guilt-offering. (C. Clemance, D.D.)
In Messiahs offering, the meanings of the trespass-offerings and the sin-offerings were all included
1. That there was a distinction between the significance of the trespass-offerings and that of the sin-offerings is seen in the fact that each kind of offerings had its own specific ritual and set of laws (Lev 11:25; Lev 7:1). But it is not so easy to point out wherein that distinction lay. They had some points in common. Both recognized sin in some form or other. Though every sin might not be a trespass, yet every trespass was a sin, hence (at least in one case) the trespass was to be atoned for by a sin-offering (Lev 5:6). Both of them were for sins of omission and for sins of commission. Both were for inadvertent and for known sins. Both were for sins against conscience and against God. Both were for some sins against property. Both were for open and for secret sins. So that it is not surprising that the two frequently seem to overlap. Still a careful study will help us to draw out some distinctions between them–
(1) The sin-offering recognized sinfulness as uncleanness common to the race; the trespass-offering recognized sin in the specific acts of any person among them (cf. Lev 5:17 with Lev 16:15-16)
.
(2) The sin-offering regarded all sin; the trespass-offering only some sins Lev 16:34; Lev 5:1; Lev 5:14-15).
(3) The sin-offering was for all the people, recognizing their oneness; the trespass-offering was for distinctive cases, recognizing their individuality Lev 16:21; Lev 5:1; Lev 5:14; Lev 5:17).
(4) The sin-offering conveyed the idea of propitiation; the trespass-offering embodied that of satisfaction, as, over and above its recognition of injury done towards God or man, there were specific injunctions concerning restitution, intimating a certain value as the standard required Lev 16:21-22; Lev 5:18; Num 5:5-8).
(5) The sin-offering had its aspect God-ward; the trespass-offering rather looked man-ward (Lev 4:4-6; Lev 14:14).
(6) The ritual of the sin-offering symbolized pardon, covering, the bearing away of sin; that of the trespass-offering symbolized purification or cleansing from sin (cf. Lev 16:16-17; Lev 14:14)
.
(7) The treatment of the sin-offering indicated far deeper reproach than the treatment of the trespass-offering (Lev 4:11-12; Lev 7:6). As the sin that poisons all is far more serious than the transgressions which mark each one, so, on the day of expiation, the victim, because it was (symbolically) laden with the uncleanness and guilt of the whole people, and was consequently unclean, must be taken outside the camp and there burned(Delitzsch)
.
(8) The attitude of the sinner in the sin-offering was that of believingly recognizing the sacrifice as his substitute God-ward; but in the case of the trespass-offering he must also be ready with his compensations man-ward Lev 16:20-22; Lev 5:16; Lev 6:1-7).
(9) In the sin-offering the priest is always the representative of the offerer; in the trespass-offering he is generally the representative of God. Thus the trespass-offering was a restitution or compensation made to God, in being paid to the priest, a payment or penance which made amends for the wrong done–a satisfactio in a disciplinary sense.
2. The prophet in the chapter before us declares that the trespass-offering and the sin-offering will be fulfilled in this Servant of God; that His work for man, towards God in reference to sin, will take into account all the aspects of sin, will honour all the claims of God, and will meet all the need of man. And so, in fact, we find it when we come to examine the representations of the work of our Lord Jesus, as given us in the New Testament.
(1) Our Saviour as the sin-offering, suffered without the gate Heb 13:11-12).
(2) He atones for sin, and for sins (Heb 9:26; Gal 1:4).
(3) He bears away a worlds sin, yet gave Himself for our sins Joh 1:29; Gal 1:4).
(4) The sins of all are laid on Him, and yet the individual can say, He gave Himself for me (1Jn 2:2; Gal 2:20).
(5) He is the propitiation, and yet the ransom-price (1Jn 4:10; Mat 20:28).
(6) His sacrifice avails towards God, yet is effective towards man Heb 9:12-24; Heb 10:10).
(7) By His work our guilt is pardoned, our sin covered; through it our natures are cleansed (Rom 4:7-8; 1Pe 1:2).
(8) As He is our propitiation, there is a reconciliation to be accepted; as He is our ransom-price, our acceptance of Him is attended with repentance towards God, and restitution towards man (Rom 5:8-11; Ac Mat 5:23-24; Luk 19:7-10).
(9) As our mediating High Priest, He is our representative before God. He pleads His blood before the throne; yet is He also the voice of God to us, through whom our pardon is proclaimed (Heb 6:20; Heb 7:25; Mat 9:6). Thus all the ground is covered by the one great Sacrifice, and nothing is left undone!
3. Let us learn, then–of the unity there is between the law and the Gospel. We have this prophecy standing seven hundred years after the giving of the one, seven hundred years before the announcement of the other: yet we find the very phrases of the prophet are adopted from the Mosaic ritual, pointing to its fulfilment in the Messiah; while the New Testament teachings as to the work of Christ are based on both ritual and prophecy, carrying them both on to their fulness of meaning, and revealing their wealth of glory.
(2) We may well look on with profound reverence as the Most High brings out, in ritual, prophecy, and Gospel, that truth which men are most ready to let slip–viz, the exceeding sinfulness of sin!
(3) In Gospel: prophecy, and ritual, there is, in order to meet the worlds need, not only a central Figure, but a central fact. In the ritual, the priest and the offering. In the prophecy, the Messiah and His offering. In the Gospel, the Christ and His offering. Here is a threefold cord, not easily broken.
(4) Never let us forget the double aspect of the work of Christ–large enough to cover all the ground; minute enough to point out me and to save me!
(5) We are not saved in sin but from it.
(6) Let us not fail to catch the keynote of the law and of the Gospel, viz that nothing is right with a sinful man till relations between him and God are right. (C. Clemance, D. D.)
Expiation
Both Jews and Gentiles knew pretty well what an offering for sin meant. The Gentiles had been in the habit of offering sacrifices. The Jews, however, had by far the clearer idea of it.
I. SIN DESERVES AND DEMANDS PUNISHMENT.
II. THE PROVISION AND ACCEPTANCE OF A SUBSTITUTE FOR SINNERS IS AN ACT OF GRACE.
III. JESUS IS THE MOST FITTING PERSON TO BE A SUBSTITUTE, AND HIS WORK IS THE MOST FITTING WORK TO BE A SATISFACTION.
IV. CHRISTS WORK, AND THE EFFECTS OF THAT WORK ARE NOW COMPLETE. (C. H, Spurgeon.)
Christs death and the law of God
By His death the Servant did homage to the law of God. By dying to it He made men feel that the supreme end of man was to own that law and be in a right relation to it, and that the supreme service was to help others to a right relation. As it is said a little farther down, My Servant, righteous Himself, wins righteousness for many, and makes their iniquities His load. (Prof. G.A. Smith, D.D.)
The guilt-offering
It is strange but true, that the saddest, darkest day that ever broke upon our world is destined to cure the sadness and dissipate the darkness for evermore. It is to the passion of the Redeemer that loving hearts turn in their saddest, darkest, most sin-conscious hours to find solace, light, and help.. As though to obviate the possibility of mistaking its meaning, we are reminded again, and yet again, that the death of the Divine Servant was no ordinary episode; but distinguished from all other deaths, from all martyrdoms and sacrifices, in its unique and lonely grandeur–the one perfect and sufficient sacrifice and oblation for the sins of the whole world. The prophet s thought will become apparent, if we notice–I THE COMMON LOT OF MAN. It may be summed up in three words–suffering, sin, death.
II. THE NOTABLE EXCEPTION OF THIS CHAPTER. The Divine Servant presents a notable exception to the lot of man; not in His sufferings, for He was a Man of Sorrows, and acquainted with grief; nor in His death, for He died many deaths in one (Isa 53:9, R.V., marg.); but in His perfect innocence and goodness. He had done no violence, neither was any deceit m His mouth. The Divine Servant has passed through every painful experience; has drunk to its dregs every cup; has studied deeply every black-lettered volume in the library of pain. In His case, at least, mans hastily-formed conclusions are falsified. Generally we pass from singular suffering to discover its cause in some hidden or remote transgression. In the case of Jesus Christ, however, this explanation of His unique sufferings was altogether at fault. Another explanation must, therefore, be forthcoming to account for the sufferings of the innocent Saviour. The explanation lay hid as a secret concealed in a hieroglyph, in the vast system of Levitical sacrifice which foreshadowed the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. So, under the Divine guidance, men were led from the conclusions of Isa 53:4 to those of Isa 53:5. These conclusions expressed here as the verdict of the human conscience, after scanning the facts in the light of history, are confirmed and clenched by the unanimous voice of the New Testament. This is the great exception which has cast a new light on the mystery of pain and sorrow. It may be that there is other suffering, which, in a lower sense and in a smaller measure, is also redemptive, fulfilling Divine purposes in the lives of others; though no sufferer is free from sin as Christ was, and none has ever been able to expiate sin as He.
III. THE PERSONAL APPLICATION OF THESE TRUTHS. Thou must make his soul a guilt-offering (R.V., marg.) This term, guilt-offering, occurs in the Book of Leviticus. If a man committed a trespass in the holy things of the Lord, he was directed to select and bring from his flock a ram without blemish. This was his guilt-offering–the word used here. He was to make a money restitution for his offence; but the atonement was made through the ram (Lev 5:1-16). Similarly, if a man sinned against his neighbor, either in oppressing him or withholding his dues, or neglecting to restore property which had been entrusted to him, he was not only to make restitution, but to bring his guilt-offering to the Lord–a ram without blemish out of the flock–and the priest made an atonement before the Lord, and he was forgiven concerning whatsoever he had done to be made guilty thereby (Lev 6:1-7). Is there one of us who has not committed a trespass and sinned in the holy things of the Lord? Is there one of us who has not failed in his obligations to neighbour and friend? How certainly we need to present the guilt-offering! There is no mention made of the necessity of summoning priestly aid. This is the more remarkable, when we consider the strict Levitical system in which Israel was cradled. It would seem that in the great crisis of its need, the soul of man reverts to an earlier cult, and goes back beyond the elaborate system of the temple to the practice of the patriarchal tent, where each man acted as his own priest, and offered the guilt-offering with his own hand. No third person is needed in thy transactions with God. Jesus is Priest as well as Sacrifice. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
The atonement and its results
I. THE THING DONE. When thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin. Without shedding of blood there is no remission. This sentence, written by the finger of God on the page of Scripture, is also written as a received truth on every page of the history of heathenism. However we may recoil from the fearful superstitions of Paganism, and weep over that sad ignorance which can suppose God delighted even with human sacrifice, never let it be forgotten that in the bloodiest rites of idolatry there are the vestiges of a truth which is the very sum and substance of Christianity. We can turn our gaze to the evidence of what is called natural religion, accompanied, it may be, and loaded with what is abominable; and there we find monuments in every age that God, at some time or another, hath broken the silences of eternity, and spoken to His apostate creatures, and taught them that unless there could be found a sufficient sin-offering, the sinful must bear for ever the burden of His displeasure. Thus from the first God gave notices of the plan of redemption, and gradually prepared the way for that oblation which could alone take away sin. In the deep recesses of Christs undefiled spirit was paid down the debt which man owed to God.
II. ITS CONSEQUENCES. (H. Melvill, B.D.)
He shall see His seed
Notable effects following Christs sufferings
1. He shall see His seed. Men by the suffering of death are incapacitated to increase their offspring, but this is a quickening suffering and death that hath a numerous offspring.
2. He shall prolong His days, which seems to be another paradox; for mens days are shortened by their sufferings and death; but though He be dead and buried yet He shall rise again and ascend, and sit down at the right hand of the Father and live for ever, to make intercession for His people.
3. A third effect, which is the upshot of all, is, the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. God hath designed Him for a work–the great work of redemption–even the bringing of many sons to glory. He shall pull many captives from the devil, and set many prisoners free; He shall, by His sufferings, overcome the devil, death and the grave, and all enemies; shall gather the sons of God together from the four corners of the earth. (J. Durham.)
Christ seeing His seed
1. A relation implied betwixt Christ and believers. They are His seed, such as in the next verse are said to be justified by Him.
2. A prophecy of the event that should follow Christs sufferings. Our Lord Jesus should not only have a seed, but a numerous seed.
3. Considering the words as a promise they hold out this–that though our Lord Jesus suffer and die He shall not only have a seed, but shall see His seed. He shall outlive His sufferings and death and shall be delighted in seeing them who shall get the good of His sufferings. (J. Durham.)
Believers Christs seed
1. They have their being of Him.
2. In respect of the likeness that is betwixt Him and them.
3. In respect of the care that He hath of them.
4. In respect of the portion which they get from Him.
5. Because of the manner of their coming to the possession of that, which through Him they have a claim to. They have a claim to nothing, but by being heirs to and with Him. (J. Durham.)
Christ seeing His seed
In shall see His seed and have long life, the figure of a patriarch blessed with longevity and numerous descendants Gen 1:22, etc.) is in the prophet s thoughts. (Prof. S. R. Driver, D.D.)
The Atonement indicates the dignity of man
Men do not launch lifeboats to pick up corks, and we may rest assured that in the atonement there is a just proportion between means and ends. (James Duckworth.)
Messiah contemplating His spiritual offspring
I. HE SHALL SEE THEM ALL BORN AND BROUGHT IN.
II. HE SHALL SEE THEM ALL EDUCATED AND BROUGHT UP.
III. HE SHALL SEE THEM ALL SUPPORTED AND BROUGHT THROUGH.
IV. HE SHALL SEE THEM ALL PERFECTED AND BROUGHT HOME. (R. Muter, D. D.)
Christs spiritual Offspring
I. MESSIAHS GLORY IS INSEPARABLY CONNECTED WITH THE HAPPINESS OF HIS OFFSPRING.
II. THE APPLICATION IS NOT LESS CERTAIN THAN THE PURCHASE OF REDEMPTION.
III. A SEASONABLE AND POWERFUL ANTIDOTE AGAINST UNDUE DEPRESSION OR ALARM ABOUT THE LOW STATE OF RELIGION IN THE CHURCH.
IV. IT IS OUR DUTY AND HONOUR TO CONCUR IN CARRYING THIS SCRIPTURE INTO EFFECT. (R. Muter, D. D.)
Seeing His seed
(with Joh 17:2, and Eph 5:25-27):–His Seed. This clearly implies that the Messiah should be the living Head of a new spiritual race. As Adam was the head of the human family, and Abraham the header the Hebrew people, so the Lord Jesus was to be the head of a spiritual seed. The Psalmist in the second Psalm, plainly a Messianic one, declares: Ask of Me, and I will give Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession. Our Lord Jesus Himself spoke of those who would be saved by Him as given to Him by the Father. And apostles speak of the Church as composed of men gathered to the Lord, and belonging to Him. Precisely this thought is expanded in Eph 5:25-27.
I. CHRISTS SURRENDER OF HIMSELF WAS THE EXPRESSION OF HIS LOVE.
II. A LIVING CHURCH, THE CREATION OF HIS LOVE. Just as the sculptor, before he begins to chip the marble into shape, sees with his minds eye the figure which is first conceived by his genius and then fashioned by his skill–so with our Divine Redeemer. He from eternity, before man wascreated, beheld him coming into being, placed on His own footing, falling, redeemed, saved. And, as the result of His atoning work, there rises up, through His Spirit, the fufilment of His own ideal, a new creation, a living Church, distinguished the marks of forgiveness, justification, renewal and eternal life.
III. CLEANSING THE CHURCH, THE CONTINUOUS ACTION OF HIS LOVE. That He might sanctify and cleanse it. Then He does not love the Church because it is clean, but He first loves it that He may make it clean.
IV. PERFECTING THE CHURCH, THE FAR-OFF VISION OF HIS LOVE. A glorious Church, without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing.
V. PRESENTING THE CHURCH TO HIMSELF, THE REALIZATION OF THE IDEAL OF HIS LOVE. (C. Clemance, D.D.)
The posterity of Christ
Jesus is still alive, for to see anything is the act of a living person. Do not be afraid that Christs work will break down because He is dead. He lives to carry it on.
I. THE DEATH OF CHRIST HAS PRODUCED A POSTERITY. We do not read that the Lord Jesus has followers. That would be true; but the text prefers to say He has a seed.
1. All who truly follow Christ and are saved by Him have His life in them.
2. Believers in Christ are said to be His seed because they are like Him.
3. They prosecute the same ends, and expect to receive the same reward. We are towards Christ His seed, and thus heirs to all that He has–heirs to His business on earth, heirs to His estate in heaven. They speak of the seed royal. What shall I say of the seed of Christ? You may be a poor person, but you are of the imperial house. You are ignorant and unlettered, it may be, and your name will never shine on the roll of science, but He who is the Divine Wisdom owns you as one of His seed. It may be that you are sick; by and by you will die. But you are of His seed, who died, and rose, and is gone into glory. You are of the seed of Him, who only hath immortality. It follows if we are thus of a seed, that we ought to be united, and love each other more and more. Christian people, you ought to have a clannish feeling l
II. THAT POSTERITY OF HIS REMAINS. If it had been possible to destroy the Church of God on earth, it would have been destroyed long ago.
1. Only read the story of the persecutions under Nero, etc. As to our own country, read the story of persecutions here.
2. There have been laborious attempts to destroy the Church of Christ by error.
3. Worldliness has gone a long way to destroy the Church of God.
III. THIS POSTERITY IS ALWAYS UNDER THE IMMEDIATE EYE OF CHRIST. He shall see His seed. He sees them when they are first born anew. Wherever His seed may wander, He still sees them. This look of Christ is one of intense delight. He will see all His seed to the last. What a seed He will have to see in the morning. It will be a part of His heaven for Him to look upon His redeemed. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
He shall prolong His days (with Heb 7:15-16; Heb 7:25)
The enduring life of Christ after His sufferings
In these passages we have given to us, first in Hebrew prophecy, and then in Christian teaching, the doctrine of the enduring life of the Christ after His sufferings are over.
The Old Testament prophet sees from afar the new life of the Messiah, in a blaze of glory. The New Testament prophet declares the life already begun, and indicates the purposes for which that life is being spent as well as the glory with which it is crowned. The words quoted from the Epistle to the Hebrews are a goal rather than a starting-point. They teach the following truths–
1. Jesus Christ is now exalted: He is a Priest upon His throne.
2. In Him there is the power of an indissoluble life.
3. Because of an indissoluble life, there is an intransmissible priesthood.
4. This life and this priesthood are in action for the purpose of saving.
5. Since the life is indissoluble, and the priesthood intransmissible, there is an infinitude of saving power. (C. Clemance, D.D.)
The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand
The pleasure of Jehovah
The pleasure of Jehovah is the Servants religious mission (Isa 42:1; Isa 42:4; Isa 42:6; Isa 49:6; Isa 49:8). (Prof. S. R. Driver, D.D.)
The success of Christ in His work
I. WHAT ARE WE TO UNDERSTAND BY THE PLEASURE OF THE LORD, the work which is here said to prosper?
1. What is the work to which the declaration refers? The term pleasure of the Lord, as here used, must he considered as expressive of His gracious design to save a number of the human race from sin and all its fatal consequences; to render them perfect in holiness; and put them in full possession of happiness in the heavenly state. It includes in it, therefore, what has been termed the work of grace in the soul while here, and the full fruition of glory hereafter. In this work there are two things to be considered–
(1) The purchase of redemption.
(2) Its application.
2. Why is this work called the pleasure of the Lord?
(1) It is the free and sovereign purpose of His will.
(2) It is a purpose in the accomplishment of which He takes great delight.
II. WHAT PART HAS THE REDEEMER IN THIS WORK? The management of it is wholly committed to His care. It is in His hand.
1. Reconciling sinners unto God is a principal part of the work of salvation committed to the care of the Redeemer.
2. It belongs to the Redeemer, as their Saviour, to preserve His people from every thing that is evil in death.
3. The Redeemer has it in charge to perfect the salvation of His people, by putting them in full possession of glory, honour and immortality, in the heavenly state.
III. WHAT ASSURANCE WE HAVE, THAT THIS WORK SHALL PROSPER IN THE HAND OF THE REDEEMER, so as to be fully and finally accomplished. The language of the text. What is here asserted is supported by many other passages of the Word of God. Consider–
1. The character of Him to whom the work is entrusted.
2. The merit of His obedience, and the perfection of His atonement.
3. The progress He has already in the work. (G. Campbell.)
The salvation of sinners the pleasure of God
This will appear if we glance at the means which He has graciously provided for its accomplishment.
I. HE HAS GIVEN HIS ONLY-BEGOTTEN SON.
II. HE HAS HAS GIVEN US HIS WORD.
III. HE HAS ESTABLISHED A GOSPEL MINISTRY. The salvation of sinners is the pleasure of the Lord, and this shall prosper in the hands of Christ.
1. Omnipotence has promised it, as the reward of His obedience and death.
2. He is gone to carry it on before the throne of God.
3. He will descend to complete it when He shall come to judge the world in righteousness. Have we entrusted our souls into His hands? (Essex Remembrancer.)
Human redemption a pleasure to the Almighty
I. HUMAN REDEMPTION IS A PLEASURE TO THE ALMIGHTY, It is not a mere work of intellect, it is a work of the heart. It is His good pleasure. It is the highest qualification of His benevolence. It is benevolence restoring the rebellious to order, the sinful to holiness, the miserable to blessedness. What is most pleasing to a being always–
1. Engages most of his thoughts.
2. Enlists most of his energies.
II. HUMAN REDEMPTION IS ENTRUSTED TO CHRIST. It shall prosper in His hands. He has undertaken the work. Four things are necessary to qualify a being to succeed in any undertaking.
1. He should enter on it from a deep sympathy with it. We persevere most in the work we most love.
2. He should foresee all me difficulties that are destined to occur. When difficulties arise which we never anticipated, we often get baffled and disheartened.
3. He should have power equal to all the emergencies of the case.
4. He should have sufficient time for its accomplishment. Death often prevents us from finishing our work. Christ has all these qualifications.
III. HUMAN REDEMPTION IS DESTINED TO SUCCEED. It shall prosper. An argument for the certainty of its accomplishment.
1. Therefore do not be perplexed by the dispensations of Providence. The result of all the outcome of the chaos will be glorious.
2. Therefore do not be discouraged in your Christian labours. (Homilist.)
The Divine purpose fufilled
I. GOD HAS FORMED A PURPOSE OF MERCY TOWARD MANKIND. This is intended by the expression the pleasure of the Lord. Notwithstanding the state to which mankind had been reduced by sin, a state in which God, with justice, might have abandoned them to hopeless punishment, that God has adopted towards them a far different mode of procedure. In these mysterious depths of eternity there was a Divine determination that a way of recovery should be opened for the guilty. This is styled the eternal purpose of grace, the good pleasure which the Father had purposed in Himself, the good pleasure of His will, the good pleasure of His goodness. The manifestation of this pleasure of the Lord began on earth as soon as the need of mercy existed. The new-economy, established at an ever-memorable era, has explained what might be ambiguous, has illuminated what might be dark, has supplied what might be deficient under preceding dispensations, and it lays open before us in substance the whole counsel of the Eternal. We now discern that the entire fabric of creation, and the entire system of Providence, are subordinated to the stupendous achievements of redemption, those achievements the attributes of the Divine nature being united in harmony to conduct and to perform.
II. THE FULFILMENT OF THIS PURPOSE OF MERCY IS COMMITTED TO THE LORD JESUS. The pleasure of the Lord is in His hand, the hand of the Messiah, the Son of God, committed to Him to be by Him accomplished. That the Lord Jesus does sustain this momentous trust is obvious from the entire testimony of revelation. The Lord Jesus performs the purpose of His mercy, we observe more particularly, by His own atonement for sin, and by the communication of the Holy Spirit.
III. UNDER THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE LORD JESUS, THE PURPOSE OF MERCY SHALL BE PERFECTLY AND TRIUMPHANTLY ACCOMPLISHED. The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.
1. The certainty of the accomplishment must appear from the mere existence of a Divine purpose to that effect. The supreme majesty of the perfections of God itself secures the fulfilment of whatever He has designed.
2. The certainty rests upon the inherent excellency of His own character and work. The proper deity of the Lord Jesus Christ renders failure in His work impossible.
3. We observe the Divine assurances solemnly pledged to that effect. Besides general declarations to which we might easily appeal there are recorded assurances addressed by the Father to the Son in His mediatorial capacity respecting the exaltation He was to receive as a specific recompense of the shame and suffering which on behalf of men He had endured. (J. Parsons.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 10. To grief – “With affliction”] For hecheli, the verb, the construction of which seems to be hard and inelegant in this place, the Vulgate reads bocholi, in infirmitate, “with infirmity.”
When thou shalt make his soul – “If his soul shall make”] For tasim, a MS. has tasem, which may be taken passively, “If his soul shall be made – “agreeably to some copies of the Septuagint, which have . See likewise the Syriac.
When thou shalt make his soul an offering] The word nephesh, soul, is frequently used in Hebrew to signify life. Throughout the New Testament the salvation of men is uniformly attributed to the death of Christ.
He shall see his seed] True converts, genuine Christians.
He shall prolong his days] Or this spiritual progeny shall prolong their days, i.e., Christianity shall endure to the end of time.
And the pleasure of the Lord] To have all men saved and brought to the knowledge of the truth.
Shall prosper in his hand.] Shall go on in a state of progressive prosperity; and so completely has this been thus far accomplished, that every succeeding century has witnessed more Christianity in the world than the preceding, or any former one.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; but although he was perfectly innocent, it pleased God for other just and wise reasons to punish him.
He hath put him to grief; God was the principal Cause of all his sorrows and sufferings, although mens sins were the deserving cause.
When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin; when thou, O God, shalt make, or have made, thy Son a sacrifice, by giving him up to death for the atonement of mens sins. His
soul is here put for his life, or for himself, or his whole human nature, which was sacrificed; his soul being tormented with the sense of Gods wrath, and his body crucified, and soul and body separated by death. Or the words may be rendered, when his soul shall make, or have made, itself
an offering for sin; whereby it may be implied that he did not lay down his life by force, but willingly.
He shall see his seed; his death shall be glorious to himself, and highly beneficial to others; for he shall have a numerous issue of believers reconciled to God, and saved by his death.
He shall prolong his days; he shall be raised to immortal life, and shall live and reign with God for ever; he shall die no more, Ro 6 9, and of his kingdom there shall be no end, Luk 1:33.
The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand; Gods gracious decree for the redemption and salvation of mankind shall be effectually carried on by his ministry and mediation.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
10. Transition from Hishumiliation to His exaltation.
pleased the Lordthesecret of His sufferings. They were voluntarily borne by Messiah, inorder that thereby He might “do Jehovah’s will“(Joh 6:38; Heb 10:7;Heb 10:9), as to man’sredemption; so at the end of the verse, “the pleasure of theLORD shall prosper in Hishand.”
bruise(see Isa53:5); Ge 3:15, was herebyfulfilled, though the Hebrew word for “bruise,”there, is not the one used here. The word “Himself,” inMatthew, implies a personal bearing on Himself of ourmaladies, spiritual and physical, which included as a consequenceHis ministration to our bodily ailments: these latter are the reverseside of sin; His bearing on Him our spiritual malady involved with itHis bearing sympathetically, and healing, the outward: which is itsfruits and its type. HENGSTENBERGrightly objects to MAGEE’Stranslation, “taken away,” instead of “borne,”that the parallelism to “carried” would be destroyed.Besides, the Hebrew word elsewhere, when connected with sin,means to bear it and its punishment (Eze18:20). Matthew, elsewhere, also sets forth His vicariousatonement (Mt 20:28).
when thou, c.rather,as Margin, “when His soul (that is, He) shall have madean offering,” &c. In the English Version the changeof person is harsh: from Jehovah, addressed in the second person (Isa53:10), to Jehovah speaking in the first person in Isa53:11. The Margin rightly makes the prophet in the name ofJehovah Himself to speak in this verse.
offering for sin(Rom 3:25 1Jn 2:2;1Jn 4:10).
his seedHis spiritualposterity shall be numerous (Ps22:30); nay, more, though He must die, He shall see them.A numerous posterity was accounted a high blessing among the Hebrews;still more so, for one to live to see them (Gen 48:11;Psa 128:6).
prolong . . . daysalsoesteemed a special blessing among the Jews (Ps91:16). Messiah shall, after death, rise again to an endless life(Hos 6:2; Rom 6:9).
prosper (Isa52:13, Margin).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him,…. The sufferings of Christ are signified by his being “bruised”; [See comments on Isa 53:5], and as it was foretold he should have his heel bruised by the serpent, Ge 3:15, but here it is ascribed to the Lord: he was bruised in body, when buffeted and scourged, and nailed to the cross; and was bruised and broken in spirit, when the sins of his people were laid on him, and the wrath of God came upon him for them: the Lord had a hand in his sufferings; he not only permitted them, but they were according to the counsel of his will; they were predetermined by him, Ac 2:23, yea, they were pleasing to him, he took a kind of delight and pleasure in them; not in them simply considered as sufferings, but as they were an accomplishment of his purposes, a fulfilment of his covenant and promises, and of the prophecies in his word; and, particularly, as hereby the salvation of his people was brought about; see Joh 10:17:
he hath put [him] to grief; when he awoke the sword of justice against him; when he spared him not, but delivered him up into the hands of wicked men, and unto death: he was put to grief in the garden, when his soul was exceeding sorrowful; and on the cross, when he was nailed to it, had the weight of his people’s sins, and his Father’s wrath, on him; and when he hid his face from him, which made him cry out, “my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” or, “hath put [him] to pain”: suffered him to be put to pain, both in body and mind:
when thou shall make his soul an offering for sin: not his soul only, but his body also, even his whole human nature, as in union with his divine Person; for it was he himself that was offered up in the room and stead of his people, to make atonement and satisfaction for their sins, Heb 9:14, or, “when thou shalt make his soul sin” z; so Christ was made by imputation, 2Co 5:21, and when he was so made, or had the sins of his people imputed to him, then was he bruised, and put to pain and grief, in order to finish them, and make an end of them, and make reconciliation for them: or, “when his soul shall make an offering” a “for sin”, or “sin” itself; make itself an offering; for Christ offered up himself freely and voluntarily; he gave himself an offering and a sacrifice to God, for a sweetsmelling savour, Eph 5:2, he was altar, sacrifice, and priest.
He shall see his seed; or, “a seed”; a spiritual seed and offspring; a large number of souls, that shall be born again, of incorruptible seed, as the fruit of his sufferings and death; see Joh 12:24, this he presently began to see after his resurrection from the dead, and ascension to heaven; when great numbers were converted among the Jews, and after that multitudes in the Gentile world, and more or less in all ages; ever since has he had a seed to serve him; and so he will in the latter day, and to the end of time:
he shall prolong his days: live long, throughout all ages, to all eternity; though he was dead, he is alive, and lives for evermore; lives to see all the children that the Father gave him, and he has gathered together by his death, when scattered abroad, and see them all born again, and brought to glory. Some connect this with the preceding clause, “he shall see a seed that shall prolong its days” b; for Christ will never want issue, his church will never fail, his seed will endure for ever, Ps 89:29. So the Targum, paraphrasing the words of Christ and his seed,
“they shall see the kingdom of their Messiah; they shall multiply sons and daughters; they shall prolong their days:”
and so Aben Ezra says these words are spoken of the generation that shall return to God, and to the true religion, at the coming of the Messiah.
And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand; the work of man’s redemption, put into the hands of Christ, which he undertook to accomplish; which was with him and before him, when he came into this world, and was his meat and drink to do; this he never left till he had finished it; so that it succeeded and prospered with him: and this may well be called “the pleasure of the Lord”; it was the good pleasure of his will; it was what he purposed and resolved; what his heart was set upon, and was well pleasing to him, as effected by his Son. Likewise the setting up of the kingdom and interest of Christ in the world, and the continuance and increase of it; the ministry of the word, and the success of that as the means thereof, may be also meant; for the Gospel will be preached, and a Gospel church still continued, until all the elect of God are gathered in.
z “quum posueris delictum animam ejus”, De Dieu. a “Ubi posuit satisfactionis pretium anima ejus”, Cocceius; “si posuerit delictum sua anima”, Montanus. b “videbit semen quod prolongabit dies”, Cocceius; “videbit semen longaevum”, V. L.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The last turn in the prophecy, which commences here, carries out Isa 53:6 still further, and opens up the background of His fate. The gracious counsel of God for our salvation was accomplished thus. “And it pleased Jehovah to bruise Him, to afflict Him with disease; if His soul would pay a trespass-offering, He should see posterity, should live long days, and the purpose of Jehovah should prosper through His hand.” cannot possibly be equivalent to , as Hitzig supposes. An article appended to a noun never obliterates the fundamental character of its form (not even in ). Nor does Bttcher’s suggestion, that we should read as an accusative of more precise definition, commend itself; for what would the article do in that case? It is the hiphil of , like the Syriac agil from g e lo ; or rather, as even in Syriac this is equivalent to , of , 2Ch 16:12 (cf., ), like in 2Ki 13:6 and Jer 32:35, from . is placed under ) (= with Dag. dirimens) in Gesenius’ Lexicon; but this substantive is a needless fiction. is an inf. piel: conterere eum (Jerome), not (lxx from ) = ). According to Mic 6:13 ( , I hurt to smite thee, i.e., I smite thee with a painful blow), are apparently connected, in the sense of “And it pleased Jehovah to bruise Him painfully.” But both logically and syntactically this would require the opposite construction, viz., . must therefore be an infinitive, depending upon , according to Job 33:32 (= ; the lxx thoughtlessly renders it ). The infinitive construction is then changed into the finite; for even is subordinate to , as in Hos 5:11 (cf., Isa 42:21; Ges. 142, 3); “he would, made ill,” being equivalent to “he would make ill,” i.e., he would plunge into distress. There is no necessity to repeat after , in the sense of “he caused sore evil therewith,” viz., with the . It was men who inflicted upon the Servant of God such crushing suffering, such deep sorrow; but the supreme causa efficiens in the whole was God, who made the sin of men subservient to His pleasure, His will, and predetermined counsel. The suffering of His Servant was to be to Him the way to glory, and this way of His through suffering to glory was to lead to the establishment of a church of the redeemed, which would spring from Him; in other words, it would become the commencement of that fulfilment of the divine plan of salvation which He, the ever-living, ever-working One, would carry out to completion. We give up the idea that is to be taken as addressed by Jehovah to “His Servant.” The person acting is the Servant, and it is to Jehovah that the action refers. But Hofmann’s present view, viz., that tasm is addressed to the people, is still less admissible. It is the people who are speaking here; and although the confession of the penitent Israel runs on from Isa 53:11 (where the confessing retrospective view of the past becomes prospective and prophetic glance at the future) in a direct prophetic tone, and Isa 53:10 might form the transition to this; yet, if the people were addressed in this word tasm , it would be absolutely necessary that it should be distinctly mentioned in this connection. And is it really Israel which makes the soul of the Servant an ‘ asham , and not rather the Servant Himself? No doubt it is true, that if nothing further were stated here than that “the people made the life of the Servant of God an ‘ asham , inasmuch as it treated Him just as if it had a pricking in its conscience so long as it suffered Him to live,” – which is a natural sequel in Hofmann’s case to his false assumption, that the passion described in Isa 53:1-12 was merely the culminating point in the sufferings which the Servant was called to endure as a prophet, whereas the prophet falls into the background here behind the sacrifice and the priest – we should no doubt have one scriptural testimony less to support the satisfactio vicaria .
(Note: In the first edition of Hofmann’s Schriftbeweis (i. 2, 137), in which he regarded tasm as addressed to God, he set aside the orthodox view with the remark, that God Himself makes good the injury that men have done to Him by giving up the life of His Servant. In the second edition (i. 2, 208) he supposes the people to be addressed, and it is therefore the people who make the Servant’s life an ‘ asham . The first edition contained the following correct definition of ‘ asham : “In general, it denotes what one person pays to make good an injury done by him to another.” The exposition which follows above will show how we are forced to adopt the orthodox view, if we adhere to this definition and regard the Servant Himself as presenting the ‘ asham .)
But if we adopt the following rendering, which is the simplest, and the one least open to exception: if His soul offered (placed, i.e., should have placed; cf., Job 14:14, si mortuus fuerit ) an ‘ asham – it is evident that ‘ asham has here a sacrificial meaning, and indeed a very definite one, inasmuch as the ‘ asham (the trespass-offering) was a sacrifice, the character of which was very sharply defined. It is self-evident, however, that the ‘ asham paid by the soul of the Servant must consist in the sacrifice of itself, since He pays it by submitting to a violent death; and a sacrifice presented by the nephesh (the soul, the life, the very self) must be not only one which proceeds from itself, but one which consists in itself. If, then, we would understand the point of view in which the self-sacrifice of the Servant of God is placed when it is called an ‘ asham , we must notice very clearly the characteristic distinction between this kind of sacrifice and every other. Many of the ritual distinctions, however, may be indicated superficially, inasmuch as they have no bearing upon the present subject, where we have to do with an antitypical and personal sacrifice, and not with a typical and animal one. The ‘ asham was a sanctissimum , like that of the sin-offering (Lev 6:10, Lev 6:17, and Lev 14:13), and according to Lev 7:7 there was “one law” for them both. This similarity in the treatment was restricted simply to the fact, that the fat portions of the trespass-offering, as well as of the sin-offering, were placed upon the altar, and that the remainder, as in the case of those sin-offerings the blood of which was not taken into the interior of the holy place, was assigned to the priests and to the male members of the priestly families (see Lev 6:22; Lev 7:6). There were the following points of contrast, however, between these two kinds of sacrifice: (1.) The material of the sin-offerings varied considerably, consisting sometimes of a bullock, sometimes of a pair of doves, and even of meal without oil or incense; whereas the trespass-offering always consisted of a ram, or at any rate of a male sheep. (2.) The choice of the victim, and the course adopted with its blood, was regulated in the case of the sin-offering according to the condition of the offerer; but in the case of the trespass-offering they were neither of them affected by this in the slightest degree. (3.) Sin-offerings were presented by the congregation, and upon holy days, whereas trespass-offerings were only presented by individuals, and never upon holy days. (4.) In connection with the trespass-offering there was none of the smearing of the blood ( n e thnah ) or of the sprinkling of the blood ( hazza’ah ) connected with the sin-offering, and the pouring out of the blood at the foot of the altar ( sh e phkhah ) is never mentioned.The ritual for the blood consisted purely in the swinging out of the blood ( z e rqah ), as in the case of the whole offering and of the peace-offerings. There is only one instance in which the blood of the trespass-offering is ordered to be smeared, viz., upon certain portions of the body of the leper (Lev 14:14), for which the blood of the sin-offering that was to be applied exclusively to the altar could not be used. And in general we find that, in the case of the trespass-offering, instead of the altar-ritual, concerning which the law is very brief (Lev 7:1-7), other acts that are altogether peculiar to it are brought prominently into the foreground (Lev 5:14.; Num 5:5-8). These are all to be accounted for from the fact that a trespass-offering was to be presented by the man who had unintentionally laid hands upon anything holy, e.g., the tithes or first-fruits, or who had broken any commandment of God “in ignorance” (if indeed this is to be taken as the meaning of the expression “and wist it not” in Lev 5:17-19); also by the man who had in any way defrauded his neighbour (which was regarded as unfaithfulness towards Jehovah), provided he anticipated it by a voluntary confession – this included the violation of another’s conjugal rights in the case of a bondmaid (Lev 19:20-22); also by a leper or a Nazarite defiled by contact with a corpse, at the time of their purification, because their uncleanness involved the neglect and interruption of the duties of worship which they were bound to observe. Wherever a material restitution was possible, it was to be made with the addition of a fifth; and in the one case mentioned in Lev 19:20-22, the trespass-offerings was admissible even after a judicial punishment had been inflicted. But in every case the guilty person had to present the animal of the trespass-offering “according to thy valuation, O priest, in silver shekels,” i.e., according to the priests’ taxation, and in holy coin. Such was the prominence given to the person of the priest in the ritual of the trespass-offering. In the sin-offering the priest is always the representative of the offerer; but in the trespass-offering he is generally the representative of God. The trespass-offering was a restitution or compensation made to God in the person of the priest, a payment or penance which made amends for the wrong done, a satisfactio in a disciplinary sense. And this is implied in the name; for just as denotes first the sin, then the punishment of the sin and the expiation of the sin, and hence the sacrifice which cancels the sin; so ‘ asham signifies first the guilt or debt, then the compensation or penance, and hence (cf., Lev 5:15) the sacrifice which discharges the debt or guilt, and sets the man free.
Every species of sacrifice had its own primary idea. The fundamental idea of the olah (burnt-offering) was oblatio , or the offering of worship; that of the sh e lamm (peace-offerings), conciliatio , or the knitting of fellowship that of the m inchah (meat-offering), donatio , or sanctifying consecration; that of the c hatta ‘th (sin-offering), expiatio , or atonement; that of the ‘ asham (trespass-offering), m ulcta ( satisfactio ), or a compensatory payment. The self-sacrifice of the Servant of Jehovah may be presented under all these points of view. It is the complete antitype, the truth, the object, and the end of all the sacrifices. So far as it is the antitype of the “whole offering,” the central point in its antitypical character is to be found in the offering of His entire personality ( , Heb 10:10) to God for a sweet smelling savour (Eph 5:2); so far as it is the antitype of the sin-offering, in the shedding of His blood (Heb 9:13-14), the “blood of sprinkling” (Heb 12:24; 1Pe 1:2); so far as it is the antitype of the sh e lamm , and especially of the passover, in the sacramental participation in His one self-sacrifice, which He grants to us in His courts, thus applying to us His own redeeming work, and confirming our fellowship of peace with God (Heb 13:10; 1Co 5:7), since the sh e lamm derive their name from shalom , pax, communio ; so far as it is the antitype of the trespass-offering, in the equivalent rendered to the justice of God for the sacrileges of our sins. The idea of compensatory payment, which Hofmann extends to the whole sacrifice, understanding by kipper the covering of the guilt in the sense of a debt ( debitum ), is peculiar to the ‘ asham ; and at the same time an idea, which Hofmann cannot find in the sacrifices, is expressed here in the most specific manner, viz., that of satisfaction demanded by the justice of God, and of paena outweighing the guilt contracted (cf., nirtsah , Isa 40:2); in other words, the idea of satisfactio vicaria in the sense of Anselm is brought out most distinctly here, where the soul of the Servant of God is said to present such an atoning sacrifice for the whole, that is to say, where He offers Himself as such a sacrifice by laying down the life so highly valued by God (Isa 42:1; Isa 49:5). As the verb most suitable to the idea of the ‘ asham the writer selects the verb sm , which is generally used to denote the giving of a pledge (Job 17:3), and is therefore the most suitable word for every kind of satisfactio that represents a direct solutio . The apodoses to “if His soul shall have paid the penalty ( paenam or mulctam )” are expressed in the future, and therefore state what would take place when the former should have been done. He should see posterity (vid., Gen 50:23; Job 42:16), i.e., should become possessed of a large family of descendants stretching far and wide. The reference here is to the new “seed of Israel,” the people redeemed by Him, the church of the redeemed out of Israel and all nations, of which He would lay the foundation. Again, He should live long days, as He says in Rev 1:18, “I was dead, and, behold, I am alive for evermore.”
(Note: Knobel observes here: “The statement that a person first offers himself as a trespass-offering, and then still lives for a long time, and still continues working, is a very striking one; but it may be explained on the ground that the offerer is a plurality.” But how are we to explain the striking expression in our creed, “rose again from the dead?”)
Thirdly, the pleasure of Jehovah should prosper “in His hand,” i.e., through the service of His mediation, or (according to the primary meaning of tsalach ) should go on advancing incessantly, and pressing on to the final goal. His self-sacrifice, therefore, merely lays the foundation for a progressively self-realizing “pleasure of the Lord,” i.e., (cf., Isa 44:28) for the realization of the purpose of God according to His determinate counsel, the fuller description of which we had in chapters 42 and 49, where it was stated that He should be the mediator of a new covenant, and the restorer of Israel, the light of the Gentiles and salvation of Jehovah even to the ends of the earth.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Exaltation of the Messiah; The Triumph of the Messiah. | B. C. 706. |
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, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. 11 He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. 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.
In the foregoing verses the prophet had testified very particularly of the sufferings of Christ, yet mixing some hints of the happy issue of them; here he again mentions his sufferings, but largely foretels the glory that should follow. We may observe, in these verses,
I. The services and sufferings of Christ’s state of humiliation. Come, and see how he loved us, see what he did for us.
1. He submitted to the frowns of Heaven (v. 10): Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him, to put him to pain, or torment, or grief. The scripture nowhere says that Christ is his sufferings underwent the wrath of God; but it says here, (1.) That the Lord bruised him, not only permitted men to bruise him, but awakened his own sword against him, Zech. xiii. 7. They esteemed him smitten of God for some very great sin of his own (v. 4); now it was true that he was smitten of God, but it was for our sin; the Lord bruised him, for he did not spare him, but delivered him up for us all, Rom. viii. 32. He it was that put the bitter cup into his hand, and obliged him to drink it (John xviii. 11), having laid upon him our iniquity. He it was that made him sin and a curse for us, and turned to ashes all his burnt-offering, in token of the acceptance of it, Ps. xx. 3. (2.) That he bruised him so as to put him to grief. Christ accommodated himself to this dispensation, and received the impressions of grief from his Father’s delivering him up; and he was troubled to such a degree that it put him into an agony, and he began to be amazed and very heavy. (3.) It pleased the Lord to do this. He determined to do it; it was the result of an eternal counsel; and he delighted in it, as it was an effectual method for the salvation of man and the securing and advancing of the honour of God.
2. He substituted himself in the room of sinners, as a sacrifice. He made his soul an offering for sin; he himself explains this (Matt. xx. 28), that he came to give his life a ransom for many. When men brought bulls and goats as sacrifices for sin they made them offerings, for they had an interest in them, God having put them under the feet of man. But Christ made himself an offering; it was his own act and deed. We could not put him in our stead, but he put himself, and said, Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit, in a higher sense than David said, or could say it. “Father, I commit my soul to thee, I deposit it in thy hands, as the life of a sacrifice and the price of pardons.” Thus he shall bear the iniquities of the many that he designed to justify (v. 11), shall take away the sin of the world by taking it upon himself, John i. 29. This mentioned again (v. 12): He bore the sin of many, who, if they had borne it themselves, would have been sunk by it to the lowest hell. See how this dwelt upon; for, whenever we think of the sufferings of Christ, we must see him in them bearing our sin.
3. He subjected himself to that which to us is the wages of sin (v. 12): He has poured out his soul unto death, poured it out as water, so little account did he make of it, when the laying of it down was the appointed means of our redemption and salvation. He loved not his life unto the death, and his followers, the martyrs, did likewise, Rev. xii. 11. Or, rather, he poured it out as a drink-offering, to make his sacrifice complete, poured it out as wine, that his blood might be drink indeed, as his flesh is meat indeed to all believers. There was not only a colliquation of his body in his sufferings (Ps. xxii. 14, I am poured out like water), but a surrender of his spirit; he poured out that, even unto death, though he is the Lord of life.
4. He suffered himself to be ranked with sinners, and yet offered himself to be an intercessor for sinners, v. 12. (1.) It was a great aggravation of his sufferings that he was numbered with transgressors, that he was not only condemned as a malefactor, but executed in company with two notorious malefactors, and he in the midst, as if he had been the worst of the three, in which circumstance of his suffering, the evangelist tells us, this prophecy was fulfilled, Mar 15:27; Mar 15:28. Nay, the vilest malefactor of all, Barabbas, who was a traitor, a thief, and a murderer, was put in election with him for the favour of the people, and carried it; for they would not have Jesus released, but Barabbas. In his whole life he was numbered among the transgressors; for he was called and accounted a sabbath-breaker, a drunkard, and a friend to publicans and sinners. (2.) It was a great commendation of his sufferings, and redounded very much to his honour, that in his sufferings he made intercession for the transgressors, for those that reviled and crucified him; for he prayed, Father, forgive them, thereby showing, not only that he forgave them, but that he was now doing that upon which their forgiveness, and the forgiveness of all other transgressors, were to be founded. That prayer was the language of his blood, crying, not for vengeance, but for mercy, and therein it speaks better things than that of Abel, even for those who with wicked hands shed it.
II. The grace and glories of his state of exaltation; and the graces he confers on us are not the least of the glories conferred on him. These are secured to him by the covenant of redemption, which these verses give us some idea of. He promises to make his soul an offering for sin, consents that the Father shall deliver him up, and undertakes to bear the sin of many, in consideration of which the Father promises to glorify him, not only with the glory he had, as God, before the world was (John xvii. 5), but with the glories of the Mediator.
1. He shall have the glory of an everlasting Father. Under this title he was brought into the world (ch. ix. 6), and he shall not fail to answer the title when he goes out of the world. This was the promise made to Abraham (who herein was a type of Christ), that he should be the father of many nations and so be the heir of the world,Rom 4:13; Rom 4:17. As he was the root of the Jewish church, and the covenant was made with him and his seed, so is Christ of the universal church and with him and his spiritual seed is the covenant of grace made, which is grounded upon and grafted in the covenant of redemption, which here we have some of the glorious promises of. It is promised,
(1.) That the Redeemer shall have a seed to serve him and to bear up his name, Ps. xxii. 30. True believers are the seed of Christ; the Father gave them to him to be so, John xvii. 6. He died to purchase and purify them to himself, fell to the ground as a corn of wheat, that he might bring forth much fruit, John xii. 24. The word, that incorruptible see, of which they are born again, is his word; the Spirit, the great author of their regeneration, is his Spirit; and it is his image that is impressed upon them.
(2.) That he shall live to see his seed. Christ’s children have a living Father, and because he lives they shall live also, for he is their life. Though he died, he rose again, and left not his children orphans, but took effectual care to secure to them the spirit, the blessing, and the inheritance of sons. He shall see a great increase of them; the word is plural, He shall see his seeds, multitudes of them, so many that they cannot be numbered.
(3.) That he shall himself continue to take care of the affairs of this numerous family: He shall prolong his days. Many, when they see their seed, their seed’s seed, wish to depart in peace; but Christ will not commit the care of his family to any other, no, he shall himself live long, and of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, for he ever lives. Some refer it to believers: He shall see a seed that shall prolong its days, agreeing with Psa 89:29; Psa 89:36, His seed shall endure for ever. While the world stands Christ will have a church in it, which he himself will be the life of.
(4.) That his great undertaking shall be successful and shall answer expectation: The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. God’s purposes shall take effect, and not one iota or tittle of them shall fail. Note, [1.] The work of man’s redemption is in the hands of the Lord Jesus, and it is in good hands. It is well for us that it is in his, for our own hands are not sufficient for us, but he is able to save to the uttermost. It is in his hands who upholds all things. [2.] It is the good pleasure of the Lord, which denotes not only his counsel concerning it, but his complacency in it; and therefore God loved him, and was well pleased in him, because he undertook to lay down his life for the sheep. [3.] It has prospered hitherto, and shall prosper, whatever obstructions or difficulties have been, or may be, in the way of it. Whatever is undertaken according to God’s pleasure shall prosper, ch. xlvi. 10. Cyrus, a type of Christ, shall perform all God’s pleasure (ch. xliv. 28), and therefore, no doubt, Christ shall. Christ was so perfectly well qualified for his undertaking, and prosecuted it with so much vigour, and it was from first to last so well devised, that it could not fail to prosper, to the honour of his Father and the salvation of all his seed.
(5.) That he shall himself have abundant satisfaction in it (v. 11): He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied. He shall see it beforehand (so it may be understood); he shall with the prospect of his sufferings have a prospect of the fruit, and he shall be satisfied with the bargain. He shall see it when it is accomplished in the conversion and salvation of poor sinners. Note, [1.] Our Lord Jesus was in travail of soul for our redemption and salvation, in great pain, but with longing desire to be delivered, and all the pains and throes he underwent were in order to it and hastened it on. [2.] Christ does and will see the blessed fruit of the travail of his soul in the founding and building up of his church and the eternal salvation of all that were given him. He will not come short of his end in any part of his work, but will himself see that he has not laboured in vain. [3.] The salvation of souls is a great satisfaction to the Lord Jesus. He will reckon all his pains well bestowed, and himself abundantly recompensed, if the many sons be by him brought through grace to glory. Let him have this, and he has enough. God will be glorified, penitent believers will be justified, and then Christ will be satisfied. Thus, in conformity to Christ, it should be a satisfaction to us if we can do any thing to serve the interests of God’s kingdom in the world. Let it always be our meat and drink, as it was Christ’s, to do God’s will.
2. He shall have the glory of bringing in an everlasting righteousness; for so it was foretold concerning him, Dan. ix. 24. And here, to the same purport, By his knowledge (the knowledge of him, and faith in him) shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear the sins of many, and so lay a foundation for our justification from sin. Note, (1.) The great privilege that flows to us from the death of Christ is justification from sin, our being acquitted from that guilt which alone can ruin us, and accepted into God’s favour, which alone can make us happy. (2.) Christ, who purchased our justification for us, applies it to us, by his intercession made for us, his gospel preached to us, and his Spirit witnessing in us. The Son of man had power even on earth to forgive sin. (3.) There are many whom Christ justifies, not all (multitudes perish in their sins), yet many, even as many as he gave his life a ransom for, as many as the Lord our God shall call. He shall justify not here and there one that is eminent and remarkable, but those of the many, the despised multitude. (4.) It is by faith that we are justified, by our consent to Christ and the covenant of grace; in this way we are saved, because thus God is most glorified, free grace most advanced, self most abased, and our happiness most effectually secured. (5.) Faith is the knowledge of Christ, and without knowledge there can be no true faith. Christ’s way of gaining the will and affections is by enlightening the understanding and bringing that unfeignedly to assent to divine truths. (6.) That knowledge of Christ, and that faith in him, by which we are justified, have reference to him both as a servant to God and as a surety for us. [1.] As one that is employed for God to pursue his designs and secure and advance the interests of his glory. “He is my righteous servant, and as such justifies men.” God has authorized and appointed him to do it; it is according to God’s will and for his honour that he does it. He is himself righteous, and of his righteousness have all we received. He that is himself righteous (for he could not have made atonement for our sin if he had had any sin of his own to answer for) is made of God to us righteousness, the Lord our righteousness. [2.] As one that has undertaken for us. We must know him, and believe in him, as one that bore our iniquities–saved us from sinking under the load by taking it upon himself.
3. He shall have the glory of obtaining an incontestable victory and universal dominion, v. 12. Because he has done all these good services, therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and, according to the will of the Father, he shall divide the spoil with the strong, as a great general, when he has driven the enemy out of the field, takes the plunder of it for himself and his army, which is both an unquestionable evidence of the victory and a recompense for all the toils and perils of the battle. Note, (1.) God the Father has engaged to reward the services and sufferings of Christ with great glory: “I will set him among the great, highly exalt him, and give him a name above every name.” Great riches are also assigned to him: He shall divide the spoil, shall have abundance of graces and comforts to bestow upon all his faithful soldiers. (2.) Christ comes at his glory by conquest. He has set upon the strong man armed, dispossessed him, and divided the spoil. He has vanquished principalities and powers, sin and Satan, death and hell, the world and the flesh; these are the strong that he has disarmed and taken the spoil of. (3.) Much of the glory with which Christ is recompensed, and the spoil which he has divided, consists in the vast multitudes of willing, faithful, loyal subjects, that shall be brought in to him; for so some read it: I will give many to him, and he shall obtain many for a spoil. God will give him the heathen for his inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession, Ps. ii. 8. His dominion shall be from sea to sea. Many shall be wrought upon by the grace of God to give up themselves to him to be ruled, and taught, and saved by him, and hereby he shall reckon himself honoured, and enriched, and abundantly recompensed for all he did and all he suffered. (4.) What God designed for the Redeemer he shall certainly gain the possession of: “I will divide it to him,” and immediately it follows, He shall divide it, notwithstanding the opposition that is given to him; for, as Christ finished the work that was given him to do, so God completed the recompence that was promised him for it; for he is both able and faithful. (5.) The spoil which God divided to Christ he divides (it is the same word), he distributes, among his followers; for, when he led captivity captive, he received gifts for men, that he might give gifts to men; for as he has told us (Acts xx. 35) he did himself reckon it more blessed and honourable to give than to receive. Christ conquered for us, and through him we are more than conquerors. He has divided the spoils, the fruits of his conquest, to all that are his: let us therefore cast in our lot among them.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Vs. 10-12: FULFILLING THE FATHER’S WILL
1. The prophecy concerning the Suffering Servant reaches its glorious climax in these last three verses.
2. The perplexing mystery of God’s treatment of His righteous Servant is solved ONLY when it is understood that the sinless One is offering His LIFE (soul) as an OFFERING for our sins, (vs. 10).
a. Here is the prophetic explanation of what the suffering is all about.
b. God has purposed that His Servant should be bruised and put to grief – His soul (life) sacrificed as an offering for the sin of a fallen race, (Joh 3:16; 1Jn 4:10).
a. Here is the prophetic explanation of what the suffering is all about.
b. God has purposed that His Servant should be bruised and put to grief – His soul (life) sacrificed as an offering for the sin of a fallen race, (Joh 3:16; 1Jn 4:10).
c. But such an ignominious death will, by no means, be the END of the Servant; His work will have only begun. Following the voluntary sacrifice of His own life:
1) He will see His seed (offspring) – those who are redeemed and set in positions of divine sonship through His sufferings and death, (Rev 1:5-6; Rev 5:9-10; Gal 3:26).
2) He will prolong His days – being made alive FOREVERMORE, (Joh 10:15; John 17-18; Rev 1:18).
3) And the eternal purpose of the Father will progressively move forward under His control; this involves His present mediatoral work as our great High Priest, and will ultimately involve His exercise of universal dominion as King of kings and Lord of lords in His coming Kingdom of righteousness, (Php_2:9-11; Heb 4:14-16; Dan 7:13-14; Joh 5:26-27; Mat 28:18; 1Co 15:24-26).
3. It is a heavenly voice that one hears in verse 11; the Father declares His pleasure in, and the reward that is to be bestowed upon, His obedient Servant and Son!
a. It is the Servant Himself who shall see the realization of that for which His soul was in travail – the glorious FRUITION of His suffering, wherein He will find great satisfaction.
b. By His knowledge (or, through the knowledge of Himself; Joh 17:3; 1Jn 5:20; comp. 1Pe 1:3) the Servant will “justify many”; that is, He will positively DECLARE them to be RIGHTEOUS.
1) It is strange that both translators and commentators are so careless and inconsistent in their dealings with the word “justification – often forcing upon it the idea of “making righteous” or a bestowing of righteousness.
2) However, it is primarily a JUDICIAL word – contrasted with, and set as the very antithesis of, “condemnation”, (Rom 5:18).
3) Instead of being something that HAPPENS to a person, it involves a DECLARATION CONCERNING HIM – concerning the character of his living; justification is “of life” (Rom 5:18), and is always God’s response to the attitudes and actions of men which spring from faith, (Rom 5:1; Gal 2:16; Gal 3:24; etc.)
4) Justification is possible because the righteous Servant has borne our iniquities – being “made sin” for us, that we might “be made the righteousness of God” IN HIM, (2Co 5:21; Rom 3:20-30).
4. In whatever way one may choose to explain the first two clauses of verse 11, it is the glorious climax of this prophecy; He who was despised, rejected and crucified of men is to be so divinely exalted that the whole earth will see His glory and acknowledge His rightful lordship – as He leads a host of captives (delivered through His blood) in His train!
5. The foundation of such exaltation and dominion is in the faithful fulfillment of His Servant-role wherein He:
a. Poured out His soul (life) unto death, (Luk 9:23-25; comp. (Luk 2:48-52).
b. Was numbered (reckoned, counted) with the transgressors, (Luk 22:35-38).
c. Bare the sins of many.
1) Symbolically previewed in the “scapegoat” which, figuratively, carried the sins of the covenant nation into a solitary land, (Lev 16:7-10).
2) But, John the Baptist recognized Him, at the very beginning of His earthly ministry, as “the lamb of God” who would take away “the sin of the world”! (Joh 1:29).
d. Yet, He is now ALIVE FOREVERMORE – to “make intercession FOR THE TRANSGRESSORS! (Heb 4:14-16; Heb 7:25).
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
10. Yet Jehovah was pleased to bruise him. This illustrates more fully what I formerly stated in few words, that the Prophet, in asserting Christ’s innocence, aims at something more than to defend him from all reproach. The object therefore is, that we should consider the cause, in order to have experience of the effect; for God appoints nothing at random, and hence it follows that the cause of his death is lawful. We must also keep in view the contrast. In Christ there was no fault; why, then, was the Lord pleased that he should suffer? Because he stood in our room, and in no other way than by his death could the justice of God be satisfied.
When he shall have offered his soul as a sacrifice. אשם (asham) (54) denotes both sin and the sacrifice which is offered for sin, and is often used in the latter sense in the Scriptures. (Exo 29:14; Eze 45:22) (55) The sacrifice was offered in such a manner as to expiate sin by enduring its punishment and curse. This was expressed by the priests by means of the laying on of hands, as if they threw on the sacrifice the sins of the whole nation. (Exo 29:15) And if a private individual offered a sacrifice, he also laid his hand upon it, as if he threw upon it his own sin. Our sins were thrown upon Christ in such a manner that he alone bore the curse.
On this account Paul also calls him a “curse” or “execration:” “Christ hath redeemed us from the execration of the law, having been made an execration for us.” (Gal 3:13) He likewise calls him “Sin;” “For him who knew no sin hath he made to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” (2Co 5:21) And in another passage, “For what was impossible for the law, inasmuch as it was weak on account of the flesh, God did, by sending his own Son in the likeness of flesh liable to sin, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us.” (Rom 8:3) What Paul meant by the words “curse” and “sin” in these passages is the same as what the Prophet meant by the word אשם, (asham.) In short, אשם (asham) is equivalent to the Latin word piaculum, (56) an expiatory sacrifice.
Here we have a description of the benefit of Christ’s death, that by his sacrifice sins were expiated, and God was reconciled towards men; for such is the import of this word אשם, (asham.) Hence it follows that nowhere but in Christ is found expiation and satisfaction for sin. In order to understand this better, we must first know that we are guilty before God, so that we may be accursed and detestable in his presence. Now, if we wish to return to a state of favor with him, sin must be taken away. This cannot be accomplished by sacrifices contrived according to the fancy of men. Consequently, we must come to the death of Christ; for in no other way can satisfaction be given to God. In short, Isaiah teaches that sins cannot be pardoned in any other way than by betaking ourselves to the death of Christ. If any person think that this language is harsh and disrespectful to Christ, let him descend into himself, and, after a close examination, let him ponder how dreadful is the judgment of God, which could not be pacified but by this price; and thus the inestimable grace which shines forth in making Christ accursed will easily remove every ground of offense.
He shall see his seed. Isaiah means that the death of Christ not only can be no hinderance to his having a seed, but will be the cause of his having offspring; that is, because, by quickening the dead, he will procure a people for himself, whom he will afterwards multiply more and more; and there is no absurdity in giving the appellation of Christ’s seed to all believers, who are also brethren, because they are descended from Christ.
He shall prolong his days. To this clause some supply the relative אשר (asher,) “which:” “A seed which shall be long lived.” But I expound it in a more simple manner, “Christ shall not be hindered by his death from prolonging his days, that is, from living eternally.” Some persons, when departing from life, leave children, but children who shall survive them, and who shall live so as to obtain a name only when their fathers are dead. But Christ shall ell joy the society of his children; for he shall not die like other men, but shall obtain eternal life in himself and his children. Thus Isaiah declares that in the head and the members there shall be immortal life.
And the will of Jehovah shall prosper in his hand. The word “hand” often denotes “ministry,” as the Lord proclaimed the law “by the hand of Moses.” (Num 36:13) Again, the Lord did this “by the hands of David;“ that is, he made use of David as his minister in that matter. (Ezr 3:10) So also “in the hand of Christ shall prosper the will of God;” that is, the Lord will cause the ministry of Christ to yield its fruit, that it may not be thought that he exposed himself fruitlessly to such terrible sufferings.
These few words contain a very rich doctrine, which every reader may draw from them; but we are satisfied with giving a simple exposition of the text. “Will” is taken in the same acceptation as before; for he makes use of the word חפף (chaphetz) by which he means a kind and generous disposition. Two views of God’s kindness are held up for our admiration in this passage; first, that he spared not his onlybegotten Son, but delivered him for us, that he might deliver us from death; and secondly, that he does not suffer his death to be useless and unprofitable, but causes it to yield very abundant, fruit; for the death of Christ would be of no avail to us, if we did not experience its fruit and efficacy.
(54) אשם ( asham) primarily signifies a trespass or offense, and secondarily a trespassoffering. In the law of Moses it is technically used to designate a certain kind of sacrifice, nearly allied to the הטאת ( hattath) or sinoffering, and yet very carefully distinguished from it, although etymologists have never yet been able to determine the precise distinction, and a learned modern Rabbi, Samuel Luzzatto, expresses his conviction that they differed only in the mode of offering the blood. The word is here used not with spedfie reference to this kind of oblation, but as a generic term for expiatory sacrifice. The use of analogous expressions in the New Testament will be dear, from a comparison of Rom 3:25; 2Co 5:21; 1Jo 2:2; Heb 9:14 In the case last quoted, as in that before us, Christ is represented as offering himself to God.” Alexander
(55) In both of the passages quoted by our author, the word is not אשם ( asham) but הטאת ( hattath), which, as appears from the preceding note, is closely analogous. Ed
(56) This Latin word, which bore the primary meaning of “an atonement for a transgression,” and the secondary meaning of “any wickedness that requires expiation,” is strikingly analogous to the Hebrew word in question, though the transference of the senses is exactly opposite. “ Distulit in seram commissa piacula mortem, Virg. id est, Piacula commissa propter quae expiatio debetur.” Serv. “ Piaculum committere “ means literally to “commit a sacrifice,” that is, “to commit a crime for which a sacrifice is required.” Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
THE ATONEMENT
Isa. 53:10. When Thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin, &c.
I. THE SOUL OF THE MESSIAH WAS TO BE MADE AN OFFERING FOR SIN.
The word here used (, asham) signifies either guilty,or, by a figure, an offering for guilt. We may consider it in both senses. He was not in Himself guilty, but innocent and perfectly so (2Co. 5:21; Heb. 7:26). But our sins were imputed to Him, or laid upon Him; that is, they were laid to His charge, and He was made accountable for them (Isa. 53:6; 1Pe. 2:24); made a curse (Gal. 3:13). Hence He was made an offering for guilt. Two things were to be done, that the glory of God might be fully displayed, in the redemption of man. Sin must be pardoned, otherwise the sinner could not be saved. It was necessary also it should be punished; otherwise, its evil could not appear, nor the Divine attributes escape impeachment; the law of God, which had forbidden sin, must be magnified, or the equity of His government asserted. Sin must, therefore, be pardoned in a way that marks and publishes the evil of the offence. The sacrifice of bulls and goats, or of any creature inferior to man, was insufficient for this purpose (Heb. 10:4). Nor could any man atone for his own sins, or suffer a punishment adequate to their demerit, without suffering eternally, and to the utmost extent of his capacity, much less could one man atone for many, or many for all. It was necessary, therefore, one should suffer, who, although possessed of human nature, yet had a nature superior to man, who could bear unlimited sufferingssufferings adequate to the demerit of all human offences, in a limited time. This the Messiah did, whose Godhead supported His manhood, and enabled Him to bear, partly in His body, and especially in His soul, an anguish so great as might give not only men, but angels, a proper view of the evil and bitterness of sin, and the purity, justice, and wrath of God, in hating, condemning, and punishing it. No mere bodily sufferings could do this, and, therefore, His soul was made an offering for sin. (See Mat. 26:36-45. Comp. Mar. 14:34-36; Luk. 22:41-44).
II. BY WHOM IT WAS TO BE MADE AN OFFERING.
By the Father; when Thou, &c. (Isa. 53:6; Isa. 53:10). It was done by His determinate counsel (Act. 2:23). This does not excuse those who became the instruments of His death. It was God who required an offering for sin; His purity, His justice, His truth, the authority of His law, the rights of His government required it. His glory demanded it, as a consideration on account of which He might pardon sin, and save the sinner with honour to Himself (Rom. 8:3; Rom. 3:25-26). God provided it in mercy and love to mankind (Joh. 3:16; 1Jn. 4:9-10; Tit. 3:4). He provided even His own Son to be made flesh, to be poor, despised, afflicted, to die in ignominy and torture, for men who were sinners, enemies, rebels! (Rom. 5:6-10).
III. THE EFFECTS WHICH SHOULD BE PRODUCED.
1. He shall see His seed,a numerous race of sons and daughters begotten by the Gospel among Jews and Gentiles (Isa. 54:1; Isa. 53:8; Psa. 110:3).
2. He shall prolong His days. His resurrection, ascension, and exaltation are here alluded to, whereby He obtained an everlasting life at Gods right hand (Psa. 21:4). The end of it is threefold:
(1.) For a recompense of His own labours and sufferings (Php. 2:9).
(2.) For the salvation of His seed, whose Prophet, Priest, and King; whose wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption; whose Saviour, Protector, Judge, Rewarder, &c., He thus becomes (Mat. 25:34).
(3.) For the judgment, condemnation, and punishment of those that reject Him, and are not His seed (Mat. 25:41; Psa. 110:1; Heb. 10:13; 1Co. 15:25).
3. The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. By the pleasure of the Lord is intended the progress of truth and goodness, of wisdom, holiness, and happiness in the world, the advancement of Gods glory, and the salvation of mankind, the felicity of the righteous, and the destruction of the wicked.
4. Hence we need not wonder that He sees of the travail of His soul, and is satisfied.
INFERENCES.
1. Was it necessary that Christ should be made an offering for sin? How great, then, is its evil! How dreadful its effects! It is of so heinous a nature that its guilt could not be expiated, so that it might be pardoned, consistently with the Divine perfections, without the sacrifice of so glorious a person. How great, then, will be the punishment of those in the other world, who, by rejecting or neglecting this sacrifice, are not saved from sin?
2. Are Gods holiness and justice so inviolable, and His law so honourable, and the rights of His government so sacred, that such a sacrifice was required for the manifestation of His glory? Then, what a powerful call and motive have we here for reverence and fear, solemnity and awe!
3. Did God judge it proper that such a price as this should be paid for mans redemption? Then, how important, how valuable are the souls of men!
4. Has the Father provided such an atonement? And is it actually made? Then, how great, how astonishing, His mercy and love! What a foundation is laid for confidence in Him, and love to Him in return (Rom. 8:32; Rom. 5:9-10).
5. Has God been thus kind and bountiful? Then what a loud call upon your gratitude!
6. Shall the pleasure of the Lord prosper in His hands? Then, if it be your anxiety to know, experience, and do the will of the Lord, you may commit your cause to Him.
7. Are you His seed? If so, rejoice; for He has prolonged His days for your benefit. If not, tremble; for He is your Judges 8. Does He see of the travail of His soul, and is He satisfied? Then, sympathise with Him in His sufferings and His satisfaction. Being conformed to the motives and ends for which He suffered and died on our behalf, let us become instances of the efficacy of His gracious undertaking and objects of His joy, in consequence of it (Tit. 2:14).Joseph Benson: Sermons, vol. i. p. 236243.
I. A DOCTRINE OF THE CHRISTIAN SYSTEM THAT NEEDS TO BE EXPLAINED.
1. Christ died in the room of sinners. Not as the death of an individual may be the occasion of benefit to others, but by a legal substitution.
2. He died to satisfy Divine justice. Not to satisfy any thirst of vengeance in the Father, but to satisfy His justice, which requires Him to punish sin as sin, and not merely for its consequences.
3. He died to expiate human guilt. Man is guilty or liable to punishment for sin. He has a sense of guilt latent or awakened. The death of Christ is intended to deliver him from his guilt, and to remove the sense of guilt from his conscience.
4. He died to propitiate the Divine favour. Wrath against sin is not incompatible with love. It is infinite abhorrence of sin, and an inflexible determination to punish it. It is displayed in the cross of Christ. The death of Christ averts it from all who believe in Him.
II. AN EXPEDIENT OF THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT THAT NEEDS TO BE VINDICATED.
1. It is said that God, as a being of infinite love, might forgive sin without atonement. Perhaps He might, if sin were a personal insult or a debt. It is a crime, a violation of law, rebellion against legitimate authority. It must be punished before it can be pardoned.
2. It is said that atonement involves the substitution of the innocent for the guilty, which is cruel and unjust. Admit that Christ was innocent, and His death presents a problem of which the doctrine of the atonement is the only satisfactory solution. It was voluntary.
3. It is said that atonement is inconsistent with grace. All is grace to the sinner.
4. It is said that atonement is subversive of the interests of morality. It has a man-ward as well as a God-ward aspect. It exercises a moral influence. It supplies the strongest motive-power that was ever brought to bear on the formation of character (H. E. I., 396398).
III. A REMEDY FOR THE ILLS OF MEN THAT NEEDS TO BE APPLIED.
1. The atonement unappropriated will not avail any one. It does not operate mechanically or magically. Many will perish although Christ has died.
2. The benefits of the atonement are offered to all. There are no limitations in the offer. To you, O men, I call.
3. The benefits of the atonement are conferred on all who believe on Christ. Faith is a condition of human nature rather than of the Gospel. Man is a voluntary being, having the power of choice. He must choose Christ as his Saviour; trust in His ability and His willingness to save; rest on His finished work. He must receive Him, or be undone for ever.G. Brooks: Outlines, p. 9193.
I. The atonement of Christ was necessary to save the guilty. Denied by some, who say, God can pardon sin as easily as a father pardons a disobedient child; and further contend that for God to require an atonement in order to forgive would be an act of unnecessary severity. But God is not only the Father of mercies; He is also the moral governor of the universe. He has a public character to sustain, and in His public character He could not consistently pardon sin without an atonement, any more than could a judge on the bench pardon a guilty criminal when the law required that he should be punished. God is a just as well as a merciful Being; and would not, and could not, sacrifice one attribute to the exaltation of another (Rom. 5:21).
II. The atonement of Christ was not designed to make God merciful, but to open up an honourable way for Him to show mercy. It is a grievous mistake to represent God the Father, all justice, and God the Son, all mercy, and to suppose that by the sacrifice of Christ God the Father was influenced to become merciful. God is love, &c. Besides, the great design of saving man originated with God the Father as such. It was from His love and mercy that He gave His Son to die for sinners (Joh. 3:16; 1Jn. 4:9-10). Christs death did not make Him merciful, but opened up an honourable way for showing mercy (see pp. 92, 93).
III. The atonement of Christ was an expedient in the government of God that would answer the same end as the eternal punishment of the transgressor. The law of God requires that the transgressor should die; had we been left to perish like fallen angels, His justice and holiness would have been eternally glorified. But all that Divine justice required is done by the substitution of Christ in the sinners place.
IV. The atonement of Christ must not be considered as a commercial affair, but as a moral act. It is an error to represent sin literally as a debt: it is a crime. Those texts which speak of it as a debt must not be taken literally but figuratively. If sin were merely a debt it would not be so aggravated in its nature as it really is: a crime against the high authority of heaven. Further, if it were a debt, God could pardon it without a sacrifice, as easily as a creditor can forgive a debtor, if disposed so to do. Christs atonement is not a pecuniary payment of debt, but a moral satisfaction to the Lawgiver to atone for a crime (1Pe. 1:18; 1Pe. 1:20; H. E. I. 383).
V. The atonement of Christ is an arrangement that protects the character of God, and establishes His government even while pardoning sinners. The character of God must stand unimpeached and unimpeachable, and His government must stand on the unalterable laws of truth and justice. Now, by the sacrifice of Christ sin appears exceedingly sinful, the justice of God stands out in all its awful glory, and the government of Jehovah (or His moral influence over His creatures) appears stronger than if men had never sinned, or if, after sinning, they had been eternally punished. All the perfections of God harmonise even while forgiving believing sinners (Psa. 85:10-11).
VI. The atonement of Christ was not designed to save us in our sin, but from it, and all its dreadful consequences. It leads not to licentiousness, as some affirm (Rom. 3:8), but the reverse, since it gives stronger motives for obedience. We fear sin, not only because we fear hell, but because we see how awful a thing it is, in the death of Christ. We hate sin, not merely because it ruined us, but because it caused Him so much suffering. We obey God, not merely as creatures, but from love as redeemed sinners (Mat. 1:21; Gal. 6:14).
VII. The atonement of Christ was not made for few only, but for many. Such is the aggravation of sin, that it would have been equally necessary for Christ to have suffered as He did, if but one sinner were to be saved. His atonement is equally sufficient for all that believe (1Jn. 2:1-2).
VIII. There is no defect or insufficiency in the atonement of Christ to save any who believe. If we are not saved, it will not be from any want of virtue in the atonement of Christ, but for not believing in Him for salvation (Joh. 3:18; Mar. 16:16). Have we received the atonement, or rather, reconciliation through the atonement? (Rom. 5:11.)Studies for the Pulpit, part 1, pp. 467469.
THE MYSTERY OF CHRISTS DEATH
I. It was the good pleasure of God. His eternal, wise, gracious purpose. II. It was an offering for sin. Life for life. To expiate guilt. By Divine appointment. III. It is the source of inexhaustible wonders of grace and glory. A holy seed. A mysterious life. A triumphant work.J. Lyth, D.D.
MESSIAH CONTEMPLATING HIS SPIRITUAL OFFSPRING
Isa. 53:10. He shall see His seed.
Observing that Messiah, though He did no sin, suffered even unto deathastonished while they read of an incarnate, obedient, and expiring God, many will ever be ready to inquire, Why, and for what great purpose, was it so? To all such questions, this chapter, nay, this verse, enables us to reply. It pleased the Lord to bruise Him, &c. A part of the high remuneration is set forth in these few short wordsHe shall see His seed.
I. He shall see them all born and brought in. To Him they are children of sure promise (Rom. 9:8; Gal. 4:28); He is acquainted with them individually. Messiahs offspring may differ much at different times, in respect of the measure of its increase. Now, it may be slow; anon, it may be rapid; but at all times, and in all places, the measure of its increase will just accord with His own expectation (Psa. 145:4; Psa. 22:30-31).
II. He shall see them all educated and brought up. The practical object is to imbue them with the spirit of children. Great varieties may exist as to their talents, &c.; but in one thing they are all alike (Jer. 24:7). Of their education, Messiah Himself has the principal charge (Isa. 54:13); and the means He employs are worthy of Him, for He instructs them by the truth of His word, by the light of His Spirit, and by the events of His providence. The charge is weighty, but it is His pleasant work. In evidence of this, He invites them to His school, arguing with them from the attractions of His own character, and the blessedness of such as are under His tuition (Mat. 11:28-30; Pro. 8:32-34). Experience, it is said, is the best schoolmaster; let us, therefore, listen to one who, being at once proficient in the learning of his time, and a partaker of heavenly wisdom, could compare and contrast the two (Php. 3:8).
III. He shall see them all supported and brought through. Gods rich providence is their inheritance for a present world; His sure promise is their charter for a better; and for all their work and warfare, there is more than enough in the wisdom, grace, and strength that are in Christ Jesus. The history of Messiahs offspring is full of illustrations of this.
IV. He shall see them all perfected and brought home. As Christ Himself was made a perfect Saviour by the sufferings which He underwent, even so His honour requires, and it belongs to His office, that He confer on all His offspring a perfect salvation. With this view He has appointed His Church for the perfecting of the saints, &c. The Bible speaks of a future and fixed period, which it significantly styles the manifestation of the sons of God, and the coming of Christ with all His saints. Home! delightful word to such as have sojourned in a land of strangers. Home! where? To the house not made with handsto the prepared city, which is also the city of habitation. With what rapture and triumph will Messiah exclaim in the presence of His great Father, and before an assembled universeBehold I, and the children whom God hath given Me! This is a home of which Messiah shall not be ashamed; it will do Him infinite honour. Nor is this all: arrived at home, their ineffable and inconceivable felicity is to be absolutely without end.
CONCLUSION.Our subject shows that Messiahs glory is inseparably bound up with the happiness of His offspring; that the application is not less certain than the purchase of redemption; it contains a seasonable and powerful antidote against undue depression in the Church (Rom. 9:26); it shows, also, that it is our duty and our honour to concur, after our measure, in carrying this scripture into effect.Robert Muter, D.D.: Weekly Christian Teacher, vol. ii. pp. 713718.
THE IMMORTAL HIGH PRIEST
Isa. 53:10. He shall prolong His days. Heb. 7:15-16; Heb. 7:25.
In these passages we have, first in Hebrew prophecy, and then in Christian teaching, the doctrine of the enduring life of the Christ after His sufferings are over. The Old Testament prophet sees from afar the new life of the Messiah, in a blaze of glory. The New Testament prophet declares the life already begun, and indicates the purposes for which that life is being spent as well as the glory with which it is crowned.
I. The Lord Jesus now lives as the Priest upon His throne. Calvarys night is over. The Christ is not here, He is risen. He has entered within the veil, there to appear in the presence of God for us, and is now the Apostle and High Priest of our confession. His atoning work was finished on earth once for all,His administrative work is being carried on in perpetuitysustaining a like relation to the work accomplished by His death, that Gods upholding of all things does to His first acts of creative power.
II. The supreme fitness of Christ for this vast work, is owing to His possessing all the power of an indissoluble life. The word endless is inadequate; it merely signifies a life that will not end. But the word in the original signifies a life that cannot end;one that is and must be perpetuated, by virtue of its own inherent energy and power. With whatever devotion and care the high-priest might bear the concerns of the Israel of God on his heart, and with whatever skill he might administer Israels affairs, he must sooner or later resign the office, and give it up to another, when death called him away. But the life that resides in that Christ whom God raised from the dead, is a life infinitely full of spontaneous, self-sustaining energy, not dependent on aught without for its maintenance. There is within it no cause of decay; there is no wasting of energy, however much is spent; no outside power can weaken or obstruct that glorious life. It has in it all Divine perfections to the full.strength, wisdom, intelligence, fidelity, and loveeach and all of these being the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever! That life which is dependent on none, is the life on which all things depend! Since His life can never be weakened by decay from within, or imperilled by assaults from withouttime, which makes other power to crumble, does but give grander scope for the manifestation of His. Kings, thrones, and empires, may rise up, flourish, decline, pass away, and be succeeded by others, and yet the power of Christs endless life shall be ever new, ever young,
And firm endure, while endless years
Their everlasting circles run.
III. Because Christs life is indissoluble, His Priesthood cannot change hands. Long as the human race shall need an Advocate with God, Jesus will be that Advocate to interpose on their behalf. He ever liveth with a view to intercession. Can we frame to ourselves an intelligible conception of the method of this Redeemers interposition? There seem to be four things involved in it.
(1.) Christ appears in the presence of God for us; the seer beholds Him like a Lamb as it had been slain, bearing the marks of Calvarys workmarks full of their own infinite meaninghow He has borne away the sins of the world. As that offering was well pleasing to God then, so it ever will be; neither its meaning nor its worth can change throughout eternity.
(2.) Christ pleads in the presence of God, continuing there for sinners the plea He urged on the Cross; continuing for those who believe on Him His wondrous intercessory prayer!
(3.) He acts in the presence of God for us: I go to prepare a place for you. The Son of God prepares a place for us, while the Spirit of God is preparing us for the place.
(4.) He is governing for usHe is Head over all things to the Church. All things are working together for good to them that love God, because their working is in our Redeemers hands.
IV. The effect of a priesthood that is unchanging, is a redemption that is unvarying. Because of the Redeemers sway in heaven, the work of salvation is advancing on earth.
V. This great Redeemer ever living, this great Redemption being unvarying, is the guarantee of the salvation being carried on to the uttermost! Who can set forth all that that glorious phrase means?
(1.) This Saviour can reach to the uttermost depth of sin and guilt and misery. His sacrifice, appropriated by faith, can cause the highest pile of guilt to disappear for ever. His power can eradicate the most inveterate and apparently hopeless corruption. The hardest heart can be melted down by Jesus loveto the uttermost.
(2.) Jesus can reach souls through the uttermost extent of His domain. No human spirit can be too far off for contact with Jesus.
(3.) However varied the demands which may be made on the saved one at any moment, Christ can help to the uttermost (H. E. I. 934, 945). Though the longer each believer lives, the greater will be his demands on his Saviour, he cannot overtax Him. This bank can be drawn upon to the uttermost, and yet be rich as ever!
(4.) Christs salvation can lay hold of every part of our nature. Body, soul, and spirit; all will be sanctified by Him.
(5.) Christs salvation will reach to the uttermost point of time.
(6.) However believers may multiplylet myriads on myriads be added to the roll, for myriads on myriads of agesthe salvation will be large enough and strong enough for all, even to the uttermost!
(7.) Believers shall be gathered unto Christ: all presented to Him, a glorious Church without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing. Then, when they are without fault before the throne of God, they will have proved the truth of salvation to the uttermost! No. I am wrong. They will not have proved it; they will be proving it still, for, when they reach that point which is now the uttermost of our conception, that goal of glory will be but a starting point for eternity!Clement Clemance, D.D.: The Christian Era, vol. i. pp. 39, 40.
THE DIVINE PURPOSE FULFILLED
(Missionary Discourse.)
Isa. 53:10. The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.
Some have affirmed that this chapter relates to the mission of Jeremiah, and to the hostile treatment he had to encounter in performing it; some that it sets forth the approaching downfall and subsequent exaltation of the Jewish nation; some that it refers entirely to the history of the Messiah. The former two of these interpretations have been suggested only under the influence of mental perversion, and are utterly untenable. The last is confirmed by the best evidence that can be afforded. Philip declared that this prophecy referred to Jesus (Act. 8:35). On several occasions in the New Testament the prophecy is expressly announced as having been fulfilled in Christ. The whole course of the Saviours life, and the circumstances associated with His final sufferings and death, correspond so exactly with the description given by the prophet, that had he been a personal witness of that course and of these circumstances, his statements could not have been more accurate or more striking.
I. God has formed a purpose of mercy toward mankind. The pleasure of the Lord (Eph. 1:9; Eph. 2:11). His purpose was
1. Formed before the foundations of the earth were laid.
2. Manifested on earth as soon as the need of mercy existed, in the promise made to our first parents even on the day that they sinned.
3. Unfolded more and more clearly to patriarchs and prophets.
4. Fully disclosed in the Christian economy.
II. The fulfilment of this purpose of mercy is committed to the Lord Jesus. The pleasure of the Lord is in His hand. It was He to whom the first promise referred (Gen. 3:15); of whom Abraham was informed (Gen. 26:4); whose coming Jacob anticipated (Gen. 49:10); and of whom Moses and all the prophets wrote and spoke (Deu. 18:18, &c.). The Lord Jesus performs the purpose of mercy
1. By His atonement for human sin.
2. By the communication of the Holy Spirit, by whose influence men are brought to a cordial reception of the Saviours meritorious work, so as to render that work their own.
III. Under the administration of the Lord Jesus the purpose of mercy shall be perfectly and triumphantly accomplished. Every Divine purpose is certain to be accomplished (Isa. 46:9-11; Psa. 33:11). But apart from this general reason, the certainty of the accomplishment of the work which has been entrusted to the Lord Jesus rests,
1. On His own character. It is essentially Divine. His proper Deity imparts to His atoning sacrifice an absolute fulness of merit, and renders failure in His work impossible.
2. On the Divine assurance solemnly pledged to that effect (Isa. 53:10-11; Php. 2:9-11; Joh. 12:32; Heb. 12:12-13).
APPLICATION. God has formed a purpose of mercy toward mankind. Hence
1. Those theologies are false which represent God as a God of vengeance. In the Scriptures He appears in consistency with all His perfections as the God of love. The redemption of our race is His pleasure.
2. The perfect unity of the Father with the Son is exemplified in the eutrustment of this work to the Son. He came into the world, and made His soul an offering for sin, not to change the Fathers purposes but to fulfil them (see p. 92).
3. If we sympathise with this purpose, which God cherished from all eternity, and in the fulness of time entrusted to Christ for its accomplishment, let us show that we do so by making known to all nations the glad tidings of His grace. If we cannot personally carry to perishing men the good news, let us do our utmost to send it.James Parsons: Christian World Pulpit, 1:440.
ALL THINGS IN CHRISTS HAND
Isa. 53:10. The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.
I. WHAT THINGS ARE PUT INTO CHRISTS HAND?
The Father is here, as everywhere else in Scripture, looked on as the originator and disposer of all things. The Son is the medium through whom, and for whom things come to be what they are, and come to be arranged as they are. At least, one reason why all things are put into Christs hand is,the great love of the Father towards Him. Ere Christ made His appearance into this world, there had been a sublime transaction between the Father and the Son, in which vast affairs had been entrusted on the one hand and accepted on the other. For the knowledge of this we are indebted to revelation alone. All things are put into Christs hand.
1. Creation is put into Christs hand (John 1; Colossians 1; Hebrews 1). Here, Christ, as the Son of the Father, is very clearly marked off from ought that is created, by being distinctly declared to be, Himself, the Creator. The Father, indeed, appoints, and the Son executes, the Fathers appointment. Subordination of office is perfectly consistent with equality of nature (see p. 83). And if we would seize the most adequate view of our Divine Lord which it is possible for us to attain unto, we must let all the Scriptures concerning Him have their right place and power. All creation was formed and is upheld by our Redeemers hand!
2. Revelation is also put into His hand. God speaks to us in His Son. When we speak of the work of creation being Christs, we speak of that which includes all worlds. But here, when revelation is our theme, we have to do, so far as we know, with only one world. Not, indeed, that there are not hints in the Word of God, that the Son is the revealer of the Father to other worlds than this. On earth, Christ is the clearest and brightest beam of glory that is let down from heaven for us to see! We see in Him, One in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily!
3. But we must limit our field of thought yet again. It might have been that Jesus had been a revelation of God to this world, quite irrespective of any element of sin. But where sin is, a declaration of what God is, is not enough. If relations of friendship and love are to be established between a holy God and sinful men, it must be in such a way as shall clear the holy throne from all compromise with sin, and as shall make even those who are conscious of guilt feel at home in the blaze of pure and holy love. It was reserved for Christ to institute these gracious relations between us and heaven. Mediation is put into Christs hand. He is the way along which the penitent may come and hold converse with the great Supreme! And, owing to sin, His mediation involved not only an incarnation, but expiation. Christ, owing to the two-foldness of His nature, could make an offering which should be effective as towards God, and suitable as towards man. The Father loveth the Son, and hath put expiation into His hand!
4. Creation, revelation, mediation. Two more steps have yet to be taken. A power is needed to ensure that the mediation shall not fail through men refusing to accept it. Such a power is lodged in Christ. He gives the Spirit to convict and to renew. And by His own living energy bestowed through the Holy Ghost, He will regenerate the sinner and perfect the saint. This great work of the conquest and training of hearts is put into His hand!
5. The administration of the affairs of the globe on behalf of the Church is put into His hand. He is now a Priest upon His throne. He is the King and Lord of His Church. He builds up that Church by the word of truth and by the Spirit of His grace. He watches over the Church everywhere in this world, presides over the departure of every soul, and governs the spacious world unseen with a view to the judgment day. He died for us that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him.
6. The consummation of all things is put into His hand. He who sent Peter to gather in the first-fruits, will send forth His angels to reap when the harvest of the earth is ripe. Then the end, when He shall have delivered up the Kingdom to God, even the Father, when, for all believers, He shall have conquered death, having raised them up at the last day. Then the redeemed shall be gathered home from all lands, shall be without spot before the throne of God, and presented before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. Then shall our Saviour have manifested the wisdom of the Father in putting all things into His hand; He shall everlastingly have proved His infinite capacity for the trust; and then shall Christ and His Church be glorified together.
II. WHAT IS THE PRACTICAL BEARING OF THIS THEME?
1. We see that Christs work in saving us, is but part of a vast, boundless, infinite scheme of glory and of grandeur which it will take ages on ages to develop and reveal!
2. We see a reason why every preacher should follow the example of John the Baptist, and point away from himself to Christ (Joh. 3:26-35).
3. We see the imperativeness of insisting on the Lordship of Christ over men and nations. Governments only lay up sorrow for themselves if they contravene the holy will of Christ.
4. We see why we must point to Jesus only as the exclusive object of a sinners trust.
5. We see the security of the redemption of those who are in Christ.
6. We see the certainty of the ruin of those who persist in rebelling against Christ.Clemant Clemance, D.D.: The Christian Era, vol. ii. p. 41, &c.
OUR SAVIOUR SUFFERING, SATISFIED, TRIUMPHANT
Isa. 53:10-11. When Thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin. He shall see of the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied.
I. The aspect in which that work of the Saviour by which He accomplished the redemption of the world is here represented: The travail of His soul. The New Testament teaches that the Saviours sufferings were
1. Sacrificial and expiatory.
2. Voluntary. The first clause of the text should read: When His soul shall make an offering for sin.
3. Most intense and awful. [1650]
[1650] See outlines on this clause, and on the description: A man of sorrows, &c.
II. The nature of that sublime and heavenly satisfaction described in this passage, as accruing to the Redeemer from witnessing the effect of His work and sufferings in the salvation of men.
1. It is the satisfaction arising from enlarged success of a pleasure always proportionate to the difficulties of the task we have fulfilled, and to the zeal with which it has been prosecuted.
2. It is the satisfaction of most pure and exalted benevolence. No joy can be compared with the peaceful and exquisite delight arising from this principle, when it is effectual in the mitigation of calamity or the removal of necessity or danger [1653]
[1653] What ecstasy were it to reflect that we had snatched a fellow-creature from the devouring flame or the tempestuous deep; that we had stayed the progress of contagion or pestilence in its march of silence and desolation; that we had unbarred the dungeon of the prisoner, or burst the fetter of the slave! How exalted, then, the joy with which the adorable Redeemer must behold the helpless ruin of mankind exchanged for happiness and safety!MAll.
3. It is such as springs from contemplating the greatness, the importance, and the difficulties of the work itself. Salvation is an illustrious and an arduous work. The obstacles that present themselves in the way of its accomplishment are, to all but the power of God, insuperable.
4. It is to be estimated only by the perfection of the Saviours knowledge, relative to the whole progress and issue of that event which he so joyously contemplates.
5. It arises principally from the peculiar relation of His character and work to the event itself and to all its consequences [1656]
[1656] With what holy and elevated transport may the martyrs and confessors, the prophets and apostles, be supposed to look now upon the scene of their labours and the progress of their cause! How may we suppose them now to exult in the remembrance of their self-denying efforts and oppressive privations, their wants and trials and griefs, and, more than all, that terrible moment when they sealed their last testimony, and closed their career in blood! With what unspeakable felicity must those devoted missionaries, lately removed from us, behold, amidst the mansions of blessedness, the first-fruits of their laboursthe poor wanderer of Africa or the wretched slave of Demeraranow mingling in the chorus of the redeemed! But who shall describe the interest taken in all that relates to the salvation of His people by their ascended and sympathising Lord? Here all the causes of interest and joy are united in the highest operation. The affection of the Saviour is infinite. The relation He bears to the saved is the closest and most indissoluble; and their rescue and happiness are the results only of His dying agonies and His ever-living intercession.MAll.
III. The certainty that this satisfaction shall be finally realised. This is certain, because the most unlimited diffusion of Christianity throughout the world is certain. We cherish this confidence
1. Because of the natural attraction and influence of the great doctrine of the atonement, which forms the very substance of the Gospel [1659]
[1659] Never, amongst all the diversity of sacrificial institutions in any country or in any age, has there appeared even a distant resemblance to many of the most essential features of this great Christian propitiation. Never has the guilt of sin been represented as forgiven, in consequence of a design mercifully originating in the Deity Himself, and that, too, in opposition to the provocation and obstinate rebellion of the miserable offender. Never has the part to be sustained by the worshipper been declared to be that only of the free and joyous reception of unpurchased favour and the simple reliance of a grateful heart. Never has the victim been represented as provided, not by man, but God, and that victim the object of His own unspeakable and infinite attachment. Never has that victim been represented as offering himself willingly to suffer, not on behalf of his friends, but of his enemies, and for the pardon of the very crime by which he died.
The manner in which it addresses itself to the heart is equally peculiar. Other systems effectuate their purpose the most fully when they can alarm and agitate and appal. It is this alone which lulls the breast into sacred tranquillity, and, banishing every fear, ravishes the soul with ceaseless adoration, and allures to the cheerful obedience of gratitude and love, and unites the tears of contrition with the ardour of thankfulness and the exultation of hope.MAll.
2. Because of the tendency of the Gospel to an unlimited and ceaseless diffusion. This characteristic was exhibited in the age of its first promulgation. It still continues, for in every heart in which the Gospel is truly received it kindles a strong desire to make it known to others. Wherever it is received, it blesses men in temporal as well as in spiritual things.
3. Because of its resistless and triumphant progress in past ages. There remains no new form of opposition or of danger which has not already been successfully encountered; no enemy to combat who has not been already vanquished; no power which has not already been overthrown [1662]
[1662] No subtlety of philosophical scepticism can be harder to subdue than that which was opposed to the first proclamation of the Gospel by Porphyry, Celsus, and Julian, and the learned of Greece and Asia; nor any political power more terrible than that which was exercised by Nero, Domitian, and Maximus; no barbarism more fierce than that of the Scythians, the Sarmatians, and the Gauls; no ignorance more gross, no darkness of the understanding more intense, than that of the Greenlander and the Esquimaux. But over these the Gospel has already triumphed; and what cause have we then to tremble for the future!MAll.
4. Because of the peculiar and encouraging appearances which are now everywhere beheld in the condition and circumstances of the Church. Awaking from her long and inglorious repose, she has thrown aside that lethargy by which she was restrained from asserting her ancient glories. She has heard and is responding to the voice of Him who summons her to extend her conquests, and to inherit the desolate heritages.R. S. MAll, LL.D.: Sermons, pp. 422472.
THE TRAVAIL AND SATISFACTION OF THE REDEEMERS SOUL
Isa. 53:11. He shall see of the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied.
Three distinct ideas presented:
I. THE TRAVAIL OF OUR REDEEMERS SOUL.
The travail of the Redeemer signifies the sufferings He underwent. By the travail of His soul is meant that peculiar agony of grief by which His soul was affected in the course of His sufferings. The physical sufferings of some of the noble army of martyrs equalled, perhaps surpassed, those of their Lord. But the sorrows of His soul forced from Him His bloody sweat, and His cry, My God, &c. These sorrows were wisely designated by the ancient fathers of the Church, the unknown sufferings of the Son of God. But it is revealed that two of the ingredients in that cup of mental suffering were the burden of the sins of a guilty world, and the furious onslaught of Satan and his emissaries in the utmost violence and plenitude of their power. We must also take into view certain considerations of a peculiar nature which tend to heighten our conceptions of their character and extent:
1. The soul of the Redeemer was perfect in holiness. In proportion to a mans purity of heart is the shock and revulsion of soul of which he is conscious, when he is compelled to witness the debasing and desolating effects of sin. Inconceivably painful must have been the travail of our Redeemers soul when He was brought into the nearest relation to sin that is possible to a being perfectly pure, when surveying its horrors in the light of His own spotless holiness, when bearing the wrath of His heavenly Father on account of it.
2. The soul of the Redeemer was full of light. Confined to a small spot of the surface of the globe, and capable of interpreting only to a very small degree those revelations of the future which have been vouchsafed to us, our conception of the real extent of the tendencies and effects of sin is very limited. But to the mind of the Redeemer all the awful effects of sin throughout time and eternity lay bare, and the impression thereby produced must have been correspondingly deep and solemn. Moreover, when man suffers, his sufferings come on him by a gradual process, and he is sustained by the hope of deliverance at every stage of his journey. But to our Redeemer all the parts and constituents of His sufferings were by clear anticipation present at one and the same instant. What, then, must have been the travail of His soul?
3. The soul of the Redeemer was full of love. A philanthropist feels with tender acuteness for the distresses of his fellowmen. What, then, must have been the travail of the Redeemers soul when, in the full flow of His ardent and unlimited benevolence, He surveyed the ruin of mans moral greatness, and died that He might restore him to his forfeited honour?
II. THE RESULTS OF OUR SAVIOURS SUFFERINGS AS SEEN BY HIMSELF.
In the preceding part of the chapter, He is represented as suffering the most cruel and ignominious inflictions on account of sin. Here He is represented as beholding the results of His sufferingsin the deliverance of unnumbered millions of sinful men from the condemnation and misery of sin, and their exaltation to blessedness and glory in heaven. Those results began to appear in the entrance of Abel into heaven; and have been seen in every heart, every home, every country in which the work that Christ came into the world to do has been accomplished. What glorious and exquisitely beautiful results!
III. THE SATISFACTION WHICH THE REDEEMER FEELS IN CONTEMPLATING THE RESULTS OF THE TRAVAIL OF HIS SOUL. A debased mind is satisfied with what is mean and degrading; a narrow mind will rest contented with what is little and trifling; but an enlarged and comprehensive mind will be pleased only with what is dignified and noble! What, then, can be that which can satisfy the soul of the Divine Redeemer? It is by us inconceivable. But some things we do see
1. That the scheme of redemption affords a bright display of the attributes of God.
2. That through the sufferings and death of Christ the great interests of holiness have been most effectually secured. His people are delivered from the dominion as well as the condemnation of sin. On holiness the welfare and happiness of the universe depend.
3. That by His blood countless myriads of the human race have been redeemed. As He contemplates these things, we may say with reverent confidence, His mind, expanded with the noblest and purest benevolence, must become filled with delight and satisfaction indescribable.
CONCLUSION.
1. This great theme reminds us of the inestimable value of the human soul. Surely that must be inestimably precious the redemption of which, at such a cost, can satisfy the Son of God (P. D. 3204).
2. If the salvation of a soul gives delight to the mind of God, surely He will not reject any awakened sinner who comes to Him in faith (Joh. 6:37; Rev. 22:17; H. E. I. 928, 929).
3. The subject furnishes the most powerful motives to love and obey the Saviour. By so doing we co-operate in the accomplishment of His great design, and contribute to the satisfaction of His soul.
4. The subject furnishes most ample encouragement in the labours and trials of the Christian ministry. The enterprise in which we are engaged is the opposite of hopeless, for God has promised that by the results of it His Son shall be satisfied, and He is faithful who hath promised! Besides, in what can we find greater delight than in doing something to contribute to the satisfaction of Him who loved us and gave Himself for us?Robert Burns, D.D.: Protestant Preacher, vol iii. pp. 399408.
(Missionary Sermon.)
I. A FEW THOUGHTS ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE MEANING OF THE TEXT.
1. Mark the singularity and greatness which our text would seem to teach us to attach to Christ. It implies a distinction between Christ and the Church. He is not a part of it; He does not rank with saved men. He, looking upon them, shall see of the travail of His soul; they, looking unto Him, shall behold the source of their spiritual existence. In such a case there must be an essential difference between the parties. To confound them together, as of the same nature, and possessing nothing else on either side, would seem like confounding the potter with the material substance he can fashion as he will, or the Creator of the world with the work of His hands. God is not a part of the creation; nor is Christ a part of the Church. This essential distinction, or at least the supremacy resulting from it, would seem to be indicated by the declaration that He shall be satisfied; as if to intimate that were He not, whatever else might be achieved, nothing comparatively would seem to be accomplished.
2. The passage also indicates the peculiar work of Christ, and attaches preeminent importance to that.
(1.) This remarkable expression would seem to imply that all the glory of the Church, all the salvation of sinners, the perfection of the faithful, whatever in the consequences of His undertaking connected either with God or man can be regarded as a source of satisfaction to Messiah, is to be attributed to the fact that His soul was made an offering for sin. The sufferings of Christ and the salvation of men are connected together as cause and effect.
(2.) It suggests also an important truth in relation to the nature of those sufferings. The travail of His soul would seem to indicate that the mind of Messiah was more immediately the seat of His atoning agonies [1665]
(3.) Of those agonies the passage further depicts the intense and aggravated characterthe travail of His soul. The pangs of a woman in travail is a phrase sanctioned and employed again and again by the Divine Spirit, as an image combining in itself all that can be conceived of the extreme and the terrible in human suffering. And this image, among others, is here employed to depict the mental sensations of the Son of God when the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, &c. Travail is the peculiar suffering connected with the natural birth of a human being; and as applied to Christ it intimates that in the throes and pangs of His soul, He endured what was necessary to give spiritual existence to the Church.
[1665] The travail of His soul carries us further than to what was physical; it teaches us to attach inferior importance to the bruising and the piercing of the fleshto the animal pain (if I may so speak) which the Redeemer endured, and which, whatever was its extent, was probably surpassed in many of the martyrs. The travail of His soul would seem to explain that mysterious amazement which overtook and overwhelmed the Lord Jesus previous to His public rejection by the people, before the hand of man had touched Him, when alone with His disciples and in the attitude of prayer. If it be proper to use such an expression with respect to Him, with all reverence I would say that at that moment He seemed destitute or bereft of the high bearing, the calm serenity, the magnanimous heroism, the contempt of danger, pain, death, which have often illustrated the conduct of His followers, even women, under circumstances similar or worseworse, if the external circumstances were all. Now, this is a fact in the history of Jesus eternally irreconcileable with the idea of His dying merely as a witness for truth, or an example to others; it can be accounted for, with honour to His character, only on the ground of His sustaining as sacrificial victim, and sustaining in His soul, sufferings exclusively and pre-eminently His ownBinney.
It was not what Christ was in His moral character, nor what He did as a prophet, mighty in deed and in word, that constituted that peculiar work by which He became personally and alone the Saviour of men.
3. The greatness of the results which are to flow from the Redeemers sufferings. Implied in the declaration, He shall be satisfied; the mind of Messiah shall be filled with joy when He witnesses the effect of His sufferings in the salvation of the redeemed. That the results productive in Him of this feeling must be surpassingly and inconceivably great appears from several considerations.
(1.) Messiah is the Creator of the universe (Joh. 1:3). All its vastness and magnificence was needed to satisfy Him as such. How much sublimer must those spiritual results necessarily be with which He is to be satisfied! The new creation may reasonably be expected to surpass as far the old and the earthly as the human intellect is superior to dead brute matter, or the love of Gods heart must necessarily excel the power of His hand, or the redemption of the lost exceeds and surpasses the support of the living.
(2.) The extent and intensity of His sufferings [1668] For all those sufferings He is to be recompensed (Joh. 16:21), but in an infinitely higher degree.
(3.) Consider the period occupied, the care expended, and the anxiety sustained in carrying on the process, the result of which is to satisfy Messiah. In nature, that which is of slow growth is always distinguished by proportionate excellence. Among men, longcontinued and arduous labour is expected to be followed by corresponding results, both in the effects produced and in the rewards enjoyed. But the work of redemption abounds over history of all time. Nay, previous to the birth of time, it occupied the thought and councils of the Eternal. In actual operation it stretches from the fall of man to the restitution of all things. The reward will be proportioned to the magnitude and costliness of the work performed.
[1668] What the sufferings of Messiah really were in themselves, it is as impossible to say as it is to conceive of their magnitude and their depth. They could not be literally the agonies of the damned; literally the curse due to sin, or the direct results on a spiritual nature of the foul act of personal transgression. And yet if anything there be bearing any resemblance to them at allwhich probably there is notit must be found among the victims of retributive justice. The sufferings of Christ, whatever they were, in fact were those which resulted from the presentation of Himself as a real sacrifice, the sacrifice of a living, sensitive Being in an offering made by fire unto the Lord. The fire, indeed, was spiritual, like the thing it touched; and from that very circumstance it was the more terrible, It was not that element that can become the servant of man, and minister to his wrath, and be made to seize upon and destroy the body, and after that hath nothing more that it can do; but it was fire which nothing but heaven could furnish, something which God alone could inflict and which a spiritual nature alone could feel. It descended upon the soul of the Redeemer, and (if I may so speak) consumed it, like the fire which descended upon the altar of the prophet, which consumed the burnt-sacrifice, and the wood and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. Sufferings flowing from a source like this cannot but be felt to have been unparalleled and unspeakable; they necessarily transcend not only the power of language, but the power of thoughtBinney.
4. Those things with which we may suppose the Saviour will be satisfied.
(1.) The inconceivable number of the saved [1671]
(2.) The equally inconceivable perfection of their character.
(3.) The love and adoration of the redeemed.
(4.) The effect of the work of redemption on the moral universe, revealing God more fully to it, and helping to keep it loyal to Him.
[1671] Messiah, it is said, is to see His seed, justify many, and the pleasure of the Lord is to prosper in His hand. This work could not, I think, be said to prosper if the number of the lost should exceed that of the saved; nor if the number of the lost and saved were nearly balanced; nor if the success of Messiah in rescuing from death were to be but little superior to that of His adversary in seducing to destruction. The saved will, I imagine, as to numbers surpass the lost to a degree that shall destroy everything like parallel or proportion between them. They shall be brought from all lands, and from under every dispensation; they shall be of all nations, and kindred, and people, and tongues; they shall be of every class, and colour, and condition; and they shall constitute a number which no man can number, equalling or exceeding the sands of the sea, or the stars of heaven, or the grass of the field, or the drops of dew from the womb of the morning.Binney.
II. HOW WE WHO UNDERSTAND AND BELIEVE THE MEANING OF THE TEXT OUGHT TO BE AFFECTED.
1. We should be moved to humility. The continued prevalence in the world of what grieves and offends Him ought to have disappeared long since, and would have done so, had the Church been faithful to her office and her Lord. In the unfaithfulness of the Church we have had our share.
2. The declaration of our text should stimulate our faith and missionary activity. He shall see, &c. Christianity is yet to be acknowledged and professed by universal man (H. E. I. 979, 11661169). But this end, however confidently expected, even faith expects not without the employment of appropriate instrumentality. Among the means employed, there must be the sending forth of the Bible and the preacher, the letter of the message and the loving messenger.
3. The subject ought to lead us, individually and personally, seriously to examine whether we are contributing to the Saviours satisfaction either by what we are, or what we are doing (H. E. I. 44234428, 44464466).T. Binney, LL.D.; Sermons, second series, pp. 150.
Christs bodily travail was great. On this part of the Messiahs sufferings the prophet lays no particular emphasis, because, though most visible, it was not the main part of His atoning sufferings. He emphasizes the inward mental spiritual agony as that in which he chiefly bore our iniquities. Let us reverently note some of those things which we may conceive constituted for our Lord, the travail of His soulfirst, during his life, and secondly, in connection with His death; though this distinction is not to be pressed, since the sufferings of the life and of the death overlap each other, and constitute together the travail of His soul.
I. IN LIFE. We must not limit Christs atoning mental sufferings to His actual endurance on the cross, or forget what He endured before the last scenes of His ministry on earth. The whole period of His public ministry was a temptation, and to Him temptation was suffering, as He met and fought it.
1. He endured the contradiction of sinners against Himself.
2. The sight and contact of human sin and misery as they lay passive around Him must have deeply wounded His soul. If Lot could vex his righteous soul in Sodom, what must Christ have endured as He saw all that was debased and repulsive in humanity with His holy eye (see p. 476), as He sighed over human pains and sorrows, and made them in sympathy His own (Mat. 8:17; see p. 484).
3. His foresight of the doom coming on Gods chosen people caused Him pain (Luk. 19:41-44).
4. The shadow of the cross projecting itself over His life cast a burden on His spirit as He anticipated the end of His ministry (Mar. 8:31, &c.).
II. IN CONNECTION WITH DEATH. The travail of soul during life culminated at death, assuming a distinctness and bitterness peculiarly great as that crisis arrived. All the past was intensified and concentrated, and additional elements of pain were experienced. Thus His friends forsook Him and fled. One denied Him. One betrayed Him. Did not this experience, to one who was so sympathetic and social Himself, and who then needed all the human sympathy and society which His friends could give Him, cause sorrow of soul of no ordinary kind? His enemies, too, the people He came to save, trampled His love under foot, insulted, maligned, cast Him out, and crucified Him, inflicting sorer wounds upon His generous heart and loving soul than on His body by their shameful treatment of Him. The lifelong vision and contact of sin came to a head in its most painful and repulsive form, and He would see more vividly and feel more acutely in His own maltreatment the depravity, not only of the nation, but of the race which He had come to save, and of which He was one. The fierce passions that raged against Him, His actual collision with the worlds evil, His suffering of its concentrated hatred of good must have caused Him, the only sinless One of the race, unspeakable horror and anguish of soul. But there was also
1. The human and natural shrinking from death as the dissolution of soul and body; in His case peculiarly painful because of the perfection of His human nature, the consciousness of His own sinlessness, the fulness of His indwelling power of life, the clear insight He had into the dread connection between sin and death, and that His death was by judicial murder. He was not a Stoic. He was not ignorant of what it involved, and had not the feeling that it was natural for Him to submit to the common lot, or die a death of refined and wilful cruelty.
2. Satanic temptation. The prince of this world came back to find something in Him, and found nothing. But the search was painful, as the devil did his last and worst, since all temptation is suffering. It was the hour and power of darkness for our Lord when the seed of the serpent bruised the heel of the seed of the woman. The bruising of the heel might indicate only a slight injury in comparison with the wounding of the head, but who can tell what in itself it was to Jesus Christ; how manifold and searching were the assaults of Satan, and how they intensified the bitterness of Christs sorrow of soul?
3. His treatment as a sinner. Christ realised sin in the, to Him, most painful form of bearing it and suffering for it. He was made sin for usenduring for us, in some real but mysterious way, the wrath of God due to us for our sins. Every view of His death which ignores this wraps His whole suffering in inexplicable mystery, and provokes men to despair, not only of themselves, but even of God. What pain for the Holy One to be treated, not merely by man, but by God as a sinner, to feel in His soul the anger of God, to be forsaken for a time by His Father! Who can fathom the depth of soul-sorrow in the cry, My God, &c., as it came from the heart of the only-begotten and well-beloved Son?
LEARN
(1.) The costliness of His redemption.
(2.) The evil and shamefulness of sin.
(3.) The reality of our Lords sympathy for all who are in the world as He was, and follow in His footsteps.
(4.) The greatness of the suffering of the impenitent.The Homiletical Library, vol: ii. pp. 7882.
Throughout the chapter the Messiah appears as a suffering individual. He is represented as bearing the punishment of sin, though not on His own account, but on behalf of others, for whom He appears as a substitute. The expression, travail of His soul, is elliptical, and evidently means, that He shall see the fruit of the travail of His soul. The mighty and benevolent objects He had in view would certainly be accomplished, and would be fully satisfactory to Him.
I. SOME OF THOSE OBJECTS WHICH THE MESSIAH SHALL BEHOLD AS THE RESULT OF HIS SUFFERING.
1. Obstructions removed out of the way of the sinners salvation. The apostasy and rebellion of man have subjected him to the curse of the divine law. No offer of mercy can be made to him, while that law, by which God rules all worlds, is trampled upon and dishonoured. The substitution of the innocent for the guilty, was the great moral expedient by which God determined to save His apostate creatures, and to preserve unsullied the honour of His government. The object of divine mercy was to save transgressors, but the government of God required that sin should be condemned in the flesh. The obedience of the Son of God has magnified the law, as law. God can now, as a moral governor, exercise mercy without doing violence to His character, or weakening the obligations of His law.
2. His own people saved. Every sinner that has been saved, from the beginning of the world, has been saved by virtue of the death of Christ (Heb. 9:22; Heb. 10:4). After His humiliation and death, He was to see the fruit of His sufferings (Isa. 53:10). The death of Christ was to be followed by the rapid and extensive diffusion of the truth. Christianity widely spread in every direction. It took root in every soilit visited every climeand gained converts from every rank in society.
3. The moral disorders of our nature rectified. He came to destroy the works of the devil, and to establish an empire of righteousness, truth, and joy in the Holy Ghost. As the doctrines of the cross extend, the Saviour is purifying to Himself a people zealous of good works. This process is going on in the world; the latter-day glory will consist in the wide and extended reign of holy principles. The great mass of human society will be pervaded by them. Instead of wrath, hatred, envyings, covetousness, and all unrighteousness, love, joy, peace, gentleness, meekness, temperance, will become the dominant principles of action.
II. THE SATISFACTION WITH WHICH THE SAVIOUR WILL BEHOLD THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF HIS PURPOSES.
1. The completion of any great undertaking is accompanied with pleasure and satisfaction. To see a wise and mighty scheme of action working out the anticipated results, cannot fail to be gratifying to the projector.
2. The consciousness of having accomplished a work of infinite beneficence. One of the purest and highest pleasures we can enjoy on earth is the consciousness of having performed a disinterested act of benevolence. To impart happiness is pleasurable to all virtuous minds, and our enjoyment will be in proportion to the magnitude of the blessing bestowed. Jesus Christ gives eternal lifean infinite good, and His satisfaction will be proportionably large and enduring. In the Saviours consciousness of having bestowed an infinite blessing, there is an element of happiness peculiarly His own. He still retains the sympathies and affections of our nature in His glorified state. We are to awake in His likeness. There will, therefore, be a peculiarity in the satisfaction He enjoys, arising from a community of feeling with us. There will be an identity of feeling, a sympathy in happiness, which no one can feel who has not tasted of humanity.
IMPROVEMENT.
1. Let the subject teach us that we all have a deep interest in the travail of the Redeemers soul. It has a gracious aspect to every one of us. This is the glad tidings of salvation, the gospel of the grace of God.
2. How great are our obligations to the Saviour!Samuel Summers: Sermons, pp. 169191.
Were there no other evidence of the true divinity of our Lord than that which may be gathered from a comparison of this chapter with the accounts of His life, sufferings, and death, as furnished by the four Evangelists, it ought to be abundantly sufficient to satisfy any reasonable mind. While Scripture is most positive and frequent in its declaration on this great doctrine, there is no passage or word, rightly understood, which favours a contrary opinion. If a firm belief in the true divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ is necessary, a proper notion of His real humanity is not less so. The doctrine of atonement requires a distinct conviction of the true and proper humanity of our Lord. Deity cannot suffer, &c. We shall confine ourselves to the consideration of our Lords sufferings of soul; because general attention is directed rather to His sufferings of body, and because the text speaks expressly of the travail of His soul.
I. OUR LORDS TRAVAIL OF SOUL. He had a travail of soul arising
1. From an anxious desire to be engaged in His great work. We know something of this feeling. How strong must it have been in the soul of Christ (Luk. 12:50).
2. From the temptations of the devil. These were sometimes presented through the unconscious agency of others. But His severest temptations were suggested by Satan in his own person in the wilderness.
3. From sorrow at mens impenitence and hardness (Mar. 6:6; Mat. 23:37).
4. From fear in the immediate anticipation of His agony (Heb. 5:7; Mat. 26:38-39).
5. From a sense of Divine desertion. He trod the wine-press alone. All His sufferings and travail of soul were as nothing compared with that sensation of utter loneliness and destitution which wrung from Him that exceeding great and bitter cry, My God, &c.
II. WHAT WERE THE RESULTS OF ALL THIS TRAVAIL OF SOUL AND AGONY OF BODY?
1. In reference to man. The result to every one who receives Him is Justification. By the knowledge of Him shall My righteous servant justify many, implies a living faith in the Saviour.
2. In reference to our Lord Himself. One word expresses them. He shall be satisfied. Satisfied with what?
(1.) With its effects upon individuals, leading them from the depths of sin to the heights of holiness.
(2.) With its efficacy for all mankind.
(3.) With the fulfilment of the Divine engagement to save every believing penitent. No poor guilty sinner coming in the way of Gods appointment has been rejected.
(4.) The salvation of sinners is Christs satisfaction. He does not regret His mediatorial undertaking, His reproach, and suffering, and death. He knows what our salvation has cost Him, and is satisfied.
But He may see of the travail of His soul and not be satisfied. He is not satisfied when the backslider crucifies Him afresh and puts Him to an open shame. He is not satisfied when the open sinner tramples Him under foot, &c. We have all, I trust, given some satisfaction to Christ; but which of us has done so fully? How many defects and imperfections have marred our best services!S. D. Waddy, D.D.: Sermons, pp. 4361.
To Christian Workers.
I. Without sacred travailin the sense of labour, sacrifice, patiencethere is never any profound and abiding satisfaction. Nothing precious in the world can be obtained without sacrifice; and this is just as true in the kingdom of God [1674] So it is with God. Creation and Providence may be the recreations of Omnipotence, but Redemption could be accomplished only by infinite cost [1677] Let us not dream of doing anything effective for ourselves or others cheaply.
[1674] We all would like that the law of Christian, and, indeed, of other life and success, was very different from this, and just as in the world people would like to get wealth without paying the price of it in labour, and would like to gain influence without rendering service by which it alone is won, and would like to get the love of their fellow-men without the life of friendliness that attracts it, so in spiritual things we would like cheaply, easily, to gain the precious things on which we set our eyesforgiveness without repentance, perfect sanctity without the gradual and laborious self-denial by which alone it can be reached; usefulness we would like to get in some cheap and easy way without any sweat of agony, and without any strain of sympathy. We would all like in this way to get various things that are goodforgiveness, usefulness, raptures, light, conviction, assurance, without any travail. Now I do not know any lesson that it is more requisite for the young to learn, and more requisite for older men to keep themselves from forgetting than thisthat without travail there is no abiding satisfaction.Glover.
[1677] When He aims at the greater objects that engage His heart and tax His powers, when He would not make but save the world, when He would get back to Him the love of His suspicious and wandering children, when He would fill His house with guests, and when He would make these guests eternally worthy of His fellowship and capable of communion with Him, then not easily even for Him can that work be done; but between Him and this joy that He sets before Him there is the travail of Bethlehem, with its loneliness, of His lonely pilgrim path of misunderstanding, of the weakness of feeble hearts, and the bitterness of hateful foes. There is Gethsemane, there is Calvary. Without travail there is no satisfaction.Glover.
II. Wherever there is sacred travail there is always abiding satisfaction. This lesson is as true as the other. No Christian labour is ever lost; it may seem lost, but it is not. Even when Christ re-ascended to heaven, His incarnation, His life, His death seemed to have been thrown away. A mere handful of disciples seemed the only result of it all. But was Christs travail lost? Every century that has since rolled away has been revealing how much was accomplished by it. His cross has been a tree of life in the midst of the garden bearing all manner of fruitsin that it has reconciled man to God; that it has reconciled man to man; that it reconciles us to our earthly lot; that it sweetens every other cross; that it reconciles us to our duty. So will it be with all who labour for Christ. Whatever travail of love or consecration you or I can put into our life and labour, none of it will be lost; but there will be a divine satisfaction infinitely ample, enduringly grand, compensating for it all [1680]
[1680] There may be travail in other directions without any satisfaction. Travail for wealth often leaves a man in poverty; travail for the sake of honour leaves him still insignificant and unknown. Do not spend your labour for that which will not profit, but aspire to the grand reward, to the noble results of existence, and put forth the sacred travail which, exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think, is rewarded and blessed of heaven.Glover.
III. The salvation of man is the satisfaction of God. Let this thought cheer the soul oppressed by guilt: God will delight to save you. Let it cheer the Christian worker; surely it should animate us in going forth to any work, that God is on our side, and that He finds His satisfaction in saving men.
IV. The salvation of men will be on such a scale as to give complete and perfect satisfaction to our God. Satisfaction is a large word. It is easy to please a man, but hard to satisfy him; and, as some one has said, it is the same with God: He is easily pleased, but hard to satisfy. Yet He shall be SATISFIED!R. Glover: The Baptist, Oct. 11, 1878.
THE KNOWLEDGE THAT JUSTIFIES
Isa. 53:11. By His knowledge shall My righteous servant justify many.
Of whom speaketh the prophet this? (Act. 8:34). Only of One, in all earths history, could these things be said. Is not His name Wonderful? Here we have
I. THE FATHERS RIGHTEOUS SERVANT. My righteous servant, says God, as if He had never had another. Servant, is a name of subjection and obedience, yet also of honour, according to the rank of him whom he serves. As servant He is the doer of the Fathers will; the Fathers servant for us, and in this sense our servant (Luk. 22:27; Mat. 20:28). As servant He is the fulfiller of the Law; the obedient One in all things; not pleasing Himself, nor doing His own will. My righteous Servant, says God, as delighting in Him; for never before had He got such service and such righteousness; Divine, yet human service; Divine, yet human righteousness. It is of this righteous Servant that the whole chapter speaks. Wondrous servant! Gracious service! What or where should we be without such a servant and such a service? All we need is ministered to us by Him freely, liberally, lovingly!
II. THIS RIGHTEOUS SERVANT JUSTIFIES. He is no common servant. He is the great Judge of all; the Justifier of the sinner; He who acquits and pardons the guilty. He acted as such on earth (Joh. 8:11; Mat. 9:2, &c.); He acts as such in heaven. Our justification is in His hands; we go to Him to be justified. In one aspect it is the Father that justifies; in another, it is the Son. He justifies many. All power is given Himjudicial, royal, priestly. We get acquittal and acceptance from His priestly-royal hands. Let us then come boldly, &c. His justifying sentence reverses the laws condemning sentence. It is with the condemned that He deals; it is them that He pardons. There was justice in the condemnation; there is no less justice in the pardon. The Justifier is the Fathers Servant; the Word made flesh; the Son of God, who came in the name of the Lord to save us. Grace and righteousness in all their fulness are to be found in Him.
III. THIS RIGHTEOUS SERVANT JUSTIFIES BY HIS KNOWLEDGE. The knowledge is the link between the many and justification. He justifies them by giving them the knowledge of Himself as the Justifier, and of His work as the justifying thing. Know ledge is not here used in the sense of wisdom or understanding. It means that which He teaches them to know. We are justified by knowing the righteous servant. It is not by working, or praying, or suffering, but by knowing, that we enter on the state of acceptance (Joh. 17:3). This is one of the simplest aspects in which the Gospel is presented to us. There is no mystery or darkness here. To know Jesus is to be justified! The justified man can say nothing in his own behalf; nothing good has he found in himself, in his works, feelings, character. The knowledge of Gods righteous servant has brought him into the state of no condemnation. Satisfied with that knowledge, though satisfied with nothing about himself, he can say with certainty and gladness, Who is he that condemneth?
IV. THIS RIGHTEOUS SERVANT JUSTIFIES BY BEARING THE INIQUITY OF THOSE WHOM HE JUSTIFIES. He justifies as a judge; as a judge giving righteous judgment; righteous judgment in acquitting the unrighteous. The ground on which He justifies is not mere grace, it is also righteousness. Not that sin is trivial; but that He has borne iniquity in the room of righteousness. God has given us a testimony to the work of His Son; and He has added the promise, that whosoever believes that testimony is straightway justified We believe and are justified. We know that we are so because of the sure word of promise to him who receives the testimony. This is what is called appropriation. It is the simple conclusion we draw from our believing the testimony. He that believeth hath everlasting life.Horatius Bonar, D.D.: Light and Truth, Old Testament, pp. 266270.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
c. SUCCEEDS
TEXT: Isa. 53:10-12
10
Yet it pleased Jehovah to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of Jehovah shall prosper in his hand.
11
He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by the knowledge of himself shall my righteous servant justify many; and he shall bear their iniquities.
12
Therefore will I 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 was numbered with the transgressors: yet he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
QUERIES
a.
Why did it please Jehovah to bruise Christ?
b.
How would the Servant be satisfied with His travail?
c.
What portion did the Servant receive?
PARAPHRASE
Although it was Gods purpose for the good of man to allow His Servant to be pierced to death and to suffer, when the Servants death has become expiation for sin, then He will produce a multitude of spiritual descendants. He will then live forever and Gods purpose for the good of man will have succeeded because of Him. And when He sees that Gods plan has succeeded, He will rejoice with satisfaction. And because He knows and fulfills perfectly Jehovahs plan of salvation, He shall be able to impart righteousness and justification to many people through His atoning sacrifice. On account of His absolute victory over sin and death, He will be rewarded with a glory commensurate with His victory! He will be the greatest among the great. He is the greatest of all because He was servant of all pouring out His life unto death, allowing Himself, though He was sinless, to be made sin for others, putting His sinless innocence down as an offering on behalf of evil and wicked mankind.
COMMENTS
Isa. 53:10 PERPETUITY: The Hebrew word khaphetz means, delighted or desired and indicates that the death of the Messiah involved more than a sterile, unfeeling, deterministic plan of an unfeeling God. It is incomprehensible to the finite mind of sinful man how God could delight in the death of His Son, but He did. The Hebrew word translated bruise is heheliy and means to make painful. The Isaiah Scroll from Qumran has the word vyhllhv which means that he might pierce him (see comments on Isa. 53:5).
These verses are some of the strongest of the Old Testament on the resurrection or immortality of the Servant-Messiah. The Servant dies, but He also lives on, succeeds and carries out the work of atonement, redemption, justification, sanctification and intercession that the Father has entrusted to Him, just as it was predicted He would do (Luk. 24:25 ff). Other O.T. prophecies of the resurrection of the Messiah:
Psa. 16:1-11
Act. 2:25-33
Psa. 110:1-7
Act. 2:34-36
Psa. 22:1-31
Mat. 27:46; Mar. 15:34
2Sa. 7:12; Psa. 89:3-4
Act. 13:34 (The enduring throne promised to Davids Messiah-Son presupposed victory over death.)
Genesis 22 (Abraham and Isaac; Heb. 11:17-19). Abraham, on Mt. Moriah, participated in a dramatic typical event portraying Calvary and the Empty Tomb. Perhaps Jesus was alluding to this when He said, Abraham rejoiced to see my day . . . and was glad. Joh. 8:56
Psa. 118:22 (The stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner).
There is no doubt that Isaiah 53 is Messianic and that it is predicting His atoning death and resurrection. Philip, by the guidance of the Holy Spirit, interpreted it thusly, Act. 8:26-40.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is a well established fact of history:
Proof of the Resurrection of Christ:
1.
The historical records, by competent, credible, honest, numerous eyewitnesses say the tomb was empty. There is no historical testimony or evidence to the contrary. The only explanation is Mat. 28:11-15, soldiers were paid to say His disciples stole the body while the soldiers were asleep. How absurdly incredible!
2.
Credible, competent, honest eyewitnesses testify they saw Jesus after his death, alive, talking to them, eating fish with them, even saw the nail prints in His hands.
3.
The conversion of the enemies of Christianity can only be accounted for by the historical factuality of the resurrection of Christ (Saul of Tarsus; great company of the priests; even some of Caesars own household).
4.
The Catacombs of Rome depict the resurrection of Jesus and testify to the belief in it by first century saints.
5.
The existence of the church and its ordinances testifies to the resurrection. The fact of the New Testament itself is inexplicable apart from it.
It is not a question of could the resurrection occur or not. It is a question of did it occur or notnot a philosophical question, but a historical, scientific question!
Merrill C. Tenney says, The event is fixed in history, the dynamic is potent for eternity.
Unbelievers say Christ was not raised from the deadI say prove it! All the reliable evidence we have says He was!
The church began in the city where Jesus burial was known, among those who could have refuted the testimony of Peter (Acts 2) and proved it false. All they would have to have done was produce the body of Jesus! But 3000 testify that He had arisen and Peter was telling the truth.
There are Imperatives to the Resurrection.
1.
There is power in it. The power of Christianity is not in the esthetic value of great cathedrals, somber ritual and tradition, nor emotionalism but in the historical fact of the resurrection of Christ.
a.
Gives hope that is living (1Pe. 1:3)
b.
Brings joy unspeakable and full of glory (1Jn. 1:1-4)
c.
Sanctifies and purifies (1Jn. 3:3; Act. 17:32)
d.
Gives power to evangelism (Act. 4:33)
e.
Gives stedfastness (1Co. 15:58)
2.
There is only one alternative to the resurrection. That is a life of eating, drinking, for tomorrow we die (1Co. 15:12-19; 1Co. 15:32).
3.
But, if Christ is raised from the dead, and we shall be also, then:
a.
The Bible is Gods Word!
b.
Heaven and Hell are real places!
c.
Man will live forever, one place or the other!
d.
A mans sins may really be forgiven!
e.
The plan of salvation in the N.T. is the only valid one!
f.
Christ is coming again!
g.
There is only one church, the universal body of Christ which consists of all who believe in Christ, are repenting of their sins and have been immersed in water in obedience to His command!
h.
No one will be saved who is not a member of that church!
The resurrection of Christ makes all the above imperative! There is no middle ground on any of that because His resurrection establishes beyond any question His deity and His authority!
The Servant shall produce seed or descendants. He shall have a family, but it will be a spiritual family (cf. Rom. 9:8; Gal. 3:15-20; Gal. 3:23-29). So, it is in being lifted up He will draw men unto Him (cf. Joh. 3:14-15; Joh. 8:28; Joh. 12:32). He shall fall into the ground like a grain of wheat and die, and then bear much fruit (Joh. 12:23-26). And the khephetz (delight) of Jehovah shall succeed through His efforts. The delight of Jehovah is, of course, His eternal plan for the redemption of man! What wonder, what unsearchable grace, that Jehovahs delight should be the salvation and regeneration of a planet full of wicked rebels. But more wonderful, His Son should come to this planet in the form of a man and willingly submit to humiliating death allowing Himself, though absolutely innocent, to become sin on mans behalf!
Isa. 53:11 PLEASURE: The Servant will have travail of . . . soul (cf. Isa. 49:4 ff). But He will be satisfied. For the joyous reward that was set before Him, He could endure the cross (cf. Heb. 12:2). He will look back from His enthronement at the right hand of the Father and see that He has succeeded in accomplishing the once-for-all-time redemption and regeneration of the Fathers creation (man and cosmos). As Young points out, the suffix on the Hebrew word bedaetto is difficult of interpretation. Is the suffix subjective or objectivethat is, is Isaiah speaking of the knowledge that the servant himself possesses or of knowledge of the servant on the part of others? We think the context is emphasizing the successfulness of the Servant Himself and that it is through His own incarnation (human experience) that He performs His work of justification. It was through the experience of obedience as a Son that He became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him (cf. Heb. 5:7-9; Php. 2:5-11). The righteous servant (tzaddiyk aveddiy) will make many righteous (yatzeddiyk). He makes it possible for us to become the righteousness of God in Him (2Co. 5:21). This was the grace that was to be ours which the prophets prophesied (cf. 1Pe. 1:10-12). He bore our iniquities and became a curse for us (cf. Gal. 3:13).
Isa. 53:12 PORTION: On account of the Servants victory over sin, Satan and death, Jehovah will exalt Him above every other man. The exaltation of the Servant of Jehovah is clearly predicted by the prophet earlier (Isa. 49:7; Isa. 52:15). When the Servant made purification for sins, he was enthroned at the right hand of the Majesty on high (Heb. 1:3-4). When He ascended, He took captivity captive (Eph. 4:8) and dispensed His gifts according to His will and purpose for the ongoing of the kingdom of God here on earth. The Servant whom the Jews crucified, God made both Lord and Christ (Act. 2:36). There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved (Act. 4:12). The reason for this exaltation is summarized in the statement, because he poured out his soul unto death. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing (Rev. 5:12).
A whole volume could justifiably be written on this chapter alone. Perhaps the most intriguing question about Isaiah 53 is: If the New Testament is so clear about its fulfillment in Jesus Christ, why do the majority of Jews not see and understand it? A few references to The Servant of Jehovah in Jewish literature, both ancient and modern, may provide a partial answer to this question:
Jewish Apocrypha and The Suffering Servant concept:
The apocalyptic literature of the Jewish Apocrypha are such books as I Enoch, The Sibylline Oracles, The Testaments of the XII Patriarchs, the Psalms of Solomon, II Esdras, II Baruch and others. They were written in the years 165 B.C.100 A.D.
In a book entitled, The Method and Message of Jewish Apocalyptic, by D. S. Russell, pub. Westminster, we learn, There is no serious evidence of the bringing together of the concepts of the Suffering Servant and the Davidic Messiah before the Christian era. Mr. Russell continues, The Targum (Jewish Targums are rabbinical interpretations of the O.T.) on Isaiah 53 has often been alluded to, but it cannot be the Suffering Servant Isaiah predicted. The Messiah presented in this Targum is one who will triumph over the heathen and all the enemies of Gods people! The suffering he has to endure is minimal and devoid of all vicariousness. In fact, it is hardly suffering at all, for it consists simply in the exposure of himself to those dangers he will have to face in the coming struggle with the heathen before his final victory is assured. There is no mention of an atoning deathno reference to a suffering and dying Messiah.
II Esdras and II Baruch (cir. 90 A.D.) use the word servant to describe the Messiah from the seed of David. However, there is no suggestion of a suffering Messiah, or an atoning death. He is not killed by enemies or diseasehe simply ceases to exist. The reference to his death is with the same casualness as any human death. He establishes his kingdom, dies, and presumably will rise with other humans at the general resurrection of the people of God.
Modern Jews:
1.
A Jewish woman doctor, recounting her conversion to Christ in a book called Pursued:
While recuperating from illness she began reading a Bible. She read Isaiah 53. She was forced to acknowledge it must be talking about the Messiah. But then she said she refused to accept the consequences of that passage for her Messiah. Suddenly she realized that she was reading from the KJV, A Protestant Bible! Of course, it was slanted to sound that way. I went to sleep that night, confident I had caught the gentiles at a not-too-clever trick.
But then she read it in a Jewish Bible and it was basically the same message!
2.
Chapters 5253 (of Isaiah) and other chapters contain the prophecies concerning the suffering servant which the Christian church later interpreted as referring to Jesus, but which, in Jewish tradition, refer to the people of Israel, pg. 151 from, The International Jewish Encyclopedia, by Rabbi ben Isaacson and Deborah Wigoder, compiled and produced in Israel for Prentice-Hall.
3.
History of the Jew, by Heindrich Graetz, pub. The Jewish Pub. Soc. of America, 1893, in chapter entitled Messianic Expectations and Origins of Christianity, indicates the idea of a suffering Messiah was completely foreign to Jewish thinking.
It is not difficult now to understand the rebuke Peter had for Jesus (Mat. 16:22) when Jesus predicted His death!
4.
Non-Messianic Interpretations:
a.
Most prevalent among Jewish writers is that Isaiah 53 means the nation of Israel. Some say empirical Israel; some say ideal Israel; some say the pious remnant of the true Israel.
b.
Isaiah 53 means the prophetical orderi.e. the collective body of the prophets . . . as the sacrificial victim taking upon itself the sins of the people.
c.
Isaiah 53 means an individual (Hezekiah, Isaiah, Josiah, but most frequently, Jeremiah), but a human individual. Some said, an unknown sufferer (sounds like the apostles first answer to Jesus at Cesarea Philippi, Matthew 16).
5.
Aaron Kligerman, in his book, Old Testament Messianic Prophecy, pub. Zondervan, paperback, thinks there were some Jewish interpretations which believed the Suffering Servant was to be the Messiah. He refers to Yalkut and Rambam which are Talmudic and Midrashic literature of the days of Maimonides (cir. 11351204 A.D.). These are so obscure, however, they are not worth considering as having direct reference to the Messiah as an individual. They could be understood in any of the categories listed above. Furthermore, they are of such late date they are probably concessions to Christian interpretations of Isaiah 53.
Jews are not alone in disavowing the biblical doctrine of the substitutionary atonement. Bishop G. Bromley Oxnam, former head of the World Council of Churches says in his book, A Testament of the Faith, pg. 144, Boston, 1958;
We hear much of the substitutionary theory of the atonement. This theory to me is immoral. If Jesus paid it all, or if He is the substitute for me, or if He is the sacrifice for all the sin of the world, then why discuss forgiveness? The books are closed. Another has paid the debt, borne the penalty. I owe nothing. I am absolved. I cannot see forgiveness as predicted upon the act of some one else. It is my sin. I must atone.
It is not trite to repeat that Philip, by the guidance of the Holy Spirit, applied Isaiah 53 to the atoning death and justifying resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is difficult to see how one may claim to be a disciple of Jesus and contradict this doctrine!
QUIZ
1.
How do these verses teach the resurrection of Jesus Christ?
2.
Is the resurrection of Christ historically valid?
3.
What knowledge of Himself was involved in the Servants justifying work?
4.
Why do you think the Jews will not accept Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of Isaiah 53?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(10) Yet it pleased the Lord . . .The sufferings of the Servant are referred not to chance or fate, or even the wickedness of his persecutors, but to the absolute good-pleasure of the Father, manifesting itself in its fullest measure in the hour of apparent failure. (Comp. Psa. 22:15.)
When thou shalt make . . .Better, if his soul shall make a trespass offering, he will see his seed; he will prolong his days . . . The sacrificial character of the death of the Servant is distinctly defined. It is a trespass offering (Lev. 6:6; Lev. 6:17; Lev. 14:12), an expiation for the sins of the people. The words declare that such a sacrifice was the condition of spiritual parentage (Psa. 22:30), of the immortality of influence, of eternal life with God, of accomplishing the work which the Father had given him to do (Joh. 17:4). The trespass offering was, it must be remembered, distinct from the sin offering, though both belonged to the same sacrificial group (Lev. 5:15; Lev. 7:1-7), the distinctive element in the former being that the man who confessed his guilt, voluntary or involuntary, paid his shekels, according to the judgment of the priest, and offered a ram, the blood of which was sprinkled upon the altar. It involved, that is, the idea not of an atonement only, but of a satisfaction, according to the nature of the sin.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
10, 11. It pleased the Lord to bruise him Notwithstanding his innocence. His bruising thus accords with the divine idea of permitting (Act 2:23) an expression of love through suffering, which expression Messiah alone is competent to make. The time of being pleased with Old Testament sacrifices is proleptically past, as brought out in Psa 40:6-8, (Lo, I come, etc.) But the time of receiving reward for suffering is now at hand.
He shall see his seed Love declared to the world through a suffering self-offering, is to reap fruit in a long line of spiritual children whose own deserved penal sufferings are offset by Messiah’s free suffering instead.
He shall prolong his days This he is to do in the great mediatorial aion the period of the great Christian dispensation that is to follow during which his joy shall abound more and more through the vast increase of redeemed ones coming into his kingdom. A fitting and satisfying reward shall this prove to be. The same idea is expanded in Isa 53:11.
By his knowledge His “knowledge,” probably, of the eternal plan to save men; “knowledge” of the how, and why, and extent, of such a plan, possibly not fully contemplated till his glorification began, just prior to his priestly sufferings, and continuing to his exaltation. See Mat 24:36. Such knowledge was relief to those sufferings. He saw from the cross “the glory that should follow,” and in a sense was thereby sustained. In such case he could freely and joyfully interpose for a world of sinners with sufferings due only to them, and of such a character that divine justice and government might accept his suffering in lieu of theirs, and be in no jeopardy.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘Yet it pleased (‘it was the will of’) Yahweh to bruise him.
He put him to grief.
When you make his soul an offering for sin
He will see his seed, he will prolong his days,
And the pleasure of Yahweh will prosper in his hand.’
Now the situation is made quite plain. All that has happened to the Servant has happened in the will of God. It was not just allowed to happen, it happened at His pleasure. He chose to crush Him. He chose to put Him to suffering. Not because He was angry at Him or because the Servant deserved it, or because He did not love Him, but because He was making His soul a guilt offering, ‘an offering for sin’ (see Lev 5:6-19; Lev 6:6; Lev 6:17; Lev 7:1-7). Note the stress here on the fact that suffering was necessary. Once again this sacrifice outclasses the ancient sacrifices. The victim was voluntary, and the victim truly suffered.
The guilt offering was a substitutionary offering. It covered a wide range of sins including not giving witness when adjured to do so, making rash oaths, doing anything that Yahweh has commanded not to be done, defrauding people, lying or sinning in holy matters. Indeed it covered anything that made a man guilty before God. And above all it was a voluntary offering. A man chose of his own free will to offer his guilt offering. The stress here then is on the removal of guilt for sins committed in an offering made by voluntary choice. It will be noted that sins of the mouth come in here specifically (compare Isa 53:9), together with religious sins and disobedience. Its purpose was to make atonement, to ‘cover’ sins, to remove guilt and includes where appropriate restitution. It thus makes total satisfaction for sin. The result was forgiveness (Lev 5:16) and total reconciliation with God and man. The offerer has ‘borne his iniquity’, because the offering has borne it in his stead (Lev 5:17). It results in his guilt before God being removed.
So here the Servant is being offered as a guilt offering, which He makes freely, which covers all men. In that sense it is more like the sin offering which was offered for the whole of Israel, but with the added aspect that it meets the particular sin and need of each one. The reason for using the guilt offering is in fact to stress that each person must take advantage of it individually for his own guilt. For the guilt offering was very individual. This was no blanket atonement but one offered on behalf of each one who must himself come in order to benefit by it. It was personal to his own sin. Each must therefore appropriate this guilt offering to themselves.
And the result will be that He will have ‘seed’, His days will be ‘prolonged’, which can only mean that He will be resurrected, and He will personally carry out the will of Yahweh which will prosper in His hand. The implication is that His offering will result in ‘children’ made guiltless through His blood, that He will have endless life and that He will carry out in His resurrected state the work that God has for Him to do. ‘In His hand’ stresses His direct part in it. But the promises are put in such a way as to tie in with the longings of godly men. Having children and length of days and doing the will and pleasure of Yahweh, indicated all that the godly sought and anticipated. Thus this is demonstrating God’s satisfaction with what has been done. The Servant too will, after His suffering, enjoy these in abundant measure, evidence of God’s delight in Him.
The promise of seed connects this directly with the promises given to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob/Israel (compare Isa 41:8; Isa 43:5; Isa 44:3; Isa 48:19). While the Servant is in this chapter revealed as an individual, His coming forth from Abraham is not forgotten. ‘He will see His seed.’ This was also what had in a sense been promised to Abraham (Gen 15:5; Gen 22:17-18). But in this case from His death He will lead many sons to glory.
‘He will prolong His days.’ His resurrection has been anticipated in Isa 26:19; Isa 25:8. Through His death this resurrection will now become a reality in Him, and for His people in the future. Note that He prolongs His own days. He has power to lay down His life, and He has power to raise it again (Joh 10:17-18).
‘And the pleasure of Yahweh will prosper in His hand.’ In all this His desire has been to do the will of Yahweh. And that is what He has accomplished. ‘Lo I come to do your will, O my God’ (Psa 40:6-8; Heb 10:5-10). He is stricken that Yahweh’s will and pleasure might reach its fulfilment. For in bruising this One Whom He had sent He is bringing about His own purposes, the salvation of His chosen ones. The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world (1Jn 4:14).
‘When You make His soul an offering for sin.’ This ‘you’ refers to God’s action. God is specifically, personally and directly involved in what is happening. It is He Who offers the Servant up as an offering.
Note that we have from this point on a change in tense. No longer the complete (perfect) tense which speaks of what is done and complete whether in the past or the future, but the incomplete tense which expresses something continual. Having accomplished His perfect work of offering Himself for the sins of many, His continual work goes on.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Isa 53:10. Yet it pleased the Lord, &c. “However, it pleased God that he should suffer, though God had another view in it than his murderers, even the salvation of mankind.” Bishop Chandler reads, If he shall make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, which shall prolong their days, &c. The Vulgate, says he, renders it, videbit semen longaevum, in agreement with the LXX. and Chaldee. The Targum, supposing seed to be the nominative to the verb see, translates, His seed shall see the kingdom of the Messiah: they shall multiply and prolong their days. R. Alshek interprets seed, as above, by disciples; such as addict themselves to his religion who converted them; and thus it is used in the Jewish writings, for those who imitate the manners of their teacher. See Grotius and L’Empereur. The former clause may be read, Yet, &c. he mortally afflicted him; or he pained him even to death.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
DISCOURSE: 973
CHRISTS DEATH A CONDITION OF OUR SALVATION
Isa 53:10. When thou shall 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.
THERE are in the Holy Scriptures many apparent contradictions, which, when properly understood, are perfectly consistent with each other. The redemption of our souls is continually represented as the freest gift of God: yet the very term redemption implies that a price is paid. But here is no real inconsistency; because that, which to us is as free as the light we behold, or the air we breathe, was dearly purchased by our blessed Lord; and the Apostle himself combines these ideas, saying, We are justified freely by Gods grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. The truth is, that eternal life is the gift of God through Jesus Christ: but, before it could be thus freely given consistently with the divine perfections, it was necessary that an atonement should be made for sin: and, in order to the liberating of the debtor, the debt must be discharged by his Surety. Hence, when our Lord undertook to save us, a condition was imposed upon him, and the promise of success in his undertaking was suspended on his performance of that condition. The words before us lead us to consider,
I.
The condition imposed
To understand the true nature of this condition, it is necessary that we should advert to the offerings that were made under the law. If any person had sinned, even through ignorance, he was bound to bring an offering in order to make atonement for his sin. This offering was to be a bullock, or a male or female kid, or a lamb, according to the quality of the offender. He was to lay his hands upon the head of the offering, in token that he confessed himself to be deserving of death, and that he transferred his guilt to the creature that was to suffer in his stead. The creature was then killed; its blood was poured out at the foot of the altar, some of it having been previously put upon the horns of the altar; and then its fat was burnt upon the altar: and God smelling a sweet savour from it, accepted it on behalf of the offerer.
Now this will shew what Christ was to do. He had undertaken to save man: he must therefore come and put himself in the place of man; and present himself before God to suffer all that was due to our transgressions. But whereas the animals could suffer only in body, he was to suffer both in body and soul, and to present his whole person a sacrifice for sin. In consideration of this sacrifice every sinner in the universe was to have liberty to transfer his guilt to him, and, on so doing, to find acceptance with God through him. Thus he was to become the sinners substitute, or, as the Apostle expresses it, to be made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
But what necessity was there for any such condition? Why must Gods only dear Son become a man, and offer up himself a sacrifice for sin? To answer this important inquiry, we observe, first, that man, having once transgressed the law of God, could never afterwards be justified by obedience to it. The law denounced a curse against transgressors, but made no provision for their restoration to the Divine favour. It made no mention of repentance or amendment; it spake nothing of pardoning mercy; it simply required obedience, and inflicted the penalty of death on the disobedient. From that time there could not be any law given whereby we might have life; for if there could, God tells us, that verily righteousness should have been by the law. If therefore man ever was to be saved at all, there was a necessity that some other plan should be devised, whereby the law should take its course and yet the trangressor be rescued from condemnation. This could not be done unless a proper substitute for man could be found, who should at once satisfy all the demands of law and justice, and bring in a righteousness that should be transferable to man for his justification before God. Hence, in the next place, arose a further necessity for the death of Christ, namely, that there was none other found in the whole creation, who was capable of undertaking so great a work. As for the blood of bulls and of goats, it was not possible that that could take away sin: nor could any man redeem his brother, or even himself. If an angel, or all the angels of heaven, had attempted it, they must have failed: for in the very first instance they must have suffered eternal death. This was the penalty due to sin; and if it had been inflicted on them, they must have been in the state of the fallen angels to all eternity, seeing that there never would come a time, when it could be said, that the law was fully satisfied. Besides, their obedience to the law, even supposing it to have been meritorious in the sight of God (which it could not be, because, after having done all that was commanded them, they would be only unprofitable servants), they could merit only for themselves: the righteousness of a mere creature could never have been so excellent as to deserve eternal happiness and glory for a sinful world. We do not indeed presume to limit God, and to say what he might or might not have done, if he had pleased. But according to the light given us in the Scripture we are warranted to say, that, if any lesser sacrifice would have answered all the purposes of his glory and of mans salvation, he never would have sent the man that was his fellow. He would not have given his Son out of his bosom to die for us, if the death of a mere creature would have sufficed. This leads us to notice a further ground of Christs sacrifice, which was, that in it there was a sufficiency for the salvation of the whole world. Christ being God as well as man, there was an infinite value in his sufferings; his sufferings for a time were equivalent to the sufferings of the whole world to all eternity. There was also an infinite value in his obedience; so that it could merit, not for himself only, but for others, yea, for all the myriads of sinners who should trust in it. The penalty of the law being inflicted on him, Divine justice was satisfied; and scope was opened for the exercise of mercy. The sinners debt being paid, the sinner could be discharged in perfect consistency with Gods truth and holiness.
Hence then it was that help was laid upon One so mighty; and that such a condition was imposed upon him.
As to what is said of the Father making his soul an offering, the words may be translated either in the second or the third person: if in the second, they relate to the Fathers laying of our iniquities upon his Son; if in the third (as they are in the marginal translation, which we rather prefer), they relate to Christs voluntarily making himself an offering.
But in addition to what we have spoken concerning the nature and necessity of the condition imposed on Christ, it will be proper that we state, in few words, what the condition itself implied. It implied, that there is no salvation but by the blood of Christ. It has before been observed that such a condition would never have been imposed, if man could have been saved by any other means: and this is confirmed by that express declaration of the Apostle, There is no other name given under heaven, whereby we can be saved, but the name of Jesus Christ. It implied further, that every sinner must actually present, as it were, to God the blood of Christ, as his only plea for mercy and acceptance. He must put his hand on the head of his offering, confessing his desert of death, renouncing every self-righteous hope, and trusting simply in the sacrifice once made upon the cross. Lastly, it implied, that this one offering, thus presented, shall be available for the very chief of sinners. Gods end in sending his Son was, not only to save man, but to glorify himself in mans salvation. It is true, that all his perfections are glorified in the salvation of the most righteous: but the efficacy of this atonement, together with Gods love in providing, and his mercy in accepting it, are more conspicuous, in proportion as those interested in it are redeemed from deeper condemnation. To have imposed such a condition for the purpose of saving a few only of the more worthy characters, would have given us reason to apprehend, either that the mercy of God was very limited, or that there was not a sufficiency in the Redeemers merits for the redemption of more atrocious sinners. But as these apprehensions are false and groundless, we may consider the very condition itself as importing, that the offering of Christ should be accepted for all that would trust in it.
Such was the condition imposed on Gods only dear Son, when he undertook to mediate for fallen man: He must make his own soul an offering for sin, and die in the stead of those whom he would redeem.
The benefit arising from his performance of that condition is seen in,
II.
The promises suspended on it
Those specified in my text refer to three things; the furtherance of mans welfare; the advancement of Christs glory; and the accomplishment of the Fathers eternal purposes.
The furtherance of mans welfare entirely depended on Christs performance of this condition. He could never have seen a seed, nor could one of all the human race ever have been saved, without it. Our Lord himself both confirms and illustrates this by a beautiful comparison. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground, and die, it abideth alone: but, if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit [Note: Joh 12:24.]. But by dying he was to obtain a people whom he was to have for ever as his purchased possession. It had been foretold respecting him that a seed should serve him; that all the ends of the earth should remember themselves and turn unto him; and that they should be counted to him for a generation [Note: Psa 22:27; Psa 22:30.]. By conversion they were to stand related to him as his children, as being begotten by his word and Spirit, and as receiving through him a heavenly inheritance. These he was to see. And behold, while he was yet in the very act of offering himself, he did see the earnest and first-fruits of his future harvest: in the very hour of death he converted the dying thief, and took him that very day to dwell with him in Paradise, as a monument of his victorious grace, and of his redeeming love. Nor had he long poured out his soul, when lo, another convert was born to God! No sooner did the Centurion, who had been ordered to superintend the execution, behold the manner of his death, and the signs and wonders that attended it, than he exclaimed, Truly this was a righteous man, this was the Son of God! In the space of a few days thousands confessed his power, and through the operation of his Spirit, became sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty. Soon the handful of corn cast on the top of the mountains sprang up like the piles of grass for number, and the cedars of Lebanon for strength [Note: Psa 72:16.]. Even to the present hour his family is increasing in every quarter of the globe: and soon the time shall arrive, when a nation shall be born in a day, and that word of his shall be literally fulfilled, I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me. And when all the number of his elect shall have been gathered to him in successive ages, he will come and summon them all into his presence, that he may rejoice in them, and they in him, for ever and ever.
The advancement of his own glory was to be another fruit of the accomplishment of his engagements: He shall prolong his days. This cannot relate to him as God, seeing that his divine nature necessarily exists in one unsuccessive eternity. But as man and as Mediator, he was to prolong his days in a state of glorious advancement, as a reward for terminating his days on earth under such circumstances of humiliation and abasement. This also had been foretold in the inspired volume; he shall live; his name shall endure forever; his name shall be continued as long as the sun; and men shall be blessed in him; all nations shall call him blessed [Note: Psa 72:15; Psa 72:17.]. Again, in another Psalm, Thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness; thou settest a crown of pure gold upon his head. He asked life of thee, and thou gavest it him, even length of days for ever and ever [Note: Psa 21:1-5.]. Accordingly, in spite of the stone, the seal, the watch, he rose triumphant, and ascended up far above all principalities and powers, and sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. There shall he remain seated on his glorious throne, the one source of blessedness to all his creatures, till he shall come in the clouds of heaven, and take them to himself, that they may be one fold under one Shepherd for evermore. But all this glory was conditionally promised: he was first to become obedient unto death, even the death of the cross; and then he was to be highly exalted, and to have a name given him above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ was Lord, to the glory of God the Father [Note: Php 2:8-11.].
The accomplishment of his Fathers eternal purposes was to be yet a further part of his reward: The pleasure of the Lord was to prosper in his hands. The pleasure of Jehovah, yea, his chief delight, is to save sinners. This was the end he proposed to himself in his eternal counsels, when he entered into covenant with his dear Son. He has given proof of this, in that he has sworn, he has no pleasure in the death of a sinner, but rather that he should turn from his wickedness and live. He willeth that all should be saved and come to the acknowledgment of the truth: and, with respect to his elect, it is his good pleasure absolutely to give them the kingdom [Note: Luk 12:32.]. Nor, if we would entreat him to convert and save our souls, can we use any more suitable expressions than those of the Apostle, who prays, that he would fulfil in us all the good pleasure of his goodness [Note: 2Th 1:11.]. But his sending of his Son, in order that whosoever believeth in him might not perish, but have eternal life, is such an evidence of his love to sinners, as supersedes the necessity of any other proof, and must fill the universe with everlasting wonder and astonishment.
Now, as before the incarnation of Christ, the salvation of men was effected by the Father, so, since the coming of Christ, it has been carried on more immediately by the Son. During the first four thousand years of the world the work of conversion went on but slowly; there were few, very few, who experienced the saving efficacy of divine grace. But, when the office of rescuing sinners from the power of Satan came to be devolved on Jesus, then, according to the stipulation in the text, the pleasure of the Lord was to prosper in his hands. And how marvellously has it prospered, notwithstanding all the opposition of men and devils! There is not a day, an hour, a moment, wherein he is not beholding with joy the success of his endeavours: the ignorant are enlightened, the weak established, the doubting comforted, and all the hosts of the redeemed prepared for glory: nor shall his success be ever interrupted. To the latest period of time he shall go forth conquering, and to conquer, till all his enemies be put under his feet, and all his ransomed ones be seated on thrones of glory.
And now what should we learn from this subject? Surely we must see in it,
1.
How difficult a work is the salvation of man!
Was there no other way whereby it could be effected? Could there be no remission without shedding of blood? And must that blood be the blood of Gods only Son? Must he take our nature and offer himself without spot to God, before our peace could be made, or a way be opened for our restoration to happiness! Go, then, ye careless ones, who think all anxiety about the soul superfluous; go read the terms of this covenant; and see whether the salvation of man be so easy to be effected as you have hitherto imagined: see what a stupendous effort of wisdom and love was necessary before there was even a possibility for one of us to be saved! and, if such exertions were necessary on the part of the Father and of Christ, do ye suppose that there is no occasion for exertion on your part? Did Christ purchase for you not merely an exemption from death and hell, but also from all solicitude about your eternal interests? Yea, rather, do not his labours for you shew how you ought to labour for yourselves! Awake, then, from your slumbers, and work out your salvation with fear and trembling. You feel the need of labouring for the bread that perisheth; begin then to labour in good earnest for that which endureth to everlasting life, which the Son of man will give you.
2.
Next observe, How wonderful was the love of Christ in undertaking such things for the effecting of your salvation!
When God declared that he had no pleasure in sacrifices and burnt-offerings, and that he must have a far nobler sacrifice than that of beasts to satisfy the demands of his justice, the Saviour instantly undertook for us, saying, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God; I delight to do thy will, however painful the consequences of it may be to myself; yea, thy law is within my heart. He perfectly knew what it was to make his soul an offering for sin: he did not undertake it hastily, or without being apprised of the full extent of his engagements: but, foreseeing all the shame and misery that he must endure for our redemption, he undertook to effect it; nor ever receded, till he had accomplished all that was needful for it. Never can we sufficiently admire this astonishing love. O let us fix our minds upon it, and labour, if possible, to comprehend its heights and depths! Though it passes the knowledge of men and angels, yet shall our meditations on it be sweet, and our sense of it an antepast of heaven itself.
3.
Lastly, How cheerfully should we submit to any conditions for his glory, who submitted to such conditions for our good!
What is it that our God requires of us? It is simply this; that we should repent, believe, obey. And shall such conditions appear hard? If God had required that, in order to our final happiness, every one of us should endure the miseries of hell a thousand years, we ought to have embraced his offers of salvation with gratitude and joy; for, what are a thousand years in comparison of eternity? But when he only enjoins us to repent of those iniquities, for which the Saviour died; and to believe in him, whom the Father has set forth for a propitiation; and to obey his precepts, which are holy, just, and good; shall these injunctions be thought grievous? Shall we turn our back upon him, saying, If I cannot be saved without all this trouble, I will not be saved at all? Well indeed might Jesus, when the conditions of our salvation were proposed to him, have replied, No; if man cannot be saved on lower terms than these, let him perish. But what lower terms could we wish for? Yea, what is there in all our duties, which does not tend even to our present happiness? Let us then embrace the Gospel with all thankfulness: and let us cheerfully comply with all that God has required of us, knowing assuredly that he is faithful who hath promised, and that our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord.
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
This pleasure of Jehovah, at the sufferings and bruises of Jesus, opens a sweet and consolatory thought to the faithful! So very great and important, in the sight of God the Father, are the bruises which Jesus received for his Church, that in the blessings of redemption, consequent upon them, the Lord Jehovah took delight to behold them, knowing that by his stripes we are healed. Not all the blood of beasts, on a thousand altars; neither all the services of angels and men, through endless generations, and forever, could do that which was done by the bruises and putting to grief, which Jesus sustained. Het*e the soul-travail of Christ, which he felt, both in the garden and on the cross, to bring forth the blessed fruits of it, in the real conversion of sinners to God. Christ’s travailing pains for his people are until he is formed in the heart, the hope of glory. And the assurance that these points are to be accomplished, the promise of a seed to serve Christ is beautifully introduced, and declared to be so great, and so finished, that Jesus shall himself be satisfied, and see of the travail of his soul, in the multitude of sinners converted to the doctrine of the cross. Blessed promise to our glorious Head, and in him to all the seed; for all is yea and amen to the glory of God the Father in Christ; Psa 72 throughout.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Isa 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, he shall prolong [his] days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
Ver. 10. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. ] Singula verba hie expendenda sunt cum emphasi, saith one. a Here every word hath its weight, and it is very sure that the apostles and evangelists, in describing the mysteries of our salvation, have great respect as to this whole chapter of Isaiah, so especially to these three last verses. And it must needs be that the prophet, when he wrote these things, was indued with a very great Spirit; because herein he so clearly setteth forth the Lord Christ in his twofold estate of humiliation and of exaltation, that whereas other oracles of the Old Testament borrow light from the New, this chapter lendeth light to the New in several places.
He hath put him to grief.
When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin.
He shall see his seed.
And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
a Hyper.
b Parit dum perit, et perit dum parit. – Phaenicis aenigma.
Isaiah
THE SUFFERING SERVANT-IV
Isa 53:10 We have seen a distinct progress of thought in the preceding verses. There was first the outline of the sorrows and rejection of the Servant; second, the profound explanation of these as being for us; third, the sufferings, death and burial of the Servant.
We have followed Him to the grave. What more can there be to be said? Whether the Servant of the Lord be an individual or a collective or an ideal, surely all fitness of metaphor, all reality of fact would require that His work should be represented as ending with His life, and that what might follow His burial should be the influence of His memory, the continued operation of the principles He had set agoing and so on, but nothing more.
Now observe that, however we may explain the fact, this is the fact to be explained, that there is a whole section, this closing one, devoted to the celebration of His work after His death and burial, and, still more remarkable, that the prophecy says nothing about His activity on the world till after death. In all the former portion there is not a syllable about His doing anything, only about His suffering; and then when He is dead He begins to work. That is the subject of these last three verses, and it would be proper to take them all for our consideration now, but fur two reasons, one, because of their great fulness and importance, and one because, as you will observe, the two latter verses are a direct address of God’s concerning the Servant. The prophetic words, spoken as in his own person, end with Isa 53:10 , and, catching up their representations, expanding, defining, glorifying them, comes the solemn thunder of the voice of God. I now deal only with the prophet’s vision of the work of the Servant of the Lord.
One other preliminary remark is that the work of the Servant after death is described in these verses with constant and very emphatic reference to His previous sufferings. The closeness of connection between these two is thus thrown into great prominence.
I. The mystery of God’s treatment of the sinless Servant.
1. The solemn truth that His sufferings were divinely inflicted. That is a truth complementary to the other views in the prophecy, according to which these sufferings are variously regarded as either inflicted by men ‘By oppression and judgment He was taken away’ or drawn on Him by His own sacrificial act ‘His soul shall make an offering for sin’. It was the divine counsel that used men as its instruments, though they were none the less guilty. The hands that ‘crucified and slew’ were no less ‘the hands of lawless men,’ because it was ‘the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God’ that ‘delivered Him up.’
But a still deeper thought is in these words. For we can scarcely avoid seeing in them a glimpse into that dim region of eclipse and agony of soul from which, as from a cave of darkness, issued that last cry: ‘Eloi, Eloi, lama sabacthani?’ The bruises inflicted by the God, who made to meet on Him the iniquities of us all, were infinitely more severe than the weales of the soldiers’ rods, or the wounds of the nails that pierced His hands and feet.
2. The staggering mystery of His sinlessness and sufferings.
The world has been full from of old of stories of goodness tortured and evil exalted, which have drawn tears and softened hearts, but which have also bewildered men who would fain believe in a righteous Governor and loving Father. But none of these have cast so black a shadow of suspicion on the government of the world by a good God as does the fate of Jesus, unless it is read in the light of this prophecy. Standing at the cross, faith in God’s goodness and providence can scarcely survive, unless it rises to be faith in the atoning sacrifice of Him who was wounded there for our transgressions.
II. The Servant’s work in His sufferings.
Now there are three points here:-
a. The representation that Christ’s death is a sacrifice. Clearly connecting with whole Mosaic system-and that in the sense of a trespass offering. Christ seems to quote this verse in Joh 10:15 , when He speaks of laying down His life, and when He declares that He came to ‘give His life a ransom for many.’ At any rate here is the great word, sacrifice, proclaimed for the first time in connection with Messiah. Here the prophet interprets the meaning of all the types and shadows of the law.
That sacrificial system bore witness to deep wants of men’s souls, and prophesied of One in whom these were all met and satisfied.
b. His voluntary surrender.
He is sacrifice, but He is Priest also. His soul makes the offering, and His soul is the offering and offers itself in concurrence with the Divine Will. It is difficult and necessary to keep that double aspect in view, and never to think of Jesus as an unwilling Victim, nor of God as angry and needing to be appeased by blood.
c. The thought that the true meaning of His sufferings is only reached when we contemplate the effects that have flowed from them. The pleasure of the Lord in bruising Him is a mystery until we see how pleasure of the Lord prospers in the hand of the Crucified.
III. The work of the Servant after death.
Note the singularity of special points.
a. Having died, the Servant sees His offspring.
The sacrifice of Christ is the great power which draws men to Him, and moves to repentance, faith, love. His death was the communication of life. Nowhere else in the world’s history is the teacher’s death the beginning of His gathering of pupils, and not only has the dead Servant children, but He sees them. That representation is expressive of the mutual intercourse, strange and deep, whereby we feel that He is truly with us, ‘Jesus Christ, whom having not seen we love.’
b. Having died, the Servant prolongs His days.
He lives a continuous life, without an end, for ever. The best commentary is the word which John heard, as he felt the hand of the Christ laid on his prostrate form: ‘I became dead, and lo, I am alive for evermore.’
c. Having died, the Servant carries into effect the divine purposes.
‘Prosper’ implies progressive advancement. Christ’s Sacrifice carried out the divine pleasure, and by His Sacrifice the divine pleasure is further carried out.
If Christ is the means of carrying out the divine purpose, consider what this implies of divinity in His nature, of correspondence between His will and the divine.
But Jesus not only carries into effect the divine purpose as a consequence of a past act, but by His present energy this dead man is a living power in the world today. Is He not?
The sole explanation of the vitality of Christianity, and the sole reason which makes its message a gospel to any soul, is Christ’s death for the world and present life in the world.
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Isa 53:10-12
10But the LORD was pleased
To crush Him, putting Him to grief;
If He would render Himself as a guilt offering,
He will see His offspring,
He will prolong His days,
And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.
11As a result of the anguish of His soul,
He will see it and be satisfied;
By His knowledge the Righteous One,
My Servant, will justify the many,
As He will bear their iniquities.
12Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great,
And He will divide the booty with the strong;
Because He poured out Himself to death,
And was numbered with the transgressors;
Yet He Himself bore the sin of many,
And interceded for the transgressors.
Isa 53:10 But the LORD was pleased
To crush Him, putting Him to grief
Notice the agent and object of these VERBS.
1. YHWH was pleased (lit. it was the will of – BDB 342, KB 339, Qal PERFECT). This VERB means to delight in (cf. Isa 58:2; Isa 62:4) or desire (Isa 55:11). It is even used of YHWH’s pleasure to put someone to death in 1Sa 2:25. It is shocking to use a VERB like this in connection with the unfair, painful treatment of the righteous Servant. YHWH had a redemptive plan (see Special Topic: YHWH’s Eternal Redemptive Plan )!
2. YHWH’s will and purpose was to crush (Piel INFINITIVE CONSTRUCT, cf. Isa 53:5) and put to grief (Hiphil PERFECT, BDB 317, KB 311). The VERB means to make sick (JPSOA) or sore by hitting. There was a high and costly price to pay for human redemption! YHWH and His Servant paid it fully and freely!
NASBIf He would render Himself as a guilt offering
NKJV, NRSVWhen You make His soul an offering for sin
TEVHis death was a sacrifice to bring forgiveness
NJBif he gives his life as a sin offering
JPSOAif he made himself an offering for guilt
PESHITTAhe laid down his life as an offering for sin
This phrase is so simple yet so profound. It involves
1. the will of YHWH
2. the will of the Servant
3. the sinful ones who chose to receive this guilt offering (implied)
This is the Hebrew theological concept of corporality. It is illustrated by
1. the sacrificial system (Leviticus 1-7), but especially the Day of Atonement (cf. Leviticus 16)
2. the sin of Achan affecting the Israeli army (Joshua 7)
3. the clear explanation in Rom 5:12-21
4. another great example in 2Co 5:21
One innocent One paid the price to set free all the guilty ones!
He will prolong His days It is obvious that the Servant dies (cf. Isa 53:8-9; Isa 53:12). Therefore, this verse must refer to life after death!
Notice all the things that YHWH will do for Him.
1. He will see His offspring (lit. seed), Isa 53:10
2. He will prolong His days (this must refer to His afterlife), Isa 53:10
3. the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand (i.e., YHWH’s plan to restore fellowship with mankind), Isa 53:10
4. He will see it and be satisfied, Isa 53:11 (refers to YHWH’s good pleasure [will]), Isa 53:10 e
5. He will justify the many, Isa 53:11
6. allot Him a portion with the great, Isa 53:12
7. He will divide the booty with the strong, Isa 53:12
Poetry is always difficult to interpret. Some of these items are uncertain!
Isa 53:11 it The LXX and Dead Sea Scrolls have lights (NRSV, NJB). The MT does not have it (see NKJV). The UBS Text Project thinks light may have dropped out of the text (B rating), p.146.
By His knowledge the NRSV has he shall find satisfaction through his knowledge. The question of what knowledge seems to relate to
1. see His offspring (Isa 53:10 d)
2. prolong His life (Isa 53:10 e)
3. prospering of YHWH’s will (Isa 53:10 f)
4. results of His anguish (Isa 53:11 a)
the Righteous One. . .justify These are both formed from one root (BDB 842, 843). YHWH’s sin-bearing (cf. Isa 53:11 e) Servant will accomplish righteousness for all who believe and receive (cf. Joh 1:12; Joh 3:16; Rom 10:9-13).
the many See note at all of Isa 53:6.
He will bear their iniquities The same VERB (BDB 687, KB 741, Qal IMPERFECT) was also used in Isa 53:4. See note there.
Isa 53:12 a,b He will divide the booty with the strong This is a war metaphor of victory. It is not to be taken literally, but figuratively of spiritual victory (cf. Isa 52:13)!
He poured out Himself to death This VERB (BDB 788, KB 881, Hiphil PERFECT) is literally be naked or be bare or to empty. It is used in Isaiah in several senses.
1. to uncover a weapon, Isa 22:6
2. for the Spirit being given (i.e., poured out), Isa 32:15
3. BDB calls it a metaphor in this text reflecting the Piel usage #3 (cf. Psa 141:8)
4. KB calls it to tip out, a metaphor to throw away one life to death
And was numbered with the transgressors Luk 22:37 quotes this verse as being spoken by Jesus in Gethsemane when the soldiers and guards came to arrest Him.
Notice the same word (BDB 833) was used of Israel’s sin in Isa 53:8 and all humans’ sin in Isa 53:5.
He Himself bore the sin of many This means substitutionary, vicarious atonement (cf. Mat 20:28; Mar 10:45; Mar 14:24; 2Co 5:21; Gal 1:4; 1Ti 2:6; Tit 2:14). The UBS Text Project thinks sin should be PLURAL (B rating).
And interceded for the transgressors And He still does (cf. Rom 8:27; Rom 8:34; Heb 7:25; Heb 9:24; 1Jn 2:1)!
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
This is a study guide commentary, which means that you are responsible for your own interpretation of the Bible. Each of us must walk in the light we have. You, the Bible, and the Holy Spirit are priority in interpretation. You must not relinquish this to a commentator.
These discussion questions are provided to help you think through the major issues of this section of the book. They are meant to be thought-provoking, not definitive.
1. Does the title My Servant refer to the Jews or the Messiah?
2. Why are the numerous references to the Gentiles’ inclusion so significant in this passage?
3. Why did God choose the Jews?
4. Why did the Servant suffer?
5. Why was God pleased to crush Him?
6. What does Isa 53:6 say about sin?
7. Why has this passage been so influential on the church?
it pleased the LORD = Jehovah purposed. when thou shalt make, &c. This introduces the break in the Dispensations, which is the subject of the rest of the chapter: the “glory which shall follow” the sufferings. See App-71and App-72.
His soul = Himself. Hebrew. nephesh. App-13= life. Compare Joh 10:11, Joh 10:15, Joh 10:17, Joh 10:18.
an offering for sin. Hebrew. ‘aham = the trespass offering. See App-43and App-44. Ref to Pentateuch, for this is a peculiarly Levitical word (Lev 14:12, Lev 14:21), and cannot be understood apart from it. In Psa 40 it is the aspect of the whole burnt offering.
He shall see His seed: “see” “see” in Isa 52:15, i.e. the result, issue, and reward of His sufferings. Compare Psa 22:30; Psa 24:6; Psa 25:13. The Chaldee Targum reads, “they (His seed) shall see the kingdom of their Messiah”.
pleasure = purpose.
Isa 53:10-12
Isa 53:10-12
THE FIFTH STANZA
“Yet it pleased Jehovah to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of Jehovah shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by the knowledge of himself shall my righteous servant justify many; and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I 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 was numbered with the transgressors: yet he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”
“He shall prolong his days …” (Isa 53:10). For one who was indeed put to death, this is undeniably a prophecy of his resurrection from the dead. By no other means, whatever, could it be said that of one who had poured out his soul unto death that he would “prolong his days.” As Christ himself stated it: “I am the first and the last and the Living one; and I was dead, and, behold, I am alive forever more, and I have the keys of death and of Hades” (Rev 1:18).
This stanza points to the glorification which God appointed for the Suffering Servant after the sufferings ended, constituting the problem that remained insoluble for the pre-Christian prophets. See 1 Peter 1;10-12. Added to the exaltation prophesied in the first stanza, the eternity of The Lord Jesus Christ is clearly visible.
This last stanza makes the worldwide success of Christ the marvel of all ages. He shall see his seed, number his followers in the countless millions; he shall prolong his days, be raised from the dead; the pleasure of Jehovah shall prosper in his hand, 1e., righteousness shall prosper in the world; he shall justify many, 1e., countless millions shall be saved from their sins through him; I will divide him a portion with the great, Jesus Christ shall attain worldwide and perpetual “greatness.” In connection with this it should be remembered that all history falls into A.D. and B.C, and that more great and beautiful buildings have been constructed and dedicated to his glory in a single century than were ever erected and dedicated to all the kings and potentates who ever lived in the previous millenniums of human history, etc.
“He was numbered with the transgressors and made intercession for the transgressors” (Isa 53:12). This prophecy was fulfilled by the Saviour himself when he prayed for those who nailed him to the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luk 23:34).
Once, as this writer traveled southward on the Missouri-Pacific from St. Louis to Little Rock, a Unitarian noticed my reading the New Testament; and he said: “You Christians have your arithmetic all wrong. How could the atoning sacrifice of one man wipe out the sins of billions of men'”?.
The reply was: “Indeed, you are right. The sacrifice of one man would not even wipe out that one man’s sins, much less the sins of all men. Your mistake, Sir, is in your failure to see that Jesus Christ was in no sense whatever only one man. He was and is The Son of God, God manifested in the flesh; and that Holy Being’s atoning sacrifice was more than sufficient to wipe out the sins of all the myriads of men who ever lived.” This answer left the questioner without reply.
Isa 53:10 PERPETUITY: The Hebrew word khaphetz means, delighted or desired and indicates that the death of the Messiah involved more than a sterile, unfeeling, deterministic plan of an unfeeling God. It is incomprehensible to the finite mind of sinful man how God could delight in the death of His Son, but He did. The Hebrew word translated bruise is heheliy and means to make painful. The Isaiah Scroll from Qumran has the word vyhllhv which means that he might pierce him (see comments on Isa 53:5).
These verses are some of the strongest of the Old Testament on the resurrection or immortality of the Servant-Messiah. The Servant dies, but He also lives on, succeeds and carries out the work of atonement, redemption, justification, sanctification and intercession that the Father has entrusted to Him, just as it was predicted He would do (Luk 24:25 ff). Other O.T. prophecies of the resurrection of the Messiah:
Psa 16:1-11Act 2:25-33
Psa 110:1-7Act 2:34-36
Psa 22:1-31Mat 27:46; Mar 15:34
2Sa 7:12; Psa 89:3-4Act 13:34 (The enduring throne promised to Davids Messiah-Son presupposed victory over death.)
Genesis 22 (Abraham and Isaac; Heb 11:17-19). Abraham, on Mt. Moriah, participated in a dramatic typical event portraying Calvary and the Empty Tomb. Perhaps Jesus was alluding to this when He said, Abraham rejoiced to see my day . . . and was glad. Joh 8:56
Psa 118:22 (The stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner).
There is no doubt that Isaiah 53 is Messianic and that it is predicting His atoning death and resurrection. Philip, by the guidance of the Holy Spirit, interpreted it thusly, Act 8:26-40.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is a well established fact of history:
Proof of the Resurrection of Christ:
1. The historical records, by competent, credible, honest, numerous eyewitnesses say the tomb was empty. There is no historical testimony or evidence to the contrary. The only explanation is Mat 28:11-15, soldiers were paid to say His disciples stole the body while the soldiers were asleep. How absurdly incredible!
2. Credible, competent, honest eyewitnesses testify they saw Jesus after his death, alive, talking to them, eating fish with them, even saw the nail prints in His hands.
3. The conversion of the enemies of Christianity can only be accounted for by the historical factuality of the resurrection of Christ (Saul of Tarsus; great company of the priests; even some of Caesars own household).
4. The Catacombs of Rome depict the resurrection of Jesus and testify to the belief in it by first century saints.
5. The existence of the church and its ordinances testifies to the resurrection. The fact of the New Testament itself is inexplicable apart from it.
It is not a question of could the resurrection occur or not. It is a question of did it occur or not-not a philosophical question, but a historical, scientific question!
Merrill C. Tenney says, The event is fixed in history, the dynamic is potent for eternity.
Unbelievers say Christ was not raised from the dead-I say prove it! All the reliable evidence we have says He was!
The church began in the city where Jesus burial was known, among those who could have refuted the testimony of Peter (Acts 2) and proved it false. All they would have to have done was produce the body of Jesus! But 3000 testify that He had arisen and Peter was telling the truth.
There are Imperatives to the Resurrection.
1. There is power in it. The power of Christianity is not in the esthetic value of great cathedrals, somber ritual and tradition, nor emotionalism but in the historical fact of the resurrection of Christ.
a. Gives hope that is living (1Pe 1:3)
b. Brings joy unspeakable and full of glory (1Jn 1:1-4)
c. Sanctifies and purifies (1Jn 3:3; Act 17:32)
d. Gives power to evangelism (Act 4:33)
e. Gives stedfastness (1Co 15:58)
2. There is only one alternative to the resurrection. That is a life of eating, drinking, for tomorrow we die (1Co 15:12-19; 1Co 15:32).
3. But, if Christ is raised from the dead, and we shall be also, then:
a. The Bible is Gods Word!
b.Heaven and Hell are real places!
c. Man will live forever, one place or the other!
d. A mans sins may really be forgiven!
e. The plan of salvation in the N.T. is the only valid one!
f. Christ is coming again!
g. There is only one church, the universal body of Christ which consists of all who believe in Christ, are repenting of their sins and have been immersed in water in obedience to His command!
h. No one will be saved who is not a member of that church!
The resurrection of Christ makes all the above imperative! There is no middle ground on any of that because His resurrection establishes beyond any question His deity and His authority!
The Servant shall produce seed or descendants. He shall have a family, but it will be a spiritual family (cf. Rom 9:8; Gal 3:15-20; Gal 3:23-29). So, it is in being lifted up He will draw men unto Him (cf. Joh 3:14-15; Joh 8:28; Joh 12:32). He shall fall into the ground like a grain of wheat and die, and then bear much fruit (Joh 12:23-26). And the khephetz (delight) of Jehovah shall succeed through His efforts. The delight of Jehovah is, of course, His eternal plan for the redemption of man! What wonder, what unsearchable grace, that Jehovahs delight should be the salvation and regeneration of a planet full of wicked rebels. But more wonderful, His Son should come to this planet in the form of a man and willingly submit to humiliating death allowing Himself, though absolutely innocent, to become sin on mans behalf!
Isa 53:11 PLEASURE: The Servant will have travail of . . . soul (cf. Isa 49:4 ff). But He will be satisfied. For the joyous reward that was set before Him, He could endure the cross (cf. Heb 12:2). He will look back from His enthronement at the right hand of the Father and see that He has succeeded in accomplishing the once-for-all-time redemption and regeneration of the Fathers creation (man and cosmos). As Young points out, the suffix on the Hebrew word bedaetto is difficult of interpretation. Is the suffix subjective or objective-that is, is Isaiah speaking of the knowledge that the servant himself possesses or of knowledge of the servant on the part of others? We think the context is emphasizing the successfulness of the Servant Himself and that it is through His own incarnation (human experience) that He performs His work of justification. It was through the experience of obedience as a Son that He became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him (cf. Heb 5:7-9; Php 2:5-11). The righteous servant (tzaddiyk aveddiy) will make many righteous (yatzeddiyk). He makes it possible for us to become the righteousness of God in Him (2Co 5:21). This was the grace that was to be ours which the prophets prophesied (cf. 1Pe 1:10-12). He bore our iniquities and became a curse for us (cf. Gal 3:13).
Isa 53:12 PORTION: On account of the Servants victory over sin, Satan and death, Jehovah will exalt Him above every other man. The exaltation of the Servant of Jehovah is clearly predicted by the prophet earlier (Isa 49:7; Isa 52:15). When the Servant made purification for sins, he was enthroned at the right hand of the Majesty on high (Heb 1:3-4). When He ascended, He took captivity captive (Eph 4:8) and dispensed His gifts according to His will and purpose for the ongoing of the kingdom of God here on earth. The Servant whom the Jews crucified, God made both Lord and Christ (Act 2:36). There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved (Act 4:12). The reason for this exaltation is summarized in the statement, because he poured out his soul unto death. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing (Rev 5:12).
A whole volume could justifiably be written on this chapter alone. Perhaps the most intriguing question about Isaiah 53 is: If the New Testament is so clear about its fulfillment in Jesus Christ, why do the majority of Jews not see and understand it? A few references to The Servant of Jehovah in Jewish literature, both ancient and modern, may provide a partial answer to this question:
Jewish Apocrypha and The Suffering Servant concept:
The apocalyptic literature of the Jewish Apocrypha are such books as I Enoch, The Sibylline Oracles, The Testaments of the XII Patriarchs, the Psalms of Solomon, II Esdras, II Baruch and others. They were written in the years 165 B.C.-100 A.D.
In a book entitled, The Method and Message of Jewish Apocalyptic, by D. S. Russell, pub. Westminster, we learn, There is no serious evidence of the bringing together of the concepts of the Suffering Servant and the Davidic Messiah before the Christian era. Mr. Russell continues, The Targum (Jewish Targums are rabbinical interpretations of the O.T.) on Isaiah 53 has often been alluded to, but it cannot be the Suffering Servant Isaiah predicted. The Messiah presented in this Targum is one who will triumph over the heathen and all the enemies of Gods people! The suffering he has to endure is minimal and devoid of all vicariousness. In fact, it is hardly suffering at all, for it consists simply in the exposure of himself to those dangers he will have to face in the coming struggle with the heathen before his final victory is assured. There is no mention of an atoning death-no reference to a suffering and dying Messiah.
II Esdras and II Baruch (cir. 90 A.D.) use the word servant to describe the Messiah from the seed of David. However, there is no suggestion of a suffering Messiah, or an atoning death. He is not killed by enemies or disease-he simply ceases to exist. The reference to his death is with the same casualness as any human death. He establishes his kingdom, dies, and presumably will rise with other humans at the general resurrection of the people of God.
Modern Jews:
1. A Jewish woman doctor, recounting her conversion to Christ in a book called Pursued:
While recuperating from illness she began reading a Bible. She read Isaiah 53. She was forced to acknowledge it must be talking about the Messiah. But then she said she refused to accept the consequences of that passage for her Messiah. Suddenly she realized that she was reading from the KJV, A Protestant Bible! Of course, it was slanted to sound that way. I went to sleep that night, confident I had caught the gentiles at a not-too-clever trick.
But then she read it in a Jewish Bible and it was basically the same message!
2. Chapters 52-53 (of Isaiah) and other chapters contain the prophecies concerning the suffering servant which the Christian church later interpreted as referring to Jesus, but which, in Jewish tradition, refer to the people of Israel, pg. 151 from, The International Jewish Encyclopedia, by Rabbi ben Isaacson and Deborah Wigoder, compiled and produced in Israel for Prentice-Hall.
3. History of the Jew, by Heindrich Graetz, pub. The Jewish Pub. Soc. of America, 1893, in chapter entitled Messianic Expectations and Origins of Christianity, indicates the idea of a suffering Messiah was completely foreign to Jewish thinking.
It is not difficult now to understand the rebuke Peter had for Jesus (Mat 16:22) when Jesus predicted His death!
4. Non-Messianic Interpretations:
a. Most prevalent among Jewish writers is that Isaiah 53 means the nation of Israel. Some say empirical Israel; some say ideal Israel; some say the pious remnant of the true Israel.
b. Isaiah 53 means the prophetical order-i.e. the collective body of the prophets . . . as the sacrificial victim taking upon itself the sins of the people.
c. Isaiah 53 means an individual (Hezekiah, Isaiah, Josiah, but most frequently, Jeremiah), but a human individual. Some said, an unknown sufferer (sounds like the apostles first answer to Jesus at Cesarea Philippi, Matthew 16).
5. Aaron Kligerman, in his book, Old Testament Messianic Prophecy, pub. Zondervan, paperback, thinks there were some Jewish interpretations which believed the Suffering Servant was to be the Messiah. He refers to Yalkut and Rambam which are Talmudic and Midrashic literature of the days of Maimonides (cir. 1135-1204 A.D.). These are so obscure, however, they are not worth considering as having direct reference to the Messiah as an individual. They could be understood in any of the categories listed above. Furthermore, they are of such late date they are probably concessions to Christian interpretations of Isaiah 53.
Jews are not alone in disavowing the biblical doctrine of the substitutionary atonement. Bishop G. Bromley Oxnam, former head of the World Council of Churches says in his book, A Testament of the Faith, pg. 144, Boston, 1958;
We hear much of the substitutionary theory of the atonement. This theory to me is immoral. If Jesus paid it all, or if He is the substitute for me, or if He is the sacrifice for all the sin of the world, then why discuss forgiveness? The books are closed. Another has paid the debt, borne the penalty. I owe nothing. I am absolved. I cannot see forgiveness as predicted upon the act of some one else. It is my sin. I must atone.
It is not trite to repeat that Philip, by the guidance of the Holy Spirit, applied Isaiah 53 to the atoning death and justifying resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is difficult to see how one may claim to be a disciple of Jesus and contradict this doctrine!
pleased: Isa 42:1, Mat 3:17, Mat 17:5
he hath: Psa 69:26, Zec 13:7, Rom 8:32, Gal 3:13, 1Jo 4:9, 1Jo 4:10
when thou shalt make his soul: or, when his soul shall make, Dan 9:24, Rom 8:8, 2Co 5:21, Eph 5:2, Heb 7:27, Heb 9:14, Heb 9:25, Heb 9:26, Heb 10:6-12, Heb 13:10-12, 1Pe 2:24
he shall see: Psa 22:30, Psa 45:16, Psa 45:17, Psa 110:3, Joh 12:24, Heb 2:13
he shall prolong: Isa 9:7, Psa 16:9-11, Psa 21:4, Psa 72:17, Psa 89:29, Psa 89:36, Eze 37:25, Dan 7:13, Dan 7:14, Luk 1:33, Act 2:24-28, Rom 6:9, Rev 1:18
the pleasure: Isa 55:11-13, Isa 62:3-5, Psa 72:7, Psa 85:10-12, Psa 147:11, Psa 149:4, Jer 32:41, Eze 33:11, Mic 7:18, Zep 3:17, Luk 15:5-7, Luk 15:23, Luk 15:24, Joh 6:37-40, Eph 1:5, Eph 1:9, 2Th 1:11
Reciprocal: Exo 3:2 – bush burned Exo 12:8 – roast Lev 1:15 – wring off his head Lev 2:9 – an offering Lev 3:9 – the fat Lev 3:16 – all the fat Lev 4:8 – General Lev 4:31 – a sweet Lev 6:6 – a ram Lev 6:22 – wholly Lev 8:14 – he brought Lev 8:25 – General Lev 9:3 – Take ye Lev 9:10 – the fat Lev 9:15 – General Lev 14:12 – trespass Lev 16:10 – to make Lev 23:28 – General Num 6:20 – and after Num 7:15 – General Num 8:8 – another Num 16:47 – and he put Num 19:5 – General Num 29:11 – beside Jdg 14:14 – Out of the eater Psa 18:37 – General Psa 24:6 – This is Psa 61:6 – wilt prolong the king’s life Psa 88:3 – soul Psa 88:15 – while Psa 102:28 – The children Isa 6:7 – thine iniquity Isa 8:18 – I and the Isa 9:6 – The everlasting Father Isa 49:3 – General Isa 49:4 – yet Isa 52:13 – deal prudently Isa 53:3 – a man Isa 53:5 – bruised Jer 23:5 – reign Jer 33:22 – so Eze 40:39 – the sin Eze 43:22 – a kid Mat 13:38 – the good Mat 17:23 – they shall Mat 20:28 – and to Mat 26:31 – I will Mat 26:38 – My Mat 27:46 – Eli Mar 10:45 – and to Mar 14:33 – and began Luk 13:19 – and it Luk 22:44 – his Luk 23:42 – thy Joh 3:17 – but Joh 6:38 – not Joh 10:3 – the porter Joh 10:15 – and I Joh 10:18 – but Joh 12:23 – The hour Joh 13:32 – shall Joh 19:30 – It is Joh 20:9 – that Act 4:28 – and Act 8:33 – for Act 20:28 – which he Act 26:6 – the promise Act 26:23 – the first Rom 4:8 – to whom Rom 4:25 – Who was Rom 5:19 – so by Rom 14:9 – Christ 1Co 15:4 – according 1Th 4:8 – despiseth not Heb 1:2 – appointed Heb 9:15 – means Heb 12:2 – for 2Pe 1:17 – in whom
Thus far this great prophecy of the sufferings and death of the humbled Servant of the Lord has dealt with them mainly from the human and visible side: it now proceeds to deeper things, outside the range of human sight. Verses Isa 53:10-12 predict what Jehovah Himself wrought, and what He will yet accomplish by means of it.
The holy Servant was to endure bruising and grief, and even have His very soul made an offering for sin: and all this at the hands of Jehovah. What it all really involved must ever lie beyond the reach of our creature-minds, even though they have been renewed by grace. And that, “it pleased the Lord” to do this, may seem to us an astounding statement; yet the explanation lies in the latter part of the verse: since the results that should be achieved were to be of such surpassing worth and wonder. A parallel thought as regards the Lord Jesus Himself seems to lie in the words, “Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross” (Heb 12:2)
What are the results as stated in verse Isa 53:10 ? They are threefold. First, “He shall see His seed.” This carries our thoughts on to the Lord’s own woods recorded in Joh 12:24. Falling into the ground and dying, as the “corn of wheat,” He brings forth “much fruit,” which will be “after His kind,” if we may borrow and use the phrase which occurs ten times in Gen 1:1-31. This will be seen in its fulness in a coming day when: –
God and the Lamb shall there
The light and temple be,
And radiant hosts for ever share
The unveiled mystery.
Every one in those radiant hosts will be “His seed.”
And in the second place, “He shall prolong His days,” in spite of the fact that He was to be “cut off out of the land of the living,” as verse Isa 53:8 has told us. His resurrection is not stated in so many words, but it is clearly implied in this wonderful prophecy. In risen life His days are prolonged as the days of eternity. Raised from the dead, He “dieth no more: death hath no more dominion over Him” (Rom 6:9). In this risen life His seed are associated with Him.
And the third thing is that in this risen life “the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.” There have been devoted men who have served the Divine pleasure to a large extent, yet failing in many details. In the hands of the risen Servant all the pleasure of God will be fulfilled for ever. We have to pass into the New Testament to discover what that pleasure is, and how it will reach its culmination in the new heaven and new earth of which Rev 21:1-27 speaks. The old creation on its earthly side was placed in the hands of Adam, only to be completely marred. The new creation will abide in untarnished splendour in the hands of the risen Christ. The light of this shines into our hearts even now; for as we sometimes sing: –
The new creation’s stainless joy
Gleams through the present gloom.
Verse Isa 53:11 gives us another great prediction. Not only is the risen Servant to fulfil all the pleasure of Jehovah, but He Himself is to be satisfied as He sees the full result established as the fruit of “the travail of His soul.” We are little creatures of small capacity, so that a very little will satisfy us. His capacity is infinite; yet the fruit of His soul’s travail will be so immeasurable as to satisfy Him. Do not our hearts greatly rejoice that so it is to be.
The latter part of verse Isa 53:11 in Darby’s New Translation reads, “By His knowledge shall My righteous Servant instruct many in righteousness; and He shall bear their iniquities.” In these words “the many” are of course those who by faith belong to Him: such receive the twofold benefit – both the instruction and the expiation. Neither can be dispensed with; and, thank God, both are ours in this day of grace, as is so plainly stated in Tit 2:11-14. Grace not only saves but also teaches us effectively to live sober, righteous and godly lives. What is done for us today will be done also for a godly remnant of Israel in the days to come.
Now we reach the last verse of this great chapter. Note the first word – “Therefore” Jehovah speaks, and declares that because of what Jesus accomplished in the day of His humiliation, He shall be assigned a great portion in the day of glory. Now the whole passage began by the statement that “My Servant” is to be greatly exalted, and this was followed by a challenge as to who believed that? – in view of His humiliation and rejection and sufferings. This last verse declares that instead of His sufferings being in any way contradictory of His exaltation, they are the secure basis on which His eternal fame and splendour will rest. And further, what He has won is not for Himself alone, for He will divide the spoil with others who are designated “the strong.” Our Lord’s words, recorded in Mat 11:12, may be an allusion to this, for strength was needed to receive Him, when the rejection of Himself and His claims was rising like a tidal wave to sweep all before it. Nor is the opposition of the world really otherwise for those who receive Christ in faith today.
The chapter closes with one more prediction as to the efficacy of His atoning sacrifice, coupled with one more detail that had to be fulfilled in His death. It was fulfilled when they crucified Him between two thieves, as Mar 15:27, Mar 15:28, records. It is remarkable how the soul of Christ in connection with His sacrifice is emphasised in this chapter, for we have the two statements – Jehovah made His soul an offering for sin, and also that He poured out His soul unto death. In Heb 10:1-39 the emphasis is placed upon His body, which was prepared for Him, and which He offered, as stated in verse Isa 53:10 of that chapter. In each of the four Gospels His spirit comes into prominence. In John’s Gospel the record is, “He delivered up His spirit” (New Trans.) No wonder then that the sins of the “many” – those who believe on Him – have been borne and for ever put away.
Closing the chapter, one asks oneself with wonder, How could Isaiah have written such words as these, some centuries before they were fulfilled in Christ, save by direct inspiration of the Spirit of God?
Isa 54:1-17 proceeds to unfold the results for Israel of the sufferings of her Messiah, and the first word is “Sing.” The marginal reading of Psa 65:1 is, “Praise is silent for Thee O God, in Sion.” Thus indeed it is today. But the time is coming when, as one of the fruits springing from Christ’s sacrificial death, Israel – the true Israel of God – will break forth into singing. That people who were so barren and unfruitful under the law when on that basis outwardly married to Jehovah, will be not only joyful but abundantly multiplied and blessed.
Graphic figures of speech are used to set this forth. Her tent is to be enlarged, her cords lengthened, her stakes strengthened. The holding strength of stakes depends much on the nature of the soil into which they are driven. When Israel drove her stakes into the law, they gave way almost at once. Driven into the grace of God, which will find its expression in the atoning death of their Messiah, they will be made strong for ever.
The One who will be their “Husband,” will be their “Maker” as the Lord of hosts, and also their “Redeemer” as the Holy One of Israel, and He will be known as the God of the whole earth. The Gentile nations surrounding Israel were inclined to regard Him as Israel’s own God, while they each had gods of their own; and even in Daniel, when Gentile nations were concerned, He is presented as “the God of heaven.” In the millennial day He will be known as the God of the whole earth, though His centre will be in Israel.
How striking the contrasts which we find in verses Isa 53:7-10. This time in which Israel is “Lo-ammi,” covering more than two thousand years, may seem long to them, but it is “a small moment” to Him. When at last they are re-gathered it will be with “great mercies,” dispensed righteously, since God’s humbled Servant had borne their iniquities. Lay stress also on the word, “mercies,” for no thought of merit will enter into their blessing. This is fully corroborated in Rom 11:30-32.
Again, the Jew lies nationally under wrath. It lies upon them, “to the uttermost,” as Paul says in 1Th 2:16. Yet, viewed in the light of the coming mercy, it is seen as “a little wrath,” and the kindness that will be extended to them in mercy will be “everlasting.” Hence “the waters of Noah” are cited; for as, when that judgment was over, God promised that such judgment should never happen again, so Israel will be beyond judgment for ever.
Verse Isa 53:10 reveals the basis of this assurance. A “covenant of My peace” will have been established, based upon the fact that “the chastisement of our peace” (Isa 53:5), was borne in the death of their Messiah. This covenant of peace will no doubt be identical with the “New covenant,” which Jeremiah prophesied in Jer 31:1-40. Its details are given there, but the righteous basis on which it will rest we have just seen, revealed through Isaiah. We may remember also the New Testament word, “The blood of the everlasting covenant” (Heb 13:20).
The closing verses of this chapter reveal something of the blessings that will be Israel’s portion when the covenant is established. Verses Isa 53:11-12 may speak of favours of a material sort, but verse 13 indicates spiritual blessing. All the true children of Israel will be taught of God – and His teaching is of an effectual sort – their peace being great, because it will be founded on righteousness as the next verse indicates.
Adversaries there will be, and they will gather together to disturb the peace, if that were possible. Of old God did use adversaries to chastise His people, but in the day now contemplated their gathering will be “not by Me,” and it will only result in their own overthrow. When Israel stands in Divinely wrought righteousness neither weapon nor word shall prevail against them. It is remarkable how righteousness is emphasised here, wrought on their behalf by the suffering Servant of Isa 53:1-12. It reminds one of the way righteousness stands in the very forefront of Gospel testimony, as we see in Rom 1:17.
Isa 55:1-13 opens with a call to “everyone that thirsteth,” and so we pass beyond the confines of Israel to consider in prophetic outline blessings that will reach to the Gentiles through the work of the Servant who has died. Illustrations of this we see in Act 8:1-40; Act 10:1-48. The Ethiopian’s thirst led him to take a long journey to Jerusalem, seeking after God: the thirst of Cornelius led him to prayer and almsgiving. In both cases, seeking for water to quench their thirst, they got more, even, “wine and milk without money and without price.” Moreover they got it by inclining their ear and coming to the Fountain-head. They heard and their souls lived; just as the prophet said in these verses. Thus we can see how strikingly his words forecast the Gospel which we know today. So even Gentiles are to enjoy the blessings of “the everlasting covenant.”
Preaching in the synagogue at Antioch, the Apostle Paul cited the words, “the sure mercies of David,” and connected them with the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. These words connect themselves also with what we find in Psa 89:1-52, particularly verses 19- In that Psalm mercies are specially emphasized, and the “David,” is God’s “Holy One” (verse 19), who is to be made, “My Firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth” (verse 27), and, “My covenant shall stand fast with Him” (verse 28). Clearly the Psalm contemplates the Son of David, of whom David was but the type. All the mercies of the Psalm will only be verified in Christ risen from the dead. Foremost in those wonderful mercies are the forgiveness of sins and justification from all things, which Paul preached at Antioch, and which were so well responded to by Gentiles, as Act 13:1-52 records.
Gentiles are definitely in view also in verse Isa 53:4, since the word “people,” which occurs twice, should be in the plural. God’s Holy Servant, risen from the dead, is given as “a Witness to the peoples, a Leader and Commander to the peoples.” As the Witness He makes God known to men. As the Leader and Commander He brings men into subjection to God. This will be fully seen in the coming age, when “men shall be blessed in Him: all nations shall call Him blessed” (Psa 72:17); but the same thing is realized in principle today as men from a thousand different peoples hear the Gospel and discover in Jesus the One who has been made both Lord and Christ. Let each reader challenge his or her heart. Have I fully received His witness? Is He indeed Leader and Commander in my life?
If verse Isa 53:1 gives a call to all who thirst, and verse Isa 53:2 presents an argument, intended to enforce the call; and verse Isa 53:3, an invitation to life and mercy; verses Isa 53:4-5 make very definite announcements. Only the announcement of verse Isa 53:4 is addressed to men, whereas in verse Isa 53:5 we find Jehovah’s announcement to His Servant risen from the dead, stating in different words what had been said in Isa 49:6. This has definite application to the present age, when God is visiting the nations and taking out of them a people for His Name, and it is connected in our verse with His present glory. His people will be willing in the day of His power, as Psa 110:1-7 predicts; but many from among the nations are running to Him in this day, and while He is glorified on high.
Verse Isa 53:6 follows this by offering what we may call a word of advice, followed in verse Isa 53:7 by a word of assurance. There is a time when God is near and may be found in grace, and a time when He retires from the scene to act in judgment. How often are these words uttered when the Gospel is preached, for the day of salvation is NOW. The assurance is that if any, however wicked they may be, turn to the Lord in repentance, there is mercy for him. The forsaking of one’s thoughts and way is just what genuine repentance involves. Faith, we know, is needed too, but when Isaiah wrote Christ the great Object of faith, though predicted, was not actually revealed. Consequently faith is not brought to the fore in the Old Testament as it is in the New.
But it is true at all times that the soul returning in repentance finds mercy, and the offer here is not only of mercy but of pardon in abundant measure. As the margin tells us the Hebrew is that He will “multiply to pardon.” Such is the freeness and the fulness of the Divine mercy to the truly repentant.
Now all this is not according to the thoughts and the ways of men, as was well known to God. Hence what we have in verses Isa 53:8-9. Indeed the whole of this magnificent prophecy concerning the death and resurrection of Christ, and the glorious results flowing therefrom, is totally opposed to human thoughts and ways. Christ, when He came, had nothing about Him that appealed to human thoughts and ways, as is stated in the opening verses of chapter 53, and what was true in Him personally is equally true of all God’s ways and of His thoughts expressed in those ways.
But fallen man, alas! is self-centred, and prefers his own thoughts and ways to God’s, ignorant of the awful gulf that lies between them, represented as the difference between the height of the heavens and of the earth. In these days of giant telescopes, which reveal the unimaginable height of the heavens contrasted with our little earth, we can perhaps better realize the force of this. God’s thoughts are revealed in His purposes, with which His ways are consistent, and now that they have come to light in connection with the Gospel, they form a lesson book for angels, as is shown in 1Pe 1:12.
Moreover, besides the thoughts and ways of God there is His word, by which He signifies what His thoughts and ways are. Verse Isa 53:10 assures us of its beneficent effect. Just as the rain descending from heaven brings with it life and fertility in nature, making man’s labour to be fruitful for his good, so the word of God acts in a spiritual way. Received into the heart it is fruitful in life and blessing; and not only that, but is full of power, never failing in the effect that God intends whether in grace or in judgment. This was exemplified in the Lord Jesus Himself. No word of His ever fell fruitless to the ground, for He was the Living Word. It is equally true of the written word of God. It is said of the blessed man of Psa 1:1-6, that, “In His law doth He meditate day and night.” Happy are we, now that we have “the word of His grace” (Act 20:32), as well as the word of His law, if we do so likewise.
God’s coming grace to Israel is in view here, as the two verses that close our chapter show. The peace that had been announced in the previous chapter, should without fail be theirs, and joy also. Creation too will rejoice when the millennial day is reached. It is guaranteed here by the unfailing word of God, and when we turn to such a scripture as Rom 8:1-39, we are told how creation will be delivered from the bondage produced by the sin of man, and brought into the liberty of the glory of the sons of God, and we are carried beyond that which will be true for Israel into the largeness of the thoughts of God for the whole creation.
Thus all through the wonderful passage that has been before us we can note that what the prophets stated in germinal form comes into full revelation when, Christ having come and died and risen again and ascended to glory, the Holy Spirit was given to take of the things of Christ and show them unto us. May we have hearts that receive them and appreciate their unique value.
Isa 53:10-11. It pleased the Lord to bruise him Although he was perfectly innocent, it pleased God, for other just and wise reasons, to expose him to sufferings and death. He hath put him to grief His God and Father spared him not, though he was his only and beloved Son, but delivered him up for us all, to ignominy and torture, delivered him by his determinate counsel and foreknowledge, (Act 2:23,) into the power of those whose wicked hands he knew would execute upon him every species of cruelty and barbarity. When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin When thou, O God, shalt have made thy Son a sacrifice, by giving him up to death for the atonement of mens sins. His soul is here put for his life, or for himself, or his whole human nature, which was sacrificed, his soul being oppressed with a sense of the wrath of God due to our sins, his body crucified, and his soul and body separated by death. Or, the words, , may be rendered, when, or, if his soul shall make an offering for sin, or, a propitiatory sacrifice: whereby it may be implied, that he did not lay down his life by compulsion, but willingly. He shall see his seed His death shall be glorious to himself and highly beneficial to others, for he shall have a numerous seed of believers, reconciled to God, and saved by his death. He shall prolong his days He shall be raised to immortal life, and live and reign with God for ever. The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand Gods gracious decree, for the salvation of mankind, shall be effectually carried on by his ministry and mediation. He shall see of the travail of his soul He shall enjoy the comfortable and blessed fruit of all his hard labours and grievous sufferings: and shall be satisfied He shall esteem his own and his Fathers glory, and the salvation of his people, an abundant recompense. By his knowledge By the knowledge of, or an acquaintance with himself, that knowledge which is accompanied with faith, love, and obedience to him; shall my righteous servant justify many Shall acquit them that believe in and obey him from the guilt of all their sins, and save them from the dreadful consequences thereof. Justification is here, as in most other places of the Scriptures, one or two excepted opposed to condemnation: and Christ is said to justify sinners, because he does it meritoriously, procuring justification for us by his sacrifice; as God the Father is commonly said to justify authoritatively, because he accepted the price paid by Christ for that blessing, and the pronouncing of the sentence of absolution is referred to him in the gospel dispensation. For he shall bear their iniquities For he shall satisfy the justice and law of God for them, by bearing the punishment due to their sins; and therefore, on the principles of reason and justice, they must be acquitted, otherwise the same debt would be twice required and paid.
53:10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put [him] to grief: when {o} thou shalt 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.
(o) Christ by offering up himself will give life to his Church, and so cause them to live with him forever.
The Servant satisfied 53:10-12
This final stanza gives the explanation for the Servant’s submissive suffering for sinners and so completes the song.
The apparent miscarriage of justice just described (Isa 53:9) would not be what it would appear to be. It would be the deliberate act of Yahweh. It would please Yahweh to crush His Servant and to put Him to grief. The Father did not find the sufferings and death of His Son something pleasurable (or enjoyable) to behold, but they pleased (satisfied) Him because they fulfilled His great purpose of providing redemption for humankind.
"The faithful God of the Bible would certainly not visit bad things on innocent people, would he? Yes, he would if some greater good would be served (cf. Job)." [Note: Oswalt, The Book . . . 40-66, p. 400.]
The greater good in this case was that the Servant would be the perfect and final guilt (trespass) offering for sin thus taking away the sins of the world (Joh 1:29). The subject of this sentence, "He" or "His soul," may be Yahweh or the Servant. The point is moot, however, because both Yahweh and the Servant made the Servant an offering for sin. The guilt offering in Israel made reparation, compensation, and satisfaction (Lev 5:1-13). Rather than dying childless, Yahweh would bless the Servant with many spiritual children, future believers (cf. Isa 53:8). He would also prolong His days by resurrecting Him (cf. Isa 53:9).
"Only his bodily resurrection could serve to fulfill such a prediction as this." [Note: Archer, p. 647.]
"The Old Testament testifies uniformly that the dead are alive, and in this sense it is no surprise to find the Servant alive after death. But things are said about him after death that set him apart from all others." [Note: Motyer, p. 440.]
Seeing one’s offspring was a blessing on those whom God favored (cf. Psa 127:3-5; Psa 128:6; Pro 17:6), as was living a long life (cf. Psa 21:4; Psa 34:12; Pro 3:2). The Servant would also accomplish Yahweh’s good purpose for His life (cf. Isa 52:13; Isa 55:11; Jos 1:7; 2Ch 20:20; Psa 1:3; Joh 17:4). Thus the Servant’s life would not be futile after all.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: F. B. Hole’s Old and New Testaments Commentary
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)