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 bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
12. As the reward of his unmerited sufferings and his mediatorial work, the Servant shall attain an influence equal to that of the great potentates of the world. To “divide spoil” is a figurative and proverbial expression for victory or success; Pro 16:19 (“It is better to be of lowly spirit with the meek than to divide spoil with the proud”). It is therefore not necessarily implied that the Servant’s future greatness will be political, although that is certainly suggested.
Instead of will I divide, the LXX. reads “he shall inherit” (which is perhaps preferable as avoiding the recurrence of the same verb in two consecutive lines), but it is a mistake of some authorities to follow this version in treating the “many” as direct obj. of the verb; the sense must be either “he shall inherit,” or “I will give him a share” amongst the many.
The latter part of the verse returns to the great contrast that runs through the passage, between the true meaning of the Servant’s afflictions and the false construction put on them.
because he poured out (omit “hath” with R.V.) his soul ] his blood, which is the seat of life; Lev 17:11. For the expression cf. Psa 141:8.
was numbered with the rebels ] See Isa 53:9. Cited Mar 15:28; Luk 22:37.
and he bare &c. ] whereas he bare, the true view of his death as opposed to the false judgement of men, a circumstantial clause.
for the transgressors ] for the rebellious, the class to which he was himself reckoned.
Although several things in this marvellous description of the innocent suffering for the guilty be obscure, the salient features of the picture stand out with great clearness. Whether the portrait be that of an individual or of a personified community is a question that need not here be discussed (See Appendix, Note I.). If there be personification it is as consistently maintained as it is vividly conceived, and we are hardly entitled to assume that the writer has anywhere allowed the collective reality to peer through the veil of allegory. The figure brought on the scene is that of a man, so marred and deformed by revolting sickness as to be universally shunned and despised and maltreated as one bearing the manifest tokens of the divine displeasure; yet the dignity and patience of his demeanour profoundly impresses his contemporaries, so that after his death their thoughts are irresistibly drawn back to the tragedy of his fate, and they come to the conviction that he was indeed what he professed to be, the Servant of Jehovah, that he was the one innocent person in his generation, and that his sufferings were due not to his personal guilt, but to the guilt of a whole nation, which is by them atoned for and taken away. And finally it is prophesied concerning him that he shall rise again, to the astonishment of the whole world, and that his career shall be crowned with success even more conspicuous than his humiliation had been. It has already been pointed out that this conception of the Servant has certain affinities with the figure of Job, and it may be partly moulded on the story of that patriarch’s trial. But the religious teaching of this passage moves on a different plane from that of the Book of Job. The problem of individual retribution, of how it can be that the righteous suffer, does not seem to have been present to the mind of the writer, although he no doubt furnishes an important contribution to the solution of that mystery. This is found in the idea of vicarious suffering, which is so emphatically expressed throughout the passage. Now the principle that the individual bears the guilt of the community to which he belongs was perfectly familiar to the ancient world, and many startling applications of it occur in the O.T. (Jos 7:24; 2Sa 21:6 &c.). It is true that it had begun to excite protest towards the time of the Exile ( Deu 24:16 ; 2Ki 14:6; Jer 31:29; Eze 18:20); but this prophet accepts the principle and discerns in it a moral significance by which it is deprived of the appearance of arbitrariness or injustice. The essence of the Servant’s sacrifice lies in the fact that whilst himself innocent he acquiesces in the divine judgement on sin, and willingly endures it for the sake of his people. And it is the perception of this truth on the part of the people that brings home to them the sense of their own guilt, and removes the obstacle which their impenitence had interposed to Jehovah’s purpose of salvation. The suffering of the innocent on behalf of the guilty is thus seen to be a moral necessity, since it was only through such sufferings as the sinless Servant of the Lord was alone capable of, that punishment could reach its end in the taking away of sin and the bringing in of everlasting righteousness.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Therefore will I divide him – I will divide for him ( lo). This verse is designed to predict the triumphs of the Messiah. It is language appropriate to him as a prince, and designed to celebrate his glorious victories on earth. The words here used are taken from the custom of distributing the spoils of victory after a battle, and the idea is, that as a conqueror takes valuable spoils, so the Messiah would go forth to the spiritual conquest of the world, and subdue it to himself. Rosenmuller renders this, Dispertsam ei multos – I will divide to him the many; that is, he shall have many as his portion. Hengstenberg, I will give him the mighty for a portion. So the Septuagint, Therefore he shall inherit ( kleronomesei) many. So Lowth, Therefore will I distribute to him the many for his portion. But it seems to me that the sense is, that his portion would be with the mighty or the many ( barabbym) and that this interpretation is demanded by the use of the preposition (b) in this case, and by the corresponding word ‘eth, prefixed to the word mighty. The sense, according to this, is, that the spoils of his conquests would be among the mighty or the many; that is, that his victories would not be confined to a few in number, or to the feeble, but the triumphs of his conquests would extend afar, and be found among the potentates and mighty people of the earth.
The word rendered here the great ( rabbym), may mean either many or powerful and great. The parallelism here with the word atsumym (the mighty), seems to demand that it be understood as denoting the great, or the powerful, though it is differently rendered by the Vulgate, the Septuagint, the Chaldee, by Castellio, and by Junius and Tremellius. The sense is, I think, that his conquests would be among the great and the mighty. He would overcome his most formidable enemies, and subdue them to himself. Their most valued objects; all that constituted their wealth, their grandeur, and their power, would be among the spoils of his victories. It would not be merely his feeble foes that would be subdued, but it would be the mighty, and there would be no power, however formidable, that would be able to resist the triumphs of his truth. The history of the gospel since the coming of the Redeemer shows how accurately this has been fulfilled. Already he has overcome the mighty, and the spoils of the conquerors of the world have been among the trophies of his victories. The Roman empire was subdued; and his conquests were among these conquerors, and his were victories over the subduers of nations. It will be still more signally fulfilled in coming times, when the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever Rev 11:15.
And he shall divide the spoil with the strong – And with the mighty, or with heroes, shall he divide the plunder. The idea here is not materially different from that which was expressed in the former member of the sentence. It is language derived from the conquests of the warrior, and means that his victories would be among the great ones of the earth; his conquests over conquerors. It was from language such as this that the Jews obtained the notion, that the Messiah would be a distinguished conqueror, and hence, they looked forward to one who as a warrior would carry the standard of victory around the world. But it is evident that it may be applied with much higher beauty to the spiritual victories of the Redeemer, and that it expresses the great and glorious truth that the conquests of the true religion will yet extend over the most formidable obstacles on the earth.
Because he hath poured out his soul unto death – His triumphs would be an appropriate reward for his sufferings, his death, and his intercession. The expression he poured out his soul, or his life ( napesho; see the notes at Isa 53:10), is derived from the fact that the life was supposed to reside in the blood (see the notes at Rom 3:25); and that when the blood was poured out, the life was supposed to flow forth with it. As a reward for his having thus laid down his life, he would extend his triumphs over the whole world, and subdue the most mighty to himself.
And he was numbered with the transgressors – That is, he shall triumph because he suffered himself to be numbered with the transgressors, or to be put to death with malefactors. It does not mean that he was a transgressor, or in any way guilty; but that in his death he was in fact numbered with the guilty, and put to death with them. In the public estimation, and in the sentence which doomed him to death, he was regarded and treated as if he had been a transgressor. This passage is expressly applied by Mark to the Lord Jesus Mar 15:28.
And he bare the sin of many – ( nas’a’). On the meaning of this word bare, see the notes at Isa 53:4; and on the doctrine involved by his bearing sin, see the note at Isa 53:4-6, Isa 53:10. The idea here is, that he would triumph because he had thus borne their sins. As a reward for this God would bless him with abundant spiritual triumphs among people, and extend the true religion afar.
And made intercession for the transgressors – On the meaning of the word rendered here made intercession ( yapegya), see the notes at Isa 53:6, where it is rendered hath laid on him. The idea is. that of causing to meet, or to rush; and then to assail, as it were, with prayers, to supplicate for anyone, to entreat (see Isa 59:16; Jer 36:25). It may not refer here to the mere act of making prayer or supplication, but rather perhaps to the whole work of the intercession, in which the Redeemer, as high priest, presents the merit of his atoning blood before the throne of mercy and pleads for people (see Rom 8:34; Heb 7:25; 1Jo 2:1). This is the closing part of his work in behalf of his people and of the world; and the sense here is, that he would be thus blessed with abundant and wide extended triumph, because he made intercession. All his work of humiliation, and all his toils and sufferings, and all the merit of his intercession, became necessary in order to his triumph, and to the spread of the true religion. In consequence of all these toils, and pains, and prayers, God would give him the victory over the world, and extend his triumphs around the globe. Here the work of the Mediator in behalf of human beings will cease. There is to be no more suffering, and beyond his intercessions he will do nothing for them. He will come again indeed, but he will come to judge the world, not to suffer, to bleed, to die, and to intercede. All his future conquests and triumphs will be in consequence of what he has already done; and they who are not saved because he poured out his soul unto death, and bare the sin of many, and made intercession, will not be saved at all. There will be no more sacrifice for sin, and there will be no other advocate and intercessor.
We have now gone through perhaps at tedious length, this deeply interesting and most important portion of the Bible. Assuming now (see the remarks prefixed to Isa 52:13 ff) that this was written seven hundred years before the Lord Jesus was born, there are some remarks of great importance to which we may just refer in the conclusion of this exposition.
1. The first is, the minute accuracy of the statements here as applicable to the Lord Jesus. While it is apparent that there has been no other being on earth, and no collective body of men, to whom this can be applied, it is evident that the whole statement is applicable to the Redeemer. It is not the general accuracy to which I refer; it is not that there is some resemblance in the outline of the prediction; it is, that the statement is minutely accurate. It relates to his appearance, his rejection, the manner of his death, his being pierced, his burial. It describes, as minutely as could have been done after the events occurred, the manner of his trial of his rejection, the fact of his being taken from detention and by a judicial sentence, and the manner in which it was designed that he should be buried, and yet the remarkable fact that this was prevented, and that he was interred in the manner in which the rich were buried (see the notes at Isa 53:2-3, Isa 53:7-10).
2. This coincidence could never have occurred if the Lord Jesus had been an impostor. To say nothing of the difficulty of attempting to fulfill a prediction by imposture and the general failure in the attempt, there are many things here which would have rendered any attempt of this kind utterly hopeless. A very large portion of the things referred to in this chapter were circumstances over which an impostor could have no control and which he could bring about by no contrivance, no collusion, and no concert. They depended on the arrangements of Providence, and on the voluntary actions of people, in such a way that he could not affect them. How could he so order it as to grow up as a root out of a dry ground; to be despised and rejected of men; to be taken from detention and from a judicial sentence though innocent; to have it designed that be should be buried with malefactors, and to be numbered with transgressors, and yet to be rescued by a rich man, and placed in his tomb?
This consideration becomes more striking when it is remembered that not a few people claimed to be the Messiah, and succeeded in imposing on many, and though they were at last abandoned or punished, yet between their lives and death, and the circumstances here detailed, there is not the shadow of a coincidence. It is to be remembered also that an impostor would not have aimed at what would have constituted a fulfillment of this prophecy. Notwithstanding the evidence that it refers to the Messiah, yet it is certain also that the Jews expected no such personage as that here referred to. They looked for a magnificent temporal prince and conqueror; and an impostor would not have attempted to evince the character, and to go through the circumstances of poverty, humiliation, shame, and sufferings, here described. What impostor ever would have attempted to fulfill a prophecy by subjecting himself to a shameful death? What impostor could have brought it about in this manner if he had attempted it? No; it was only the true Messiah that either would or could have fulfilled this remarkable prophecy. Had an impostor made the effort, he must have failed; and it was not in human nature to attempt it under the circumstances of the case. All the claims to the Messiahship by impostors have been of an entirely different character from that referred to here.
3. We are then prepared to ask an infidel how he will dispose of this prophecy. That it existed seven hundred years before Christ is as certain as that the poems of Homer or Hesiod had an existence before the Christian era; as certain as the existence of any ancient document whatever. It will not do to say that it was forged – for this is not only without proof, but wound destroy the credibility of all ancient writings. It will not do to say that it was the result of natural sagacity in the prophet – for whatever may be said of conjectures about empires and kingdoms, no natural sagacity can tell what will be the character of an individual man, or whether such a man as here referred to would exist at all. It will not do to say that the Lord Jesus was a cunning impostor and resolved to fulfill this ancient writing, and thus establish his claims, for, as we have seen, such an attempt would have belied human nature, and if attempted, could not have been accomplished. It remains then to ask what solution the infidel will give of these remarkable facts. We present him the prophecy – not a rhapsody, not conjecture, not a general statement; but minute, full, clear, unequivocal, relating to points which could not have been the result of conjecture: and over which the individual had no control. And then we present him with the record of the life of Jesus – minutely accurate in all the details of the fulfillment – a coincidence as clear as that between a biography and the original – and ask him to explain it. And we demand a definite and consistent answer to this. To turn away from it does not answer it. To laugh, does not answer it, for there is no argument in a sneer or a jibe. To say that it is not worth inquiry is not true, for it pertains to the great question of human redemption. But if he cannot explain it, then he should admit that it is such a prediction as only God could give, and that Christianity is true.
4. This chapter proves that the Redeemer died as an atoning sacrifice for people. He was not a mere martyr, and he did not come and live merely to set us an example. Of what martyr was the language here ever used, and how could it be used? How could it be said of any martyr that he bore our griefs, that he was bruised for our iniquities, that our sins were made to rush and meet upon him, and that he bare the sin of many? And if the purpose of his coming was merely to teach us the will of God, or to set us an example, why is such a prominence here given to his sufferings in behalf of others? Scarcely an allusion is made to his example, while the chapter is replete with statements of his sufferings and sorrows in behalf of others. It would be impossible to state in more explicit language the truth that he died as a sacrifice for the sins of people; that he suffered to make proper expiation for the guilty. No confession of faith on earth, no creed, no symbol, no standard of doctrine, contains more explicit statements on the subject. And if the language used here does not demonstrate that the Redeemer was an atoning sacrifice, it is impossible to conceive how such a doctrine could be taught or conveyed to people.
5. This whole chapter is exceedingly important to Christians. It contains the most full, continuous statement in the Bible of the design of the Redeemers sufferings and death. And after all the light which is shed on the subject in the New Testament; after all the full and clear statements made by the Redeemer and the apostles; still, if we wish to see a full and continuous statement on the great doctrine of the atonement, we naturally recur to this portion of Isaiah. If we wish our faith to be strengthened, and our hearts warmed by the contemplalion of his sufferings, we shall find no part of the Bible better adapted to it than this. It should not only be the subject of congratulation, but of much fervent prayer. No man can study it too profoundly. No one can feel too much anxiety to understand it. Every verse, every phrase, every word should be pondered until it fixes itself deep in the memory, and makes an eternal impression on the heart. If a man understands this portion of the Bible, he will have a correct view of the plan of salvation. And it should be the subject of profound and prayerful contemplation until the heart glows with love to that merciful God who was willing to give the Redeemer to such sorrow, and to the gracious Saviour who, for our sins, was willing to pour out his soul unto death. I bless God that I have been permitted to study it; and I pray that this exposition – cold and imperfect as it is – may be made the means yet of extending correct views of the design of the Redeemers death among his friends, and of convincing those who have doubted the truth of the Bible, that a prophecy like this demonstrates that the book in which it occurs must be from God.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 53:12
Therefore will I divide Him a portion with the great
Christs conflict and conquest
I.
CHRISTS CONFLICT.
II. CHRISTS CONQUEST. The conflict is last in the order of the words, but first in order of nature and time. (T. Manton, D.D.)
The greatness of the Sin-bearer
It is the voice of God Himself; and it is befitting that, as He introduced His Servant in the opening verses of this marvellous portraiture, so, in these closing words, He should pronounce His verdict on His career. Two things are clearly predicated of the Sin-bearer.
1. That He should be great.
2. That He should attain His commanding position, not as the founder of a new school of thought, nor as the leader of a social reformation, nor as possessed of exceptional saintliness–but as a Sufferer.
I. THE GREATNESS GIVEN BY THE FATHER AS THE REWARD FOR CHRISTS OBEDIENCE TO DEATH. It was meet that such a reward should be bestowed, for the sake of those who should afterwards follow in the footsteps of their Divine Master. None could ever deserve more or better than Christ; and if He were without recognition or reward, might it not be thought that Heaven had no prize to give for faithful service? Surely He must have a reward, or the very order of the universe might be deemed at fault? But what reward should He have? What could compensate Him for having laid aside the exercise of His Divine prerogative; for having assumed our nature; for having passed through the ordeal of temptation, sorrow, and pain; for having become obedient to death, even the death of the Cross? All worlds were His by native right; all holy beings owned His sway as Creator and God; all provinces of thought, emotion, power, and might, sent Him their choicest tribute. What reward could He claim, or have? The answer may be suggested by recalling our own pleasure in conferring pleasure, our joy in giving joy. Let the limitations imposed by our mortality or circumstances be removed; let us be able to realize to the full the yearnings and promptings of our noblest hours; lot the wish to help be accompanied by a sympathy that cannot hurt the most sensitive, a wisdom that cannot mistake, a power that cannot be daunted or thwarted; and probably we should at once drink deep draughts of blessedness like Gods. This is the blessedness of Christ, and this is the reward which the Father has given Him. God Himself could not give, nor the Saviour ask for, a greater reward than this. And, in its magnificence, it appeals to all who would tread in His steps. This is Heavens supreme reward: that all who pour out their souls to death shall obtain enlarged opportunities and possibilities of service.
II. THE GREATNESS THAT CHRISTS DEATH HAS SECURED HIM AMONG MEN. He is worthy to take the mysterious scroll of destiny, and break its seals, because of the light Its has cast on the great mysteries by which our lot is shadowed.
1. Pain. When it enwraps us in its fiery baptism, we are apt to accuse ourselves or to doubt God. But Jesus has taught us that there is yet a third way of regarding pain. He had not sinned, yet He suffered as none of woman.born ever did. Evidently, then, pain is not always symptomatic of special sin. He was once so submerged in anguish that for a time He lost the sense of His Fathers love; but He never suggested that there was failure or obliquity in the moral government of the world. The death of Jesus has therefore robbed death of these two implications, and has taught us that it is often sent, and must be borne, with the view of benefiting others. What a priceless service was this–to transform pain; to persuade sufferers that by their travail of soul they were enriching the whole world of men.
2. Death. Men dread it. But He, by His dying, has abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light. For this we count Him great, that through death He undid death.
3. Sin When Jesus died on the Cross, He was numbered with transgressors; but He stood over against all transgressors, distinct from them and bearing their sin. This surely constitutes an overmastering claim for us to count Christ great.
III. THE GREATNESS WHICH HIS DEATH WILL WIN FOR CHRIST IN THE ESTIMATION OF OTHER RACES OF BEING. Not to the Mount of Beatitudes, but to the Cross, will distant worlds send their deputations in all coming ages, to learn the manifold lessons which it alone can teach. There they will learn to know the very heart of God, His hatred against sin, His love for the sinner, His fidelity to covenant engagements, His righteousness, His truth. The Cross is the heavenly prism that enables us to distinguish the constituents of the Divine nature. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
He shall divide the spoil with the strong
He shall divide the spoil with the strong:
This is generally interpreted as picturing a conqueror sharing with other fellow-conquerors in the booty of the conquered. But could that figure have any analogy in Christs triumph Who could be His fellow-conquerors? What could be the booty of His conquered ones? Much better is it to consider the strong, or the mighty ones, to represent the powers of darkness, who have made spoil of the human race, and the division of the spell with them by Messiah to be the rescue of souls from their grasp. The many (Isa 53:11) whom He saves will then be the spoil He snatches from the great enemy, and we can read the whole passage: By the knowledge of Him shall My righteous Servant give righteousness to many, and He Himself shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide Him the many as His portion, and he shall divide the spoil with the mighty ones. This allusion to the powers of evil gives completeness to the prophetic description. The humble birth, unattractive position in society, and unfavoured career through life, are given in Isa 53:2,
3. His partnership with distress and His own sufferings are exhibited invers. 4, 5, 6. His meekness is portrayed in Isa 53:7. Then comes the apparent failure of His life, followed by its complete triumph in saving souls. We need a word regarding the enemy triumphed over to make the wonderful prophetic sketch complete. (Howard Crosby, LL.D.)
The Lord Jesus a glorious Conqueror
Dividing of the spoil is the effect of a sure and a great conquest. The eminency of it lieth in these four things–
(1) Either in the power of the adversaries. There is no triumph in prevailing over weak things.
(2) The unlikelihood of the means. A thousand men were slain by the jawbone of an ass by the hands of Samson; and a numerous host discomfited by Gideons pitchers and three hundred lamps. Such things as these make the success memorable.
(3) The manner or nature of the victory. Total defeats are most noted.
(4) A conquest is glorious in the effects or result of it. If it be of great importance and consequence to the good of a people, when fears are removed, and privileges are granted and enlarged, spoilers taken, a kingdom subdued–these things make for the glory of the victory. Let us see if such things be not found in the conquest of Christ.
THE ADVERSARIES. They are always expressed by such notions as do imply great strength and power (Col 2:15; Eph 4:8).
1. There is the devil, who is a powerful adversary. But the prince of this world is judged (Joh 16:11).
2. The law was an enemy, as it condemns us (Col 2:14; Eph 2:16).
3. Death and hell (1Co 15:54; 2Ti 1:10; Rev 1:18).
4. The flesh (Rom 8:3).
5. The world (Joh 16:33).
6. All the adverse powers in the world (Psa 2:10-12).
II. THE MEANS. The weapons of this warfare are not carnal.
1. As to His death.
2. By the Word of the Cross, called the foolishness of preaching.
3. By His Spirit; a great force, but secret and undiscerned.
4. By His prayers and intercessions.
III. THE MANNER OR NATURE OF THE CONQUEST, how it is achieved.
1. The enemies are overcome and terribly broken: there is a total dissipation of all the powers of darkness.
2. Not barely overcome, but spoiled and rifled (Col 2:15).
3. Such a victory as endeth in a solemn triumph; as conquerors in public view carried their spoils and their enemies tied to their chariots, so Christ would expose them to open shame.
IV. WHAT SPECIAL BENEFITS WE HAVE BY THE CONQUEST OF CHRIST.
1. The banishment of distracting fear (Heb 2:15).
2. An encouragement to the spiritual conflict.
3. Joy unspeakable and glorious.
4. Hopes of glory; we shall conquer with Him, and reign with Him.
5. The very exaltation of Christ is a great comfort to us.
6. Christs conquest is a token, earnest and pledge of our victory.
7. What Christ did in this conquest, He did it for our sakes. He will have nothing but we shall share in it.
8. Another benefit is usefulness and serviceableness for all that befalls us. Christ doth so effect it that all things work together for good (Rom 8:28). (T. Manton, D.D.)
He hath poured out His soul unto death
The conflict of Christ explained
I. HIS DEATH. He hath poured out, etc.
II. THE IGNOMINY OF IT. He was numbered with the transgressors.
III. THE CAUSE OF IT. He bare, etc.
IV. THE NOTED CIRCUMSTANCE IN IT. He made intercession for the transgressors. (T. Manton, D.D.)
The love of Christ
He gave Himself.
I. THE GIFT. His soul.
II. THE MANNER OF GIVING. Poured out.
III. THE INTENT. (T. Manton, D.D.)
Christ killed by the inner Cross
It was not the Cross of wood that killed the Saviour, but the inner Cross, which lay heavily on His soul. (C. Clemance, D.D.)
Christs connection with sinners the source of His glory
I. The first source of the Mediators glory is, that He, out of His love to guilty men, has POURED OUT HIS SOUL UNTO DEATH. The penalty of sin is death. The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The Lord Jesus came into such connection with men that He bore the death penalty which guilty men had incurred. Remark the expression: He hath poured out His soul unto death. It is deliberate. It is a libation presented with thought and care; not the mere spilling of His blood, but the resolute, determinate pouring out of His whole life unto its last drop–the pouring it; out unto death. Christs resolve to die for you and me was not that of a brave soldier who rushes up to the cannons mouth in a moment of excitement; but He was practically pouring out His life from the day when His public ministry commenced, if not before. He was always dying by living at such a rate that His zeal consumed Him.
2. It was most real and true. I pray you do not think of Christ as pouring out His soul, as though it made Him spend a sort of ecstatic life in dream-land, and suffer only in thought, intent, and sympathy. My Lord suffered as you suffer, only more keenly; for He had never injured His body or soul by any act of excess, so as to take off the edge from His sensitiveness.
3. See how complete it was. Jesus gave poor sinners everything. His every faculty was laid out for them. Put your trust; m Him, then, without reserve.
II. OUR LORD WAS NUMBERED WITH SINNERS. He was numbered with the transgressors. There is a touch of nearness to the sinner about this which there is not in the first clause. He bears death for the sinner; but you could not suppose, if you had not read it, thus He would be written in the sinner s register. He was not, and could not be, a sinner; but yet it is written, He was numbered with the transgressors. Is there a census taken of sinners? Then, the name of Jesus is written down. How was He numbered with the transgressors? This makes it the more marvellous, because it is so hurtful to a man who is pure, to be numbered with the impure.
Our Lord Jesus was numbered with the transgressors–
1. By the tongue of slander. They called Him a drunken man and a wine-bibber: they even called Him Beelzebub. That was sharp enough for Him to bear, whom all the angels salute as Holy, holy, holy!
2. In the earthly courts of justice. He stood at the bar as a common felon, though He was judge of all. Though they could not find witnesses whose testimony agreed, yet they condemned Him (Mar 15:28).
3. Our Lord Jesus Christ, on earth, was treated, in the providence of God, as transgressors are treated. Transgression sometimes brings on men poverty, sickness, reproach, and desertion; and Jesus Christ had to take His share of all these with sinful men. All things in this world that are so keen and terrible to man, because man has become so guilty, were just as keen and terrible to Him. The nails that pierced Him tore His tender flesh as they would have torn that of the sinful. Fever parched Him till His tongue cleaved to His jaws.
4. The Holy God treated Him as if He were one of us. It pleased the Father to bruise Him; He hath put Him to grief.. God not only turned His back on transgressors, but He turned His back upon His Son, who was numbered with them.
III. The third matter by which the Lord Jesus Christ has won His victories, and earned reward of God, is this: HE BARE THE SIN OF MANY.
IV. The last thing is this: HE MADE INTERCESSION FOR THE TRANSGRESSORS. Who among us will take up the part of the guilty? Who will plead for the guilty? I know, in certain oases, the lawyer will sell his tongue to the most polluted; but if a man were perfectly pure, you would not find him saying a word in defence of the guilty. So far as the man was guilty he could not be defended. But our Lord made intercession for transgressors. When He was here on earth how tender He was with transgressors! He bore on His heart the names of guilty men. He was always pleading their cause, and when He came to die he said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. He took their part. He would exculpate them if He could. I dare say that He has often prayed like that for you. Now He has gone up yonder He is pleading still. Application:
(1) Jesus Christ does not shrink from sinners; ye sinners, do not shrink from Him.
(2) As Jesus does not shrink from sinners, do not yourselves shrink from them. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
He was numbered with the transgressors
The Friend of sinners
I. To the sinner, troubled and alarmed on account of guilt, there will be much comfort in the thought that CHRIST IS ENROLLED AMONG SINNERS. He was numbered with the transgressors.
1. In what sense are we to understand this?
(1) He was numbered with them, in the census of the Roman empire.
(2) Years rolled on, and that child who had been early numbered with transgressors, and had received the seal of transgression in the circumcision, which represents the putting away of the flesh–that child, having come to manhood, goes forth into the world and is numbered with transgressors in the scroll of fame. Ask public rumour What is the character of Jesus of Nazareth? and it cannot find a word in its vocabulary foul enough for Him. This they sometimes said; and our translators have inserted the word fellow because in the original there is an ellipsis, the evangelists, I suppose, hardly liking to write the word which had been cast upon Christ Jesus. They called the Master of the house, Beelzebub!
(3) But to make the matter still more forcible, He was numbered with transgressors in the courts of law. The ecclesiastical court of Judaism, the Sanhedrim, said of Him, Thou blasphemest; and they smote Him on the cheek. Written down among the offenders against the dignity of God and against the security of the Jewish Church, you find the name of Jesus of Nazareth which was crucified. The courts civil also asserted the same.
(4) Then, the whole Jewish people numbered Him with transgressors; nay, they reprobated Him as a more abominable transgressor than a thief and a murderer who had excited sedition.
(5) His name is written in the calendar of crime by the whole universe; for He is despised and rejected of men; of all men is He accounted to be the offscouring of all things, and is put to grief.
2. Why was Christ numbered with transgressors?
(1) Because He could the better become their advocate. I believe, in legal phraseology, in civil cases, the advocate considers himself to be part and partner with the person, for whom he pleads. You hear the counsellor continually using the word we; he is considered by the judge to represent the person for whom he is an advocate.
(2) That He might plead with them. Suppose a number of prisoners confined in one of our old jails, and there is a person desirous to do them good, imagine that he cannot be admitted unless his name is put down in the calendar. Well, out of his abundant love to these prisoners he consents to it, and when he enters to talk with them, they perhaps think that he will come in with cold dignity; but he says, Now, let me say to you first of all that I am one of yourselves. Well, they say, but have you done aught that is wrong? I will not answer you that, saith he; but if you will just refer to the calender you will find my name there; I am written down there among you as a criminal. Oh, how they open their hearts now!
(3) That sinners may feel their hearts drawn to Him.
(4) That we might be written in the red roll of His saints.
II. We are taught in the next sentence, that Christ BARE THE SINS OF MANY.
1. Here it is as clear as noon-day that Christ dealt with sinners.
2. As He did bear their sins, other texts tell us that He did bear them away.
3. There is now no sin abiding upon those for whom Jesus died.
III. Our third sentence tells us that JESUS INTERCEDES FOR SINNERS. And made intercession for the transgressors.
1. He pleads for their forgiveness.
2. He next prays that those for whom He intercedes may be saved, and may have a new life given them. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Christ numbered with the transgressors
He became a sinner, though sinless–
1. By imputation.
2. By reputation. (J. Trapp.)
Made intercession far the transgressors
Christs intercession for transgressors
Christ in this and such like actions is to be considered in a double regard–
1. As a holy, godly man; so He was to fulfil all righteousness.
2. As a mediator and public person, that was to be our High Priest, to satisfy and intercede. (T. Manton D. D.)
Christ s intercession
1. Who prayeth. Christ, one that could destroy them with His glory easily enough.
2. When He prayed. In the very act of His sufferings.
3. For whom He prayed. For them that offered Him all the indignities in the world.
4. How He prayed. He pleadeth for them; Forgive them, etc. (T. Manton, D.D.)
Jesus interceding for transgressors
Our blessed Lord made intercession for transgressors in so many words while He was being crucified, for He was heard to say, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. Our Lord fixed His eye upon that point in the character of His persecutors which was most favourable to them, namely, that they knew not what they did. He could not plead their innocence, and therefore He pleaded their ignorance. Our great Advocate will be sure to plead wisely and efficiently on our behalf; He will urge every argument which can be discovered, for His eye, quickened by love, will suffer nothing to pass which may tell in our favour. The prophet, however, does not, I suppose, intend to confine our thoughts to the one incident which is recorded by the evangelists, for the intercession of Christ was an essential part of His entire life-work. Jesus Himself is the reasoning and logic of prayer, and He Himself is an ever-living prayer unto the Most High. It was part of our Lords official work to make intercession for the transgressors. He is a Priest, and as such He brings His offering, and presents prayer on the behalf of the people.
I. I have to direct your attention to our ever-living Lord making intercession for the transgressors; and I shall pray God that all of us may be roused to ADMIRATION FOR HIS GRACE.
1. If you will consider His intercession for transgressors I think you will be struck with the love, and tenderness, and graciousness of His heart, when you recollect that He offered intercession verbally while He was standing in the midst of their sin. Sin heard of and sin seen are two very different things. Our Lord actually saw human sin, saw it at its worst. He saw it all, and felt the sin as you and I cannot feel it, for His heart was purer, and therefore tenderer than ours: He saw that the tendency of sin was to put Him to death, and all like Him, yea and to slay God Himself if it could achieve its purpose, for man had become a Decide and must needs crucify His God–and yet, though His holy soul saw and loathed all this tendency and atrocity of transgression, He still made intercession for the transgressors.
2. Another point of His graciousness was also clear, namely, that He should thus intercede while in agony.
3. But it is marvellous that He being pure, should plead for transgressors at all: for you and for me amongst them–let the wonder begin there.
4. Further, it is to me a very wonderful fact that in His glory He should still be pleading for sinners.
5. Again, it is gloriously gracious that our Lord should continue to do this. He hath never ceased to make intercession for transgressors.
II. I do earnestly pray that we may be led of the Holy Ghost so to view His intercession for transgressors as to put our CONFIDENCE IN HIMSELF. There is ground for a sinners confidence in Christ, and there is abundant argument for the believers complete reliance in Him, from the fact of His perpetual intercession.
1. Because His intercession succeeds.
2. There is reason for transgressors to come and trust in Jesus Christ, seeing He pleads for them.
3. I am sure, too, that if Jesus Christ pleads for transgressors as transgressors, while as yet they have not begun to pray for themselves, He will be sure to hear them when they are at last led to pray.
4. In order that our confidence may be increased, consider the effect of our Lords intercession for transgressors.
(1) Many of the worst of transgressors have been preserved in life in answer to Christs prayer.
(2) The gift of the Holy Spirit which is needful for the quickening of transgressors was the result of Christs intercession.
(3) It is through Christs intercession that our poor prayers are accepted with God.
(4) It is through the prayers of Christ, too, that we are kept in the hour of temptation. Remember what He said to Peter, I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not, when Satan desired to have him and sift him as wheat. Father, keep them from the evil is a part of our Lords supplication, and His Father hears Him always.
(5) Indeed, it is because He pleads that we are saved at all. He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.
III. I pray that our text may inspire us with the spirit of OBEDIENCE TO HIS EXAMPLE. I take the example of Christ to be an embodied precept as much binding upon us as His written commands.
1. Imitate Him by forgiving all transgressions against yourself.
2. Imitate Christ, in pleading for yourselves. Since you are transgressors, and you see that Jesus intercedes for transgressors, make bold to say, If He pleads for such as I am, I will put in my humble petition, and hope to be heard through Him.
3. If we have been forgiven our transgressions, let us now intercede for transgressors, since Jesus does so.
4. Let us take care, that if we do plead for others we mix with it the doing of good to them, because it is not recorded that He made intercession for transgressors until it is first written, He bare the sin of many
5. If Christ appears in heaven for us, let us be glad to appear on earth for him. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The Monarch becomes an intercessor for His foes
(with Luk 23:34):–Here prophecy and history unite in taking us to the place which is calledCalvary.
I. IN WHAT LIGHT SHOULD WE REGARD THESE WORDS?
II. WHAT IS THE REQUEST? For whom? Forgive them, those who were the instruments and agents in His crucifixion. These were–
1. The people.
2. The chief priests and scribes.
3. The rulers.
4. The soldiers.
5. The Roman governor.
6. The passers-by, who were reviling Him.
7. Those who were crucified with Him, joining in the mockery and jests.
What is the plea by which the petition is urged? They know not what they do. Not one of them knew the full extent of the crime. Not even the disciples could have estimated the guilt of the people (Act 3:16; 1Co 2:6). There was only One, even the Sufferer Himself, who could view that sin in all its manifold complications, and hold evenly and righteously the scales of judgment.
III. WHAT A SPIRIT OF LOVE THESE WORDS BREATHE! Their self-forgetfulness is wonderful. The sin of those thus wronging the Saviour was a far greater cause of distress to Him than all the degradation, ignominy, and pain He was enduring; on these things He could be altogether silent, in order to plead for the forgiveness of others sin. We see here, too, a love which, rising above human repulsiveness and guilt, ever regards itself as sent to save; a love which would carry on a redeeming work, even when stretched in agony on the Cross. Here, too, is not only the love of One, whose saving energy could neither be repulsed nor trammelled, but of One who, though He is most fully acquainted with the greatness of their guilt, pleads before Him, to whom sin is an abominable thing, the mitigation of their crime. Truly, it is a marvel of comfort that He, who judges sin most exactly, deals with the sinner most tenderly! Here, too, is Divine love making intercession for the transgressors; not for the good, but for the bad; not for the penitent, but for the impenitent; that they may be brought to repent; showing us how Christs love goes after men always, under all circumstances, in the lowest depths of guilt. Nevertheless, Divine love so pleads, as to imply that if this sin had been committed with full understanding of its enormity, He dared not have asked for its forgiveness. For they know not what they do. Thus the spirit of this prayer has its terrors as well as its comforts. There is a sin unto death, for which the Redeemer does not intercede, and for which we have no commission or authority to pray. Where that sin lies, what is its precise character, whether this or that man has committed it, we dare not say. We can tell four things about it:–we know the region in which it lies, the sign it has been committed, the sign it has not been committed, and why there is no mercy for it. Where one who has the fullest light indulges in the greatest sin, he is getting very near the unpardonable sin. The sign that it has been committed, would be hard, final, impenitence. True repentance is a sure sign it has not been committed. It is not pardonable, because at such a stage the sinner will not repent.
IV. WHAT ARE THE DOCTRINES THESE WORDS INVOLVE?
1. They teach us that the Father saves us through the Son.
2. That sins of ignorance need forgiveness. Paul sinned ignorantly in unbelief, and yet was the chief of sinners.
3. Whatever palliation of guilt may be allowed, owing to ignorance, full recognition is taken thereof by the great Intercessor.
4. We are taught that the fuller the light the greater the sin (Heb 10:26-27).
5. That forgiveness of sin, by God, is so precious to us, because it is made over to us in perfect knowledge of every aggravation and mitigation.
V. WHAT RESULTS DID THIS INTERCESSION SECURE? We are sure that this prayer was answered. It did not indeed avert the destruction of the doomed city, but–
1. It secured the forgiveness of every penitent who might be, nevertheless, involved in its temporal disasters.
2. The Great Pleaders work soon proved its power in the salvation of the thief on the Cross, and shortly after of thousands more.
3. By means of the intercession of our Lord, begun on earth, and now carried on in heaven, we are not under the law, but under grace. (C. Clemance, D. D.)
Meaning of intercession
The question, What is meant by intercession? being asked in a Sunday school, one of the children replied, Speaking a word to God fur us, sir.
Intercession for the transgressors
I shall never forget, wrote Miss Plumptre to a friend, the day of the sadness and the gladness of my heart, the day when a chafed and disappointed spirit found healing and rest in One whom I had done my utmost to be independent of. The joy of the astronomer over his newly-discovered planet is nothing to the rapture with which I gazed upon the word transgressors in the last sentence of Isa 53:12; He made intercession for the transgressors. I wellremember being so dazzled that for a time I thought it a delusion, a misprint. It was something so altogether new to my proud, hard-working spirit, that I could almost wonder that I did not erase it and put in the penitent or the humble or one of natures proud epithets. Yes, I think that word transgressors was the first that ever glowed on me with all the attraction of free grace..
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 12. He bare the sin of many] rabbim, the multitudes, the many that were made sinners by the offences of one; i.e., the whole human race; for all have sinned – all have fallen; and for all that have sinned, and for all that have fallen, Jesus Christ died. The rabbim of the prophet answers to the , of the apostle, Ro 5:15; Ro 5:19. As the of the apostle means all that have sinned; so the rabbim of the prophet means those for whom Christ died; i.e., all that have sinned.
And made intercession for the transgressors.] For yaphgia, in the future, a MS. has hiphgia, preterite, rather better, as agreeable with the other verbs immediately preceding in the sentence.
He made intercession for the transgressors. – This was literally fulfilled at his death, “Father, forgive them; they know not what they do!” Lu 23:34. And to make intercession for transgressors is one part of his mediatorial office. Heb 7:25; Heb 9:24.
IN this chapter the incarnation, preaching, humiliation, rejection, sufferings, death, atonement, resurrection, and mediation of Jesus Christ are all predicted, together with the prevalence of his Gospel, and the extension of his kingdom through all ages.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Therefore will I, God the Father, the Spectator and Judge of the action or combat,
divide him; give him his share; or, impart or give to him; for this word is oft used without respect to any distribution or division, as Deu 4:19; 29:26, and elsewhere.
A portion; which is very commodiously supplied out of the next clause, where a word which answers to it,
the spoil, is expressed. With the great; or, among the great; such as the great and mighty potentates of the world use to have after a sharp combat and a glorious victory. Though he be a very mean and obscure person, as to his extraction and outward condition in the world, yet he shall attain to as great a pitch of glory as the greatest monarchs enjoy.
He shall divide the spoil with the strong: the same thing is repeated in other words, after the manner of prophetical writers. The sense of both clauses is, that God will give him, and he shall receive, great and happy success in his glorious undertaking; he shall conquer all his enemies, and lead captivity captive, as is said, Eph 4:8, and Set up his universal and everlasting kingdom in the world.
Because he hath poured out his soul unto death; because he willingly laid down his life in obedience to Gods command, Joh 10:17,18, and in order to the redemption of mankind. Death is here called a pouring out of the soul, or life, either because the soul or life, which in living men is contained in the body, is turned out of the body by death; or to signify the manner of Christs death, that it should be with the shedding of his blood, in which the life of man consists, Lev 17:11,14.
He was numbered with the transgressors; he was willing for Gods glory and for mans good to be reproached and punished like a malefactor, in the same manner and place, and betwixt two of them, as is noted with reference to this place, Mar 15:27,28.
He bare the sin of many; which was said Isa 53:11, and is here repeated to prevent a mistake, and to intimate, that although Christ was numbered with transgressors, and was used accordingly, yet he was no transgressor, nor did submit to and suffer this usage for his own sins, but for the sins of others, the punishment whereof was by his own consent laid upon him.
Made intercession for the transgressors; either,
1. By way of satisfaction; he interposed himself between an angry God and sinners, and received those blows in his own body which otherwise must have fallen upon them. Or,
2. In way of petition, as this word is constantly used. He prayed upon earth for all sinners, and particularly for those that crucified him, Luk 23:34; and in heaven he still intercedeth for them, not by a humble petition, but by a legal demand of those good things which he purchased for his own people by the sacrifice of himself, which, though past, he continually represents to his Father, as if it were present.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
12. divideas a conquerordividing the spoil after a victory (Psa 2:8;Luk 11:22).
himfor Him.
with . . . greatHENGSTENBERGtranslates, “I will give Him the mighty for a portion”; sothe Septuagint. But the parallel clause, “with thestrong,” favors English Version. His triumphs shall benot merely among the few and weak, but among the many and mighty.
spoil . . . strong(Col 2:15; compare Pr16:19). “With the great; with the mighty,” may mean, asa great and mighty hero.
poured out . . . soulthatis, His life, which was considered as residing in the blood (Lev 17:11;Rom 3:25).
numbered with, c.notthat He was a transgressor, but He was treated as such,when crucified with thieves (Mar 15:28Luk 22:37).
made intercession,c.This office He began on the cross (Lu23:34), and now continues in heaven (Isa 59:16Heb 9:24; 1Jn 2:1).Understand because before “He was numbered . . . He bare. . . made intercession.” His meritorious death and intercessionare the cause of His ultimate triumph. MAURER,for the parallelism, translates, “He was put on the same footingwith the transgressors.” But English Version agreesbetter with the Hebrew, and with the sense and fact as toChrist. MAURER’Stranslation would make a tautology after “He was numbered withthe transgressors”; parallelism does not need so servile arepetition. “He made intercession for,” &c.,answers to the parallel, “He was numbered with,“&c., as effect answers to cause, His intercessionfor sinners being the effect flowing from His having been numberedwith them.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great,…. The great ones of the earth, the kings and princes of the earth: these are the words of God the Father, promising Christ that he shall have as great a part or portion assigned him as any of the mighty monarchs of the world, nay, one much more large and ample; that he would make him higher than the kings of the earth, and give him a name above every name in this world, or that to come; and all this in consequence of his sufferings, and as a reward of them; see Php 2:8 and whereas the Lord’s people are his portion, and with which Christ is well pleased, and greatly delighted, De 32:9, they may be intended here, at least as a part of the portion which Christ has assigned him. For the words may be rendered e, “therefore will I divide, assign, or give many to him”: so the Vulgate Latin version; and which is favoured by the Targum,
“therefore will I divide to him the prey of many people;”
and by the Septuagint version, therefore he shall inherit many, or possess many as his inheritance; so the Arabic version. The elect of God were given to Christ, previous to his sufferings and death, in the everlasting council of peace and covenant of grace, to be redeemed and saved by him; and they are given to him, in consequence of them, to believe in him, to be subject to him, and serve him; and so it denotes a great multitude of persons, both among Jews and Gentiles, that should be converted to Christ, embrace him, profess his Gospel, and submit to his ordinances; and which has been true in fact, and took place quickly after his resurrection and ascension.
And he shall divide the spoil with the strong; or “the strong as a spoil”; that is, he shall spoil principalities and powers, destroy Satan and his angels, and make an entire conquest of all his mighty and powerful enemies. The Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and Arabic versions, render the words, “he shall divide the spoil of the strong”; of Satan and his principalities; those they make a spoil of he shall take out of their hands, and possess them as his own. The best comment on this version is Lu 11:22. Or rather the words may be rendered, “he shall have or possess for a spoil or prey very many” f; for the word for “strong” has the signification of a multitude; and so the sense is the same as before, that a great multitude of souls should be taken by Christ, as a prey out of the hands of the mighty, and become his subjects; and so his kingdom would be very large, and he have great honour and glory, which is the thing promised as a reward of his sufferings. Some understand, by the “great” and “strong”, the apostles of Christ, to whom he divided the gifts he received when he led captivity captive; to some apostles, some prophets, c. Eph 4:10, and others the soldiers, among whom his garments were parted but they are senses foreign from the text.
Because he hath poured out his soul unto death; as water is poured out,
Ps 22:14 or rather as the wine was poured out in the libations or drink offerings; for Christ’s soul was made an offering for sin, as before; and it may be said with respect to his blood, in which is the life, that was shed or poured out for the remission of sin; of which he was emptied,
and made bare, as the word g signifies, when his hands, feet, and side, were pierced. The phrase denotes the voluntariness of Christ’s death, that he freely and willingly laid down his life for his people.
And he was numbered with the transgressors; he never was guilty of any one transgression of the law; he indeed appeared in the likeness of sinful flesh, and was calumniated and traduced as a sinner, and a friend of the worst of them; he was ranked among them, and charged as one of them, yet falsely; though, having all the sins of his people upon him, he was treated, even by the justice and law of God, as if he had been the transgressor, and suffered as if he had been one; of which his being crucified between two thieves was a symbolical representation, and whereby this Scripture was fulfilled, Mr 15:28.
and he bore the sin on many; everyone of their sins, even the sins of all those whose iniquity was laid on him, of the many chosen in him, and justified by him; [See comments on Isa 53:11] where this is given as the reason for their justification; and here repeated as if done, to show the certainty of it; to raise the attention of it, as being a matter of great importance; see 1Pe 2:24.
And made intercession for the transgressors; as he did upon the cross, even for those that were the instruments of his death, Lu 23:34 and as he now does, in heaven, for all those sinners for whom he died; not merely in a petitionary way, but by presenting himself, blood, righteousness, and sacrifice; pleading the merits of these, and calling for, in a way of justice and legal demand, all those blessings which were stipulated in an everlasting covenant between him and his Father, to be given to his people, in consequence of his sufferings and death; see Ro 8:33.
e “ideo dispertiam ei plurimos”, V. L. “propterea ipsi attribuam (vel addicam) permultos”, Bootius, Animadv. I. 4. c. 12. sect. 20. p. 251. “idcirco dispertiam ei sortem, multitudinem Gentium”, Vitringa. f “et plurimos (seu innumeros) habebit loco praedae, vel plurimi obtingent ipsi pro praeda”, Bootius, ibid. g “denudavit morti animam suam”, Forerius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The last reward of His thus working after this life for the salvation of sinners, and also of His work in this life upon which the former is founded, is victorious dominion. “Therefore I give Him a portion among the great, and with strong ones will He divide spoil; because He has poured out His soul into death: and He let Himself be reckoned among transgressors; whilst He bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” The promise takes its stand between humiliation and exaltation, and rests partly upon the working of the exalted One, and partly upon the doing and suffering of One who was so ready to sacrifice Himself. Luther follows the lxx and Vulgate, and adopts the rendering, “Therefore will I give Him a great multitude for booty;” and Hvernick, Stier, and others adopt essentially the same rendering, “Therefore will I apportion to Him the many.” But, as Job 39:17 clearly shows, this clause can only mean, “Therefore will I give Him a portion in the many.” If, however, c hilleq b’ means to have a portion in anything, and not to give the thing itself as a portion, it is evident that harabbm here are not the many, but the great; and this is favoured by the parallel clause. The ideas of greatness and force, both in multitude and might, are bound up together in rabh and atsum (see Isa 8:7), and the context only can decide which rendering is to be adopted when these ideas are separated from one another. What is meant by “giving a portion barabbm ,” is clearly seen from such passages as Isa 52:15; Isa 49:7, according to which the great ones of the earth will be brought to do homage to Him, or at all events to submit to Him. The second clause is rendered by Luther, “and He shall have the strong for a prey.” This is at any rate better than the rendering of the lxx and Vulgate, “ et fortium dividet spolia .” But Pro 16:19 shows that is a preposition. Strong ones surround Him, and fight along with Him. The reference here is to the people of which it is said in Psa 110:3, “They people are thorough devotion in the day of Thy power;” and this people, which goes with Him to battle, and joins with Him in the conquest of the hostile powers of the world (Rev 19:14), also participates in the enjoyment of the spoils of His victory. With this victorious sway is He rewarded, because He has poured out His soul unto death, having not only exposed His life to death, but “poured out” ( heerah , to strip or empty, or pour clean out, even to the very last remnant) His life-blood into death ( lammaveth like the Lamed in Psa 22:16), and also because He has suffered Himself to be reckoned with transgressors, i.e., numbered among them ( niph. tolerativum ), namely, in the judgment of His countrymen, and in the unjust judgment ( m ishpat ) by which He was delivered up to death as a wicked apostate and transgressor of the law. With there is attached to (He was numbered with the transgressors), if not in a subordinate connection (like ) in Isa 53:5; (compare Isa 10:7), the following antithesis: He submitted cheerfully to the death of a sinner, and yet He was no sinner, but “bare the sin of many (cf., Heb 9:28), and made intercession for the transgressors.” Many adopt the rendering, “and He takes away the sin of many, and intervenes on behalf of the transgressors.” But in this connection the preterite ) can only relate to something antecedent to the foregoing future, so that denotes a connected past; and thus have the lxx and Vulg. correctly rendered it. Just as in Isa 53:6 signifies to cause to fall upon a person, so in Jer 15:11 it signifies to make one approach another (in supplication). Here, however, as in Isa 59:16, the hiphil is not a causative, but has the intensive force of the kal, viz., to press forward with entreaty, hence to intercede (with a Lamed of the person on whose behalf it occurs). According to the cons. temporum , the reference is not to the intercession ( ) of the glorified One, but to that of the suffering One, on behalf of His foes. Every word stands here as if written beneath the cross on Golgotha. And this is the case with the clause before us, which was fulfilled (though not exclusively) in the prayer of the crucified Saviour: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luk 23:34).
“The prophetic view,” says Oehler, who agrees with us in the general opinion that the idea of the Servant of Jehovah has three distinct stages, “ascends in these discourses step by step, as it were, from the one broad space covered by the foundation-walls of a cathedral up to the very summit with its giddy height, on which the cross is planted; and the nearer it reaches the summit, the more conspicuous do the outlines of the cross itself become, until at last, when the summit is reached, it rests in peace, having attained what it desired when it set its foot upon the first steps of the temple tower.” There is something very striking in this figure. Here, in the very centre of this book of consolation, we find the idea of the Servant of Jehovah at the very summit of its ascent. It has reached the goal. The Messianic idea, which was hidden in the general idea of the nation regarded as “the servant of Jehovah,” has gradually risen up in the most magnificent metamorphosis from the depths in which it was thus concealed. And this fusion has generated what was hitherto altogether strange to the figure of the Messiah, viz., the unio mystica capitis et corporis . Hitherto Israel has appeared simply as the nation governed by the Messiah, the army which He conducted into battle, the commonwealth ordered by Him. But now, in the person of the Servant of Jehovah, we see Israel itself in personal self-manifestation: the idea of Israel is fully realized, and the true nature of Israel shines forth in all its brilliancy. Israel is the body, and He the head, towering above it. Another element, with which we found the Messianic idea enriched even before Isa 53:1-12, was the munus triplex . As early as chapters 7-12 the figure of the Messiah stood forth as the figure of a King; but the Prophet like unto Moses, promised in Deu 18:15, was still wanting. But, according to chapters 42, 49, Isa 50:1-11, the servant of Jehovah is first a prophet, and as the proclaimer of a new law, and the mediator of a new covenant, really a second Moses; at the close of the work appointed Him, however, He receives the homage of kings, whilst, as Isa 53:1-12 clearly shows, that self-sacrifice lies between, on the ground of which He rules above as Priest after the order of Melchizedek – in other words, a Priest and also a King. From this point onward there are added to the Messianic idea the further elements of the status duplex and the satisfactio vicaria . David was indeed the type of the twofold state of his antitype, inasmuch as it was through suffering that he reached the throne; but where have we found, in all the direct Messianic prophecies anterior to this, the suffering path of the Ecce Homo even to the grave? But the Servant of Jehovah goes through shame to glory, and through death to life. He conquers when He falls; He rules after being enslaved; He lives after He has died; He completes His work after He Himself has been apparently cut off. His glory streams upon the dark ground of the deepest humiliation, to set forth which the dark colours were supplied by the pictures of suffering contained in the Psalms and in the book of Job. And these sufferings of His are not merely the sufferings of a confessor or a martyr, like those of the ecclesia pressa , but a vicarious atoning suffering, a sacrifice for sin. To this the chapter before us returns again and again, being never tired of repeating it. “ Spiritus Sanctus ,” says Brentius, “ non delectatur inani battologi’a, et tamen quum in hoc cap. videatur esse, dubium non est, quin tractet rem cognitu maxime necessariam .” The banner of the cross is here set up. The curtain of the most holy is lifted higher and higher. The blood of the typical sacrifice, which has been hitherto dumb, begins to speak. Faith, which penetrates to the true meaning of the prophecy, hopes on not only for the Lion of the tribe of Judah, but also for the Lamb of God, which beareth the sin of the world. And in prophecy itself we see the after-effect of this gigantic advance. Zechariah no longer prophesies of the Messiah merely as a king (Isa 5:13); He not only rules upon His throne, but is also a priest upon His throne: sovereignty and priesthood go hand in hand, being peacefully united in Him. And in Zec 12:13 the same prophet predicts in Him the good Divine Shepherd, whom His people pierce, though not without thereby fulfilling the counsel of God, and whom they afterwards long for with bitter lamentation and weeping. The penitential and believing confession which would then be made by Israel is prophetically depicted by Isaiah’s pen – “mourning in bitter sorrow the lateness of its love.”
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
12. Therefore will I divide to him a portion. Isaiah again declares what will be the result of the death of Christ. It was necessary that he should add this doctrine as to the victory which Christ obtained by his death; for what was formerly stated, that by his death we are reconciled to the Father, would not have sufficiently confirmed our hearts. Here he borrows a comparison from the ordinary form of a triumphal procession held by those who, after having obtained a signal victory, are commonly received and adorned with great pomp and splendor. Thus also Christ, as a valiant and illustrious general, triumphed over the enemies whom he had vanquished.
And he shall divide the spoil with the strong. This statement is the same as the preceding, and it is a customary repetition among Hebrew writers. Those whom he formerly called “great” he now calls mighty or “strong.” Those who translate רבים (rabbim) by the word “many,” (58) torture, in my opinion, the Prophet’s meaning. In these two clauses there is only this difference, that in the former God testifies what he gave to Christ, and in the latter he adds that Christ enjoys that benefit, he enjoys it not on his own account, but on ours; (59) for the fruit of this victory comes to us. For us Christ subdued death, the world, and the devil. In a word, the Prophet here applauds the victory which followed the death of Christ; for “although he was crucified through the weakness of the flesh, yet by the power of the Spirit” he rose from the dead, and triumphed over his enemies. (2Co 13:4) Such is the import of the metaphor of “Spoil,” which the Prophet used; for “he ascended on high, that he might lead captivity captive and give gifts to men.” (Psa 68:18; Eph 4:8)
For he poured out his soul to death. He now adds that Christ’s humiliation was the beginning of this supreme dominion; as Paul also declares that Christ, “after having blotted out the handwriting which was opposed to us, triumphed on the cross.” (Col 2:14) So far, then, is the shame of the death which Christ died from making any diminution of his glory, that it is the reason why God the Father exalted him to the highest honor.
And was ranked with transgressors. He describes also the kind of death; as Paul, when he magnifies “the obedience” of Christ, and says that “he abased himself even to death,” likewise adds, that it was no ordinary death, but the death “of the cross,” that is, accursed and shameful. (Phi 2:8) So in this passage Isaiah, in order to express deeper shame, says that he was ranked among malefactors. But the deeper the shame before men, the greater was the glory of his resurrection by which it was followed.
Mark quotes this passage, when he relates that Christ was crucified between two robbers; for at that time the prediction was most fully accomplished. (Mar 15:28) But the Prophet spoke in general terms, in order to show that Christ did not die an ordinary death. For the purpose of disgracing him the more, those two robbers were added; that Christ, as the most wicked of all, might be placed in the midst of them. This passage is, therefore, most appropriately quoted by Mark as relating to that circumstance.
He bore the sin of many. This is added by way of correction, that, when we hear of the shame of Christ’s death, we may not think that it was a blot on the character of Christ, and that our minds may not, by being prejudiced in that manner, be prevented from receiving the victory which he obtained for us, that is, the fruit of his death. He shows, therefore, that this was done in order that he might take our sins upon him; and his object is, that, whenever the death of Christ shall be mentioned, we may at the same time remember the atonement made for us. And this fruit swallows up all the shame of the death of Christ, that his majesty and glory may be more clearly seen than if we only beheld him sitting in heaven; for we have in him a striking and memorable proof of the love of God, when he is so insulted, degraded, and loaded with the utmost disgrace, in order that we, on whom had been pronounced a sentence of everlasting destruction, may enjoy along with him immortal glory.
I have followed the ordinary interpretation, that “he bore the sin of many,” though we might without impropriety consider the Hebrew word רבים (rabbim,) to denote “Great and Noble.” And thus the contrast would be more complete, that Christ, while “he was ranked among transgressors,” became surety for every one of the most excellent of the earth, and suffered in the room of those who hold the highest rank in the world. I leave this to the judgment of my readers. Yet I approve of the ordinary reading, that he alone bore the punishment of many, because on him was laid the guilt of the whole world. It is evident from other passages, and especially from the fifth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, (60) that “many” sometimes denotes “all.”
And prayed for the transgressors. Because the ratification of the atonement, with which Christ has washed us by his death, implies that he pleaded with the Father on our behalf, it was proper that this should be added. For, as in the ancient Law the priest, who “never entered without blood,” at the same time interceded for the people; so what was there shadowed out is fulfilled in Christ. (Exo 30:10; Heb 9:7) First, he offered the sacrifice of his body, and shed his blood, that he might endure the punishment which was due to us; and secondly, in order that the atonement might take effect, he performed the office of an advocate, and interceded for all who embraced this sacrifice by faith; as is evident from that prayer which he left to us, written by the hand of John, “I pray not for these only, but for all who shall believe on me through their word.” (Joh 17:20) If we then belong to their number, let us be fully persuaded that Christ hath suffered for us, that we may now enjoy the benefit of his death.
He expressly mentions “transgressors,” that we may know that we ought to betake ourselves with assured confidence to the cross of Christ, when we are horrorstruck by the dread of sin. Yea, for this reason he is held out as our intercessor and advocate; for without his intercession our sins would deter us from approaching to God.
(58) “ Ceux qui traduisent, Je luy distribueray portion avec plusieurs.” “Those who translate, I will divide to him a portion with many.”
(59) “ Non point pour soy, mais pour nous.” “Not for himself, but for us.”
(60) Rom 5:12. fj.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
THE WORK AND THE REWARD OF CHRIST
Isa. 53:12. Therefore will I divide Him a portion with the great, &c.
Both the work and the reward of the Saviour were included in the prophecies concerning Him.
I. HIS WORK.
1. Its culminating act. He hath poured out His soul unto death. Not His incarnation, poverty, miracles, teaching, obedience. All these necessary. But the grand act was His death.
2. Its humiliating circumstances. He was numbered with the transgressors. On the cross as a male-factor with malefactors.
3. Its vicarious character. And He bore the sin of many. This conducts our thoughts farther than the outward spectacle, to the reason of it.
4. Its mediatorial power. He made intercession for the transgressors (Luk. 23:34; Heb. 7:25; 1Jn. 2:1-2).
II. HIS REWARD.
Therefore will I divide Him, &c. The allusion is to the conqueror receiving as his reward a portion of the spoils taken in war. Christs triumphal entry into heaven and seat upon the throne. His acquisition of the souls rescued from the power of the enemy. Illustrate by the progress of the Church from small beginnings to the present time. Also its further progress as indicated in prophecy as yet unfulfilled. This includes a multitude which no man can number; and all the intelleot, wealth, holy character, talent, power of usefulness of each.
CONCLUSION.
1. These glorious results will be secured by human agency.
2. The work is committed to the Church of Christ, every member of which is responsible for his proper portion of it.
3. The strongest motives to engagement in this enterprise exist. They are the united obligations of love and loyalty.J. Rawlinson.
Be careful not to mistake the pleasure with which you listen to a subject like this for real religion and acceptable devotion. Many weep over Christs sufferings who never weep over their sins, &c. The true feeling with which we should contemplate His work.
I. Christ as a sufferer. This chapter forms rather a history of His passion, than a prophecy. It appears to be a part of Gods procedure that the most important blessings should arise out of suffering. Christ has consecrated and ennobled the path of suffering.
1. Christs sufferings were penal. Ours are salutary. We have many alleviations under them, and have cheerful hopes of benefit by them, but Christ was unsustained by the prospect of any moral benefit to Himself.
2. Christs sufferings were vicarious.
3. Christs sufferings were chiefly intellectual.
Some of the advantages arising from the fact that our Saviour was a sufferer.
(1.) It reconciles us to the endurance of trial.
(2.) It secures to us support and sympathy under the pressure of our various trials.
(3.) It leads us to anticipate a final conquest over trial. Glory preceded by humiliation, &c.
II. Christ as a conqueror (Col. 2:15; Php. 2:9). Innumerable multitudes shall enjoy the benefits of His death. He is still conquering. The final triumph is certain.
III. Christ as an intercessor.
In Christ we have a complete and all-sufficient Saviour.Samuel. Thodey.
LESSONS AT THE CROSS
(For Good Friday, or Sacramental Service.)
Isa. 53:12. He hath poured out His soul unto death.
Of all wonderful deaths, that of the Son of God is the most wonderful. Let us take our stand at the cross, and gather up some of the lessons taught by His death
I. THE IMMEASURABLE DEPTH OF MANS MISERY.
He had sunk so low that he could sink no lower, except he sank into hell. He might justly have been left to perish, and must have perished but for the interposition of the Son of God, who assumed the nature that had sinned, &c., and poured out His soul unto death on the accursed tree. He alone could rescue man from Satans grasp, &c. (Isa. 49:24-26).
II. THE INFINITE ENORMITY OF SIN.
It is evident that to a God of perfect purity sin must be infinitely hateful. Call to mind the destruction of fallen angels, the expulsion from Eden of the parents of our race, &c. The Apostle Paul maintains that sin subjects the sinner to temporal, spiritual, and eternal death, by a law perfectly holy, just, and good, and is consequently set forth in its true colours as exceeding sinfulout of measure, beyond all expression or conception sinful (Rom. 7:13). But the crowning evidence is seen in the cross of Christ: not so much in the fact that impenitent sinners are damned by it, as that the immaculate Son of God died for it. What must be its enormity when Gods mercy could not consistently pardon it till His own Son had undergone its punishmenta person of infinite purity, dignity, and worth, &c.? Cease to regard sin as a trifle, &c. Put yourself in the line of Gods view of it. A right estimate of sin is a vital point in the process of personal salvation. Repent, and believe on Christ, or you must perish eternally, for there is no other sacrifice for sin. If God spared not His own sinless Son, when He bore the sins of the guilty, much less will He spare impenitent sinners when they bear their own sins.
III. THE ALL-SUFFICIENT ATONEMENT FOR SIN, AND THE ONLY FOUNDATION OF HOPE FOR SINNERS.
Christ did not die as a martyr, or as a spotless example of virtue, &c. These were important ends secured by His death, but they were not the direct and supreme purpose of His death, which was, according to the uniform teaching of the sacred word, for our sins, &c.a substitutionary sacrifice, &c. Though God is a being of infinite love, He cannot pardon sin apart from an adequate atonement. All ideas of Divine mercy separate from the great atoning scheme are erroneous, valueless, dangerous. God was in Christ, &c. God has always dealt with humanity in Christ, whether they have known it or not. The dealings of an absolute God with a sinnera God out of Christ, what would that be? What is the appropriate retort of offended Omnipotence? Annihilation. The history of mankind is a history of redemption. All the characteristics and conditions of an adequate atonement met in the Christ. That the Father has accepted His atoning work as all-sufficient is evident by His raising Him from the dead, and exalting Him, &c. (Act. 5:31, and others). And, that His death is now available as an atonement for sin, is manifest from the fact, that He is set before us in the Gospel, by the supreme authority of the Father, as the only object of faith and ground of acceptance (Rom. 3:25-26; Gal. 2:21, and others). Have you received the atonement? If not, you have not found the ground on which you can venture without fear into the presence of the Holy One, &c.
IV. THE SUPREME REVELATION OF DIVINE LOVE.
All other manifestations are but faint compared with the love exhibited in our redemption. Either Christ must assume our nature, &c., or the race must perish. Will Gods love to a world of sinners induce Him to give His Son? The everlasting interests of humanity were suspended upon that question (Rom. 8:32; Joh. 3:16, and others). He might have formed a more glorious world, &c., but He could not manifest His love in a higher degree than He has done. What more convincing proof can you want that God loves you? Can you continue to grieve such love? Yield to His loves all-conquering power.
Let us, then, often visit the cross to learn the depth of our misery, &c.; the one great theme of all true Christian preaching, and the supreme object of Christian glorying (Gal. 6:14-15; P. D. 595).A. Tucker.
THE FRIEND OF SINNERS
Isa. 53:12. He was numbered with the transgressors; and He bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
A vague notion is abroad in the world that the benefit of Christs passion is intended only for good people. How inconsistent is such a supposition with the whole teaching of Scripture. Consider the plan itself. It was a plan of salvation and of necessity, it was intended to bless sinners. The plan was based in grace, but how grace, unless it was meant for persons who deserve nothing? Moreover, think of the work itself. The work of Christ was to bring in a perfect righteousness. For whom? For those who had a righteousness? That were a superfluity. And then look at Gods end in the whole work. It was to glorify Himself; but how could God be glorified by washing spotless souls, and by bringing to everlasting glory by grace those who could have entered heaven by merit?
Our text, in its threefold character, shows the intimate connection which exists between Jesus and sinners, for in none of its sentences is there meaning unless there be a sinner, and unless Christ has come into connection with him. It is this one point I want to work out.
I. CHRIST IS ENROLLED AMONG SINNERS.
In what sense are we to understand this? He was numbered with them
1. In the census of the Roman Empire. There went out a decree from Csar Augustus that all the world should be taxed, and the espoused wife of Joseph, being great with child, must travel to Bethlehem that Christ may be born there, and that He may be numbered with the transgressing people, who, for their sins, were subject to the Roman yoke.
2. In the scroll of fame. Ask public rumour What is the character of Jesus of Nazareth? and it cannot find a word in its vocabulary foul enough for Him. This they sometimes said; and our translators have inserted the word fellow, because in the original there is an ellipsis, the Evangelists, I suppose, hardly liking to write the word which had been cast upon Christ. Fame, with her lying tongue, said He was a drunken man and a wine-bibber, &c.
3. In the courts of law. The ecclesiastical court of Judaism, the Sanhedrim, said of Him, Thou blasphemest; and they smote Him on the cheek. Written down among the offenders against the dignity of God and against the security of the Jewish Church, you find the name of Jesus of Nazareth which was crucified. The civil courts also asserted the same. Pilate may wash his hands in water, and say, I find no fault in Him, but still, driven by the infernal clamours of an angry people, he is compelled to write, This is Jesus, the King of the Jews; and he gives Him up to die as a malefactor who has rebelled against the sovereign law of the land. Herod, too, the Jewish tetrarch, confirms the sentence, and so, with two pens at once, Jesus Christ is written down by the civil leaders among transgressors.
4. By the whole Jewish people. Barabbas is put in competition with Christ, and they say, Not this man, but Barabbas. His being numbered with transgressors is no fiction. Lo, He bears the transgressors scourging! He bears the felons cross. All earth holds up its hands for His death; it is carried unanimously. Of all men is He accounted to be the offscouring of all things, and is put to grief.
5. God, the Eternal Judge, shows that He too considers Him to be in the roll of transgressors, for He veils His face till Jesus shrieks in agony so unutterable, that the words cannot express the meaning of the Redeemers soul, My God, &c.? The only answer from heaven being, I must forsake transgressors; thou art numbered with them, and therefore I must forsake thee. He dies without a protest on the part of earth, or heaven, or hell; He that was numbered with the transgressors, having worn the transgressors crown of thorns, lies in the trangressors grave.
Pause here a moment, and think this matter over. It is a strange and wonderful thing, and ought not to be passed by in silence. Why, think you, was Christ numbered with transgressors?
(1.) Because He could the better become their advocate. I believe, in legal phraseology, in civil cases, the advocate considers himself to be part and partner with the person for whom he pleads. You hear the counsellor continually using the word we; he is considered by the judge to represent the person for whom he is an advocate. Now, Christ, when the sinner is brought to the bar, appears there Himself. What is the accusation? He stands to answer it; He points to His side, His hands, His feet, and challenges Justice to bring anything against the sinners whom He represents; He pleads His blood, and pleads so triumphantly, being numbered with them and having a part with them, that the judge proclaims, Let them go their way; deliver them from going down into the pit, for He at their head hath found a ransom.
(2.) That He might plead with them. Suppose a number of prisoners confined in one of our old jails, and there is a person desirous to do them good, imagine that he cannot be admitted unless his name is put down in the calendar. Well, out of his abundant love to these prisoners he consents to it, and when he enters to talk with them, they perhaps think that he will come in with cold dignity; but he says, Now, let me say to you first of all that I am one of yourselves. Well, they say, but have you done aught that is wrong? I will not answer you that, saith he; but if you will just refer to the calendar you will find my name there; I am written down there among you as a criminal. Oh, how they open their hearts now! They opened their eyes with wonder first, but now they open their hearts, and they say, Art thou become like one of us? Then we will talk with thee. And he begins to plead with them. Sinner, dost thou see this? Christ puts Himself as near on a level with thee as He can. He cannot be sinful as thou art, but He so puts His name down in the list that when the roll is called His name is called over with thine. Oh, how near doth He come to thee in thy ruined state!
(3.) That sinners may feel their hearts drawn to Him. There is a tendency in awakened sinners to be afraid of Christ; but who will be afraid of a man that is numbered with us? Surely now we may come boldly to Him, and confess our guilt. He that is numbered with us cannot condemn us.
(4.) That we might be written in the red roll of the saints. He was holy, and written among the holy; we were guilty, and numbered among the guilty; He transfers His name from yonder list to this black indictment, and ours are taken from the indictment, foul and filthy, and written in the roll which is fair and glorious, for there is a transfer made between Christ and His people. All that we have goes to Christ; and all that Christ has comes to us.
II. CHRIST BARE THE SINS OF MANY.
1. Here it is as clear as noon-day, that Christ dealt with sinners. Do not say Christ died for those who have done no wrong. That is not the description given. It is clear to every one that chooses to look, that Christ could not bear the sins of those who had no sins, but could only bear the sins of men who were sinful and guilty. Their sins were really, not in a legal fiction, but really transferred from them to Him. You see, a man cannot bear a thing which is not on his back; it is impossible that he can bear it unless it is actually there. The word bear implies weight, and weight is the sure indicator of reality. Christ did bear sin in its fulness, vileness, and condemnation upon His own shoulders. Comprehend this, then, and you have the marrow of the subject.
2. Then notice, that as He did bear them, so other texts tell us that He did bear them away (Joh. 1:29). Sin being on His head, the scapegoat took it away. Where? Into the wilderness of forgetfulness. If it be sought for it shall not be found; the Everlasting God seeth it no more, it hath ceased to be, for He hath finished iniquity and made an end of sin; and when there is an end of it what more can be said?
3. There is now no sin abiding upon those for whom Jesus died. And who are they? you say. Why all those who trust Him. Are you a sinner? Yes or no. If you say No, then I have nothing to say to you; Christ came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. If you are a sinner, to you is the word of this salvation sent. But I have been a thief! I suppose a thief is a sinner? But I have been a drunkard! &c. &c. You come in under the list of sinners, and I say that such Christ contemplated, and the two sentences we have already considered prove this to a demonstration. He contemplated such as you are when He came to save, for He was numbered with transgressors, and He barenot the virtues, not the merits, not the good works of many, but the sin of many. So, if you have any sin, here is Christ the sin-bearer; and if you are a sinner, here is Christ numbered with you.
III. JESUS INTERCEDES FOR SINNERS.
He prays for His saints, but remember that by nature they are transgressors, and nothing more.
1. There is a transgressor here this morning. He has been hearing the Gospel for many years, &c. I hear a voice sayingLo, these three years I come seeking fruit, &c. The woodman feels his axe; it is sharp and keen. Now, says he, I will lay to at this barren tree, and cut it down. But hark! There is One that maketh intercession for transgressors, hear Him, Spare it yet a little while, till I dig about it and dung it, &c. Bless God that Christ pleads for you in that way.
2. But that done, He pleads for their forgiveness. Father, forgive them, &c. It is this that breaks a mans heart; to think that Christ should have been loving me, with the whole force of His soul, while I was despising Him, and would have nothing to do with Him.
3. He next prays that those for whom He intercedes may be saved, and may have a new life given them. Every soul that is quickened by the Holy Spirit is so quickened as the result of His intercession for transgressors. His prayer brings down the life, and dead sinners live. When they live He does not cease to pray for them, for by His intercession they are preserved. And more, our coming to glory is the result of the pleading of Christ for transgressors (Joh. 17:24).C. H. Spurgeon: Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 458.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(12) Therefore will I divide . . .The great and the powerful are words which describe the kings and rulers of mankind. The Servant, once despised and forsaken, takes his place with them, though not in the same manner, or by the same means. We may have echoes of the words in our Lords language as to the spoiling of the strong man (Mat. 12:29) as to the contrast between the greatness of His Kingdom and that of the rulers and great ones of the world (Mat. 20:25; Mar. 10:42; Luk. 22:25). The LXX., Vulg., Luther, and some modern scholars render, I will give him the multitude as a prey, the spoil of the mighty ones.
Because he hath poured out . . .The absolutely voluntary character of the sacrifice is again emphasised. The next clause is better taken as he let himself be numbered. So it was that he bore (and took away) the sin of many, and gained the power for availing intercession, both in the hour of death (Luk. 23:34) and in the eternal triumph (Heb. 7:25). The ideal Servant, contemned, condemned, failing, is seen, at last, to be identical with the ideal King.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
12. Therefore That is, for all this mediatorial suffering and work; for this whole victorious combat with the powers of sin.
Will I divide him Hebrew, to him.
With the great Or, among the great. The figure is, of spoils from great conquests, and its meaning as applied to a suffering Messiah is, that his victories shall be very great. The language is mixed with ellipses, and is therefore obscure. To arrange it into orderly thought is difficult. A fair theory of the course of thought in the verse is, that it runs on a line of glorious promise between Messiah, humiliation, and exaltation, just now to be entered on. Out of trial, suffering, and combat, he is to come forth victorious. He shall build up a spiritual kingdom that is to crush all other powers, that is never to be diminished, and is to be unending. And all this, because, first, he freely poured out his life, that is, his blood, for life is in the blood, (Lev 17:11😉 second, because he submitted to an ignominious death; and third, because he is an effective intercessor for men. The first two are already accomplished, and the third he is still acting. These constitute him a perfect mediator. The time when intercession shall cease is yet to come, and then he shall deliver up his kingdom with triumph eternally complete.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great (or ‘the many’),
And he will divide the spoil with the strong,
Because he has poured out his soul to death,
And was numbered with the transgressors.
Yet he bore the sin of many,
And made intercession for the transgressors.’
And because of what He has achieved He will come alive again and be given the spoils of victory. The intention here is in order to stress that He will now no longer be the humiliated teacher, but the Mighty God (Isa 9:6) receiving His ‘portion’, His inheritance.
It may be seen as signifying that He will rank among the greatest and most powerful on earth, having His portion divided to Him among the great ones of the earth, and sharing in the spoil of those who are strong and powerful. For the strong only divide their spoils with those whom they see as at least their equals, thus they are seen as acknowledging His right. He will be numbered among the mighty. The point being emphasised is not so much the spoils, as the status now occupied by God’s Servant. He will be even greater than Abraham who did not share the spoils lest it denigrate Yahweh (Gen 14:23).
But the problem with this interpretation, while partly conveying truth, is that in fact the Servant is to be above all (Isa 42:1-4; Isa 49:7; Isa 52:13-15 compare Isa 49:23). He is not just to be one among a number, but the One Who is exalted above all. It is thus difficult to see how He could only receive one portion among a number when Yahweh makes His division. This is confirmed in Psa 89:27 where He is to be ‘higher than the kings of the earth’. It would seem strange that He should therefore here merely be seen as on an equal level with others, although the purpose might be in order to emphasise that He was numbered among the transgressors. The fact is that if we do interpret along these lines we must probably see it as indicating that He will receive His portion from Yahweh as a result of His triumph which He will then divide among the great and the strong as He chooses, because they are His servants. The stress being seen to be on His newly established greatness, and His overall sovereignty.
Alternately if we translate ‘the many’ (as in Isa 53:11) then the thought is that He will receive His portion from Yahweh as His anointed, and will share it with ‘the many’ whom He has delivered, and He will share His spoils with those made strong by Yahweh (Isa 26:4; Isa 30:15; Isa 35:4; Isa 40:29; Isa 40:31; Isa 41:10; Isa 45:24; Isa 49:5; Isa 52:1). Overall this might be seen as fitting the context better.
Either way He will be exalted and lifted high (Isa 52:13), calling the strong to Him that He might divide the spoil with them. And this will be because He was willing ‘to pour out His soul to death’ and be numbered among the transgressors, that is, among those who have transgressed against God, as He offered Himself for them. It was by being numbered among them that He was able to bear their sin. Had He not humbled Himself to death, He could not have achieved His object. This stresses the representative nature of His death. He dies on behalf of all, from the highest to the lowest. This found a special significance in that He was crucified between the two brigands (Mar 15:28 compare Luk 22:37), stressing His oneness with even the worst of humanity.
Note the emphasis again on the voluntary nature of the sacrifice. ‘He poured out His soul to death.’ That is, He laid down His life of Himself (Joh 10:18). No one took it from Him. It was of His free choice. This is central to the idea of the replacement of the old sacrificial system. Because it is voluntary it is a sacrifice such as no other could be (see the emphasis in Hebrew Isa 10:5-14).
‘Yet He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.’ With these words the chapter comes to an end. The Servant has borne the sin of many and makes intercession for those whose sins He has borne. To intercede is to stand between as a Mediator. This is not so much praying for them, as accomplishing the work of the mediator, bringing about the reconciliation. But it does include a kind of prayer. He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him because He makes intercession for them (Heb 7:25). So the Servant acts as the Mediator between God and man on the basis of His saving work (1Ti 2:5). The way to salvation is open for all through what the Servant has done.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Isa 53:12. Therefore will I divide, &c. “Therefore, I say, he shall become victorious over his most potent adversaries; because by choice he shall offer up his life, and submit to be accounted and treated as a transgressor; whereas his death was intended as a sacrifice for the sins of others, in virtue whereof, like a priest, he shall intercede even for the sins of Israel who slew him.” Many things ought to be remarked in this prophesy; As, I. that one and the same person is spoken of from the beginning of it to the end; of whom a continued series of events is predicted, without passing to, or intermixing, the affairs of any other. II. This person is called the servant of God, his righteous servant; and is described as a most innocent, blameless, and holy person; of unparalleled patience, piety, charity, so as never to have gone astray like other men, and to have deserved no punishment on his own account, but ready to suffer any evil on ours. III. He is implied to have been once the desire of the Jews, and that his generation, or birth, was formerly declared to them, though at his coming they should not know nor desire him, because of the mean, abject, humble, afflicted condition in which he appeared. IV. Very opposite ideas are joined together in his character, which, not being consistent at the same time, must belong to him at different times, and in different views. Thus he is represented, as a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief; as wounded and bruised to death; as judicially condemned and cut off out of the land of the living; as pouring out his soul to death, and put in his grave. Again, he is said to prosper, to be exalted, extolled, and to be very high; to see his disciples long flourish, to astonish and sprinkle Gentile nations, and, like a conqueror, to divide the portion of the great, and the spoil of the strong. V. Such is the merit of his voluntary oblation of himself as to be expiatory of sin, of the sin of us all, and to be rewarded by God with the conversion of Gentile nations, and with an exalted, extolled, high dignity, far above that of any other person. From whence it must be inferred, that his suffering state is to precede his triumphant state. Lastly, it is suggested that he should be a prophet. By his knowledge, to justify many; a priest, bearing iniquities, making his life an offering for sin, and interceding for transgressors; and a king, as exalted, extolled, being very high, and dividing the spoil of the strong. All these marks are found to a tittle in the Christian’s Messiah. It is impossible to set up any other king, or prophet, to whom but two or three of these characteristics may be applied, even in a tolerable figurative sense. It is admitted by the Jews, that Isaiah said not these things of himself, but of some other. Who then should this other be? Not the dispersed stricken nation of the Jews, (who are supposed by Celsus’s Jew to suffer thus, that many Gentile proselytes may be made on occasion of their dispersion,) for their sufferings were the just punishment of their own sins. He, of whom Isaiah prophesied, is said voluntarily to offer up his life for the pardon of others, to have done no violence, to have spoken no deceit, not to open his mouth impatiently under his afflictions, but to make intercession for the transgressors, for whom he suffered. Very different in every respect is the behaviour of the Jews, in their present dispersion. Their violence and deceit towards their own brethren, their turbulent and rebellious carriage to their governors, particularly the Romans, whom they resisted to the last extremity; and their daily prayers for the subversion of the nations, in very opprobrious terms, from a persuasion that their redemption cannot commence but with the fall of the Christian powers, whose people they hope one day to rule as with a rod of iron; all these are irreconcileable with the expressions in the prophesy. As little presence has Jeremiah, Josiah, or any other, to be the object of this prediction. Jeremiah died not for the transgressions or pardon of the Jews, who were gone into Babylon before he went to die in Egypt, and who returned not one day sooner for all the sufferings he underwent. He relates of himself, that he cursed the day of his birth; expostulated with God for giving way to their treachery; prayed that he might see the divine vengeance upon his enemies; and at last, very unwilling to die, capitulated for his life. (See Jer 12:1-4; Jer 20:12.) And is this a carriage which suits with the meekness of the lamb, and the silence of the sheep before her shearers? or which comes up to the character of one, who intercedes for the transgressors? Josiah lost his life to Pharaoh by his folly, contrary to the divine warning. How then did the Lord lay on these persons the iniquity of Israel? Or how were the people healed by their stripes, which really hastened on the general destruction? The sufferings of neither were meritorious. They did not procure them a seed, or long succession of disciples; nor were they the means of converting Gentile kingdoms; nor were the sufferers, at any time after, exalted, extolled, and made very high, for what they endured. Of whom then does Isaiah write? “It is a hard lesson,” saith Aben-ezra. But it would not be so hard would they but hearken to the ancient Jews, who were nearest the pure fountains of the traditionary sense of Scripture, and who all expound it of the Messiah. The Targum, as was before observed, expressly begins the prophesy, Behold my servant, the Messiah, and in Isa 53:10 it refers the seed to the kingdom of the Messiah; and not only the Targum, but the Jewish doctors with one mouth assert, as they received it from the mouth of their ancestors, that “the Messiah must be understood by God’s servant, that shall prosper and be exalted:” and those who allow that, do in effect grant that the Messiah must be the subject of all that follows; since there is no applying one part to one man, and another part to another, without mangling and confounding the order of the whole prophesy. See Dr. Sharpe’s Second Argument, chap.7.
REFLECTIONS.1st, While Gentile nations and kings with wonder heard and believed the Gospel word, the Jews, obstinate in unbelief, rejected the counsel of God against their own souls.
1. The chapter opens with a complaint against them for rejecting the Gospel. Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? Wondrous as the miracles were which Jesus wrought, and powerful as the doctrine was that he taught; yet very few embraced it, and, in general, they shut their eyes against all evidence, and would not hear nor understand. Note; (1.) Of multitudes that still hear the Gospel word, far the greatest part, it is to be feared, receive it not in the light and love of it. (2.) Till the Spirit of God give an inward revelation of Jesus to the soul, the most powerful preaching is ineffectual to conversion.
2. The reason of their disregard to Christ was the meanness of his appearance. For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, or sucker, which every foot might crush; and as a root out of a dry ground, or a branch of a root, that for want of moisture is withered, and stinted in its growth, his family being reduced to the meanest circumstances, and nothing great was hoped for out of Nazareth. He hath no form nor comeliness; either respecting his person, which was not perhaps distinguished by beauty, as might be expected in the countenance of God incarnate; or rather his appearance was unpromising; brought up in a mean cottage; his dress agreeable to his station; his followers poor fishermen; and he, in every respect, unlike the personage whom the carnal Jews expected. And when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him; no pomp, no splendor attending him; but, poor and abject in their eyes, they could not desire him as the Messiah, who seemed so unable to rescue them from the Roman yoke. He is despised, as a person mean and contemptible; and rejected of men, his pretensions treated with disdain, and his company shunned as ignominious: or, destitute of men, no persons of distinction, no rulers or Pharisees, believing on him, or following him as his disciples: a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; his whole life, especially from the time when he entered on his ministry, being a scene of troubles, from the temptations of Satan, and the malice of his persecutors; while his own heart, affected with human miseries, groaned over the desolations of his enemies, which he foresaw, and caused the tears of tenderest compassion to flow: above all, the wrath of God, which our sins had deserved, was laid upon him, and filled his soul with bitterest anguish. And we hid as it were our faces from him, as a loathsome object: he was despised, and we esteemed him not; all consented to treat him with disregard, and to reject his claim as the Messiah. But let not the humiliations of Jesus make him appear little in our eyes; never were his grace and glory more manifested; never did he appear more lovely, than when for our sakes he stooped so low, to make satisfaction for the dishonour we had brought on God by our sins, and by humbling himself to obtain our exaltation.
2nd, We have a farther account of the Redeemer’s sufferings.
1. The cause of them, our sins and transgressions, by which God had been dishonoured, his wrath provoked, and our souls lost and undone; and this universally the care; for, all we like sheep have gone astray; from the womb, foolish, disobedient, deceived, in nature corrupt, and in all our ways perverse before God. We have turned every one his own way, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and each, as inclination led, pursuing with wilful perseverance the iniquity which most easily beset him. Note; We can never know Christ aright, nor the wonders of his grace, till we become acquainted with our fallen state, and see the depths of sin in which we were by nature and practice sunk irrecoverably, but for his interposition.
2. The nature of them. Griefs and sorrows, like unto which were no sorrows; reckoned by his enemies as the abhorred of God, all his sufferings reputed as just judgments for his crimes: Wounded with the thorns, the nails, the spear; bruised with strokes and buffetings; his back ploughed up with stripes and scourgings; oppressed; though innocent, condemned as guilty; afflicted with every species of misery and woe, and ending his days on the cross; a death most painful, ignominious, and accursed.
3. His behaviour under his sufferings, and his innocence. He opened not his mouth, except in prayer, for his murderers; no complaint was heard of their injustice or cruelty. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth; and of him we must learn the like patient-silence before our bitterest persecutors. And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death: it was intended that he should be buried, as well as die, with malefactors; but God ordered it otherwise; though his death was with the wicked, his grave was with the rich, Joseph of Arimathea laying his body in his own new tomb; and this honour was done him, because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth: though he was accused as an enemy to the state, a mover of sedition, and a deceiver of the people, the charge was infamous and false. He was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners; and, from the cradle to the grave, in spotless innocence always did the things which pleased his Father, and was thereby qualified to bear the sins of others, having of his own none to answer for.
4. The end or design of his sufferings was, to make atonement for the sins of men, and, by paying the penalty due to them, thereby to obtain their discharge. He hath borne our grief, and carried our sorrows: he not only healed the diseases of men’s bodies, touched with tender sympathy for their sufferings, see Mat 8:17 but the griefs and sorrows due to our sins he took upon himself. The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all; appointed him as the substitute for sinners, and consented to accept his sufferings in their stead; and having made him to be sin, or a sin-offering, for us, he was stricken and smitten of God, with the sword of divine justice; for the transgression of my people was he stricken; standing in their name and character, the wrath of God which they had provoked lighted upon his devoted head. Hence he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. Great, numberless, aggravated, were the sins of mankind; wide, and irreparable by any human means, the breach made between God and us. But lo! Jesus hath found a ransom: a blessed commutation is made of our guilt, misery, and sin to our Redeemer, and of his infinite merits to us, bringing pardon, peace, and healing to our perishing souls, in virtue of his sufferings and death on our behalf. This is a pleasing theme; upon it we can never sufficiently dwell; for on this all our everlasting hopes depend. We may observe here. [1.] The encouragement given to the chief of sinners, that come to God by him, Heb 7:25. If Jesus, as the scape-goat in the day of expiation, hath borne all our iniquities, then all true believers are assured of redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. [2.] This is God’s own constitution, accepting the just for the unjust; and therefore we may with perfect satisfaction rest therein. [3.] This vicarious substitution of the Saviour’s obedience unto death in the sinner’s stead, is the grand peculiarity, and the distinguishing glory, of the Gospel dispensation.
5. God testified his approbation and satisfaction at the Redeemer’s undertaking, by raising him from the dead. He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who shall declare his generation? which may be interpreted of the wrong done him in the unjust sentence passed upon him, when, as a malefactor, he was condemned at Pilate’s tribunal, and crucified by the men of that generation, whose cruelty and inhumanity were past description. He is raised, therefore, for the justification of all the faithful; and who can declare his generation? since death hath now no more dominion over him, and he hath obtained for himself and his faithful disciples, whom no man can number, an eternity of glory.
3rdly, The same subject is still farther prosecutedthe sufferings of Christ, and the glory which should follow.
1. His sufferings. It pleased the Lord to bruise him, exacting from him the punishment due to our iniquities. He hath put him to grief; Jesus, in his human nature, enduring the severest anguish in his body, and agony in his soul, when he substituted himself in our stead, and made his soul an offering for sin; yielding up himself to suffer; not of constraint, but freely and willingly: and since such was the demand of justice, that nothing but the Saviour’s life could satisfy for the sinner, he poured out his soul unto death, as a libation, shedding his blood for the remission of sin. And he was numbered with the transgressors; not only as he was reviled as such, and joined with them at his crucifixion; but, as he bore the sin of many, died under the imputation of their guilt, and made intercession for the transgressors, when on the cross he cried, “Father, forgive them;” and this in virtue of those very sufferings which he there endured, which were then, are now, and ever will be, the only effectual plea on which forgiveness of sin can be obtained.
2. His glory, in virtue of these sufferings, which was engaged for in the covenant of redemption, and for the sake of which he endured the cross, despising the shame. We have here several particulars of this glory:
[1.] He shall see his seed; he shall not die in vain; he will have a spiritual seed, a people who shall call him Father; and he shall prolong his days; himself shall live for evermore, and see the faithful children of his grace, who have yielded to be saved by him, sealed with the whole image of God here below, and gathered to him in eternity, to reign with him in glory everlasting.
[2.] The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand; the work of man’s redemption, in which God delights, shall be effectually accomplished by him, to his Father’s glory, his own everlasting praise, and the eternal comfort of the faithful.
[3.] He shall see of the travail of his soul, and be satisfied; his pangs shall not prove abortive. Note; The ardent longing of the Redeemer after the salvation of men, and the travail he bore: well may we say, Behold, how he loved us.
[4.] By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many: for he shall bear their iniquities: he is righteous himself, and the author of everlasting righteousness to every faithful soul. They are justified, acquitted at God’s bar from every accusation; and many declared perfectly righteous, and entitled to all the blessings which he has purchased. The way in which they become possessed of this blessing of justification to life, is, by the knowledge of him, becoming acquainted with his character and transactions, and receiving the record which God has given of his Son; no previous good dispositions in us being at all required; for we are to be saved by grace alone.
[5.] His kingdom shall be great, his subjects numerous; therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; as some mighty conqueror, who by his arms subdues the nations under him, and takes their spoils. Or, I will allot him a multitude of nations, and for a prey many shall fall to his share; even very many of all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people, brought by the preaching of the Gospel to the obedience of the faith. Note; (1.) Every faithful soul is Christ’s spoil, rescued out of the hands of Satan, sin, and death. (2.) Though the unbelievers are, and have been in every age, so much more numerous than the saints of God; yet when the faithful shall be collected together at the last day, they will appear a host which no man can number.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
DISCOURSE: 976
THE FRUIT OF CHRISTS DEATH AND INTERCESSION
Isa 53:12.Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
IT is at this time, as it has also been in all former ages, an objection frequently urged against the true disciples of Christ, that few, if any, of the wise and noble embrace their sentiments. When our blessed Lord himself ministered on earth, it was asked with scornful triumph, Have any of the rulers and of the Pharisees believed on him? But, if we confess, with the Apostle, that not many wise, not many mighty, not many noble are called, we must resolve the difficulty into the sovereign will of God, who has chosen the foolish and weak things of the world, to confound the wise and mighty, and the base and contemptible things of the world, to bring to nought things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence. There is, however, a period fixed in the divine counsels, when the great and mighty, as well as others, shall become obedient to the faith: and to that event the prophet directs our attention in the text. According to the present translation indeed the Lord Jesus is represented as dividing the spoil in concert with the great: but it should rather be translated, I will divide him the great for a portion, and he shall divide the strong for a spoil [Note: See Vitringa in loc. or Bishop Lowth.]. Agreeably to this sense of the words, we are led to view him as a victorious monarch triumphing over all the potentates on earth, and both seizing them for his spoil, and enjoying them for his portion.
In illustrating this passage, it will be proper to consider,
I.
The promise made to Christ
The conversion of the world to Christ is a frequent subject of prophecy: whole chapters are occupied in describing it [Note: Isaiah 49, 60.]: we are told that the power of godliness shall one day pervade all ranks of people from the least even to the greatest; and that kings will account it their highest honour to be the nursing-fathers of the Church, and queens her nursing-mothers. This was fulfilled in part in the Apostles days, when many persons of rank and power embraced the truth. But it was yet further accomplished in the time of Constantine, when the Roman empire professed subjection to the Gospel; and the religion of Christ became the established religion of the world. Since that time the chief princes of Europe have called themselves by the name of Christ, and wished to be esteemed his followers. It is true indeed that far the greater part of them have only called him Lord, Lord, while they have had no desire to do the things which he commands: still, however, their very professions of regard to his name are sufficient to shew what we may expect, when God shall make bare his arm, and go forth in the chariots of the everlasting Gospel, conquering and to conquer. The time shall come when Christ shall have dominion from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth; when all kings shall fall down before him, and all nations shall serve him [Note: Psa 72:8-11.].
But the terms in which this promise is expressed deserve a more minute attention. The kingdom of Christ, considered as a portion which the Father divides unto him, is the Fathers gift; but, as a spoil which Christ divides unto himself, it is the fruit of his own conquests. In both these views we must regard the conversion of men to Christ. None, whether high or low, learned or unlearned, ever yield themselves up unfeignedly to him, but in consequence of their having been already given to him by the Father: they make not themselves to differ; nor has one, more than another, aught, which he has not received. As none can come unto Christ, except the Father draw them, so none will come to him, except God have both given them to Christ, and afterwards given to themselves an inclination and desire to be the Lords. Nor is this a mere speculative truth; it lies at the very root of all religion: we never can be duly humbled till we see ourselves destitute of all will and ability to serve the Lord; and acknowledge from our hearts, that it is God alone who giveth us either to will or to do that which is good. Till then, we can never in sincerity refer all the glory of our salvation to God alone: we shall, of necessity, be assuming part of it to ourselves. Our Lord expressly mentions this truth no less than seven times in his intercessory prayer [Note: John 17.], which he uttered in the presence of his disciples. What greater proof of its importance can be given? And how needful is it for us also to remember it in all our addresses at the throne of grace!
It is further noticed in the text, that the conversion of men is also a fruit of the Redeemers conquests. As Canaan, though given to Abraham and his posterity, was to be gained by the sword, so we, however given by the Father to Christ, must be rescued by force out of the hands of our enemies: if Christ will possess us as a portion, he must take us as a spoil. The god of this world had usurped a power over us, and, like a strong man armed, kept us under his controul. It was therefore necessary that Christ, who was stronger than he, should overcome him, and take from him the armour wherein he trusted, and divide the spoils [Note: Luk 11:22.]. Accordingly he engaged with all the powers of darkness, and, by death, destroyed him that had the power of death, that is, the devil. On his cross he spoiled principalities and powers, and made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. In his ascension he led captivity itself captive; and thus delivered us from the power of his great adversary. Not that his warfare is yet accomplished, though the form of it is altered; for he has still to subdue the rebellion of our hearts. We ourselves are up in arms against him: and, when driven out of one strong hold, we flee to another, till he has cast them all down, and swept away every refuge of lies. We yield not, till his arrows are fixed deeply in our hearts; we submit not, till he has made us willing in the day of his power. Never, till his right hand and his holy arm have gotten him the victory, are our thoughts and desires brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.
By these united means then is Christs kingdom to be extended: nor, when once they are combined, shall all the powers of earth and hell withstand their influence. However desperate the condition of any may appear, though they should have sold themselves to work iniquity, and become in a peculiar sense, the lawful prey of Satan, yet shall they be rescued, like Lot, from their victorious captors [Note: Gen 14:14-16.]. This very difficulty is both stated and answered by the prophet: Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered? Yes; Thus saith the Lord, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children [Note: Isa 49:24-25.].
Previous to the accomplishment of this promise, Christ was to purchase the Church with his own blood: he was to make his soul an offering for sin, and, after that, to see a seed given to him for a portion [Note: ver. 10.]. Such was the tenour of the covenant which the Father entered into with his Son. But the prophet, foreseeing this work of Christ, as it were already completed, speaks of it as if finished; and states the execution of his part of the covenant, as the ground, on which he might expect the accomplishment of the Fathers part towards him.
In further investigating this promise, it will be proper more fully to consider,
II.
The grounds on which the fulfilment of it may be certainly expected
The Lord Jesus has fulfilled his part of the covenant entered into with the Father. His death and intercession comprehend the whole of that work, which He was to perform on earth and in heaven for the redemption of man. And, they being virtually accomplished from the foundation of the world, our blessed Lord had a right to his purchase, and a claim upon the Fathers honour for the performance of the engagements stipulated on his part.
In this view, the death of Christ is first mentioned in the text; Therefore will I divide him a portion, because he hath poured out his soul unto death. But it was not sufficient that Christ should die: he must die in a particular manner, and for particular ends. Was an atonement necessary to reconcile the Father to us? His death must be sacrificial. Was everlasting shame the portion we had merited? His death must be ignominious. Was it necessary for the honour of Gods government that sin should be punished in the sight of the whole universe! His death must be judicial. Now it was in this very manner, and for these very ends, that Jesus died. The sacrifices under the law had their blood shed, and poured out at the foot of the altar: and Jesus, our sacrifice, shed his blood from every pore of his body, and poured out his soul unto death. To mark the ignominy that he was to endure for us, he was numbered with transgressors of the most atrocious character, and crucified between two thieves; as though, instead of being the Lord of glory, he was the vilest of the human race. And, lastly, to make full satisfaction to Divine Justice, he died under a judicial sentence, bearing in his own person the load of our iniquities, and enduring the curse and condemnation due to the whole world.
Here then is one ground on which we may expect assuredly the conversion of sinners to him. Has he fulfilled his covenant engagements in every part, and shall the Father violate his engagements to him? Has he performed his work, and shall he not receive his wages? Has he paid down the price, and shall he not enjoy his purchased possession? Were multitudes expressly given to him on purpose that he might redeem them; and shall they never partake of his redemption? Was he himself exalted far above all principalities and powers, and entrusted with gifts that he might bestow them on the rebellious; yea, was all fulness of blessings committed to him on purpose that he might impart them, in rich abundance, to his ransomed people, and will he not exercise his power for these ends? We may be assured, that if there be any faithfulness in God the Father, or any power in the Lord Jesus Christ, there shall be a gathering of sinners to our adorable Shiloh. The rich and powerful, as well as the poor and weak, shall turn unto him; they shall submit to his government, and devote themselves to his glory.
The other ground, on which the increase and aggrandizement of Christs kingdom may be expected, is the intercession of Christ; Therefore will I divide him a portion, because he made intercession for the transgressors. The intercession of Christ was that part of his work which he was to carry on in heaven, after he should have finished the work which was committed to him on earth. The high-priest, who typically represented Christ, was first to kill the sacrifice, then to carry the blood within the vail, and sprinkle it upon the mercy-seat, and then to burn incense before the mercy-seat: nor, till this last ceremony was performed, was the rest of any avail: it was not till after he had covered the mercy-seat with the clouds of incense, that he had any authority to bless the people. Thus was our Lord, not only to offer himself as a sacrifice for sin, and to enter into heaven with his own blood, but he was to make intercession for us at the right hand of God. This was stipulated between the Father and him as one part of the condition, on which the conversion of sinners was to depend; Ask of me, and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the utmost parts of the earth for thy possession [Note: Psa 2:8.]. Now the prophet, seeing this part of Christs office, as it were, already fulfilled, declares its efficacy towards the salvation of men, and represents it as another ground for the performance of the Fathers promise. In this view the intercession of Christ is often mentioned in the Holy Scriptures. It is put altogether on a par with the death of Christ as the procuring cause of our salvation: it is said, He died for our sins, and was raised again for our justification [Note: Rom 4:25.]. In one place a decided preference is given to it, as being, if possible, even more influential toward the acceptance of men than the death of Christ itself; Who is he that condemneth? it is Christ that died, yea, rather that is risen again., who also maketh intercession for us [Note: Rom 8:34.]. His death is spoken of as effecting nothing without; If Christ be not risen, we are yet in our sins; and they, who are fallen asleep in Christ, are perished [Note: 1Co 15:17-18.]: nor is this all: his sufficiency for the wants and necessities of his people is represented as turning upon this hinge, and as standing altogether upon this ground; He is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them [Note: Heb 7:25.]. Let his intercession then be considered in this view: did the Father hear him always when he was on earth, and will he not hear him now that he is in heaven? Did Moses, a sinner like ourselves, arrest, as it were, the arm of Omnipotence, and avert Gods vengeance from the idolatrous Jews [Note: Exodus 32.], and shall not the prayers of Jesus prevail for us? Did the efficacy of his intercession appear on the day of Pentecost in the conversion of thousands, and shall it not be further manifested in the salvation of all whose cause he pleads! Surely, if we have but faith to believe, we may already see the glory of the Lord risen upon the Church, and the Gentiles coming to her light, and kings to the brightness of her rising.
Let us then learn from this subject two things; the importance of Christs mediation, and the security of all who are interested in it
1.
The importance of Christs mediation
On this every thing depends: without this, there never had been a gleam of hope for any, whether rich or poor. Satan would have retained his power over us, and would have been to all of us, as it were, the jailer, to carry us to prison, and the executioner to inflict upon us the judgments we deserve. But because Christ poured out his soul unto death, our souls shall live for ever: because he was numbered with transgressors, we shall be numbered with the saints: because he bore our sins, we shall never have one sin laid to our charge: because he liveth to make intercession for us, we shall receive all the blessings of grace and glory. Let us then make his work our trust, our confidence, and our plea. Let us urge it with the Father on our behalf, that we may be given to Christ as his portion, and enjoyed by him as his spoil. Nor let us be discouraged by the thought that we are transgressors, as though the greatness of our transgressions were any bar to our acceptance; for, it is for transgressors that he intercedes; and, if we feel ourselves to be of that number (provided we hate and turn from our transgressions) we may be well assured, that our iniquity shall not be our ruin. Be wise therefore, O ye kings, be instructed, ye judges of the earth: kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way [Note: Psa 2:12.].
This subject may yet further shew us,
2.
The security of those who are interested in Christs mediation
The believers security depends not on the perfection of his own work, or the fidelity of his own promises, (for who does not see continual reason to lament his own imperfections and unfaithfulness?) but rather on the perfection of Christs work, and the faithfulness of God. And who can find a flaw in either? What is there that Christ has not done for the complete redemption of our souls? Or who ever trusted in God and was confounded? Let us not fear then though earth and hell conspire against us. Let us rather adopt the triumphant language of the Apostle, Who is he that shall lay any thing to our charge? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather that is risen again, who also maketh intercession for us. We may rest satisfied that he is faithful, who hath promised; and that, as the heroes of old hung up their trophies in the temples of their gods, so Christ will take us to heaven as the fruit of his victories, the everlasting monuments of his power and grace. Let us then hold fast the beginning of pur confidence firm unto the end. Let us believe in the Lord; so shall we prosper; let us believe his prophets; and so shall we be established.
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
REFLECTIONS
MY soul! ponder well this blessed, this glorious, this divine chapter; and do not dismiss it, until the Lord hath both taught thee the many gracious things contained in it, and brought home all that is said of Jesus to thine own experience and joy. And when dismissing it from thy present review, dismiss it but for a short season, and let thy frequent return to it, in solemn meditation, testify how very precious every part and portion of it is in thy esteem.
Behold here, my soul, thy Jesus, under his twofold character, in which the Spirit of Christ, which was in the Prophets, did signify, when testifying of his sufferings, and the glory that should follow. And as thou passest over the several parts of the chapter, see whether thou art not constrained to cry out, in the same words as the Lord Jesus himself did, when he made the hearts of his disciples burn within them in the account: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?
And oh! thou precious Jesus! who art the sum and substance of this chapter, and of the whole Bible, give me to enter into an heartfelt enjoyment of the greatness of what is here related of thee, in the all-sufficiency of thy sacrifice, and of my personal interest in it. Yea, Lord! I see that thou hast, by the dignity of thy person, and the glory of thy work, made full satisfaction, yea, more than satisfaction, for all the injuries which sin hath occasioned among the works of God! The glory of God’s holy law, which sin had darkened, is more than restored by the perfect obedience of the Lord, our righteousness. And the image of God, which sin had defaced in man, is more than brought back to perfection in that nature which thou hast taken, in a pure and holy portion of it, and which, by being united to the Godhead, gives to all thine actions and sufferings the merit of the Godhead. Oh! for grace then to believe, and to stand in that belief, eternally secure, that God the Father’s covenant promise is and must be fulfilled: Thou shalt see of the travail of thy soul, and be satisfied. The dew of thy birth shall he as the womb of the morning. Thy people shall all be righteous in thy righteousness; and in thee and thy glory they shall shine as the stars forever and ever. Amen.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Isa 53:12 Therefore will I divide him [a portion] with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Ver. 12. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the great. ] Or, I will give many to him. Psa 2:8 Some sense it thus: I will give him to conquer, plunder, and spoil the evil spirits; as Col 2:15 and this he shall have for a reward of his ignominious death, and his intercession for some of his enemies, whom he conquered by a new and noble kind of victory, viz., by loving them and by praying for them.
And he was numbered with transgressors.
And he bare the sins of many.
And made intercession.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Isaiah
THE SUFFERING SERVANT-VI
Isa 53:12
The first clause of this verse is somewhat difficult. There are two ways of understanding it. One is that adopted in A. V., according to which the suffering Servant is represented as equal to the greatest conquerors. He is to be as gloriously successful in His victory as they have been in theirs. But there are two very strong objections to this rendering-first, that it takes ‘the many’ in the sense of mighty , thus obscuring the identity of the expression here and in the previous verse and in the end of this verse; and secondly, that it gives a very feeble and frigid ending to the prophecy. It does not seem a worthy close simply to say that the Servant is to be like a Cyrus or a Nebuchadnezzar in His conquests.
The other rendering, though there are some difficulties, is to be preferred. According to it ‘the many’ and ‘the strong’ are themselves the prey or spoil. The words might be read, ‘I will apportion to Him the many, and He shall apportion to Himself the strong ones.’
This retains the same meaning of ‘many’ for the same expression throughout the context, and is a worthy ending to the prophecy. The force of the clause is then to represent the suffering Servant as a conqueror, leading back from His conquests a long train of captives, a rich booty.
Notice some points about this closing metaphor.
Mark its singular contrast to the tone of the rest of the prophecy. Note the lowliness, the suffering, the minor key of it all, and then, all at once, the leap up to rapture and triumph. The special form of the metaphor strikes one as singular. Nothing in the preceding context even remotely suggests it. Even the previous clause about ‘making the many righteous’ does not do much to prepare the way for it. Whatever be our explanation of the words, it must be one that does full justice to this metaphor, and presents some conquering power or person, whose victories are brilliant and real enough to be worthy to stand at the close of such a prophecy. We must keep in mind, too, what has been remarked on the two previous verses, that this victorious campaign and growing conquest is achieved after the Servant is dead. That is a paradox. And note that the strength of language representing His activity can scarcely be reconciled with the idea that it is only the post-mortem influence of His life which is meant.
Note, too, the singular blending of God’s power and the Servant’s own activity in the winning of this extended sovereignty. Side by side the two are put. The same verb is used in order to emphasise the intended parallel. ‘I will divide,’ ‘He shall divide.’ I will give Him-He shall conquer for Himself. Remember the intense vehemence with which the Old Testament guards the absolute supremacy of divine power, and how strongly it always puts the thought that God is everything and man nothing. Look at the contrast of the tone when a human conqueror, whose conquests are the result of God’s providence, is addressed Isa 45:1 – Isa 45:3. There is an entire suppression of his personality, not a word about his bravery, his military genius, or anything in him. It is all I, I, I . Remember how, in Isa 10:13 , one of the sins for which the Assyrian is to be destroyed is precisely that he thought of his victories as due to his own strength and wisdom. So he is indignantly reminded that he is only ‘a staff in Mine hand,’ the axe with which God hewed the nations, whereas here the voice of God Himself speaks, and gives a strange place beside Himself to the will and power of this Conqueror. This feature of the prophecy should be accounted for in any satisfactory interpretation.
Note, too, the wide sweep of the Servant’s dominion, which carries us back to the beginning of this prophecy in Isa 52:15 , where we hear of the Servant as ‘sprinkling’ or startling’ many nations, and the ‘kings’ is parallel with the ‘strong’ in this verse. No bounds are assigned to the Servant’s conquests, which are, if not declared to be universal, at least indefinitely extended and striding on to world-wide empire.
These points are plainly here. I do not dilate upon them. But I ask whether any of the interpretations of these words, except one, gives adequate force to them? Is there anything in the history of the restored exiles which corresponds to this picture? Even if you admit the violent hypothesis that there was a better part of the nation, so good that the national sorrows had no chastisement for them, and the other violent hypothesis that the devoutest among the exiles suffered most, and the other that the death and burial and resurrection of the Servant only mean the reformation wrought on Israel by captivity. What is there in the history of Israel which can be pointed at as the conquest of the world? Was the nation that bore the yokes of a Ptolemy, an Antiochus, a Herod, a Caesar, the fulfiller of this dream of world-conquest? There is only one thing which can be called the Jew conquering the world. It is that which, as I believe, is meant here, viz. Christ’s conquest. Apart from that, I know of nothing which would not be ludicrously disproportionate if it were alleged as fulfilment of this glowing prophecy.
This prophetic picture is at least four hundred years before Christ, by the admission of those who bring it lowest down, in their eagerness to get rid of prophecy. The life of Christ does correspond to it, in such a way that, clause by clause, it reads as if it were quite as much a history of Jesus as a prophecy of the Servant. This certainly is an extraordinary coincidence if it be not a prophecy. And there is really no argument against the Messianic interpretation, except dogmatic prejudice-’there cannot be prophecy.’
No straining is needed in order to fit this great prophetic picture of the world-Conqueror to Jesus. Even that, at first sight incongruous, picture of a victor leading long lines of captives, such as we see on Assyrian slabs and Egyptian paintings, is historically true of Him who ‘leads captivity captive,’ and is, through the ages, winning ever fresh victories, and leading His enemies, turned into lovers, in His triumphal progress. He, and He only, really owns men. His slaves have made real self-surrenders to Him. Other conquerors may imprison or load with irons or deport to other lands, but they are only lords of bodies. Jesus’ chains are silken, and bind hearts that are proud of their bonds. He carries off His free prisoners ‘from the power of darkness’ into His kingdom of light. His slaves rejoice to say, ‘I am not my own,’ and he only truly possesses himself who has given himself away to the Conquering Christ. For all these centuries He has been conquering hearts, enthralling and thereby liberating wills, making Himself the life of lives. There is nothing else the least like the bond between Jesus and millions who never saw him. Who among all the leaders of thought or religious teachers has been able to impress his personality on others and to dominate them in the fashion that Jesus has done and is doing to-day? How has He done this thing, which no other man has been able in the least to do? What is His charm, the secret of His power? The prophet has no doubt what it is, and unfolds it to us with a significant ‘For.’ We turn, then, to the prophetic explanation of that worldwide empire and note-
II. The foundation of the Servant’s dominion.
The two final clauses are separated from the preceding by the emphatic introduction of the pronominal nominative, and cohere closely as gathering up for the last time all the description of the Servant, and as laying broad and firm the basis of His dominion, in the two great facts which sum up His office and between them stretch over the past and the future. ‘He bare the sin of many, and maketh intercession for the transgressors.’ The former of these two clauses brings up the pathetic picture of the scapegoat who ‘bore upon him all their iniquities into a solitary land.’ The Servant conquers hearts because He bears upon Him the grim burden which a mightier hand than Aaron’s has made to meet on His head, and because He bears it away. The ancient ceremony, and the prophet’s transference of the words describing it to his picture of the Servant who was to be King, floated before John the Baptist, when he pointed his brown, thin finger at Jesus and cried: ‘Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.’ The goat had borne the sins of one nation; the prophet had extended the Servant’s ministry indefinitely, so as to include unnumbered ‘many’; John spoke the universal word, ‘the world.’ So the circles widened.
But it is not enough to bear away sins. We need continuous help in the present. Our daily struggles, our ever-felt weakness, all the ills that flesh is heir to, cry aloud for a mightier than we to be at our sides. So on the Servant’s bearing the sins of the many there follows a continuous act of priestly intercession, in which, not merely by prayer, but by meritorious and prevailing intervention, He makes His own the cause of the many whose sins He has borne.
On these two acts His dominion rests. Sacrifice and Intercession are the foundations of His throne.
The empire of men’s hearts falls to Him because of what He has done and is doing for them. He who is to possess us absolutely must give Himself to us utterly. The empire falls to Him who supplies men’s deepest need. He who can take away men’s sins rules. He who can effectually undertake men’s cause will be their King.
If Jesus is or does anything less or else, He will not rule men for ever. If He is but a Teacher and a Guide, oblivion, which shrouds all, will sooner or later wrap Him in its misty folds. That His name should so long have resisted its influence is due altogether to men having believed Him to be something else. He will exercise an everlasting dominion only if He have brought in an everlasting righteousness. He will sit King for ever, if and only if He is a priest for ever. All other rule is transient.
A remarkable characteristic of this entire prophecy is the frequent repetition of expressions conveying the idea of sufferings borne for others. In one form or another that thought occurs, as we reckon, eleven times, and it is especially frequent in the last verses of the chapter. Why this perpetual harking back to that one aspect? It is to be further noticed that throughout there is no hint of any other kind of work which this Servant had to do. He fulfils His service to God and man by being bruised for men’s iniquities. He came not to be ministered unto but to minister, and the chief form of His ministry was that He gave His life a ransom for the many. He came not to preach a gospel, but to die that there might be a gospel to preach. The Cross is the centre of His work, and by it He becomes the Centre of the world.
Look once more at the sorrowful, august figure that rose before the prophet’s eye-with its strange blending of sinlessness and sorrow, God’s approval and God’s chastisement, rejection and rule, death and life, abject humiliation and absolute dominion. Listen to the last echoes of the prophet’s voice as it dies on our ear-’He bore the sins of the many.’ And then hearken how eight hundred years after another voice takes up the echoes-but instead of pointing away down the centuries, points to One at his side, and cries, ‘Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.’ Look at that life, that death, that grave, that resurrection, that growing dominion, that inexhaustible intercession-and say, ‘Of whom speaketh the prophet this?’
May we all be able to answer with clear confidence, ‘These things saith Esaias when he saw His glory and spake of Him .’ May we all take up the ancient confession: ‘Surely He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. . . . He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed.’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
divide = apportion, or assign.
with = among.
poured out. Only here (in the “latter” portion); and Isa 32:15 (the “former” portion). App-79.
an He was numbered. Quoted in Mar 15:28. Luk 22:37. App-79.
bare the sin. Reference to Pentateuch (Lev 10:17. Num 9:13; Num 18:32). Compare verses: Isa 53:4, Isa 53:11. See App-92.
sin. Not the same word as in Isa 53:10. Hebrew. chata.
made intercession = interposed.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
will I: Isa 49:24, Isa 49:25, Isa 52:15, Gen 3:15, Psa 2:8, Dan 2:45, Mat 12:28, Mat 12:29, Act 26:18, Phi 2:8-11, Col 1:13, Col 1:14, Col 2:15, Heb 2:14, Heb 2:15
poured: Psa 22:14, Phi 2:17, *marg. Heb 12:2
and he was: Mar 15:28, Luk 22:37, Luk 23:25, Luk 23:32, Luk 23:33
he bare: Isa 53:11, 1Ti 2:5, 1Ti 2:6, Tit 2:14, Heb 9:26, Heb 9:28
made: Luk 23:34, Rom 8:34, Heb 7:25, Heb 9:24, 1Jo 2:1, 1Jo 2:12
Reciprocal: Exo 15:9 – I will pursue Exo 28:38 – bear the iniquity Lev 3:8 – he shall Lev 3:13 – lay his hand Lev 7:18 – bear Lev 16:22 – bear upon Lev 22:16 – General 1Sa 30:20 – This is David’s spoil 2Sa 23:10 – and the people Job 30:16 – my soul Psa 16:5 – thou Psa 22:15 – into the Psa 110:7 – He shall Pro 16:19 – than Isa 25:11 – he shall bring Isa 40:10 – with strong hand Isa 53:4 – he hath Isa 53:5 – But he was Lam 2:12 – soul Eze 4:4 – thou shalt bear Mat 27:38 – General Mar 3:27 – General Mar 4:31 – is less than Mar 14:34 – My soul Luk 8:35 – and found Luk 11:22 – General Joh 3:30 – must increase Joh 19:18 – General Joh 19:30 – It is Act 2:33 – by Act 4:4 – the number Act 8:33 – and who Phi 2:9 – God 2Ti 2:26 – who are 1Pe 1:11 – the glory
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Isa 53:12. Therefore will I Namely, God the Father; divide him a portion This word portion (though there is nothing for it in the Hebrew)
is properly supplied out of the next clause, where a word, which answers to it, rendered the spoil, is expressed; with the great Or, among the great such as the great and mighty potentates of the world use to have after a short combat and a glorious victory. Though he be a very mean and obscure person, as to his outward condition in the world, yet he shall attain to a greater pitch of glory than the greatest monarchs enjoy. He shall divide the spoil with the strong The same thing repeated in other words. The sense of both clauses is, I will give him great and happy success in his undertaking: he shall conquer all his enemies, and lead captivity captive; and he shall set up and establish his kingdom among and over all the kingdoms of the world: see Eph 1:20, &c.; and Php 2:8-9. Because he hath poured out his soul unto death Because he willingly laid down his life in obedience to Gods command, and in order to the redemption of mankind. And he was numbered with the transgressors He was willing, for Gods glory, and for mans salvation, to be reproached and punished, like a malefactor, in the same manner and place with them, and between two of them, Mar 15:27-28. And made intercession for the transgressors He prayed upon earth for all sinners, and particularly for those that crucified him, and in heaven he still intercedes for them, by a legal demand of those good things which he purchased by the sacrifice of himself, which, though past, he continually represents to his Father as if it were present.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
53:12 Therefore I will divide to him [a portion] with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because {r} he hath poured out his soul to death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bore the sin {s} of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
(r) Because he humbled himself, therefore he will be extolled to glory, Php 2:7-12 .
(s) That is, of all that believe in him.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Because of His work and its results, God would exalt the Servant (cf. Php 2:9-11; Rev 5:12). He would give Him a reward with the many great ones whom He justified, and would divide this booty with the many who would become strong by virtue of His work for them (cf. Eph 4:8; Eph 6:10-17). Another interpretation sees Yahweh giving the Servant the many great ones (believers) as booty, specifically as a token of redemption completed. He would also give the Servant the strong ones (unbelievers) as spoil, which the Servant would dispose of at the proper time. [Note: See Motyer, pp. 442-43.]
"The thought is that the servant will be as successful and triumphant in his mission as other victors were in theirs. There are many who are victors and they will receive the spoils of their victory. Among them is the servant." [Note: Young, 3:358.]
The reason for the Servant’s exaltation is that He would surrender Himself to death (cf. Mat 26:38-39; Mat 26:42) and consent to being numbered among the rebels against God; He would take His place among sinful humans (cf. Mat 26:50-54; Mar 15:27; Luk 22:37). Yet He would do more than simply identify with the rebels. He would bear their sin (cf. 2Co 5:21) and intercede for them (cf. Heb 7:25). This intercession is more than prayer; it would also involve intervention (cf. Isa 59:16; Heb 9:12-14).
This final promise of exaltation returns to the thought with which this passage began (Isa 52:13). The Servant’s exaltation is for accomplishing redemption. [Note: See F. Duane Lindsey, "The Career of the Servant in Isaiah 52:13-53:12," Bibliotheca Sacra 139:556 (October-December 1982):312-29, and 140:557 (January-March 1983):21-39., for another exposition of this passage.]
Suffering in God’s service is pleasing to God.