Isaiah 53 this morning. 1st chapter of Scripture I ever memorized. Recited it in the 6th grade in a church service as part of the completion of a girls’ missions course. Didn’t fully understand it, of course, but this I knew: the OT foretold Christ’s suffering in alarming detail.
This masterpiece actually begins in Is 52:13. That section’s needed because the poem contrasts the Servant’s exaltation & humiliation. There we are told he would be “successful” & greatly exalted but only after grotesque disfigurement. Think of Is.52:13-53:12 as the OT’s Phil 2.
Shelves of books are written about this poem. I’ll stop at quoting some verbal phrases this AM.
He, our Christ, our one and only, was
...so disfigured he did not look like a man...despised & rejected by men... pierced because of our rebellion, crushed because of our iniquities.
...He was oppressed & afflicted...like a lamb led to the slaughter...like a sheep silent before his shearers...taken away because of oppression & judgment...cut off from the land of the living...struck because of [his] people’s rebellion...assigned a grave with the wicked...
By this part I am in tears.
“Yet the Lord was pleased to crush him severely… By his hand, the Lord’s pleasure will be accomplished. After his anguish, he will see light & be satisfied. By his knowledge, my righteous servant will justify many and he will carry their iniquities.
...because he willingly submitted to death, and was counted among the rebels; he bore the sin of many.”
Behold, the Suffering Servant.
Behold the Lamb of God.
Behold our one and only King.
Christ, our Lord.
“By his wounds we are healed.”
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