Isaiah 52:13-15--He Was Pierced for Our Transgressions

Isaiah 52:13-15
English Standard Version
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He Was Pierced for Our Transgressions
13 Behold, my servant shall act wisely;
    he shall be high and lifted up,
    and shall be exalted.
14 As many were astonished at you--
    his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance,
    and his form beyond that of the children of mankind--
15 so shall he sprinkle many nations.
    Kings shall shut their mouths because of him,
for that which has not been told them they see,
    and that which they have not heard they understand.

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Up until this point, you may have thought that the "servant" that Isaiah was talking about was himself, or maybe just a future king that would restore the kingdom, but we're going to see the tone shift, and it will become clear to us that this is talking about the Suffering Servant who is Jesus.  The one who is our penal substitutionary atonement.  John the Baptist called Him "The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world."

God will use the thing that was supposed to be humiliating an object of shame to exalt Jesus.  He was "lifted up" on the cross--not that He was esteemed by everyone else, but physically lifted up on the cross like the serpent was lifted up on the pole in the wilderness in the book of Numbers.  Jesus even references this idea of being "lifted up" in John 3 and how it relates to the serpent on a pole and says if He would be lifted up, He would draw all men to Himself.

The Epistles tell us that because He was humiliated and obedient to death, even death on a cross, He has been greatly exalted and received a name that is above every name that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow and every tongue confess, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Then, Isaiah starts to describe the torture that Jesus would endure.  He would be so badly beaten and disfigured by the beatings that no one would know if He were man or beast.  His purpose to sprinkle the nations with His blood for atonement and cleansing is given here.  That should have raised all kinds of questions for the Jewish audience because they always had a clean animal die in their place, and human sacrifice was forbidden, but God's plan was for a man to die for other men?  How can that be if this man had His own sins to pay for and was under the curse of death Himself?  Isaiah will speak to those questions in the coming passages, but the short answer is that Jesus' sacrifice was acceptable because He was without blemish and spotless (without sin).  The objective is clear here too that this sacrifice will be for all the nations of the world, not just for the Jews.  This passage speaks so clearly to the purpose and mission of Jesus to come and save the whole world, but some people don't want others in the world to be saved so they don't like this passage.

This one who would die would put to silence the powerful and mighty.  Kings of other nations would stop and listen to Him and submit to His authority.  Why?  Because He is the thing they have been longing for that they knew nothing about--the mysteries that were explained to the Jews but hidden from the Gentiles are revealed in Him.  He is God in the Flesh and He spoke so that everywhere may understand who God is, who they are, and how He came to save sinners--and that the invitation of salvation was open to all who would receive it by faith.  Those who had previously not heard understood what those who had heard for thousands of years failed to understand.  They saw Jesus for who He was and the salvation that He alone provides, and they trusted in Him, worshiped Him and they continue to serve Him as their Lord.