Isaiah 53:1-12--He Was Pierced for Our Transgressions

Isaiah 53
English Standard Version

53 Who has believed what he has heard from us?
    And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
2 For he grew up before him like a young plant,
    and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
    and no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by men,
    a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
    he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

4 Surely he has borne our griefs
    and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
    smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions;
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
    and with his wounds we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
    we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.

7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
    yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
    and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
    so he opened not his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
    and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
    stricken for the transgression of my people?
9 And they made his grave with the wicked
    and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
    and there was no deceit in his mouth.

10 Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him;
    he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
    he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
    make many to be accounted righteous,
    and he shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,
    and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,
because he poured out his soul to death
    and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
    and makes intercession for the transgressors.

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As we discussed yesterday, there were no chapter divisions in the original and this section really starts with the verses from the last passage.  Some background for this passage--it's one of the best Old Testament passages to point to when trying to share the gospel with someone who believes in the historicity and veracity of the Old Testament but questions the legitimacy of the New Testament.  However, that leads us to a glaring question that goes something like this, "If this passage is read and taught by those that only have the Old Testament Scriptures [the Jewish people], then how can they not see that that this is talking about Jesus' penal substitutionary atonement?"  The answer to that question is twofold.  First, no one understands the truth of Scripture unless God reveals it to him.  However, the answer is actually a little more complicated than that.  This chapter is in their Bibles, but most of them have never read it and those in charge of the reading plans and teaching schedules intentionally skip over this passage.  So, if you would ask a Jewish person to open up their Hebrew Scriptures to this passage and read it for themselves in Hebrew, it would be there, but they would likely say, "I have never read or heard that before." since they follow a fairly strict reading and teaching schedule that intentionally skips over this passage.

There are others who do read this and just don't understand who or what it is talking about, and there are others who do read it and understand exactly who and what it's talking about but it doesn't matter because they have their mind made up that they want to reject Jesus and His sacrifice for them because they want to believe that they are good enough on their own or that they choose good and evil for themselves.  If you believe Jesus had to come and die in your place because you are a sinner, then that means first there is such a thing as sin (there is good and evil), and that you are on the evil side of things and that you could do nothing to be on the "good" side of things and someone had to pay the penalty that you could never pay for yourself.  Those are all core components to the gospel that are extremely offensive to the natural man.  Not only that, but that the One who would come and do this would not even be appreciated for what He was doing.  He would come to save his people, but His own people would reject Him.

He did not bear His own sins, because He had none of His own.  Instead, He bore our sin, guilt and shame and took them as His own while He endure both agony and rejection.  He would be killed, not for His own sin, but for the sin of His people (and of the whole world) He would die and be buried in a tomb.  he would be counted among the criminals (those guilty of felonies like murder, theft, and maybe even terrorism and insurrection died on His right and left--certainly the one whose place He took was guilty of all this and more--Barabbas.

Then one of the hardest verses in the Bible for me to read.  "Yet, it was the will of the LORD to crush Him."  Essentially, "It please the LORD to crush Him."  Through His death, He brought much glory and joy to Himself and the Father who sent Him as no man could have done what He did, and He made the way to bring all men who would believe back into a right relationship with God to make them true worshipers of Him.  "Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied."  These are hard words to read, and it is understandable why people all around the world (but especially Jewish people) don't want to read them--God was please to crush and punish someone innocent on behalf of all of us who were guilty?  Yet isn't' that the idea of the sacrificial system in the Old Testament, yet we know the blood of bulls and goats is insufficient (see the book of Hebrews for that argument).  We needed a better sacrifice that was a Man for a man and that could be the Mediator between God and Man that Job called for in the final chapters of the book that bears his name.  What little He had (his clothes) would be divided among those who executed Him (the Roman soldiers), but He would die to pay for their sins and the sins of all the others that mocked and jeered and for all the sinners past, present and future.  "Yet he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors."  This is the message of the gospel.