Isaiah 53 Analysis

Introduction There are numerous issues that can be examined concerning The Gospel According to Isaiah 53. It is this author’s desire to detail various issues that are in the text. This analysis will focus on the Servant in Isaiah, the Messiah and the Servant, and the Servant in the New Testament. This author will be highlighting the issues deemed most important to him in explaining Isaiah’s teaching on the Servant of the Lord.

The Servant in Israel To best discern this text, the reader needs to understand how the original audience comprehended it. When the Lord spoke of a suffering servant, who or what was the Lord alluding to? Was the Lord suggesting the nation of Israel? Or was the Lord indicating a particular individual?

Kaiser provides four aspects of what God did to the Servant of the Lord.

1. “He was pierced” with the nails that went into his hands and feet.

2. “He was crushed” or “bruised” by the thrust of the spear in his side, the slap of his face, and the effort of dragging the cross.

3. He took “the punishment that brought us peace” as he faced his crucifixion alone.

4. He took the welts and stripes we should have received.

These are only a few signs that the Servant of the Lord was none other than Jesus Christ. When God the Father raised Jesus from the dead, it was a demonstration that He accepted His suffering and death as full payment for sin for all who believe in Him (Rom. 4:25). Additional confirmation is found in the Servant’s arrest, which correlates to Jesus’s arrest in the Garden of

“Because he poured out his life unto death.”

2. He allowed himself to be “numbered with the transgressors.”

3. “He bore the sin of man.”

4. He “made intercession for the transgressors.”

The work of the Servant is exhibited in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Just like the Servant of the Lord in Isaiah 53, Jesus Christ came to seek and save the lost and to take on all their transgressions, guilt, and iniquities.

The Servant in the Gospels A couple of issues that need to be addressed are, how is the Servant of the Lord explained in the New Testament, and does Jesus believe that He was the prophesied Servant of from Isaiah 53? Regarding the question of, does Jesus believe that He was the prophesied Servant from Isaiah 53, it was a big influence on His own mission and it was essential for His followers to understand that Jesus’ death was the fulfillment of this prophecy. The authors of the New Testament quoted and referred to Isaiah 53 at least fifty times, and in the Gospels approximately twenty-nine times. This paper is concentrate in particular on the Gospel of Matthew’s references to Isaiah 53. “At least eighteen of the twenty-nine references to Isaiah 53 in the Gospels are found in Matthew’s Gospel, more than any