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?

This text assists the reader in examining these particular issues and explains them impartially. When explaining the answer in regards to the nation of Israel one viewpoint is “Here the Lord refers to them as “witnesses” (plural) and then goes on to identify them as “my servant” (singular).” Therefore, one can believe that the singular “my servant” may actually apply to the nation of Israel.
As claimed by this text and the Jewish understanding of Isaiah 53, when delving into the discrepancy concerning the number of instances “Servant” is attributed to the nation of Israel against the occurrences of the individual, there is a considerable disparity between the two. A careful examination of The Gospel According to Isaiah 53 affirms that the “Servant of the Lord” is said nineteen times in chapters 40-51 indicating the nation of Israel, and occasionally pointing to a righteous man inside of Israel.
Although, there seems to be numerous passages upholding the notion that the servant is the nation of Israel, however, that is not correct. God communicates in the first person singular, where He characterizes the sufferings of the Servant in the third person singular. This demonstrates that the only appropriate interpretation of Isaiah 53:8, is that the Servant of the Lord suffered for His chosen people. Michael Brown makes it clear that “Isaiah 53 indisputably features the vicarious sufferings of the righteous Servant as a central theme, and that righteous Servant cannot be Israel, whose sufferings have not brought atonement and forgiveness to the nations.”
What one can comprehend after a thorough examination is that Israel can’t be the Servant the Lord is speaking of, because it does not possess the righteousness that is necessary. Moreover, it is because of the absence of righteousness that Israel’s can’t provide its own salvation. Walter C. Kaiser Jr. lends more support by stating, “This Servant has a mission to all Israel to see that they are restored back into their land, so this usage of the term “servant” cannot be reference to the nation of Israel, for in that case, they would be acting on themselves rather than receiving the deliverance promised to them.” Through the reasoning provided above, it is this author’s belief that the Servant of the Lord is referring to the Messiah the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Identity of the Servant
After examining the book of Isaiah and the New Testament it clearly confirms that Jesus Christ is the Servant of the Lord.

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

Gethsemane.
Furthermore, the Servant is submissive, like a lamb led to slaughter, to the will of the Father. Jesus demonstrates this submission in the garden when He prays ““Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will” (Mark 14:36). There is no protest from the Servant of the Lord, “for he was on a holy mission to atone for the sins of the world.” The Servant paid for the sins of all humanity and the final insult to the Servant would be that people would plan to bury Him among the wicked, implying His own wickedness.
The final stanza of the poem, Isaiah 53:10-12, explains the Servant’s submissive suffering for sinners. The servant’s grief would accomplish a greater good, which was the forgiveness and reconciliation on sinful humanity. His righteousness will be able to man to be put right with God. It all rises to the culmination in verse 12. Where God will exalt the Servant because of His work and its results.
“There are two divine gifts that are mentioned in Isaiah 53:12.” God will reward His Servant with the great ones who He justified and would “divide the spoils” with the ones who became strong through His work for them. Isaiah 53 concludes with “four divine reasons why God’s seal of approval is put on his Servant,” who is assumed to be Jesus Christ.
1.

“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

other.”
This author is going to concentrate on the Songs of the Suffering Servant. In Matthew 3:17, Matthew uses language from Isaiah 42:1. As Jesus is coming out of the water, the Spirit of God descends upon Him like a dove, and the Father speaks from heaven. The voice from heaven identified Jesus with the suffering Servant of Isaiah 42:1 and prepares the people of Israel for His ministry. By the Holy Spirit anointing Jesus it signaled His crowning as the prophesied Messiah of Israel and He was commissioned by God to be His Servant to carry out His work through the Holy Spirit.
At the very same time Jesus identified Himself as the Servant in Isaiah with His baptism, He begins His public ministry that fulfills the suffering Servant in Isaiah 53. In Matthew 8:17, Jesus “took our illnesses and bore our diseases.” When Jesus took the sins of man, He also took our sickness. This sickness exists because sin is in the world, and one of the effects of Jesus taking our sin on the cross is physical healing. “Matthew draws upon this prophecy to link Jesus’ healing ministry with the substitutionary atonement theme of Isaiah 53.”
Jesus refers to the suffering Servant prophecies in Isaiah 53 in Matthew 26:24. Jesus is predicting His rejection, suffering, and death. Jesus’ mission on earth was not always understood because He was perceived incorrectly and because of wrong assumptions from the Israelites, Jewish leaders and His own disciples. The prophecies of the Suffering Servant in the Old Testament were not expected by many during His time, even among His followers. However, Jesus makes clear that Scripture prophesied that the Messiah would be murdered.

Conclusion
This paper has provided a better understanding of who the Servant of the Lord was in the book of Isaiah. Even though there is possible indication that the Suffering Servant in the nation of Israel, however, after further examination its clear that Israel can’t provide its own salvation. It is apparent to this author that the prophecies regarding the Servant in Isaiah 53 is Jesus Christ. Lastly, this author used Old Testament prophecies that were quoted and referred to in the New Testament, specifically in the Gospel of Matthew to gain a better understanding of how the Suffering Servant correlated to the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. It is this author’s belief that Isaiah 53 is referring to Jesus as the Messiah.