(6)
Scripture Reading: Isa. 53; Isa. 54; 42:6; 49:8
Isaiah 53 is a sweet chapter that portrays Christ's dynamic redemption through His vicarious death and reproductive resurrection. Chapter fifty-four presents Christ's redemption in relation to His being the covenant for Israel's security. Christ's vicarious death and His reproductive resurrection are both crucial for the security of Israel.
Isaiah 53:1 concerns the revelation and report of Christ as the arm of Jehovah, the dynamic Redeemer. "Who has believed our report?/And to whom has the arm of Jehovah been revealed?" Here the word arm signifies the dynamic might of Christ in His divinity.
Verses 2 and 3 go on to speak regarding Christ's lowly birth and suffering in His humanity.
Verse 2 says, "He grew up like a tender plant before Him, / And like a root out of dry ground./He has no attracting form nor majesty that we should look upon Him,/Nor beautiful appearance that we should desire Him." In the Bible plants often typify humanity. For Christ to grow up like a tender plant before Jehovah means that Christ grew up before Him in His humanity. In His divinity Christ has always been perfect and complete, and thus there was no need for Him to grow in His divinity. His growth took place in His humanity. First He was a child, and then He grew into boyhood and eventually into manhood. Having become perfected and completed in His humanity, at the age of thirty He came forth to minister for God.
Christ grew up not only like a tender plant but also like a root out of dry ground. The words dry ground signify a difficult environment. For the Lord Jesus, this dry ground included the poor home of Joseph and Mary, the despised city of Nazareth, and the despised region of Galilee. Like a root out of dry ground, Christ grew up in the midst of hard circumstances.
Verse 2 also tells us that, in His humanity, Christ had no attracting form nor majesty; He did not have a beautiful appearance.
"He was despised and forsaken of men,/A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;/And like one from whom men hide their faces, / He was despised; and we did not esteem Him" (v. 3). The Hebrew word translated sorrows in verses 3 and 4 literally means pains, either physical or mental. According to Keil and Delitzsch, Christ was a "man whose chief distinction was, that His life was one of constant painful endurance." He, as a man of sorrows, was a despised person.
Christ's death was a vicarious death (vv. 4-10a, 12b). This means that He died not for Himself but for us. He died in our place. Christ's death was not a martyrdom; Christ was put to death by God for us (v. 4b). Thus, His death was a vicarious death.
In His vicarious death, Christ bore our sicknesses and carried our sorrows. "Surely He has borne our sicknesses,/ And carried our sorrows;/Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken,/Smitten of God and afflicted. But He was pierced because of our transgressions;/He was crushed because of our iniquities;/The chastening for our peace was upon Him, / And by His stripes we have been healed./We all like sheep have gone astray;/Each of us has turned to his own way,/ And Jehovah has caused the iniquity of us all/To fall on Him" (vv. 4-6). These verses use the words sicknesses and sorrows along with transgressions and iniquities (that is, sins). This raises a question: Do our sicknesses and sorrows need Christ's redemption? Sicknesses and sorrows are mentioned with transgressions and iniquities because our sicknesses and sorrows come from one thing — sin. If we had never sinned, we could never be sick and we would have no sorrow. Our transgressions and sins surely need Christ's redemption. Since our sicknesses and sorrows come from sin, they also need Christ's redemption. In Isaiah 53 we are told clearly that Christ bore our sicknesses and carried our sorrows in His vicarious death. Therefore, when we are sick, it is proper for us to pray, "Lord, because in Your death for me You bore my sicknesses, I do have the ground to ask You to take my sickness away."
"He was oppressed, and it was He who was afflicted,/Yet He did not open His mouth;/Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter / And like a sheep that is dumb before its shearers, / So He did not open His mouth" (v. 7). He did not have any reaction toward those who were persecuting Him.
Verse 8a continues, "By oppression and by judgment He was taken away." The word oppression here means persecution. First, Christ was persecuted and then He was judged. By these two things He was taken away.
Verse 8b goes on to say, "And as for His generation, who among them had the thought/That He was cut off out of the land of the living/For the transgression of my people to whom the stroke was due?" This means that no one understood that it was for us that Christ suffered persecution and judgment and died. Even those who were with the Lord Jesus when He was dying on the cross did not understand that He was dying for them. The stroke that should have been the due of God's people fell on Him. He suffered death for us.
Verse 10a says, "Jehovah was pleased to crush Him, to afflict Him with grief." The Hebrew words translated afflict Him with grief literally mean "make Him sick."
This verse continues with the phrase, "If You make His soul an offering for sin." The Hebrew can also be rendered "His soul would make an offering for sin." Leviticus 4 and 5 indicate that the trespass offering may be regarded as part of the sin offering. It is from sin that Christ has redeemed us. "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29). Redemption is thus for the sin, including the trespasses, of fallen man. While Christ was on the cross, God was pleased to crush Him, to afflict Him with grief, in order to make Him an offering for sin. This is a further indication that Christ died a vicarious death for the purpose of accomplishing redemption for us.
Whereas Isaiah 53:10 says that God put Christ to death, making His soul an offering for sin, verse 12 says that "He poured out His soul unto death." If Christ merely put Himself to death on the cross, and God did accept Him as an offering for sin, Christ's death would not have been a vicarious death for us; it would have been only martyrdom. Likewise, if God was pleased to put Him to death, and He was not willing to die, then His death would not have been a vicarious death. The vicarious death of Christ depends on God's being pleased to put Him to death and on Christ's being willing to die in such a way. Moreover, if Christ had sinned, His death could not be counted as a vicarious death; He would have had to die for Himself, and He could not have died for us.
Isaiah's writing in this chapter presents a clear defense in the heavenly court, testifying that God was pleased to put Christ to death, that Christ was willing to die for others, and that He was altogether sinless (v. 9). Thus, His death was truly a vicarious death.
Verse 12b says, "Because He poured out His soul unto death/And was numbered with the transgressors,/Yet He alone bore the sin of many / And interceded for the transgressors." While Christ was on the cross, He prayed for the ones who had crucified Him (Luke 23:34).
Isaiah 53:9 tells us, "They assigned His grave with the wicked,/But with a rich man in His death,/Although He had done no violence,/Nor was there any deceit in His mouth." This verse reveals that Christ was sinless and that His death was not for any sins of His own. If He had done any violence or if there had been deceit in His mouth, He would not have been sinless and He could not have died for us. Christ was altogether sinless. Because He had no sin, He did not need to die for Himself. His vicarious death was for us.
Isaiah 53:10b-12a speaks concerning Christ's reproductive resurrection.
"He will see a seed, He will extend His days,/And the pleasure of Jehovah will prosper in His hand" (v. 10b). The seed here is the church, comprising all the believers produced as the many grains by the death of Christ as the one grain and His reproductive resurrection (John 12:24; 1 Pet. 1:3). He was the one grain who died to produce many grains. Although He died as a single grain, He resurrected with many grains. His resurrection, therefore, was very productive.
Isaiah 53:10b says not only that Christ will see a seed but also that He will extend His days. Today Christ is extending His days by living in His believers. His believers are His extension. Therefore, we may sing these words: "We are Thy continuation,/Thy life-increase and Thy spread" (Hymns, #203).
"The pleasure of Jehovah will prosper in His hand" (v. 10c). The pleasure of God is to see many sons born of Him to become the members of Christ, who constitute the church as the corporate expression of Christ. This is the greatest pleasure to God, and it depends altogether on Christ's death and resurrection.
Verse 11a says, "Because of the travail of His soul, He will see/And He will be satisfied." What will Christ see, and with what will He be satisfied? Christ will see the church and be satisfied with the church, just as Adam saw Eve and was satisfied with her (Gen. 2:22-23).
Isaiah 53:11b continues, "By His knowledge, the righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many,/And He will bear their iniquities." Christ did not justify us foolishly or blindly but according to His unlimited knowledge. This indicates that to be justified by Christ is a great thing. When He justified us, He exercised His knowledge and considered such matters as how we would be related to God and how we would affect the kingdom of God. After much consideration according to His infinite knowledge and His complete and perfect discernment, He justified us. For Him to justify us means that He accepted us.
Since Christ has justified us by His knowledge, He surely bears our iniquities. He is responsible for us in the heavenly court. We have a great many sins, but because Christ has decided to justify us, to accept us, He is willing to bear all our sins.
In verse 12a Jehovah says, "Therefore I will divide to Him a portion with the great, / And He will divide the spoil with the strong." Here we have two parties — God and Christ. Because of Christ's vicarious death and reproductive resurrection and because He has decided to accept the believers and bear their iniquities, God will divide to Him a portion with the great, and Christ Himself will divide the spoil with the strong. Who is the great, and who is the strong? The word great here refers to God, and the word strong also refers to God. This indicates that God will divide to Christ a portion with God as the great One and that Christ will divide the spoil with God as the strong One. Hence, Christ and God, who is the great One and the strong One, divide the spoil.
The word spoil indicates that there has been a war. Christ fought the battle, gained the victory, and took the spoil from Satan. The entire New Jerusalem will be a spoil captured by Christ from the hand of Satan. On the one hand, the New Jerusalem will be a great pleasure, a great enjoyment, shared by God and Christ. On the other hand, the New Jerusalem will be a spoil captured by Christ from Satan.
Isaiah 54 reveals Christ's dynamic redemption through His vicarious death and reproductive resurrection in relation to His being the covenant for Israel's security.
Verses 1 through 3 speak of Christ's being the covenant for the multiplication and spreading of Israel.
Verses 4 through 8 speak of Jehovah's returning to Israel and gathering them back.
In verses 9 and 10 we have Christ's being the covenant to Israel for their security. Verse 9 says, "This is like the waters of Noah to Me,/When I swore that the waters of Noah/Would not overflow the earth ever again;/So I have sworn that I will not be angry with you,/Nor will I rebuke you." In verse 10 the word covenant is used. "For the mountains may depart,/And the hills may shake,/But My lovingkindness will not depart from you, /And My covenant of peace will not shake,/Says Jehovah who has compassion on you." Christ as the Servant of Jehovah being the reality of this covenant is a surety of Israel for their security (42:6; 49:8).
In 54:11-17 we have Jehovah's building up of Israel in beauty and Israel's enjoyment in peace.
To the one who is afflicted, storm-tossed, and not comforted, Jehovah says that He Himself will lay down her stones in dark mortar and lay her foundations with sapphires (v. 11). The Hebrew word translated dark mortar literally means antimony, referring to a dark cement used for setting off the brilliance of precious stones. In verse 12 Jehovah goes on to say, "I will make your battlements of rubies,/And your gates of carbuncles,/And all your borders will be precious stones."
All her children will be taught of Jehovah, and the peace of her children will be great (v. 13). She will be established in righteousness. She will be far from oppression, for she will not fear, and far from terror, for it will not come near her (v. 14). Verse 15 says, "Behold, they may fiercely attack you, but it is not of Me;/Whoever attacks you will fall because of you."
Jehovah has created the blacksmith who blows the fire of the coals and brings out a weapon for its work; He has also created the destroyer to ruin (v. 16). Therefore, He declares, "No weapon that is formed against you will prosper,/And every tongue that rises up to judge you, you will condemn./ This is the heritage of the servants of Jehovah,/And their righteousness which is of Me" (v. 17). This is Jehovah's declaration to the entire universe that the security of Israel is maintained by Christ, who is the covenant for them.
