Isaiah 52:13-53:12, identifying Jesus as the "Suffering Servant" who is exalted despite his humiliation. The passage is presented as the "Holy of Holies" of Isaiah's servant songs, detailing the servant's initial exaltation, his subsequent suffering and rejection, and his ultimate satisfaction of God's demands. The core lesson emphasizes that the servant's suffering was not in vain but was for the atonement of humanity's sins, leading to healing and peace. The message concludes by encouraging believers to emulate this perfect servant, who endured physical, spiritual, and emotional suffering with sinless perfection, and to find strength in him to face their own trials.
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We're doing very well. Can we turn to Isaiah fifty-two this morning and look at the last and the loveliest of some of the servant songs that Isaiah presents to us. Isaiah fifty-two and we'll read from verse thirteen. just as the first servant song began with, behold, my servant, so does the last servant song. Verse thirteen of Isaiah fifty-two, behold, my servant shall deal prudently.
He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high. As many were astounded at him, his visage was so marred, more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men. So shall he sprinkle many nations. The kings shall shut their mouths at him, for that which had been not told them shall they see, and that which they had not heard shall they consider. Who hath believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground.
He hath no form, nor comeliness, and when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our grief and carried our sorrows, and yet we did esteem him stricken, bitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgression.
He was bruised for our iniquity. The chastisement of our peace was upon him. and with his Christ we are healed. Now that's as far as we're going to read this morning. It is simply too vast a subject to try and comment on all of the sixteen or fifteen verses of this great servant's tongue. But I thought that what we do have to say will be helpful to us. I'm sure you're well aware that in the three nine chapter sections of Isaiah's second part.
That this is part of the central section. In fact, this is the central passage in the central section. And if you're very interested in finding the dead center, it is he was led as a lamb to the slaughter. The lamb part of the suffering for Jesus is central here. But we're not going to look at that particularly today. We're going to look more at this as part of the servant and the singing of the servant in relation to the job he came to do. If you looked at Isaiah forty-two as the court of the tabernacle, and if you looked at chapters forty-nine and fifty as the holy place, where we begin to see some of the great work of the servant of Jehovah.
I think you could see chapter fifty-two and fifty-three as the holy of Homes. For we're introduced into the sufferings of the servant on account of man's sin, our sin. It's no wonder that we dwell so often on these passages here. This is the fourth of the servant's songs now, you remember? The first one in chapter forty-two, where the servant's character is explained. And we see there something of the delight of Jehovah's heart in his son, in his servant. And then the servant's mission in chapter forty-nine, and there is a display of Jehovah's glory.
He came to display, to manifest the glory of Jehovah. And then yesterday we saw something of the discipline of the servant. And that was to proclaim Jehovah's Word. And now in chapters fifty-two and fifty-three, here is the suffering of the servant. He came to satisfy Jehovah's demands. And of course, that's where we come in. That's where we're brought into relationship with a holy God. that we are the result of the work we came to do.
How wonderful to be part of that. Sometimes this passage is called the Golden Passionale of the Old Testament. If you are interested in following up some of these things, there is a lovely book by David Barron called The Suffering Servant of Jehovah. I'm not sure whether it's easy to find. I'm not sure whether it's in your own library here or not. If you ever come across it, be sure and read it before you pass it on. David Barron, the suffering servant of Jehovah. Now, when we look here in chapter fifty-two and fifty-three, you're probably well aware that these fifteen verses are really five stanzas of three verses each.
And they're all arranged in typical Hebrew poetic style. You probably know that all of Hebrew poetry is either comparative or contrastive, and you have one statement and then another which amplifies it or contrasts it. And so you get all the time who has believed our report and whom is the arm of the Lord revealed. these kinds of double or triple statements as typical Hebrew poetry. It never rhymes and is not supposed to rhyme, but the thought match or are seen in contrast to each other so as to emphasize them.
And all of this is like that in Hebrew poetic style. And there are five stanzas of three verses each. Some of you will be well aware of these five stanzas. There's the servant exalted in the first stanza. Chapter fifty-two, verses thirteen to fifteen. There's the servant despised in verses one to three. There's the servant wounded in verses four to six. There's the servant cut off in verses seven to nine. And then there's the servant satisfied in verses ten to twelve.
And we're only going to look at the first part of all this this morning. And I have notes for five messages on it myself. And I have nowhere near exhausted it. By the way, if you'd like to hear some lovely ministry on this chapter, just ask Mr. Wolfman, who's coming next week to talk on it. He has some lovely thoughts. And I'm sure you will enjoy them very, very much indeed. Now, let's look at the first one of the stanzas. The mystery of the servant, or the servant exalted. He begins by saying, Behold, my servant shall deal prudently. He shall be exalted and extol and be very high.
The mystery of the servant. Now, I would call this the whole three-verse section, Mystery the Servant, because there is the contrast between his high exaltation and his inexplicable humiliation. He who was so marred more than any man, how can he be the same one that is extolled and exalted and very high? There is mystery here which even the greatest of our minds cannot fully comprehend the mystery of Jehovah's servant.
And he comes to fulfill his mission here. And I'm not going to try and go through this, but I want you to notice that there are three elevations as a result of what he did wisely. He's a wise servant. He shall act wisely and successfully. says he shall deal prudently here in the King James Version, or he shall act wisely. The Hebrew hiskill means wisely as a synonym for prosperously, and it's used in lots of different places, where, for instance, David acted wisely before King Saul, or in Joshua where we are told in chapter one you shall have success and wherever you go you shall prosper that's the word the Jews here and the Jews as a servant that he was always acting wisely and successfully and so he is the perfect servant no wonder when Philip saw him and heard what he said and heard his wisdom and saw his perfection.
He comes to the others and says, We have found him, of whom the prophets and the Old Testament did speak. This is the one of whom Isaiah spoke. And notice here there are three elevations, three ways in which he is exalted. He shall be exalted, and the Hebrew word means to rise, and the idea there is resurrection. For this servant is risen. He shall be exalted. And there's resurrection. And then he shall be extolled. And the Hebrew means to be lifted up. And I think we see here ascension.
Not only did the Lord rise from the grave where he paid the price for man's sin. But he ascended into the glory. And there we see him. not only exalted, risen from the grave, but extolled, lifted up, ascended to heaven. And the third elevation here is He shall be very high, high exceedingly, enthroned. And so the Lord Jesus is the perfect servant, risen from the dead, exalted, ascended to heaven, and seated at God's right hand, there extols, and very high, enthroned there.
Why, when you have Isaiah seeing him in the early chapters, in chapter six it is, high and lifted up, these are two of the words that are used here, and I'm not going to dwell on them anymore, but he goes from this point of exaltation, where he sees him as risen as offended, as glorified, seating at the Father's right hand, then he sees him in the valley of humiliation in verse fourteen. And so you go from the prospect of exaltation in verse thirteen to the valley of humiliation in verse fourteen. As many as were astonished at him.
This is a very strong word. It means to be appalled, to be astounded. To be horrified is another good translation of this word. It's more than just surprise. I think it's Barron that says it means to be petrified by paralyzing astonishment. A word of sudden surprise. How can it be that this one who is so high, who is exalted in such a position, was she really in this woman? and so they were appalled or horrified at him.
And we get a glimpse into the depth and the intensity of the servant suffering here while finishing the work on the cross during those three hours of darkness. Verse fourteen here is not particularly what men saw. Jehovah is the speaker. Jehovah is. looking at his son on the cross for our sins. And so this is what he saw as he gazed on his beloved son. His face so marred more than any man, his appearance disfigured.
Somehow I think we often overemphasize the physical aspects of the Lord's suffering, although that was certainly very very real but this is what Jehovah saw his appearance so disfigured so marred more than any man his form marred beyond human likeness and and the veil is lifted here on what transpires in those three hours of darkness from the sixth hour until the ninth hour and there is a valley of humiliation here that is one of those glimpses we get into the suffering Savior.
And then we go back again in verse fifteen into the heights of glory, and we see here some aspects of His coming again, and it contrasts the astonishment at His humiliation with the astonishment at His glory. Did you notice? When we read there, Behold, my servant shall deal prudently. He shall be exalted and be very high. As many as were astonished at him, his visit was so large, more than any man. So shall he sprinkle. And that's the same word again, astonish. So shall he astound many nations.
As they were astonished at him, so shall... he astounds many nations. In other words, whole nations are going to be startled. And this refers to his coming again. When he comes in power and great glory, the Gentile, unbelieving nations will not expect him to come, but he shall come and he shall startle them. And the contrast here is in how the Jews could not comprehend his humiliation, and the one great fact of why Jews cannot see their Messiah, the Lord Jesus, as the true Messiah, is the fact that he was humiliated.
They were looking for a king, and he came as a servant. And they could not understand it because they did not read their Old Testament. They do not accept Isaiah fifty-three as as prophetic of him, as he is prophetic of the nation, but not of him, as though they were astonished at him. They couldn't comprehend his humiliation. So the other side of it here in verse fifteen is the Gentiles cannot comprehend his exaltation. What will our president, what will Chernenko in Russia, what will the Queen of England think?
When they see the Lord Jesus coming in power and great glory to take over the government of the world, they'll be astonished. They never thought it would happen. And so what they had not seen nor heard will be made manifest. Gentiles had not heard. They had no oracles from God like the Jews did. And Paul quotes this very verse actually as a great reason for evangelizing the Gentiles. You knew I'd find some missions in here, didn't you? Well, in Romans, verse twenty-one, he quotes this verse as a reason why we ought to reach lost people because they did not have the word themselves, and therefore they still need the word itself.
But I want you to go on in the first part of chapter fifty-three. there was the prospect of exaltation, the valley of humiliation, and the heights of his glory in the end of fifty-two. But look at fifty-three. Here is the second section having to do with the rejection of the servant in these first three verses. And they depict what the future remnant of Israel, the believing remnant, shall say when they finally recognize who he was. You see, one day the remnant of Israel will see him, and this is what they will say.
Orthodox Jews today see only Israel, the nation in this passage. Finally, they're going to see the light, and they're going to see the Savior right here in these passages. And first of all, in verse one, there's the rejection of the report. Who has believed our report, or that which we hear, the story of the glorious servant and his humiliation, whose face was so mine, whose form was so disfigured? Who has believed our report? The Lord Jesus explained this statement in John chapter twelve, and that you remember it was at the time of the triumphal entry, and the hour had come for him to be glorified, and the grain of wheat to fall into the ground and die, and the Son of Man to be lifted up on the cross, and many, many signs had been given to them, and they did not believe.
And so the Lord Jesus says that the prophecy of Isaiah may be fulfilled, who said, Who has believed our report? You see, they simply... could not believe the message. To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? To whom did God make known his power? The arm of the Lord is the symbol of his power. Over and over in the Old Testament we see his saving arm and his saving power as the Israelites, for instance, are delivered from the Red Sea. It's the arm of the Lord that did it. when the manna is given it, the arm of the Lord that did it.
When the water comes out of the rock, it's the arm of the Lord that did it. You can find lots of parallels through the Old Testament in this imagery of the arm of the Lord. To whom was the arm of the Lord revealed? Why to these very people who would not believe his report? They couldn't see it. And so, even though they witnessed the arm of Jehovah, they rejected him. what he came. They said, Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? And they did not, they did not trust him. They did not believe him. And they rejected his person as well. He shall grow up before him as a tender shoot out of a dry ground and root out of a parched ground.
The imagery is of a grapevine cut back for the winter and you see nothing but a gnarled stump sitting there. as if there was no life there at all. And yet when springtime comes, out from that gnarled stump in an unlikely spot, comes the shoots that bear fruit and bring joy to the people who plant them. And so it is with the Lord Jesus. He grows up as a root out of a dry ground. People didn't recognize him for his beauty or his comeliness or his stately form.
All they could cry was crucify him. And I haven't got time this morning to amplify this. But they rejected him. He was despised and rejected of men in verse three. The word means to raise the head disdainfully to sort of cock your head and pass by that it meant nothing at all. It's the same word that used where Esau despises his birthright and so on. The Jews have always despised things concerning the suffering of the Lord.
His precious name, Yeshua, was changed to Yeshua. which is an acronym for let his name and his memory be blotted out. The Jews have done this. He's called by many of them Ben Sada, son of prostitution. His works are ascribed by many Jews to witchcraft. The Evangelium is called the Evangelion or the mischievous writing. They have despised our Savior. He's rejected of men. better yet, forsaken of men. He's a man of sorrows, a man of pain, and acquainted with grief or sicknesses and weakness in life.
When the Israelites had come out of Egypt, or were about to be led out of Egypt, one of the things that Jehovah said to Moses was, I have heard their cry. I know their sorrows. Here is the man of sorrows, the man of pain. The distinction was that his life was painful endurance. And one thing that I would like to point out this morning in particular has to do with some of these sufferings in life of the Lord Jesus. So often we concentrate on his redemptive sufferings, that which he suffered for our sin.
And these, of course, are the very heart of salvation. They're the heart of why we love him, why we worship him. They're the heart of what has brought us into relationship with God, has made us rich beyond all measure, and we're blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. those wonderful redemptive sufferings. It's these that we remember when we gather around the table of the Lord and focus our attention upon Him. But there were other sufferings in life of the Lord Jesus. And while we can never enter in to His redemptive sufferings, they were unique.
They were His. They were what He suffered at the hands of Almighty God, angry at things. in order that we might be saved that we might be made the righteousness of God in him we can never enter into those sufferings at all but in his non-redemptive sufferings as theologians would call them we can enter in he was in all points tempted like as we are sin upon and we can enter in as he entered into life and human life. And I want you to see for just a few minutes, there are some of these non-redemptive sufferings here as well, and the sufferings of the servant as a man who satisfies Jehovah's demands for the world.
And you can find almost a summary of what we've been talking about during the last four mornings here. We talked about his character, didn't he? Didn't we? Well, he grew up as a tender plant, perfect, beautiful, beautifully formed, growing up as a tender plant coming out of that dry, dry, gnarled root in the ground, and there is that beautiful plant. Have you ever had a botanist? try and describe to you some of the beauties of of flowers I was very friendly with Paul Flint who's very great on botany and he could go by and find the tiniest little plant and then he'd draw your attention to this and that and he would show me beauties I never saw before in those little things right outside our door there's a bush of a little white flower with the most exquisite little flowers And petals, each one of the little balls about this big, is made up of hundreds and hundreds of smaller flowers that are each one exquisite in their own makeup.
And the character of the servant was like that. And even though he lived in a world of injustice and pain, even torture, yet his character is always perfect. He grew up as a tender plant. There is his character as servant. We saw that in chapter forty-two. And then I see his mission here. It also shines, for he was sent to be the suffering savior. He was wounded for our transgressions. He's bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace is upon him. And so he accomplishes his mission.
And we saw that in chapter forty-nine, where he comes to do the will of the fathers. where he accomplishes and satisfies the glory of the Father, his mission is seen here as well, and then his discipline is seen here, that we saw something of yesterday in chapter fifty, where he is willingly led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a lamb hesitatingly, is led forward, uncryingly, without a whimper, no sound. So he is led in the land of the slaughter, his perfect discipline in the face of death.
His character shines, his mission shines, his discipline shines here. And these sufferings in life are something beautiful as we see something of them here. My time is about gone as usual, but I want you to notice that he suffered physically in a world cursed by sin. He lived as we do in a human body. He became tired. He became hungry. He became thirsty. He sweat. He endured pain.
He was bruised and beaten and whipped and pierced and tortured, driven to exhaustion, finally crucified. He knew a great deal about the suffering in a world cursed by sin. And he expresses himself in the form of a servant. We shrink sometimes from following him because our society has taught us to always be as comfortable as possible, to avoid any form of risk or discomfort if we possibly can. People avoid missions for the same reason. We're constantly talking to young people and even to parents, and they're afraid that their child may be subject to some risk for the cause of Christ, and that shouldn't be, you know, we should have security.
Should we? Where do you get that in the Word of God? He didn't shrink from what He went through for us. You see, there's no security ultimately. Life and comfort and security are highly valued, but they're not God's priorities. Man's chief end is to glorify God. And if our ministry lasts six months like John the Baptist and then God takes us home, Well, if we glorify God, we have fulfilled our ministry. If God should give us a long life, as many of you have had, well, you can thank him for that as well.
He suffered physically in a world cursed by sin, and we too may suffer. He suffered being tempted in a world dominated by Satan. The moment he began his servanthood, the moment he was identified as the servant come to do the work of salvation, Satan leads him away, or the Spirit leads him away into the wilderness where Satan tempts him. Satisfy your hunger. Demonstrate your glory. Grasp now world authority. The Lord Jesus suffered being tempted.
The way in which he tempted being both the divine and the human person is very difficult for us. We cannot see how, if he could not sin, how he could suffer. And yet tell me, if every tree in the forest were blown down except one, which tree felt the full force of the wind? Only the one that never fell. the Lord Jesus never fail. Well, my time has gone. I'm going to tell you a little story, but I think I'll forget the story. Well, it was about dieting.
Do you want to hear about dieting? Some people go on diet, you know, and they have to deny themselves certain things like those chocolate Sundays or something else. in order to to gain their goals of becoming slim and trim and so on and you might imagine that there were several people and they were going to go on a diet several young ladies at Emmaus for instance and maybe they were slightly on the heavy side and so they decided to deny themselves all of the goodies that were going around the desserts and the second helpings and maybe cut down the first helpings and all this kind of thing and after one day girl number one, we'll call her Laurie.
She gives up, and off she goes down to Erics, that's the local store that sells all the Danish goodies, and off she goes down to Erics and buys a great, big, lovely, delicious, calorie-full thing, and she's finished. I couldn't stand it, she said. It was just too much. And then the next day, girl number two, and we'll call her Susie, And finally, hunger pangs are just racking her inside, and she's driven to distraction, and off she goes, down to Eric's, and she goes to the ice cream department, and away she goes. Eight hundred and ninety-eight calories in one blast.
Maybe two thousand, I don't know how you count those things. And the third girl, Susan, fights off the temptation to go down to Eric's. And three weeks later, she's looking trimmer and smarter. And they're talking together. And Laurie says, you know, I couldn't stand it anymore. You don't know the temptations that I had. And Susie says, yes, you don't know how we suffered and we just had to get in. And the third girl says, oh, yes, I do. I know a lot more about it than either of you do. The Lord Jesus, you see, was the perfect servant.
He suffered being tempted, but he was sinless, impeccable, perfect. And that's our servant. We live in a world that is subject to the great conflict of the ages, and Satan would tempt us, not just with dieting, but in all forms of temptation, and yet we are to find strength in him and to follow him who is a perfect servant. He suffered in his human spirit, in a world of sinful people, and he was misunderstood and misrepresented and lied about and accused and so on.
He suffered in this way, and we may suffer in this way as well. I can't take time. He suffered in compassion for a world filled with need. He was moved with compassion on them. He saw them as sheep without a shepherd. And that caused suffering in his sinless soul. We too are to be like that perfect servant. We can't enter into his redemptive sufferings, but we can enter into his sufferings in life for us. Well, I overshot my time. We'll leave it here this morning. If you appreciate your precious Lord Jesus as a perfect servant more as a result of our little morning devotions together, I shall be very happy.
Let's pray. Our Father again, for him who is our perfect servant, for his character, for his mission, for his perfections in many ways that we have been speaking some little bit about. Help us, Father, to be more like him. to know him, and to emulate him, and to live like him, and to serve as he serves. We pray in his name and for his glory. Amen.