Isaiah 52:13-53:12 The Comfort of the Sacrifice

Is there comfort in sacrifice? No, of course not, and yet, maybe. It depends on what sacrifice is being demanded, how the person making the sacrifice views it, and what benefit they hope to achieve by it. Parents make sacrifices for their children all the time. Sometimes children make sacrifices for their parents. Husbands and wives make sacrifices for one another. A person might sacrifice time and resources for a good friend or a good cause. Making that sacrifice declares the value a person places on that relationship or greater cause.
The sacrifice might only be a sacrifice of time or resources, but it might be something as serious as giving up one’s life. A first responder risks death to save someone. Soldiers give their lives for their country. Paul remarks,


Again, making a sacrifice declares the value a person places on that relationship or greater cause. But is there comfort in the sacrifice?

Think of a sacrifice you personally have made and what it cost you.
God engages us as His co-laborers in this Highway Project in comforting and restoring hurting and struggling people, and that task often demands a sacrifice on our part.


Now let’s change the perspective a little. So far, the Servant has been the one entering into another person’s suffering. What if He was the one suffering and asking you to identify with and share in His suffering?


I think there can be if we consider how it deepens our relationship with Him and bears witness of the value we place on Him.

Overview
Last week we talked about the comfort of the good news in Isaiah 52. Redemption has been purchased freely by grace. Even as God declared the greatness of His reputation and intent to reestablish His glory, He humbled Himself as a Servant to redeem His people. He extended His holy arm—His Son, His King, and the symbol of His strength—to bring them salvation, but as we will see today that glorious Arm will, in turn, render His strength as He sacrifices Himself to save not just Israel but the world. The extreme act of humility and self-sacrifice seems completely contradictory to the goal of glorification, and yet it is through the Servant’s sacrifice that God’s glory is reestablished.

We pick up now with the final verses of Isaiah 52 that present a picture of the coming king. Just as the first messianic deliverer, Cyrus, was given a grand introduction in Chapter 44, followed by the details of his tasking and reward in Chapter 45, the Servant is now given a grand introduction in Chapter 52, followed by the details of His tasking and reward in Chapter 53. But again, the picture is equally glorious and terrible to behold.

I don’t often start off with a New Testament verse, but today I want to start with a verse from John 12, where Jesus is teaching the people about how both He and the Father will be glorified through His death on the cross. The apostle John references and quotes the Isaiah verses that we are studying today as he relates Jesus’ teaching, and he concludes his report with this statement:


Even as we read about the death of the Suffering Servant-King today, we are going to be presented with an understanding of glory as seen from God’s eyes that will put suffering into perspective. After we go through the Isaiah passage, we will look at John 12 again.

Isaiah 52:13-15
After the grand chorus of the good news, proclaiming peace, salvation, and comfort to God's people, Isaiah 52 ends with the heralding God’s Servant, the coming king. There is a three-fold description of His glory in verse 13. In the NKJV, it says He will be exalted, extolled, and very high. Other versions might say raised, lifted up, and highly exalted. The words seem redundant, which is why we often pass over them so quickly, but we should look at the meanings of the three Hebrew words behind the translation because there is more to the picture.

• to lift up (one’s head, face, eyes, voice, soul, etc.) 
• to lift up for the purpose of taking something away, like a heavy load. 
• to bear up or carry—figuratively, to endure or suffer something in order to relieve another. Depending on how it is used, it can describe you lifting a burden from someone else, or it can mean that you yourself are the thing being lifted up and taken away. Thus, this word has some somber undertones in regard to suffering or even being taken away in death.

Order is important in the Old Testament. Note the progression of these words:

• It begins with rûm, being exalted, like a king at his triumphal entry.
• Then, nasa—being lifted up, being made to endure suffering by bearing another’s burden until finally being taken away altogether. That is the full picture of nasa brought together in one moment.
• And then gabah, soaring up majestically to be exalted and glorified.

The triumphal entry isn’t hard to grasp, nor is the kingly glorification in the end, but the middle experience described by "nasa" is a little complex and that is what gets unpacked in Isaiah 53.
 
Remember, God’s Highway Project has required both processes of lifting up and tearing down to accomplish God’s goals of peace and pardon for sin. Here we have the description of a lifting-up action—something being made high and exalted—and yet there is a balancing act of tearing-down in the midst of it.

But this is the nature of highways. Sometimes you have to turn right before you can go left, and sometimes you have to go south for a ways before you can go north. Have you ever come out of a driveway wanting to turn left onto a highway, but you couldn’t because there is a barrier blocking the turn? So, what do you do? You turn right and travel for a ways until you can make a U-turn. And then you go left and proceed in the direction that you really wanted to go. It feels like you lost ground unnecessarily, but in the end, you get where you want to go and where you are meant to be. Highways in life are like this.

The Servant is going to be glorified in the end, but He is going to have to south for a bit before He goes north. He had to be torn down before He can be lifted up, but for a purpose.

"Man . . . Son of Man . . ."
In verse 14, it says that the Servant’s appearance will be exceedingly marred more than any man or more than the sons of men. That comparative phrase, “man . . . son of man,” is a formulaic statement that we see often in the Old Testament (Numbers 23:19; Job 25:6, 35: 8; Psalm 8:4, 80:17, 144:3, 146:3, Isaiah 56:2). Man and son identify with each other not by blood relationship but because of their shared character, condition, or experience. This is why Ezekiel is called “son of man” repeatedly, because the LORD tasked him with identifying the people’s condition, often by pantomiming it. It is also why Jesus is called the Son of God or Son of Man in the gospels. He uses that “Son of” title to express His identification with character or condition of God the Father, but also, at times, with the people. The use of this formulaic statement clues us to the fact that there is a kind of identification going on—the Servant is identifying with the condition of the people.


Verse 15 says He will sprinkle (some translations say "startle") many nations. Sprinkling and startling are two very different actions in our English understanding, but not in the Hebrew. The Hebrew word simply means “to leap.” Leaping can describe water or blood leaping from its source in a spurting, sprinkling, or spattering manner, or it can describe a startled or springing up action.

Isaiah presents this glorious and yet horrifying picture of the coming king, and what is Israel’s response?

Isaiah 53:1-4
Israel once wailed “Awake, awake, o arm of the LORD!” (Isaiah 51:9). The prophet now replies, the Arm of the LORD is revealed! You have heard the good news! Why won’t you believe it?


This is not how she wanted to be delivered. This Servant doesn't fit her mental picture of the hoped-for Messiah. He should be more like Cyrus. He should conquer the oppressor, put Israel’s enemies under His feet, and reign on the throne. Cyrus set the bar pretty high for a Messiah-King. This is not her idea of comfort, either. This isn’t good news. Sometimes, God’s idea of comfort seems alien to us, and it challenges us to consider how we define comfort.


The Servant’s identification with Israel’s condition is what equips Him to offer comfort, and the wincing description here in Isaiah 53 is as much a description of her as it is of Him. In her bondage, Israel has no beauty. She is not desired. She is despised and rejected, acquainted with sorrow and grief. The Hebrew word for grief actually means sickness or affliction. The Servant is the very reflection of her, and she hides her face from that reflection (v3). He identifies with her, but she does not want to identify with Him. She considers her own plight to have been caused by the Babylonians, but this man—this man has been stricken by God (v4). That, too, is a denial. God told Israel back in Isaiah 42 that He Himself was the one who gave her over to the Babylonians on account of her sin (Isaiah 42:23-25).

When we don’t like what we see in the mirror, we turn from our reflection, don’t we? We have previously talked about why a person would refuse comfort, and one reason was because they don’t want to acknowledge their own condition and it becomes a stumbling block. This is why, when a victim is faced with the reflection of themselves in their comforter, they will want to deny the association. They will stab a finger at the comforter and say something like, “I am nothing like you! You deserved what you got. I did not!” They won’t want to hear it and will scorn the comfort. That is what Israel did to her Comforter. Thus, He became a stumbling block for her. Instead of accepting the redemption He offered her freely by grace, she turned back to trying to redeem herself by her own effort. She could not accept the gift, not from His hands.

Isaiah 53:5-10
The prophet forces Israel to identify with the Servant as the trespass offering for her sin. He endured this for her. He bore the affliction silently. Note: the Servant, who has been speaking for Himself in previous passages, goes notably silent in this chapter. The only speakers are the prophet in verses 1-10, and the LORD Himself in verses 11-12. The Servant’s silence is deafening.

There is a particular word that we should savor in verse 5. It is the word in the NKJV is “wounded;” other translations say “pierced.” In the Hebrew, it is the word, ḥalal (pronounces ha-layl with a phlegmy “h”).

• In a physical sense, it means to be pierced, as with a sword or spear, so as to inflict a mortal wound and cause death. This kind of piercing also describes a woman being raped—when a man enters into a place where he had no right to go and defiles her, and that defilement begins to consume her mentally, emotionally, and even spiritually.
  
  
• In a spiritual sense, it means to be defiled or profaned. Just as corruption enters an open wound so that the man becomes sick and dies, so spiritual defilement enters a man and pollutes him and he dies.
  
  
• The entering-in of corruption or defilement all begins with that initial way being opened. Thus, ḥalal is also translated as “to begin” to do something. Something begins, and that beginning opens a way for a train of events to unfold that lead to death, separation, or defilement, but out of that experience comes a new beginning (Genesis 4:26, 6:1, 9:20, 10:8, 11:6, 41:54). Example: The Flood was the end result of a train of events that began with a ḥalal-ing moment in Genesis 6:1-2:
  
  

Here in Isaiah 53, the Servant was ḥalal-ed for our transgressions. He was pierced physically. He was profaned spiritually. The piercing and defilement led to His death but also bought our redemption and put an end to the curse. Verses 8-10 details the Servant’s death. There is no doubt that this is a death, and the LORD’s hand was in it. The LORD was the one who gave Him the cup of fury to drink and He drank it to the dregs. But then, in verse 10, there a reversal, mid-verse. The Servant, who was dead, has somehow prolonged His days. He will see prosperity and a return for His labor. Thus, that death was not an end but a new beginning. His resurrection initiated a new life under a new covenant. It was a ḥalal-ing in the fullest expression of that word.

Isaiah 53:11-12
The speaker shifts in verses 11-12. A third-party had been speaking of the LORD and the Servant, but now the LORD Himself speaks. “I will divide Him a portion with the great . . .” This is the LORD Himself rewarding the Servant.

This is the reward on which the Servant had set His sights when it seemed his effort was in vain (Isaiah 49:4). Having come through the ordeal, the Servant now sees the result of His labor and is satisfied, meaning He feels fulfilled and overflowing, like a cup that runs over with fine wine.

The LORD grants the Servant a portion with the great, and the Servant, in turn, shares His spoil with “the strong,” much like His ancestor David used to do with his mighty men. Who are "the strong"? What defines a “mighty man,” or woman for that matter?
It depends on whose definition and values you use.

By the world’s definition, the strong are the biggest bullies on the block. They are the most popular candidate who receives the most number of voters at a polling booth or the influencer with largest number of supporters for their social cause. But as imposing as it might appear, that kind of strength has no eternal power. The strongest nation can be broken in one day. The LORD proved that with Babylon. The strongest athlete can be broken with one injury. The strongest support can evaporate overnight when popularity shifts. The strongest anything that is of this world can be reduced to nothing if God merely blows on it.

Those who are strong by the world's standard are not the ones with whom the Servant shares His spoil. The strong, by the Servant’s definition, are those who look beyond the fleetingness of the earthly riches and sacrifice all in pursuit of the heavenly kingdom, just as He did. They identify with Him as disciples and follow in His footsteps.


The Servant has been the one coming to us and identifying with us in our suffering, but now He invites us to come to Him and identify with Him in His suffering as a way of testing our strength. To those who bear the burden and endure as He did, He divides the spoil, but what is the spoil?


It is. We will come back to a discussion of the reward when we get to the kingdom picture in Isaiah 55, and I will show you how this picture in Isaiah lines up with New Testament teaching on crowns.

The Servant’s glorification had come full circle. The rûm glorification played out at His triumphal entry. The lifting-up act described in the word, nasa, has now played out. The Servant was lifted up as an offering and made to bear the burden of the people’s sin. As He was taken away, He took that guilt and judgment with Him. And now, He is gabah-ed. He is lifted up again, this time with all the dignity and honor of an eternal king. This is the understanding of how His glorification would be accomplished that Jesus tried in vain to explain to the people who were hailing him king at His triumphal entry.

John 12:23-41
The Messianic King has just made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem (John 12:12-16). The people expect Him to be the conquering Messiah-King who will overthrow Rome and make Israel great again. But instead, He stands up before them and begins to talk to those with whom He would share His glory about being lifted up in death to the glory of God the Father—the same very picture of rûm, nasa, and gabah described in Isaiah 52 and 53.

Keep in mind, the Hebrew words in Isaiah are a little difficult to understand because the common language of Israel is no longer Hebrew but Greek, and the Greek translation of the word, nasa, doesn’t capture the full depth of its meaning. In the Greek, it just comes across as being exalted and honored like a king, but it loses the sense of being made to endure a burden and be taken away. So, there is a language difficulty. To recapture that sense of the Hebrew word, Jesus clarifies it by adding a phrase in verse 32, saying that He will be lifted up “from the earth.” In other words, He isn’t just lifted up like a king being paid homage. He will be literally lifted up and taken away from earth, out of this world. He is going to heaven, which means He is going to die. But how can that be? (Sometimes you have go south, before you can go north.)

Jesus has been referring to Himself as the Son of God/Son of Man throughout His ministry. He employs the formulaic as a way of expressing His identification with God, but also with the people. The people question Him about it here, in verse 34.


The Son of Man is obviously the King who has just come into His eternal kingdom, but He is not identifying with that glorified condition or experience. Quite the opposite. This is a problem because the people of Israel expect to share in the spoil from His glorification as a king, not in this appalling picture of suffering and death. And so they question Him sharply. Who is this Son of Man? Explain the analogy to us.

Jesus doesn’t explain it. Instead, He answers with His own twist on that formulaic (John 12:35-36). Instead of using the “man . . . sons of man” analogy, He substitutes “light . . .  sons of light”. Again, He is playing off the imagery of the Servant pictured in Isaiah, who is described as the one who would bring light to the world. That should have connected the dots for them, but it doesn’t shed light on things at all. The apostle John sums up this exchange with the quotes from Isaiah 53:1 and Isaiah 6:10, remarking on Israel’s blindness and the reason for it, then sums it all up by saying, “These things Isaiah said when he saw His [Christ’s] glory and spoke of Him.” 

Back in Isaiah 52:5-6, God swore that He would put an end to His name being blasphemed continually, and that in that day, His people would know that He was the one who said, “Hinneni. Here I am, your Servant.”  He said He would lay bare His holy arm and all the world would see His salvation. But this isn’t the way that anyone imagined He would take back His glory.

But this piercing, this death, was the only means of creating a way out of a crooked place.

God’s Highway Project: The Way Out of a Crooked Place
The Servant’s sacrifice is the turning point in God’s Highway Project. Isaiah 53 marks the exact center in the span of Chapters 40-66, and presents the apex act of salvation that will end the conflict on the spiritual plane and set straight the path that will lead to the final end of all conflict. Just dealing with the physical oppressor hadn’t lifted the oppression. Cyrus’ efforts had proved that. Israel needed healing from the inside out, because it was the internal, spiritual problem that had gotten her into her destructive, conflicted lifestyles. Once the internal, spiritual healing was accomplished and her values set right, then the external oppression would end and she would not return to it.

There are aspects of the healing and restoration process that could not be addressed until this barrier was overcome, notably the stumbling block of shame which we will discuss next week. From this point on, we will begin to see pictures of a glorious coming kingdom, an abundant new life, and a perpetual covenant of peace, and not just for Israel. The Suffering Servant will be universal Savior, and He will offer a place in that kingdom to those who believe in Him and accept that sacrifice for their sins—even those who Israel would not consider kingdom-worthy. Israel’s skewed sense of values and ideas of right worship are more stumbling blocks that God will have to correct before He can bring her fully into that kingdom. These are all the topics of futures chapters.