Isaiah: Satisfied!

Isaiah 53:6-12

I’ve said this before, but I want us to remember it as a principle for understanding God’s Word. Scripture is Christocentric. The Old Testament points us to Jesus’ coming and his purpose; the New Testament tells his story and how to live for him. Isaiah, the miniature Bible, is Christocentric as well. The first part of the book (1-39) drives home the seriousness of sin. The second section (40-66) explains how God forgives and restores his people through the Messiah.

Our passage today is Isaiah 53:6-12 as we continue our study of the most definitive Old Testament text foretelling the work of Jesus. As we did yesterday, we will consider this verse by verse.

Isaiah 53:6 [Anchor Point]
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 

Like a sheep that has wandered from the path, we have wandered away from God. One writer noted that this is the essence of the human condition. From Genesis 3, when Adam and Eve desired to be their own God, we have followed suit. Sin is embedded in the human DNA. We have turned our backs on God. We don’t become sinners because we sin; we sin because we are sinners.

But the Good Shepherd always goes after his sheep.

God loved us so much that while we were still sinners, straying like sheep, rebelling against him, Jesus died for us (Rom. 5:8). On the cross, God laid on Jesus the sin of the world. Borrowing from Isaiah 53, Peter said, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed” (1 Pet. 2:24). John says that the Father “sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10). Thus, Jesus’ death on the cross appeased the Father’s judgment on sin. Paul said that God “made him to be sin who knew no sin” (2 Cor. 5:21). Christ on the cross made a “full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice … for the sins of the whole world.”^[1]

Isaiah 53:7 
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. 

Jesus voluntarily went to the cross. Don’t forget that he is God. He could have halted the process at any moment. Like a sheep going to the slaughter, Jesus, because of his surpassing love, surrendered to the cross for you and me. He was indeed “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). To emphasize his sacrificial obedience, Jesus is referred to as the Lamb twenty-eight times in the book of Revelation.  

Isaiah 53:8 
By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? 

Jesus was arrested, bound, and taken away to die. The innocent was sacrificed for the guilty. The sinless One died for the sinful. “Stricken for the transgression of my people” is similar to Isaiah 53:5, but in that context, it involved punishment; here it indicates death.

Isaiah 53:9 
And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. 

Jesus was fully God and fully man. Being God and sinless, he didn’t have to die for his sins. Being human, he died on our behalf. Only Jesus could accomplish this. That’s why he is the only way to have a relationship with the living God (John 14:6).

Because Jesus was sentenced as a lawbreaker and crucified with other criminals, it follows that he would be buried with such. However, God had other plans. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus were granted permission to take the body of Jesus. In fulfillment of Isaiah 53:9, Jesus’ body was prepared, and he was buried in Joseph’s tomb.

Isaiah 53:10 
Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

God loves us so much that he sent his Son to die. “It was the will of the LORD to crush him….”  The death of Jesus was the guilt offering required for your sins and mine. He paid sin’s penalty in full. This was God’s plan revealed in Genesis 3:15 when God told Satan that his head would be crushed by the One that was to be born of a woman, fully God, fully man.

But Jesus would not stay in the grave. He would see his offspring, referring to all who would follow him. His days would be prolonged….

Isaiah 53:11 
Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. 

The anguish of the cross was excruciating, a word that means “out of the cross,” coined for the pain inflicted. But it was that pain, coupled with death, that satisfied the Father’s judgment on sin. Jesus bore our sins, so those who trust in him will be credited with righteousness.

Isaiah 53:12 
Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.

Jesus poured out his soul to death, identified with sinners, and paid the penalty for sin, therefore, he will be exalted. He now makes intercession for all those he has saved.

The Servant came and bore our sins on the cross. Now, through him, we have an eternal relationship with God. Jesus did for us what we could never do for ourselves!

PERSONAL TIME WITH GOD
Time in the Word: Read and reflect on Isaiah 53:6-12. Reflect on our Anchor Point—Isaiah 53:6. Allow the truth of what Jesus accomplished on the cross be your focus today.

Talking to God:  Thank Jesus for his amazing love! 

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Every day is a day of spiritual renewal as we follow hard after Jesus.