SHEMA, O ISRAEL!

 Consider how Jewish rabbis interpret Isaiah Chapter 53:

 

 

 

WHO IS THE SUFFERING SERVANT? 

 

In rabbinical thinking Isaiah 53 portrays Israel as the suffering servant.  By the hands of Gentile oppressors, through pogroms, crusades, and the Iniquisition, they want Jewish people to believe that Isaiah 53 is speaking about corporate israel.  

 

However, the truth of this chapter is seen in a different manner.  For example, forty-seven pronouns such as "he", "him", and "his" are used and written. Nowhere in scripture (the Tenach) is the nation of Israel ever called by these pronouns.  Israel has several different name titles throughout the scriptures, but is never referred in the pronoun "he", or "him", or "his."

 

From Isaiah Chapter 53, consider the powerful question asked and written by Isaiah in verse 1: "Who hath believed our report?"  This question reveals the frustration of the prophet  because of those who reject the truth of scripture.

1. His plain appearance.  Isaiah 53:2 reads:  "...he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.'

2. His pitiful rejection and sorrow. "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 griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.  He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth..."  vs. 3,4,6a.

 

  3.  His physical suffering.  "But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and          with his stripes we are healed.  He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation?  for he was cut off out of the land of         the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.  Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his           soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand." vs. 5,8,10.

 

      This suffering is seen in the words, "stricken, smitten, afflicted, wounded, bruised, and stripes."  (See also Psalm 22:14-16; Zechariah 12:10).

 

  4.  His purpose:  to pay the penalty of "our transgressions" (vs. 5); "our iniquities" (vs. 5); "the iniquity of us all" (vs. 6); "for the transgression of my people"            (vs. 8); "he shall bear their iniquities"; (vs. 11);  "he bare the sin of many" (vs. 12); "made intercession for the transgressors" (vs. 12).

 

       Jesus was the "Lamb of God."  He was the great offering for our sins.

 

  5.  His plan:  to "justify many" and to pay the ultimate sacrifice for man's sin.  His death on the cross made it possible for sinners to be justified before God.          vs.11).

 

       From these verses written in Isaiah, Chapter 53, we cannot deny that this suffering servant Isaiah refers to is none other than Jesus Christ, who suffered        reproach, rejection, and revulsion, in order, as the Lamb of God, to shed his blood and die on the cross, making it possible for sinners to be justified                before God.

 

  6.  His prophecy of his burial grave in verse 9:  "And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death..."  Joseph of Arimathaea, a wealthy              man, took the body of Jesus and buried him in his own tomb. (John 19:38-40).

 

  7.  His promise of His resurrection.  In verse 11 of Chapter 53,  Isaiah proclaimed that Jesus would see His "seed", and prolong his days.  "...he shall see           his seed; he shall prolong his days."  vs. 11.  David also prophesied of the resurrection of Jesus in Psalm 16:9-11.

 

 

According to all of these verses in Isaiah 53, there is only one Person who qualifies to be the Messiah.  It is Jesus Christ.  We are told He died, He arose from the grave, and forty days later He ascended to heaven where He is waiting to return to earth in power and glory as the long-waited-for Messiah. 

 

 

How will the Jews recognize the Messiah when He comes?  Zechariah 12:10 tells us:  

 

"And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn."

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

WHO IS THE SUFFERING SERVANT?