MY SHORT REPORT ISA 42 - JER 3
The link that brought you to this page and the page title are a bit of a misnomer, because this short report is not long enough to cover so many chapters of the Bible. What the link and the title do, however, is track where we are in our plan to read through the entire Bible in 1 year. May each report pique your interest and help you to draw near to God. The Bible, James 4:8, tells us if we do so God will draw near to us. Works cited are at the end of the report. Internal links provide additional information.
BIBLE READING—WEEK 32—ISA 42 – JER 3: Last week’s report focused on the book of Isaiah. In the early chapters of Isaiah we got a little “Christmas in July” as we read about God’s Divine Providence among the nations and the coming Savior. This past week’s reading completed the latter half of Isaiah, and this week’s Short Report looks at Isaiah 52 and 53 where we see that the promised Messiah, for our sake and according to God’s will, would humble Himself and be a Suffering Servant. Thus we get a preview of the Easter Story.
The Bible did not come with established chapters and verses; various “editors” used different systems of organization until “Cardinal Stephen Langton who in 1205 created the chapter divisions which are used today” (Wiki). So, I guess, we can thank Langton that Isaiah 52:13-15 is separated from Chapter 53, to which it belongs. But we should also thank him for making Jeremiah 29:11 and other Bible verses easy to find and use.
It is at Isaiah 52:13 that modern Bibles place an assortment of labels to indicate the subject matter that follows. The English Standard Version (ESV) tells us, “He Was Pierced for Our Transgressions,” while the Lexham English Bible (LEB) uses a label that says, “The Servant’s Suffering and Exaltation.” Both the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) and the Names of God Bible (NOG) provide a simple description to point to “The Suffering Servant,” and the New International Version—1984—(NIV-84) uses a label that directs our attention to “The Suffering and Glory of the Servant."
Luther agrees that the numbering system is amiss in this part of Isaiah, and writes, “Here we begin chapter 53” indicating 52:13 actually starts this section (chapter) of the book of Isaiah. He adds, “This [Chapter 53] is the foremost passage on the suffering and resurrection of Christ, and there is hardly another like it” (Works, 215).
The label the NIV-84 uses is most in keeping with Easter, because while His suffering was much, His glory was much more; just as Jesus said regarding His death and resurrection in John 12:23-24, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”
We see this picture of God’s glory in Isaiah 52:13, which says, “Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted” (cf. Philippians 2:9-11). This success and ultimate glorification is counted in Christ’s victory over sin, death and the power of the devil (LSC, 131). But more than that, the exaltation of Christ is the “first” verse and the overarching thought even though many of the proceeding verses speak of His great suffering.
Isaiah 52:14 is an image of pain and suffering. We are told “his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance.” The four Gospels tell the story. Jesus is arrested and taken before the Sanhedrin where “they all condemned him as deserving death” (Mark 14:64). At that point Jesus is spat on, blindfolded, slapped and beaten (v. 65). Shortly after the rooster crows, sometime after sunrise, the Sanhedrin have Jesus bound and delivered to Pilate (Mark 15:1), who is better known as Pontius Pilate, “the fifth prefect of the Roman province of Judaea from AD 26–36. He served under Emperor Tiberius” (Wiki).
Pontius Pilate tried to avoid the situation, but yielded to the cries from the Jewish crowd to crucify Jesus. After He was scourged—whipped with a cat-o'-nine-tails—and beaten by the Roman soldiers, which included “striking his head with a reed” (v.19), He was led through the streets and taken to Calvary. No doubt the onlookers in the streets and at Golgotha, the Place of the Skull, could not recognize Him because He was so disfigured by the hands, fists, reeds, and the whip that savaged Him.
Isaiah 52:15, “so shall he sprinkle many nations,” presents problems for many commentaries. On face value “sprinkle” brings the sprinkling of blood on the altar during Old Testament sacrifices to mind, as well as the use of water in the New Testament sacrament of Baptism, both have to do purification. We also know that nothing purifies, or washes away sin, like the blood of Jesus. In his view on verse 15, Luther mentions the Apostle Peter like so, “Peter speaks of ‘sprinkling with His blood’ (1 Peter 1:2) to denote preaching about the blood of Christ. So then we must preach that Christ is both glorious and despised” (Works, 217). For Luther then, Isaiah 52:15 is concerned with the preaching of the Gospel of Christ. This makes good sense because that is both why Christ suffered and went to the cross, and is now glorified, that the Good News may be shared with all. Through His body and blood and Word and sacrament the Holy Spirit works so that all people and nations (who are called) are purified, justified, sanctified, and glorified (Ezekiel 36:25; Titus 2:14; 1 Corinthians 6:11; Romans 8:30).
Isaiah 53:1 is a statement of unbelief surrounding God’s Servant; the nation of Israel hardened their hearts against hearing the Gospel message, “Who has believed what he has heard from us?” Saint John quotes this verse in John 12:37-38, “Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him, so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: 'Lord, who has believed what he heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?'” Isaiah 53:2-3 carry a similar message.
Verses 4 through 12 returns to the message of the cross: He was stricken by God for our sins, died for our transgressions; for our sake He remained silent and took our punishment; though He was innocent He died a death that belonged to the wicked; by God’s will He was crushed and by God’s will He will prosper; by the obedience of the One many are made obedient; because He became sin for the guilty and paid for our sins with His blood, we are redeemed.
The label the ESV uses actually points forward to 53:5 which reads, “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.” Here we see the Suffering Servant on the cross shortly before sundown on Friday where Jesus was crushed by the weight of our sins, pierced by a Roman solider, and shed His innocent blood for the remission of all our sins (cf. 1 Peter 2:24, John 19:34, and Matthew 26:28). Thus, we are healed—no longer slaves to sin (Romans 6:18)—and have peace with God because of the Prince of Peace, who is also the Good Shepard that gives His life for His sheep (John 10:11).
Halley summarizes chapter 53 like this: “One of the best loved chapters in all the Bible. A picture of the Suffering Savior. It begins at 52:13. So vivid in detail that one would almost think of Isaiah as standing at the foot of the cross. So clear in his mind that he speaks of it in the past tense as if it had already come to pass. Yet it was written seven centuries before Calvary. It cannot possibility fit any person in history other than Christ” (p. 303).
This week’s Short Report examined some of the verses from Isaiah 52 and 53 where the promised Messiah is viewed to be Exalted and a Suffering Servant. By His strips we were healed, by His work on our behalf we find rest and peace with God. He was brutalized beyond recognition because the unbelieving world could not see Him. “But, as it is written, ‘What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him’—these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit” (1 Corinthians 2:9).
The Bible did not come with established chapters and verses; various “editors” used different systems of organization until “Cardinal Stephen Langton who in 1205 created the chapter divisions which are used today” (Wiki). So, I guess, we can thank Langton that Isaiah 52:13-15 is separated from Chapter 53, to which it belongs. But we should also thank him for making Jeremiah 29:11 and other Bible verses easy to find and use.
It is at Isaiah 52:13 that modern Bibles place an assortment of labels to indicate the subject matter that follows. The English Standard Version (ESV) tells us, “He Was Pierced for Our Transgressions,” while the Lexham English Bible (LEB) uses a label that says, “The Servant’s Suffering and Exaltation.” Both the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) and the Names of God Bible (NOG) provide a simple description to point to “The Suffering Servant,” and the New International Version—1984—(NIV-84) uses a label that directs our attention to “The Suffering and Glory of the Servant."
Luther agrees that the numbering system is amiss in this part of Isaiah, and writes, “Here we begin chapter 53” indicating 52:13 actually starts this section (chapter) of the book of Isaiah. He adds, “This [Chapter 53] is the foremost passage on the suffering and resurrection of Christ, and there is hardly another like it” (Works, 215).
The label the NIV-84 uses is most in keeping with Easter, because while His suffering was much, His glory was much more; just as Jesus said regarding His death and resurrection in John 12:23-24, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”
We see this picture of God’s glory in Isaiah 52:13, which says, “Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted” (cf. Philippians 2:9-11). This success and ultimate glorification is counted in Christ’s victory over sin, death and the power of the devil (LSC, 131). But more than that, the exaltation of Christ is the “first” verse and the overarching thought even though many of the proceeding verses speak of His great suffering.
Isaiah 52:14 is an image of pain and suffering. We are told “his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance.” The four Gospels tell the story. Jesus is arrested and taken before the Sanhedrin where “they all condemned him as deserving death” (Mark 14:64). At that point Jesus is spat on, blindfolded, slapped and beaten (v. 65). Shortly after the rooster crows, sometime after sunrise, the Sanhedrin have Jesus bound and delivered to Pilate (Mark 15:1), who is better known as Pontius Pilate, “the fifth prefect of the Roman province of Judaea from AD 26–36. He served under Emperor Tiberius” (Wiki).
Pontius Pilate tried to avoid the situation, but yielded to the cries from the Jewish crowd to crucify Jesus. After He was scourged—whipped with a cat-o'-nine-tails—and beaten by the Roman soldiers, which included “striking his head with a reed” (v.19), He was led through the streets and taken to Calvary. No doubt the onlookers in the streets and at Golgotha, the Place of the Skull, could not recognize Him because He was so disfigured by the hands, fists, reeds, and the whip that savaged Him.
Isaiah 52:15, “so shall he sprinkle many nations,” presents problems for many commentaries. On face value “sprinkle” brings the sprinkling of blood on the altar during Old Testament sacrifices to mind, as well as the use of water in the New Testament sacrament of Baptism, both have to do purification. We also know that nothing purifies, or washes away sin, like the blood of Jesus. In his view on verse 15, Luther mentions the Apostle Peter like so, “Peter speaks of ‘sprinkling with His blood’ (1 Peter 1:2) to denote preaching about the blood of Christ. So then we must preach that Christ is both glorious and despised” (Works, 217). For Luther then, Isaiah 52:15 is concerned with the preaching of the Gospel of Christ. This makes good sense because that is both why Christ suffered and went to the cross, and is now glorified, that the Good News may be shared with all. Through His body and blood and Word and sacrament the Holy Spirit works so that all people and nations (who are called) are purified, justified, sanctified, and glorified (Ezekiel 36:25; Titus 2:14; 1 Corinthians 6:11; Romans 8:30).
Isaiah 53:1 is a statement of unbelief surrounding God’s Servant; the nation of Israel hardened their hearts against hearing the Gospel message, “Who has believed what he has heard from us?” Saint John quotes this verse in John 12:37-38, “Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him, so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: 'Lord, who has believed what he heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?'” Isaiah 53:2-3 carry a similar message.
Verses 4 through 12 returns to the message of the cross: He was stricken by God for our sins, died for our transgressions; for our sake He remained silent and took our punishment; though He was innocent He died a death that belonged to the wicked; by God’s will He was crushed and by God’s will He will prosper; by the obedience of the One many are made obedient; because He became sin for the guilty and paid for our sins with His blood, we are redeemed.
The label the ESV uses actually points forward to 53:5 which reads, “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.” Here we see the Suffering Servant on the cross shortly before sundown on Friday where Jesus was crushed by the weight of our sins, pierced by a Roman solider, and shed His innocent blood for the remission of all our sins (cf. 1 Peter 2:24, John 19:34, and Matthew 26:28). Thus, we are healed—no longer slaves to sin (Romans 6:18)—and have peace with God because of the Prince of Peace, who is also the Good Shepard that gives His life for His sheep (John 10:11).
Halley summarizes chapter 53 like this: “One of the best loved chapters in all the Bible. A picture of the Suffering Savior. It begins at 52:13. So vivid in detail that one would almost think of Isaiah as standing at the foot of the cross. So clear in his mind that he speaks of it in the past tense as if it had already come to pass. Yet it was written seven centuries before Calvary. It cannot possibility fit any person in history other than Christ” (p. 303).
This week’s Short Report examined some of the verses from Isaiah 52 and 53 where the promised Messiah is viewed to be Exalted and a Suffering Servant. By His strips we were healed, by His work on our behalf we find rest and peace with God. He was brutalized beyond recognition because the unbelieving world could not see Him. “But, as it is written, ‘What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him’—these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit” (1 Corinthians 2:9).