Isaiah 53:10

‘Yet it pleased (‘it was the will of') Yahweh to bruise him.

He put him to grief.

When you make his soul an offering for sin

He will see his seed, he will prolong his days,

And the pleasure of Yahweh will prosper in his hand.'

Now the situation is made quite plain. All that has happened to the Servant has happened in the will of God. It was not just allowed to happen, it happened at His pleasure. He chose to crush Him. He chose to put Him to suffering. Not because He was angry at Him or because the Servant deserved it, or because He did not love Him, but because He was making His soul a guilt offering, ‘an offering for sin' (see Leviticus 5:6; Leviticus 6:6; Leviticus 6:17; Leviticus 7:1). Note the stress here on the fact that suffering was necessary. Once again this sacrifice outclasses the ancient sacrifices. The victim was voluntary, and the victim truly suffered.

The guilt offering was a substitutionary offering. It covered a wide range of sins including not giving witness when adjured to do so, making rash oaths, doing anything that Yahweh has commanded not to be done, defrauding people, lying or sinning in holy matters. Indeed it covered anything that made a man guilty before God. And above all it was a voluntary offering. A man chose of his own free will to offer his guilt offering. The stress here then is on the removal of guilt for sins committed in an offering made by voluntary choice. It will be noted that sins of the mouth come in here specifically (compare Isaiah 53:9), together with religious sins and disobedience. Its purpose was to make atonement, to ‘cover' sins, to remove guilt and includes where appropriate restitution. It thus makes total satisfaction for sin. The result was forgiveness (Leviticus 5:16) and total reconciliation with God and man. The offerer has ‘borne his iniquity', because the offering has borne it in his stead (Leviticus 5:17). It results in his guilt before God being removed.

So here the Servant is being offered as a guilt offering, which He makes freely, which covers all men. In that sense it is more like the sin offering which was offered for the whole of Israel, but with the added aspect that it meets the particular sin and need of each one. The reason for using the guilt offering is in fact to stress that each person must take advantage of it individually for his own guilt. For the guilt offering was very individual. This was no blanket atonement but one offered on behalf of each one who must himself come in order to benefit by it. It was personal to his own sin. Each must therefore appropriate this guilt offering to themselves.

And the result will be that He will have ‘seed', His days will be ‘prolonged', which can only mean that He will be resurrected, and He will personally carry out the will of Yahweh which will prosper in His hand. The implication is that His offering will result in ‘children' made guiltless through His blood, that He will have endless life and that He will carry out in His resurrected state the work that God has for Him to do. ‘In His hand' stresses His direct part in it. But the promises are put in such a way as to tie in with the longings of godly men. Having children and length of days and doing the will and pleasure of Yahweh, indicated all that the godly sought and anticipated. Thus this is demonstrating God's satisfaction with what has been done. The Servant too will, after His suffering, enjoy these in abundant measure, evidence of God's delight in Him.

The promise of seed connects this directly with the promises given to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob/Israel (compare Isaiah 41:8; Isaiah 43:5; Isaiah 44:3; Isaiah 48:19). While the Servant is in this chapter revealed as an individual, His coming forth from Abraham is not forgotten. ‘He will see His seed.' This was also what had in a sense been promised to Abraham (Genesis 15:5; Genesis 22:17). But in this case from His death He will lead many sons to glory.

‘He will prolong His days.' His resurrection has been anticipated in Isaiah 26:19; Isaiah 25:8. Through His death this resurrection will now become a reality in Him, and for His people in the future. Note that He prolongs His own days. He has power to lay down His life, and He has power to raise it again (John 10:17).

‘And the pleasure of Yahweh will prosper in His hand.' In all this His desire has been to do the will of Yahweh. And that is what He has accomplished. ‘Lo I come to do your will, O my God' (Psalms 40:6; Hebrews 10:5). He is stricken that Yahweh's will and pleasure might reach its fulfilment. For in bruising this One Whom He had sent He is bringing about His own purposes, the salvation of His chosen ones. The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world (1 John 4:14).

‘When You make His soul an offering for sin.' This ‘you' refers to God's action. God is specifically, personally and directly involved in what is happening. It is He Who offers the Servant up as an offering.

Note that we have from this point on a change in tense. No longer the complete (perfect) tense which speaks of what is done and complete whether in the past or the future, but the incomplete tense which expresses something continual. Having accomplished His perfect work of offering Himself for the sins of many, His continual work goes on.