College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
Isaiah 53:10-12
c. SUCCEEDS
TEXT: Isaiah 53:10-12
10
Yet it pleased Jehovah 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 Jehovah shall prosper in his hand.
11
He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by the knowledge of himself shall my righteous servant justify many; and he shall bear their iniquities.
12
Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he poured out his soul unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors: yet he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
QUERIES
a.
Why did it please Jehovah to bruise Christ?
b.
How would the Servant be satisfied with His travail?
c.
What portion did the Servant receive?
PARAPHRASE
Although it was God's purpose for the good of man to allow His Servant to be pierced to death and to suffer, when the Servant's death has become expiation for sin, then He will produce a multitude of spiritual descendants. He will then live forever and God's purpose for the good of man will have succeeded because of Him. And when He sees that God's plan has succeeded, He will rejoice with satisfaction. And because He knows and fulfills perfectly Jehovah's plan of salvation, He shall be able to impart righteousness and justification to many people through His atoning sacrifice. On account of His absolute victory over sin and death, He will be rewarded with a glory commensurate with His victory! He will be the greatest among the great. He is the greatest of all because He was servant of all pouring out His life unto death, allowing Himself, though He was sinless, to be made sin for others, putting His sinless innocence down as an offering on behalf of evil and wicked mankind.
COMMENTS
Isaiah 53:10 PERPETUITY: The Hebrew word khaphetz means, delighted or desired and indicates that the death of the Messiah involved more than a sterile, unfeeling, deterministic plan of an unfeeling God. It is incomprehensible to the finite mind of sinful man how God could delight in the death of His Son, but He did. The Hebrew word translated bruise is heheliy and means to make painful. The Isaiah Scroll from Qumran has the word vyhllhv which means that he might pierce him (see comments on Isaiah 53:5).
These verses are some of the strongest of the Old Testament on the resurrection or immortality of the Servant-Messiah. The Servant dies, but He also lives on, succeeds and carries out the work of atonement, redemption, justification, sanctification and intercession that the Father has entrusted to Him, just as it was predicted He would do (Luke 24:25 ff). Other O.T. prophecies of the resurrection of the Messiah:
Acts 13:34 (The enduring throne promised to David's Messiah-Son presupposed victory over death.)
Genesis 22 (Abraham and Isaac; Hebrews 11:17-19). Abraham, on Mt. Moriah, participated in a dramatic typical event portraying Calvary and the Empty Tomb. Perhaps Jesus was alluding to this when He said, Abraham rejoiced to see my day. and was glad. John 8:56
Psalms 118:22 (The stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner).
There is no doubt that Isaiah 53 is Messianic and that it is predicting His atoning death and resurrection. Philip, by the guidance of the Holy Spirit, interpreted it thusly, Acts 8:26-40.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is a well established fact of history:
Proof of the Resurrection of Christ:
1.
The historical records, by competent, credible, honest, numerous eyewitnesses say the tomb was empty. There is no historical testimony or evidence to the contrary. The only explanation is Matthew 28:11-15, soldiers were paid to say His disciples stole the body while the soldiers were asleep. How absurdly incredible!
2.
Credible, competent, honest eyewitnesses testify they saw Jesus after his death, alive, talking to them, eating fish with them, even saw the nail prints in His hands.
3.
The conversion of the enemies of Christianity can only be accounted for by the historical factuality of the resurrection of Christ (Saul of Tarsus; great company of the priests; even some of Caesar's own household).
4.
The Catacombs of Rome depict the resurrection of Jesus and testify to the belief in it by first century saints.
5.
The existence of the church and its ordinances testifies to the resurrection. The fact of the New Testament itself is inexplicable apart from it.
It is not a question of could the resurrection occur or not. It is a question of did it occur or notnot a philosophical question, but a historical, scientific question!
Merrill C. Tenney says, The event is fixed in history, the dynamic is potent for eternity.
Unbelievers say Christ was not raised from the deadI say prove it! All the reliable evidence we have says He was!
The church began in the city where Jesus-' burial was known, among those who could have refuted the testimony of Peter (Acts 2) and proved it false. All they would have to have done was produce the body of Jesus! But 3000 testify that He had arisen and Peter was telling the truth.
There are Imperatives to the Resurrection.
1.
There is power in it. The power of Christianity is not in the esthetic value of great cathedrals, somber ritual and tradition, nor emotionalism but in the historical fact of the resurrection of Christ.
a.
Gives hope that is living (1 Peter 1:3)
b.
Brings joy unspeakable and full of glory (1 John 1:1-4)
c.
Sanctifies and purifies (1 John 3:3; Acts 17:32)
d.
Gives power to evangelism (Acts 4:33)
e.
Gives stedfastness (1 Corinthians 15:58)
2.
There is only one alternative to the resurrection. That is a life of eating, drinking, for tomorrow we die (1 Corinthians 15:12-19; 1 Corinthians 15:32).
3.
But, if Christ is raised from the dead, and we shall be also, then:
a.
The Bible is God's Word!
b.
Heaven and Hell are real places!
c.
Man will live forever, one place or the other!
d.
A man's sins may really be forgiven!
e.
The plan of salvation in the N.T. is the only valid one!
f.
Christ is coming again!
g.
There is only one church, the universal body of Christ which consists of all who believe in Christ, are repenting of their sins and have been immersed in water in obedience to His command!
h.
No one will be saved who is not a member of that church!
The resurrection of Christ makes all the above imperative! There is no middle ground on any of that because His resurrection establishes beyond any question His deity and His authority!
The Servant shall produce seed or descendants. He shall have a family, but it will be a spiritual family (cf. Romans 9:8; Galatians 3:15-20; Galatians 3:23-29). So, it is in being lifted up He will draw men unto Him (cf. John 3:14-15; John 8:28; John 12:32). He shall fall into the ground like a grain of wheat and die, and then bear much fruit (John 12:23-26). And the khephetz (delight) of Jehovah shall succeed through His efforts. The delight of Jehovah is, of course, His eternal plan for the redemption of man! What wonder, what unsearchable grace, that Jehovah's delight should be the salvation and regeneration of a planet full of wicked rebels. But more wonderful, His Son should come to this planet in the form of a man and willingly submit to humiliating death allowing Himself, though absolutely innocent, to become sin on man's behalf!
Isaiah 53:11 PLEASURE: The Servant will have travail of. soul (cf. Isaiah 49:4 ff). But He will be satisfied. For the joyous reward that was set before Him, He could endure the cross (cf. Hebrews 12:2). He will look back from His enthronement at the right hand of the Father and see that He has succeeded in accomplishing the once-for-all-time redemption and regeneration of the Father's creation (man and cosmos). As Young points out, the suffix on the Hebrew word beda-'etto is difficult of interpretation. Is the suffix subjective or objectivethat is, is Isaiah speaking of the knowledge that the servant himself possesses or of knowledge of the servant on the part of others? We think the context is emphasizing the successfulness of the Servant Himself and that it is through His own incarnation (human experience) that He performs His work of justification. It was through the experience of obedience as a Son that He became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him (cf. Hebrews 5:7-9; Philippians 2:5-11). The righteous servant (tzaddiyk -aveddiy) will make many righteous (yatzeddiyk). He makes it possible for us to become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21). This was the grace that was to be ours which the prophets prophesied (cf. 1 Peter 1:10-12). He bore our iniquities and became a curse for us (cf. Galatians 3:13).
Isaiah 53:12 PORTION: On account of the Servant's victory over sin, Satan and death, Jehovah will exalt Him above every other man. The exaltation of the Servant of Jehovah is clearly predicted by the prophet earlier (Isaiah 49:7; Isaiah 52:15). When the Servant made purification for sins, he was enthroned at the right hand of the Majesty on high (Hebrews 1:3-4). When He ascended, He took captivity captive (Ephesians 4:8) and dispensed His gifts according to His will and purpose for the ongoing of the kingdom of God here on earth. The Servant whom the Jews crucified, God made both Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36). There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12). The reason for this exaltation is summarized in the statement, because he poured out his soul unto death. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing (Revelation 5:12).
A whole volume could justifiably be written on this chapter alone. Perhaps the most intriguing question about Isaiah 53 is: If the New Testament is so clear about its fulfillment in Jesus Christ, why do the majority of Jews not see and understand it? A few references to The Servant of Jehovah in Jewish literature, both ancient and modern, may provide a partial answer to this question:
Jewish Apocrypha and The Suffering Servant concept:
The apocalyptic literature of the Jewish Apocrypha are such books as I Enoch, The Sibylline Oracles, The Testaments of the XII Patriarchs, the Psalms of Solomon, II Esdras, II Baruch and others. They were written in the years 165 B.C.100 A.D.
In a book entitled, The Method and Message of Jewish Apocalyptic, by D. S. Russell, pub. Westminster, we learn, There is no serious evidence of the bringing together of the concepts of the Suffering Servant and the Davidic Messiah before the Christian era. Mr. Russell continues, The Targum (Jewish Targums are rabbinical interpretations of the O.T.) on Isaiah 53 has often been alluded to, but it cannot be the Suffering Servant Isaiah predicted. The Messiah presented in this Targum is one who will triumph over the heathen and all the enemies of God's people! The suffering he has to endure is minimal and devoid of all vicariousness. In fact, it is hardly suffering at all, for it consists simply in the exposure of himself to those dangers he will have to face in the coming struggle with the heathen before his final victory is assured. There is no mention of an atoning deathno reference to a suffering and dying Messiah.
II Esdras and II Baruch (cir. 90 A.D.) use the word servant to describe the Messiah from the seed of David. However, there is no suggestion of a suffering Messiah, or an atoning death. He is not killed by enemies or diseasehe simply ceases to exist. The reference to his death is with the same casualness as any human death. He establishes his kingdom, dies, and presumably will rise with other humans at the general resurrection of the people of God.
Modern Jews:
1.
A Jewish woman doctor, recounting her conversion to Christ in a book called Pursued:
While recuperating from illness she began reading a Bible. She read Isaiah 53. She was forced to acknowledge it must be talking about the Messiah. But then she said she refused to accept the consequences of that passage for her Messiah. Suddenly she realized that she was reading from the KJV, A Protestant Bible! Of course, it was slanted to sound that way. I went to sleep that night, confident I had caught the gentiles at a not-too-clever trick.
But then she read it in a Jewish Bible and it was basically the same message!
2.
Chapter s 52-53 (of Isaiah) and other Chapter s contain the prophecies concerning the -suffering servant-' which the Christian church later interpreted as referring to Jesus, but which, in Jewish tradition, refer to the people of Israel, pg. 151 from, The International Jewish Encyclopedia, by Rabbi ben Isaacson and Deborah Wigoder, compiled and produced in Israel for Prentice-Hall.
3.
History of the Jew, by Heindrich Graetz, pub. The Jewish Pub. Soc. of America, 1893, in chapter entitled Messianic Expectations and Origins of Christianity, indicates the idea of a suffering Messiah was completely foreign to Jewish thinking.
It is not difficult now to understand the rebuke Peter had for Jesus (Matthew 16:22) when Jesus predicted His death!
4.
Non-Messianic Interpretations:
a.
Most prevalent among Jewish writers is that Isaiah 53 means the nation of Israel. Some say empirical Israel; some say ideal Israel; some say the pious remnant of the true Israel.
b.
Isaiah 53 means the prophetical orderi.e. the collective body of the prophets. as the sacrificial victim taking upon itself the sins of the people.
c.
Isaiah 53 means an individual (Hezekiah, Isaiah, Josiah, but most frequently, Jeremiah), but a human individual. Some said, an unknown sufferer (sounds like the apostles first answer to Jesus at Cesarea Philippi, Matthew 16).
5.
Aaron Kligerman, in his book, Old Testament Messianic Prophecy, pub. Zondervan, paperback, thinks there were some Jewish interpretations which believed the Suffering Servant was to be the Messiah. He refers to Yalkut and Rambam which are Talmudic and Midrashic literature of the days of Maimonides (cir. 1135-1204 A.D.). These are so obscure, however, they are not worth considering as having direct reference to the Messiah as an individual. They could be understood in any of the categories listed above. Furthermore, they are of such late date they are probably concessions to Christian interpretations of Isaiah 53.
Jews are not alone in disavowing the biblical doctrine of the substitutionary atonement. Bishop G. Bromley Oxnam, former head of the World Council of Churches says in his book, A Testament of the Faith, pg. 144, Boston, 1958;
We hear much of the substitutionary theory of the atonement. This theory to me is immoral. If Jesus paid it all, or if He is the substitute for me, or if He is the sacrifice for all the sin of the world, then why discuss forgiveness? The books are closed. Another has paid the debt, borne the penalty. I owe nothing. I am absolved. I cannot see forgiveness as predicted upon the act of some one else. It is my sin. I must atone.
It is not trite to repeat that Philip, by the guidance of the Holy Spirit, applied Isaiah 53 to the atoning death and justifying resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is difficult to see how one may claim to be a disciple of Jesus and contradict this doctrine!
QUIZ
1.
How do these verses teach the resurrection of Jesus Christ?
2.
Is the resurrection of Christ historically valid?
3.
What knowledge of Himself was involved in the Servant's justifying work?
4.
Why do you think the Jews will not accept Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of Isaiah 53?