Isaiah 52:12

God’s people will leave in a calm manner. This will show their complete confidence in the *Lord. All the nations will notice their quiet attitude.

The *Lord’s Servant will suffer, but he will succeed

Verses 52:13 to 53:12 provide the fourth (4th) of the ‘Servant Songs’ (see my notes at the beginning of Chapter 42 and the notes on 42:1). References to this Song appear in the *New Testament more often than references to any other passage in the *Old Testament. This Song is often called ‘the gospel (good news) in the *Old Testament’.

• The subject of this Song moves from God’s Servant as a group (that is, the nation called Israel; see Isaiah 49:6-7) to a person (that is, *Messiah). The *New Testament identifies *Messiah as Jesus Christ.

(Note: These 15 verses form one of the most important passages in the entire Bible, for both *Jews and Christians. For many years there has been an enormous amount of discussion in books and articles about the real meaning of the passage. But all this work has failed to bring universal agreement. By these notes, I hope to give some general explanation to show what the Song is about.)

• The Song has three parts.

In Verses 52:13-15, the *Lord is speaking.

In Verses 53:1-9, the people reply.

In Verses 53:10-12, the *Lord speaks again.

v13 ‘My Servant will achieve success in his task. And I will reward him with great honour. v14 But many people had a great shock because of him. They saw what happened to him. His *appearance was so awful that he hardly seemed to be human. v15 It will astonish many nations to see my Servant now. Even kings will be silent in front of him. Because they will have seen something that nobody had ever mentioned. They now understand something that they had never heard before.’