Isaiah 53:2

God chooses how he will work. And often, he works in a manner that people do not expect. His Servant was someone who was not impressive. People did not even realise that God had appointed the Servant for a special task.

• The early life of Jesus was in a village called Nazareth (see Luke 2:39; Luke 2:51). Nazareth was not well-known (see John 1:46). The name ‘Nazareth’ does not appear in the *Old Testament or in any other early *Jewish records. There was nothing special about where Jesus was living. Isaiah writes about ‘poor soil’ as a picture in words of this fact.

• As a boy and then a youth, Jesus’ body grew naturally. But he grew ‘in front of him’ (that is, ‘in front of God’). So God was quietly taking special care of him.

• In those early days, there was nothing unusual about Jesus to attract public attention (see Matthew 13:55). Jesus was about 30 years old (see Luke 3:23), when he left Nazareth to begin his work for God (see Matthew 4:13; Luke 4:16-30).

The Servant’s heavy task

v3 The Servant would be lonely. People would turn away from him. And he was someone who would suffer greatly with terrible pain. That is why we would not even look at him. We did not think that he was of any value. v4 God’s Servant carried the weight of our illnesses. In other words, it was our pain that he suffered. But we thought that he had brought the troubles on himself. And so God was punishing him. We believed that God had struck him. And that God made him ashamed. v5 But he suffered such injuries because we had refused to obey God’s instructions. And therefore we had been living evil lives. But God’s Servant suffered on our behalf. So God makes us healthy and whole in his *sight. v6 We had all wandered like sheep. We had chosen to go our own way, not God’s way. We deserved punishment. But God has given the punishment to his Servant to suffer.