This prophecy actually begins in the latter part of Isaiah 52 (verses 13-15), which serves as a summary of chapter 53. These three verses describe his exaltation (13), humiliation (14), and his shocking effect on the world (15). This roughly corresponds to chapter 53 (though in a different order) which describes the irony of his coming (1-2), his humiliation and suffering (3-10a), and exaltation (10b-12). All together, the text reads:
"Behold, My Servant shall deal prudently; He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high. 14 Just as many were astonished at you, So His visage was marred more than any man, And His form more than the sons of men; 15 So shall He sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths at Him; For what had not been told them they shall see, And what they had not heard they shall consider. 53:1 Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? 2 For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, And as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him, There is no beauty that we should desire Him. 3 He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. 4 Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth. 8 He was taken from prison and from judgment, And who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; For the transgressions of My people He was stricken. 9 And they made His grave with the wicked— But with the rich at His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was any deceit in His mouth. 10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand. 11 He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will 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 He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore the sin of many, And made intercession for the transgressors," (
Isaiah 52:13-53:12 NKJV).
Will the Real Servant Please Stand Up?
There are a number of important aspects of this passage. First, verse 1 describes the arm of the Lord. This has parallels elsewhere in Isaiah where the arm will rule for God (
Is. 40:10); Gentiles will trust in the arm (
Is. 51:5); the arm will redeem (
Is. 51:9); and the arm will provide salvation (
Is. 52:10).
4
Second, verses 1-3 show that this servant came as a normal individual. He is not, in the appearance or status of his person, attractive or amazing in any sense. Third, verses 4-6 and 8 describe the substitutionary nature of the servant’s suffering. This individual suffers for the sins of Israel, “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities” (5) and “For the transgressions of My people He was stricken” (8). Fruchtenbaum comments on the pronouns in the passage, “The pronouns mean that Isaiah and the Jews must be included; they cannot refer to Gentiles. Furthermore, none of the things happening to this individual could be said to apply to the nation of Israel. Isaiah is clearly talking of one person. The nation is only included in the pronouns.”
5
Fourth, the text indicates that the servant did not open his mouth. Fruchtenbaum notes, “This is hardly true of Israel. One thing Israel has not been is silent in her sufferings; she has written many books describing her suffering and accusing those responsible.”
6 Fifth, verses 8-9 indicate that the servant dies. The text uses the words “cut off,” which indicates that the servant was legally executed. Blenkinsopp notes that the reference in verse 9 “. . . would seem most naturally to imply that he was put to death.”
7 Sixth, the servant dies, but somehow he is vindicated in the end. He is alive and able to see his seed (11). How will the Messiah be able to prolong his days and see his seed if he is dead? A resurrection of some sort is the only possible way for this to happen.
8
If this isn't proof that God exists and you can't see the pro-founding evidence of God in this passage then your critical thinking isn't as sharp as you think it is....Isaiah predicted and was given vision from God the Father nearly 750 years before the event of Christ happened ...further more Isaiah crosses the T's and dots the I's in this writing of history and factual evidence
