Isaiah 53: Jesus in the Old Testament

I have spent a couple weeks discussing Psalm 22, which is one of the most powerful chapters in the Old Testament with a view of Jesus on the cross. The other Old Testament chapter known for a prophetic look at the life of Jesus is Isaiah 53. Let's start by reading it in full:

Chapter 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 griefsAnd 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 53:1-12 (NKJV)

There are many prophecies of Jesus, but there is something special about this chapter in Isaiah. It is always worth looking a little in advance of where a chapter begins as man added the verse numbers and chapter breaks to facilitate us finding the passages. The end of Chapter 52 obviously goes with this. Let's start with Isaiah 52:14:14:

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.
Isaiah 52:14-15 (NKJV)

His visage was marred more than any man and His form more than the sons of men. Basically, this is saying that Jesus didn't even look like a man anymore after they had beaten Him. After watching "The Passion of the Christ," many wondered if the beating and crucifixion were worse than had really happened when in all actuality, they were much less than had really happened. We know that they even plucked out His beard:

6 I gave My back to those who struck Me,And My cheeks to those who plucked out the beard;I did not hide My face from shame and spitting.
Isaiah 50:6 (NKJV)

No wonder His disciples had trouble recognizing Him when He reappeared to them after His resurrection! His body was broken and even His face looked different. So now let's dig into Isaiah 53:

Who has believed our report?And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
Isaiah 53:1 (NKJV)

The Old Testament Scriptures had revealed the Messiah to all who read, but when He came, they did not recognize Him. We were told in advance He would be born of a virgin, would be born in Bethlehem, would flee to Egypt, would live in Nazareth, would heal the blind, etc. They didn't know Him when He came because they expected Him to come as a warrior vanquishing all of their enemies. Instead, He came in love.

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.
Isaiah 53:2 (NKJV)

Jesus shall grow up before God the Father as a tender plant. He is the Master Gardener, who prunes us all. This verse tells us that Jesus would grow up in lowly circumstances. The Jews thought He would sit on the throne of David, but that will not happen until He comes the second time. There were no markings of royalty on His life as a man. Hollywood always portrays Jesus as a wimp, usually very American looking with blue eyes. Don't forget, He was a Middle-Eastern Jew and looked like a Middle-Eastern Jew. He worked as a carpenter, and was certainly not a wimp. But this verse also tells us more about the physical presence of Jesus than we learn in the Gospels. He had no form or comeliness and when we see Him, there is no physical beauty. Why would God not have His Son come to earth as the most handsome of men? Because if we are to truly follow Him, we will be drawn to His inner beauty. It would be too easy to gravitate to a silver-tongued charmer. That, not so ironically, is the description of the antichrist!

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.
Isaiah 53:3 (NKJV)

Not only was He rejected by the people He came to save, they hated Him. He felt what the pains of this earth were like. Though He never walked in sin, He felt the brokenness of this world and even felt the brokenness of sin when all of ours were cast upon His shoulders on the cross. If you ever feel like Jesus has no idea what you are going through or what you are feeling, know that He does, and not just from an intellectual perspective. He has felt that pain. Think back to the two times Jesus cried in the Gospels. He cried when Lazarus died. He knew that He was going to bring Him back to life, but still, Jesus felt the pain of a friend's death. Then the week before His crucifixion, while overlooking Jerusalem, He wept for the city filled with all the people He came to save who did not see Him. He was heartbroken.

4 Surely He has borne our griefsAnd carried our sorrows;Yet we esteemed Him stricken,Smitten by God, and afflicted.
Isaiah 53:4 (NKJV)

It is interesting that this is written in past tense, though it is a future event. It reminds us that God is outside of time. When He died on the cross, He carried all of my sins, even the ones I have not committed yet. He carried our grief and our sorrow. And with all He did for us, we treated Him with disdain, instead of with great honor and thanks. He carried our sins...the cause of our sorrows.

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.
Isaiah 53:5 (NKJV)

Jesus became the scapegoat for our sins. He was beaten and bruised so brutally, that crucifixion didn't take multiple days as it normally did. He died on the cross within hours of being placed there. But the last verse in this passage is the key to our lives. "By His stripes, we are healed." He took our pain for us. I remember a story I once heard about the days in a one-room schoolhouse. A new teacher had come to town and was trying to set the stage by making rules and forcing the children to adhere to them. A major offense carried the punishment of 10 strokes with a paddle. One day, a little boy stole someone's lunch. The teacher found out who had done this. Sadly, he also found out why. The boy hadn't eaten all week. His family was very poor and rather than ask for help, he stole. The teacher knew the reason for the crime, but still felt like he had to punish the little boy. Another boy in the class asked the teacher if he could take the punishment for the boy who had stolen the lunch and the teacher agreed. While being whipped, the tears in the boys' eyes were partly from the pain, and partly from knowing what he was doing for someone else. The boy who stole the lunch appreciated what his friend did for him. Multiply this times a billion and take away the appreciation of the act and it gives you a small glimpse into what Jesus endured on that day.

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.
Isaiah 53:6 (NKJV)

This verse describes our world so well. Sheep are not smart animals. They can't defend themselves, and without a shepherd, frequently find themselves in dire circumstances. Many times in the Bible, people are described as doing what is right in their own eyes.

15 The way of a fool is right in his own eyes,But he who heeds counsel is wise.
Proverbs 12:15 (NKJV)

Instead of following the laws of God, we decide the difference between right and wrong. We take the 10 Commandments away from the courthouses and take the Bible out of the school. We wouldn't want to offend someone who has a different belief system. In case you haven't figured it out yet, our ways don't work! God placed our sins on the shoulders of His Son, and there were a lot of sins to place there!

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.
Isaiah 53:7 (NKJV)

Jesus went before a trial with Caiaphas, had false witnesses testify against Him, went before Pontius Pilate, and didn't try to end the events of the day by defending Himself. He let the procedures continue as it was what He came to do. He also knew the time was when it was designed to happen. He was the Passover Lamb and was slaughtered. As badly as He was beaten, He held His tongue. When the nails went through His hands and feet, He held His tongue.

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.
Isaiah 53:8 (NKJV)

This verse takes me back to my trip to Israel and reminds me of the Antonio Fortress. He was killed, for the sins of God's people. Daniel 9:26 also refers to Messiah being cut off.

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.
Isaiah 53:9 (NKJV)

Jesus had no home...He was not a rich man. He died with poor criminals, beside Him on the cross. But Joseph of Arimathea placed Him in a rich man's grave, just below Golgotha. Even people who do not believe in Him as the Son of God still refer to Jesus as a good man who lived. He was not a violent man. Even his burial is prophesied here!

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.
Isaiah 53:10 (NKJV)

I always come back to this verse. Because the Father knew that this was the only way any of us could know Him, He took pleasure in the crucifixion of His only begotten Son. The Father made Jesus' soul an offering for our sin, for my sin. The seed of this event will extend through all of time, as many people have been forgiven from their sins because they asked for that forgiveness. God's pleasure is in seeing each one of us follow Him.

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.
Isaiah 53:11 (NKJV)

Jesus sees the effect that this labor accomplished, and He is satisfied. It was worth it. Jesus justifies us. What is justification? It is the daily process of us becoming more like Him...part of us dying each day and more of Him living in us. Though we become a new creation when we come to Him, we do not completely change as the old memories remain, as does the sin nature. But through the Holy Spirit, God reminds us of what is right in His eyes. "Justified" is easy to remember if you know that it is "just if I'd never sinned!"

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 53:12 (NKJV)

We are included in the inheritance that God gives to Jesus. He divides the spoil with us who follow Him. This verse even tells us that He would be crucified with others, not alone, and one of them will share the inheritance, too. He bore our sins and made intercession for sinners. Jesus is the intercessory High Priest. That began on the cross when He asked the Father to forgive us and told Him we did not know what we were doing, and it continues in heaven. Let's look at a verse to see that:

25 Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.
Hebrews 7:25 (NKJV)

and

24 For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us;
Hebrews 9:24 (NKJV)

So, what do you think about Isaiah 53? Isn't it awesome?