ISAIAH 52:13 15 - 52:15
THE LIFTED UP SERVANT
John 12: 32-33
The text we begin today may be the best know in the Old Testament. The passage is certainly one of the riches and most unmistakable prophecies in the Bible. Our text begins the fourth and longest of the four Servant Sermons in Isaiah (42:1-9; 49:1-6; 50:4-9; & 52:13- 53:12). [It is written like a poem and contains five stanzas of three verses each. We will look at it one stanza at a time.]
Our passage teaches us of a violent grace. The Servant and His mission appear to utterly fail, Yet the man will attain matchless elevation. Although men and even nations were appalled at His appearance and His form (or His divergence from the ways of other men), He will succeed in His mission. He will have startling accomplishment after undeserved suffering and apparent failure. The ultimate world wide accomplishment by the One whose life in the eyes of the world held so little worth and wisdom will be staggeringly overwhelming.
This Suffering Servant is a man of contrasts. There is the contrast between the Servant’s exaltation and accomplishment with His suffering and humiliation. There is also the contrast between what people though about the Servant and what was actually the case. Though man would cast Him down and humiliate Him, God would lift Him up and glorify Him.
I. THE EXALTED SERVANT INTRODUCED, 13.
II. THE ASTONISHING DISFIGUREMENT, 14.
III. THE POWER OF THE BLOOD, 15.
The last three verses of Isaiah 52 introduce the Servant and speak of His exalted glory. Verse13, Behold, My Servant will wisely prosper. He will be high and lifted up, and greatly exalted.
Behold, My Servant introduces a new segment [and an new Servant Sermon, see 42:1] but more than that. It calls us to pay attention to the One who is going to be described. If what this passage says about this man’s capacity to take away sin is true, then by all means we should fix every bit of our attention upon Him. He will establish the new covenant and be the light of the world.
Two important points are made in this verse. The Servant’s holy character and obedient life [in spite of the total injustice of His mistreatment] is indicated by God’s statement, My Servant will wisely prosper. He will wisely prosper by doing what the Lord wants Him to do. He will act with such wisdom and obedience that His efforts will be successful (Josh. 1:8; Jer. 10:21). He will both know and do the right things in order to accomplish the purpose for which He was called (Isa. 42:1; 49:2-3; 50:7-9). Jesus always did what His Father wanted Him to do (Jn. 8:29).
The definitive second point is the emphatic compounding of the future eminence of the Servant and His position. The Servant will be high, and lifted up, and highly exalted. The three verbs are the consequences of the Servant’s wise actions.
His being lifted up refers to the kind of death He died on the cross (Jn. 12:32-33; 3:14-15), and to His being exalted at God’s right hand (Phil. 2:9; Col. 3:1; Heb. 1:3; 8:1; 10:12; 12:2; 1 Peter 3:22). Our Savior’s perfect obedience (Phil. 2:8), is the reason He is "highly exalted" in heaven. He will not remain in His humiliation but be lifted to tower above all and everything (Acts 2:33; 3:13; 26).
The "servant," as the term is used here, is the Messiah, our Lord Jesus. He is the only One worthy of such high exaltation because of His willing humiliation and sacrifice described in chapter 53. Because He was lifted up in humiliation for man on the Cross, God has lifted Him above all principalities and rule to the place of universal Sovereign. There is no one more exalted than Jesus. Nor will there ever be throughout all eternity.
In striking contrast to His final glory the terrible disfigurement of this Servant is depicted in verse 14. Just as many were astonished at you, My people, so His appearance was marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men.
In language of unimaginable trauma the prophet begins to reveal the deliverance of the church. God had dealt with His Old Testament people severely but they were not forgotten or forsaken. They still remained His covenant people. [It was astonishing that they left Babylonia captivity and reestablished their ruined capital and home land. It is even more astonishing that the old covenant people still survive as a group today. Many of God’s people today suffer appalling persecution in many parts of the world.] Often times God’s New Covenant people are dealt with severely but they are not forsaken or forgotten either, just as God’s Chosen Servant was not.
Many will be appalled could also be translated "awestruck, astonished, or shocked." It expresses a mixture of surprise, contempt and aversion (Lev. 24:32; Ezek. 27:35; Jer. 18:16; 19:8). [Alexander, The Prophecies of Isaiah, 287].
Why were so many people "appalled" or astonished at the Servant or Jesus? The text suggests that one reason was the terrible physical abuse He underwent during His trials and crucifixion. One might almost translate the next clause, "Such a disfigurement! His appearance is hardly human!" It’s not hard to imagine the crowds in Jerusalem staring in horror at what their leaders and the Romans did to Jesus.
In speaking of the suffering of our Savior, Isaiah declares that when people see Him, they will be startled because He was marred more than any man. This does not mean that He appears to be disfigure more than any other man but that His disfigurement was so great that He no longer appeared as a man. What was seen of Him was disfigurement, not the appearance of a man.
Such appearance is not surprising for when His suffering was only beginning, soldiers blindfolded Him and punched Him repeatedly in the face, taunting Him to prophesy which to them who had hauled off an slugged Him. In other words, Jesus was literally blind-sided, sustaining hit after hit to the face which He had no way of deflecting. Then they pulled out His beard. Then they beat Him with canes, then with a whip with shrapnel attached. By the time His beatings and scourging were complete, the crown of thorns carved open His brow, and the Cross had its effect, He was marred beyond the appearance of a man.
Do you see the Lord in His slain condition? You need to look till you see Him, for only then can you understand the price He paid for our sin. When we understand what took place on the Cross, we’ll fall at His feet, saying, "Thou art worthy to receive glory and honor and power and dominion forever and ever" (Rev 5: ).
See Jesus as One who has been slaughtered and slain for our sin. Beaten with fists, whipped with a flagellum, the cat of nine tails, crucified on a cross. Attacked by the hordes of hell, Jesus Christ was reduced to quivering flesh on the cross. And not until we see Him will we begin to realize the unspeakable price He paid on our behalf (Revelation 5:6).
Why such brutality? Because His form meaning His divergence from the ways of other men, was so different. His sinlessness, His perfect obedience, His absolute truthfulness, His integrity, His knowledge, His holiness, His rightful authority and His righteousness are so different from that of fallen man that we despise who He was. Therefore He was held in contempt and the sin seeking people had an aversion to Him.
The point is to convey that all suffering is encompassed here: physical, mental, and spiritual. Instead of the Servant demonstrating that He was the gift of God through His attractiveness, personality and winsomeness, the very opposite was true. We are repelled by the face of self-giving and undefensiveness, and appalled by the visage of one who would prefer to lose than to win with the wrong motive for the wrong reasons.
[Marcus and Narcissa Whitman became martyrs for the gospel due to a tragic mistake. The young missionary doctor and his wife headed for the American Northwest in 1836 to minister to Native Americans in the Oregon Territory. They worked among the Cayuse tribe until 1847, when an epidemic of measles killed a number of children. The Cayuse mistakenly thought Dr. Whitman had caused the disease, and they murdered both him and his wife.
Many of God’s servants have been martyred by people who were blinded by hatred and lack of understanding. Jesus said we should not be surprised when the world persecutes His disciples, because that’s the way He Himself was treated (Jn. 15:18-21). God’s Servant-Messiah suffered at the hands of sinners in ways we will never completely understand.]
But there is an even greater astonishment in store for the world. Isaiah says in verse 15 that the nations will be speechless when they finally realize the awful mistake they made by rejecting the only One who can cleanse us from our sin. Thus He will sprinkle [startle] many nations. Kings will shut their mouths on account of Him. For what had not been told them they will see, and what they had not heard they will understand.
Why did the Servant undergo such disfigurement? Because if He endured this disfigurement and crucifixion, He would be able to sprinkle people in many nations (Heb. 12:24;1 Pet. 1:2). "Sprinkle" is associated with cleansing or purification by the priest under the Mosaic Law (Lev. 4:6; 8:11; 14:7). That is why His form was different. That is why He sanctified Himself and remained innocent of sin, so that He might purify others. For without the shedding of blood there is no forgiven for sin (Heb. 9:22).
Blood performs very important functions in the body. For e.g. carrying oxygen, cleansing away waste products such as carbon dioxide and lactic acid. But the blood of Christ is infinitely more important than the blood pulsing through your veins. It has the power to blot out all your sins (Heb. 9:12-25).
This Servant, whom many have not considered important at all, will actually provide the most important thing for nations and their kings, namely, cleansing from sin (John 1:29; Heb. 10:14). That is why they will shut their mouths that is, they are rendered speechless. [For the figure of shutting the mouth as an expression of speechlessness, see Job 29:9; 40:4; Ps. 107:42; Ezek. 16:63; Mic. 8:16. See also Rev. 6:15-17.] They will be appalled that they had miscalculated His critical importance so badly. Realizing their great mistake, they will have nothing to say. They will not speak to one so highly exalted until He permits them to do so.
The nations will be as appalled at His greatness in the end as they were at His humiliation in the beginning. Their own greatness is so small that they have nothing to say in His presence and can only fall at His feet (see 49:7). Thus what they have never heard of before is how one who took such a lowly place could ever sit on the very throne of God in the end. When they see Him exalted in His Second Advent, they will finally understand and see clearly. They will recognize Him for who He is.
The shocking revelation is that it is through the loss of all things that the Savior conquers all things. When people see Him at His second coming those who did not consider Him important will be absolutely astounded. They will see Him from a new perspective.
The Gentiles will find the humiliation of the Deliverer shocking because they have never heard before that it is through the loss of all things that the Savior will conquer all things (Rom. 15:21).
[People say the idea of worshiping the Lord in heaven for thousands of years sounds boring. But that’s because we don’t understand the unspeakable price He paid open the door to heaven for us.]
CONCLUSION / RESPONSE
This servant, Jesus Christ, would be "marred beyond human likeness" but through His suffering, He would cleanse the nations (Hebrews 10:14; 1 Peter 1:2). Before Him every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that He alone is Lord. His exaltation bears direct proportion to His humiliation. His esteem and respect to His contempt and rejection. Despite Christ’s terrible suffering, the end of the story will be glorious.
Many centuries ago on the south coast of China, high on a hill overlooking harbor of Macao, Portugese settlers built an enormous CATHEDRAL. They believed it would weather time, and marked their achievement with a massive bronze cross as the centerpiece of its front wall. Not too many years later, a typhoon came, and God’s swept away man’s handiwork, leaving only a portion of the front wall and the cross.
Centuries later a shipwreck stranded hundreds of men not far out in the same harbor.
Some died; some lived. One man hanging on wreckage from the ship was disoriented and frightened, having lost sight of land in the storm. Yet each time the ocean swells lifted him out of the waves, he spotted the cross, which eventually guided him to safety.
To countless millions, that is what the cross means. It is a glowing symbol of rescue, leading stranded souls shipwrecked on sin’s jagged reefs from the shadow of death’s darkness to the new dawn shining out of new life.
It is also a place of hope to countless Christians who come back to the cross, bringing the scattered debris of their lives. There, because of the violent suffering of Christ, amazing grace is offered. The suffering Christ experienced for us was beyond comprehension. But He experienced it for us that we need not suffering in hell, if we do not accept His life and death.
What kind of God would do that? The kind who loves us so much that He would go to the greatest lengths to spare us from judgment. The scourging, the insults, the crown of thorns, the nails, the spear – all cry out about the love of God (Is. 53:7).
The God who wants to justify us and remove our guilt, sin, and death.
Therefore "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God (Heb. 12:2 ).
Have you ever truly done that? Are you daily looking to Jesus from His guidance & continuing salvation? If not will you look to Him and see His love for you & allow Him to transform your life?
