"Who hath believed our report?" Indeed the unbelief of Israel will seem marvelous to the believing remnant, themselves so long in stony-hearted unbelief. "Ye will not come to Me that ye might have life" (John 5:4040And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life. (John 5:40)) is still true, and not of Israel only, but of Gentiles also.
The arm of Jehovah is His power (chapter 51:9). To whom has the knowledge of Him who is so soon to rise up in Israel's defense, been made known? O, how few! But this was declared in chapter 1:9. "Except Jehovah of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, etc."
"He shall grow up before Him as a tender sapling, and as a root out of dry ground" (verse 2); no appearance of grandeur, of glory in that heavenly Stranger was there for the natural eye to discern as He passed on His way to the cross. "He hath no form nor lordliness, and when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him," is the humbling confession of rebellious hearts of old.. Think not that this refers to 'Him in the day when we shall see Him,—-see Him as He is (1 John 3:22Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:2); 1 Thessalonians 4:1717Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:17)); nor of the time when the remnant shall see Him (Isaiah 33:1717Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty: they shall behold the land that is very far off. (Isaiah 33:17)). All of verses 2-3 (and verses 4-9) refer to what is now past, and never to be repeated in the experience of the Lord Jesus,
"He is despised and rejected (or left alone) of men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief (or suffering), and like one from whom men hide their faces; and we esteemed Him not" (verse 3), He came unto His own, and. His own received Him not (John 1:1111He came unto his own, and his own received him not. (John 1:11)). Such is the record concerning God's dear Son in the treatment He got when He spent His blessed life on this earth. Could any other than He ever have been treated as He was by His creatures, and His chosen people?
Love to man, obedience to God, held Him here, until the purpose for which He came—the death of the cross—was His portion.
Since Jesus was a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, as the preceding verse speaks of Him, what gave Him those sorrows, that grief? The fourth verse tells: “Surely He hath born our griefs and carried (sustained) our sorrows.” The consequences of sin in the race of mankind,—sicknesses of varied character, as leprosy, dumbness, deafness, blindness, paralysis, demon possession, and death itself (the wages of sin)—to these He was not indifferent, we well know from reading Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. By a word, or the touch of His hand, He cleansed the leper, the palsied man rose from his cot, Lazarus dead and buried four days came forth from the tomb. But it was not enough that Jesus should take pity upon the sufferers among whom He labored and compassionately relieve them. He bore the griefs, carried, in His own tender heart, the sorrows of humanity, Himself sinless and untouched by sin in His holy nature and Person. This entering into the sufferings of His creatures while He was here upon earth, is blessedly illustrated in John 11:33-3833When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled, 34And said, Where have ye laid him? They said unto him, Lord, come and see. 35Jesus wept. 36Then said the Jews, Behold how he loved him! 37And some of them said, Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died? 38Jesus therefore again groaning in himself cometh to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it. (John 11:33‑38).
Yet “we, we did regard Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted”—such is the blindness of the natural man, such the state of even the enlightened Jew with the Word of God in his keeping.
A valley of tears this world has ever been since sin entered, and death by sin; and man’s endeavor, since Cain and his family set the example (Genesis 4:16-2216And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden. 17And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch. 18And unto Enoch was born Irad: and Irad begat Mehujael: and Mehujael begat Methusael: and Methusael begat Lamech. 19And Lamech took unto him two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah. 20And Adah bare Jabal: he was the father of such as dwell in tents, and of such as have cattle. 21And his brother's name was Jubal: he was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ. 22And Zillah, she also bare Tubal-cain, an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron: and the sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah. (Genesis 4:16‑22)) has been to ignore or to mask as far as possible this painful truth,—to make merry with music, to occupy the mind with productive labor, etc. In such a scene the heavenly Stranger walked alone.
Yet, though Jesus entered most deeply in the exercises of His heart into the suffering He saw on every hand, a far deeper need of man than relief from sickness and sorrow was before Him. It is this which the Holy Spirit next discloses (verse 5), as the light of the work of redemption enters the conscience and heart of the poor sinner.
It is faith’s acceptance of God’s truth that we see in verse 5:
“But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed.” Here is the explanation of the cry from the center cross,
“My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” Matthew 27:4646And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? (Matthew 27:46); Psalm 22:11<<To the chief Musician upon Aijeleth Shahar, A Psalm of David.>> My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? (Psalm 22:1).
Without His bearing our sins, there would be nothing before man, from Adam downward, but the woes of a lost eternity in which the whole race would be involved. Faith takes God at His word, believes what He has said (John 3:14-1714And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: 15That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. 16For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. (John 3:14‑17)), rejoices in a new and eternal standing before God revealed in Romans 3:21 25: 2 Corinthians 5:2121For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. (2 Corinthians 5:21) and many other Scriptures.
Verse 6 again blessedly contrasts "we" and "Him"—we have gone astray (ever so far, we humbly own), and turned, each of us, to his own way, and Jehovah (not because of anything in us, but in love which was in Himself) hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. The "us all" is the people of faith—all who believe (Acts 18:39). And does the reader know this for himself?
In verses 7 to 9 the Holy Spirit, writing through Isaiah (2 Peter 1:2121For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. (2 Peter 1:21)) looks at the lowly One in the closing scenes of His blessed life, in Isaiah’s time more than 700 years distant.
“He was oppressed (or ill-treated), and He was afflicted, but He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and was as a sheep dumb before her shearers, and He opened not His mouth. He was taken from detention and from judgment, and who shall declare His generation? for He was cut off out of the land of the living.” Here in fewest words is a picture of the scenes which Matthew 26:5757And they that had laid hold on Jesus led him away to Caiaphas the high priest, where the scribes and the elders were assembled. (Matthew 26:57) to 27:50, and Mark, Luke and John portray.
These verses will speak deeply to the repentant Jews in the coming day, as they consider Who He was, who came to them 19 centuries ago, and in what grace and compassion He conducted Himself when rejection was His portion, from the beginning, and when they reflect over their treatment of Him.
The death of Christ levels all the pretensions of man, be he Jew or Gentile, and in His death we see not alone the judgment of our sins borne by a sinless and holy Substitute, but also in Him see the moral beauty, the moral glory as it has been called, the infinite perfection of His every thought, word, deed, which draw from the Christian heart the adoration and worship that belong to Him, the Lord and Saviour.
“For the transgression of My people was He stricken.” Thus are we reminded that His death was not (as vain men have declared) due to the malice of a few high religious persons, or a misunderstanding of His mission. True, the fullest guilt attached to those who planned His death, and crucified Him, but totally eclipsing their guilt before God was the fact of immeasurable weight and eternal consequence,— His bearing the sins of many.
In the first three hours on the cross He was enduring from man, His creatures; and in the second three hours He was forsaken of God as the Sin-Bearer, stricken for the transgression of “My people,” yet not Israel only, but all who receive Him by faith. He had come into the world to save sinners (1 Timothy 1:1515This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. (1 Timothy 1:15)); to this end He was delivered up to death for our offences, and has been raised for our justification (Romans 4:2525Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification. (Romans 4:25)).
The Holy Spirit draws attention to another fact connected with the putting to death of Jesus; the common English translation is defective here. “And men appointed His grave with the wicked, but He was with the rich in His death, because He had done no violence neither was there guile in His mouth” (verse 9). This throws light on Matthew 27:57-6057When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus' disciple: 58He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered. 59And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, 60And laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed. (Matthew 27:57‑60); Mark 16:42-46; Luke 24:50-5350And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them. 51And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven. 52And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy: 53And were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen. (Luke 24:50‑53) and John 19:38-42,38And after this Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus. 39And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight. 40Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury. 41Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid. 42There laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews' preparation day; for the sepulchre was nigh at hand. (John 19:38‑42) which give the burial in the rich man’s tomb: the bodies of the two thieves who were crucified with Him, were given no such burial as attended the body of Jesus.
It will be—noted that the two things which are spoken of as not true of Him, at the close of verse 9, are the two characteristic forms which sin takes, and has ever taken, with fallen man: violence and corruption. Sinless, He died for sinners, the Just One for the unjust (1 Peter 3:11Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives; (1 Peter 3:1)*).
When thou shalt make His soul (or, When His soul shall have made, or been made) an offering for sin (or trespass offering,—it is the same Hebrew word translated “trespass offering” in Leviticus chapters 5, 7, 14 and elsewhere), He shall see a seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of Jehovah shall prosper in His hand. He shall see of the fruit of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied (verses 10-11).
Faith, here again, is seen to be the ground upon which God deals with man in blessing. On Christ and His work on the cross for our sins, on His shed blood and His resurrection and ascension to heavenly glory, all blessing depends. There must be the realization in my own soul that in Him, through His death for me, for my sins, God is fully and eternally satisfied; if not, I cannot have peace with God. No Cain-like offering of what my hands may bring, or my mind devise will meet my case; I must, like Abel have an offering that cost death (Genesis 4:3-53And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. 4And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering: 5But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. (Genesis 4:3‑5)). Redemption is by the precious blood of Christ alone (1 Peter 1:1919But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: (1 Peter 1:19); Hebrews 9:1414How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? (Hebrews 9:14)).
Apart from these earthly saints, there are those who are being saved in our own times to form the Church of God, the bride of Christ; these He has destined for heavenly glory, and has graciously spoken of them as “My brethren” (John 20:1717Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God. (John 20:17)), and we learn from Hebrews 2:11Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. (Hebrews 2:1)1 That He is not ashamed to call them brethren; no word of Scripture warrants our referring to Him as our Elder Brother, however.
The prolonging of His days, and the pleasure of Jehovah prospering in His hands, refer to the place of Christ in the Millennium. We have noticed this earlier in our readings in Isaiah, and in the Psalms. Philippians 2:9-119Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: 10That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; 11And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9‑11) includes that time, but is of much wider scope, as is Ephesians 1:9-109Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: 10That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: (Ephesians 1:9‑10).
We must recall that the mystery of Christ and the Church was not revealed to the Old Testament prophets, and Isaiah in foretelling a coming day of richest blessing on earth, does not take in the wider vision which the Epistles of Paul give.
He shall see of the travail of His soul, first, surely, when the resurrection morning brings to Him, in heavenly bodies all the redeemed up to that time, including the Old Testament saints and all who died in faith up to the founding of the Church (Acts 2), and the Church itself for which in a special sense He gave Himself. But the passage in our chapter refers to an earthly people, the redeemed of the last days, when the gospel we have heard shall be heard no more, and another message of grace shall go out to sinners of the Jews and Gentiles that have never had the opportunity to receive the present gospel.
Heaven and earth will be peopled by those who are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, saved for all eternity from the consequences of their sins. Then, looking upon the result of the travail of His soul, He will be satisfied. Great has been the cost of redemption, and poorly. we often realize how poor is our return to Him for His love, but He shall have all our hearts in that day.
His knowledge shall My righteous Servant justify many” (or rather, instruct in righteousness many). “Many” is literally “the many”—including all who are in relationship with Christ. This instruction He gave in the so-called sermon on the mount, and in other places and times during His earthly life: it is preserved to us in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John’s gospels. But more than instruction is needed for sinful souls and so we have, “and (rather than “for”) He shall bear their iniquities.” Without the cross of Christ there is no salvation.
In view of all the humiliation and suffering of God’s Servant even to death, the death of the cross, the recital of which has occupied the Divine Penman in this chapter, God has declared, “Therefore will I divide (assign) Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong” (Verse 8).
This will have its evident fulfilment when the Lord comes to earth and reigns; it speaks of Him as Man, the God-man, truly but nevertheless man (untouched by sin), and the Holy Sufferer as no other has been. As such He will be exalted to the highest place, and then He will bring His earthly people (“the strong ) into blessing.
The place of highest glory is accorded the Servant, the despised and rejected of men, because of four things concerning Him as He hung’ on the cross in deepest suffering.
(1) “Because He hath poured out His soul unto death.” The word here translated. 'poured" is not one one ordinarily used it has the sense of making naked, bare, empty does this not bring before us a touching sense of the grace of our Lord. Jesus Christ who though He was rich, for our sakes became poor, that we through His poverty might be rich (2 Corinthians 8:99For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. (2 Corinthians 8:9)), and of Himself as that Man who sold all that He had to buy the field in which was hidden a treasure; and as the Merchant man seeking goodly pearls, Who when He has found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that He had and bought it (Matthew 13:44-4644Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field. 45Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: 46Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it. (Matthew 13:44‑46)). Sweetly does this passage conform with Galatians 2:20,20I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)— "Who loved me and gave Himself for me."
(2) "Because He was reckoned with the transgressors." Mark's gospel which. speaks of Jesus as the Servant of God, in chapter 15:28 applies this to Him when the thieves were placed on crosses beside Him, "And the Scripture was fulfilled which saith, 'And He was numbered with the transgressors.' " God noted that, in the treatment given His Son.
(3) "Because He bore the sin of many." Note that Scripture while declaring emphatically that He died for all, never says that He bore the sins of all (Romans 5:66For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. (Romans 5:6); 2 Corinthians 5:14-1514For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: 15And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. (2 Corinthians 5:14‑15); Hebrews 9:2828So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. (Hebrews 9:28)). No salvation, no hope, for man apart from His death. And O, what fathomless love that He should bear our sins—the sins of every poor, unworthy, guilty sinner that looks to Him for salvation! On Him our guilt was charged, upon Him divine justice was poured as the sinner's holy Substitute. Eternally His hands., feet, side, will bear the tokens of His death on the cross,— tokens of love unfathomable, inexhaustible.
(4) "Because He made intercession for the transgressors." It is Luke that records this utterance (chapter 23:34). "And Jesus said, 'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!" If this has touched our hearts, what did it not mean to His Father, as He looked upon the Son nailed to a cross!