ISAIAH - Chapters 52:13-53 - GOD..."SHALL BE SATISFIED"
ISAIAH 52:13-Chapter 53
GOD…"SHALL BE SATISFIED"
Tuesday Morning Bible Study 1/20/15, the Year of Our Lord
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
He is “satisfied”. Small things satisfy a small mind. It requires great things to satisfy a great mind. What must be required to satisfy the mind of God?
Isa. 53:6, 10, 11: “The Lord has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all…He shall see His seed…He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied.”
Jesus Christ from the heights of His glorified exaltation looks down on the earth which He has redeemed, and says, ‘It is enough; I am satisfied.”
The prophecy of the Suffering Servant begins with 52:13 through Chapter 53. It may be as one wrote, “the chief constellation in the prophetic firmament”. It is the gospel message---a touching Story of the Passion of the Christ and the glory that followed.
The spirit of skepticism has fought a hard battle to have these evangelical utterances eliminated from the Holy Bible. There are allegations that this prophecy was introduced by Christians subsequent to the gospel age.
It is, however, a proven fact the entire passage was in the Septuagint translation of the Bible between two and three hundred years before the Christian era, and circulated in all quarters of the world. Also, the Israelites would have prevented the possibility of any such forgery.
This was the portion of Holy Scripture which Phillip read to the Ethiopian eunuch in the desert of Gaza. Philip did not hesitate as to its one legitimate interpretation. “The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so He opened not His mouth…Then Philip opened and began at the same scripture, and preached to him Jesus.”
Indeed there are four distinct references to this passage to Christ in the New Testament.
Isaiah speaking in the name of God commences with the arresting word “Behold!” That means “listen up” something of startling significance is about to be revealed. “My Servant shall deal prudently (shall prosper). He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high”. The crown rises above the cross.
Next the Divine First Person of the Trinity institutes a comparison. (52:14-15): “As many were astonished at you; His visage was so marred more than any ma, and His form more than the sons of men. So shall He sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at Him; for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider.”
His success and triumph would correspond with the depth of His humiliation and suffering. Such is the journey of those who will pick up their cross and follow him.
The healing and cleansing of the nations will be affected through a people who have had their image changed. Those who suffer with him will reign and be glorified with Him. His humanity (earthy image) gave way to deity (heavenly image).
In Chapter 9, Isaiah presented Jesus to us as “Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace. He knows these words now will be received with scorn.
53:1: “Who has believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed”?
The Church had shortly before given utterance to the prayer, “Awake, awake, O arm of the Lord.” Now the prayer is heard, and that holy arm has been made bare. How strange that it should be revealed in abject weakness of suffering humanity in the person of a Man of Sorrows.
The previous prophecy might have led us to look for the emblem of some mighty “Cedar of God”. Instead of that, we have “a tender plan, a root out of the dry ground.” (53:2) The Hebrews were expecting the great antitype of Cyrus decked in splendid robes of royalty. Instead of this, “He has neither form nor comeliness; and when we shall see Him there is no beauty that we should desire Him.”
53:3: “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.”
The ancients as well as some religions in the 21st century regarded severe suffering as the personal retribution for personal sin. “Surely” said the persecutors of Job as he lay on his miserable couch of ashes, “such are the dwellings of the wicked, and this is the place of him that does not know God”.
So also was the judgment of the barbarians of Malta when they saw the viper fastened on the hand of Paul. They imagined he was an escaped criminal, who had eluded a watery grave.
He suffered for our sins and broke the curses of the Law from our lives.
53:4-7: “Surely he has borne our grief and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him. With His stripes we are healed. We are all like sheep who have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way. The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed. He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth.”
(Verse 4 is quoted in Matt. 8:17, and verses 5-6 in 1 Pet. 1: 24-25.)
Jesus died for all men. He has redeemed us from the Cruse of the law---from sin, sickness, poverty and death. He is the surety of a New Covenant which he established upon His death and resurrection. Jesus has carried the burden of man’s sin. He lifted sin up from off man and carried it away. He did more than cover it. He removed it! He took the sin of leprosy unto Himself. His suffering was the penalty due and the remedy by which man is to be restored. He was wounded for us. Healing for the spirit, mind and body of man is provided for in His atonement. Healing is the children’s bread. Jesus died on the cross and suffered as the creator for His creation.
His seven sayings on the cross reveal the heart of One who pours out His life Blood on the behalf of others. Thus we see the heart of a pastor. There is a more excellent ministry of those who stand in the gap as intercessors, reconcilers, mediators and peacemakers to deliver the creation.
53:8-10: “He was taken from prison and from judgment; and who shall declare His generation? For He was cut off out of the land of the living; for the transgression of my people was He stricken. He made His grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death because He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth. Yet, it pleased the Lord to bruise Him. He has put Him to grief; when you shall 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.”
There is a generation who follow this principle and example. These are the 42nd generation of Matthew 1, and like their Lord, are the seed of the woman, the seed of Abraham, the seed of David and the seed of the Christ.
Psalm 22:30-31: “A seed shall serve Him. It shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation. They shall come, and shall declare His righteousness to a people that shall be born, that He has done this.”
- The seed comes from Genesis to Malachi.
- The seed dies from Matthew to John.
- The seed lives in the Book of Acts.
- The seed speaks from Romans to Jude.
- The seed reigns in the Book of Revelation.
Isa. 53:10: “He shall see His seed.” “Behold I, and the children which God has given me.” (Heb. 2:13)
The second Adam, the Lord from heaven is the head, or representative “Father” of that redeemed family which He is to gather out of every tribe, tongue, kindred and nation. The highest reward promised to the Father of the faithful was the birth of a vast number of children.
The way to the seed’s multiplication and to Christ’s glorification is the same—by the law of death. “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die it abides alone; but if it die, it brings forth much fruit.”
This same passage which so minutely describes Jesus’ suffering and humiliation, closes with the picture of His triumph over death, and Him seated at the right hand of the Father; ---“dividing the strong as a spoil”
53: 11-12: ‘He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied; by His knowledge shall My righteous servant justify many; for He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide Him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he has poured out His soul to death; and he was numbered with the transgressors; and He bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”
The victorious conqueror sees the fruit of the travail of His soul, and is satisfied. There is a great harvest waving throughout the world to His glory. The harvest is still so far prophetic. The mighty predicted harvest has yet been limited and partial.
We can yet only identify with the “handful of corn” “on the top of the mountains,” whose fruit in one day will “shake like Lebanon”. But the eye of faith and my eye of faith is looking forward to the world’s great harvest –the true Feast of ingathering. He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied.
This marvelous chapter would have been read by the captive Israelites on the banks of the Euphrates hanging their harps on the Willows. I count it all joy that in the Willow Brook, we are teaching and preaching this glorious book. Oh, surely it is a sign!
His Cross and Passion led to glory. The result of that fierce travail of soul was the birth of a great universal church, and His enthronement as Lord of all.
“He shall see the travail of His soul”. He looks forward from the distant age to the birth-pangs of Calvary and the birth of a ransomed Church and a ransomed creation.
He is satisfied! He looks from the heights of His glorified exaltation at the earth which He has redeemed and says, “It is enough; I am satisfied.”
“Tis done! The mighty work is done,
Messiah bows His throne-crowned head;
The fight is fought, the battle won,
Captivity is captive led.
And counting o’er the muster-roll
Of the redeemed for whom He dies,
He sees the travail of His soul,
And seeing, He is satisfied.”
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries Church
Scripture from K.J.V. – I entered into the labors of John Ross MacDuff, Comfort Ye, Comfort Ye’ – 1871; Principles of Present Truth on Isaiah by: Kelly Varner. Comments and conclusions are my own and not meant to reflect the views of those whom I entered into their labors.