In Acts 8 we read about a man who was reading Isaiah 53, and he asked a Christian evangelist named Philip, “of whom does the prophet say this, of himself or of some other man?” (v.34). Philip had no difficulty answering the question, “Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him” (v.35).
Why was Philip (and why are Christians) so sure this is talking about Jesus? Let’s answer it in two ways:
Because it matches Jesus entirely
The prophecy really commences in 52:13.
13 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 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.
There is nothing there that doesn’t fit Jesus.
Look at what it says about His upbringing:
- He was “a root out of a dry ground”. He was raised in humble, hostile circumstances. Jesus was from Nazareth – a town that was despised. Someone said, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46).
Look at what it says about His life:
- “He has no form or comeliness” – He didn’t come with pomp and glory. He came as a servant who lived in poverty and humility, and taught people to love their enemies. In first century Israel, the Jews were expecting a military messiah who would rid Israel of the Gentile occupiers. Jesus fulfilled none of the popular messianic expectations, but in doing so, He fulfilled the messianic prophecies.
- “He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” – He would be rejected by His people. He would enter into the griefs and sorrows of others. This fits Jesus exactly. He sorrowed over those who were burdened and wept with those who were bereaved. Despite that, or perhaps because of that, He was rejected by the representatives of the nation.
Look at what it says about His trial:
- “He was taken from prison and from judgment” – He was not taken and killed by an out-of-control mob, but was condemned at a judicial trial.
Look at what it says about His death:
- He suffered from sinners: “He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth” – the Lord was beaten and scourged, and in it all He was submissive.
- He suffered with sinners: “He was numbered with the transgressors” – Christ was crucified with criminals.
- He suffered for sinners: “He was wounded for our transgressions . . .” – He wasn’t just suffering as a martyr or an example. He was suffering as a substitute for sinners. The Lord Jesus said this would be the purpose of His death – He was going “to give His life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).
Look at what it says about His burial:
- “And they made His grave with the wicked – but with the rich at His death” – He was going to be dumped in a common grave with the wicked, typical for victims of crucifixion, but instead He was associated with a rich man in His death. One of the most well-established historical facts about Jesus is His burial by Joseph of Arimathea, “a rich man” (Matthew 27:57).
Look at what it says about His resurrection:
- “He shall prolong His days” – the one who was “cut off out of the land of the living” had His days prolonged – He rose from the dead. If the cross had been the last anyone saw of Jesus, it would have been the last anyone would have heard of Him. What led His disciples to risk their lives and even give their lives telling others about Him? It was this one great claim – they saw Him risen from the dead.
Look at what it says about His exaltation:
- “He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high” – this is language that is drawn from Isaiah 6 – Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted up. This, then, is saying that the one who suffered in such shame has been exalted to a place of equality with God. Is there any victim of crucifixion you know of who is worshipped as being equal with God? Anyone? Only one.
Look at what it says about His impact:
- “So shall He sprinkle many nations . . . My righteous Servant shall justify many” – the impact of this sufferer and His suffering will be felt by many people in many nations. You can travel to any continent of the world and find multitudes of people whose lives have been transformed, and they will tell you it is because of what happened on a cross at Calvary.
Historically (before our advanced technology), when matching a suspect’s fingerprint to a fingerprint found at the scene of a crime or on a murder weapon, what was required to establish a match was sixteen points of correspondence with no points of disagreement. Look at Isaiah 53 and compare it to Jesus – there are more than sixteen points of correspondence, and no points of disagreement. The match has been established.
Because it matches Jesus exclusively
There is no one else the chapter could be speaking about. This is contested of course. The majority position of Judaism today is that Isaiah 53 refers to the nation of Israel, or to a remnant within the nation of Israel. Those who promote this view point out that the “servant” in 41:8-9 and 43:10 is clearly the nation of Israel. That is true, but then there are other “servant” passages in which the servant can’t be the nation, because He is said to act for and minister to the nation:
“Behold! My Servant . . . I, the Lord, have called You in righteousness . . . I will keep You and give You as a covenant to the people . . .” (42:1,6).
The “people” here is a reference to the nation of Israel. It makes no sense to say the nation is given for a covenant to the nation.
“And now the Lord says, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant, to bring Jacob back to Him, so that Israel is gathered to Him (for I shall be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and My God shall be My strength), indeed He says, ‘It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles, that You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth’” (49:5-6).
Again, this Servant can’t be Israel, because He restores Israel.
Chapter 50 clearly presents the Servant as an individual. He speaks of His back being smitten and the hair being plucked from His cheeks (v.6). Then God says to the nation, “Who among you fears the Lord? Who obeys the voice of His Servant?” (v.10).
When we come to chapter 53 we see again that the nation of Israel cannot be in view because the Servant suffers for the nation – “For the transgressions of My people He was stricken” (v.8). Furthermore, the Servant is righteous yet suffering, but God promised the nation His protection and blessing if it was righteous (e.g., Leviticus 26).
Could it be a righteous remnant within the nation? No. This Servant suffers in a submissive and substitutionary way from God for the sins of others, and by that suffering brings peace and healing (vv.5-6,10), but when was there a righteous remnant within the nation that suffered like that? When were the sins of the nation placed by God on a remnant so that the guilty could go free?
The Servant in Isaiah 53 is one who grows up, makes atonement for sin, dies, is buried, then raised and exalted to equality with God. This is descriptive of an individual, and there is only one individual it can be.
So what?
Why does this matter? Well, if Jesus is the individual in Isaiah 53 it means:
We need to take Scripture seriously
Who gave Isaiah the telescope to look down over seven centuries to describe so accurately events that he could not have naturally known? The only explanation that makes sense is the explanation the Bible itself gives – “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God” (2 Timothy 3:16).
The Bible has proven itself to be God’s book, and it has a message for you.
We can take salvation simply
This chapter tells us that God has provided the answer to the problem of our sin. It is not through what we do, but through what Christ has done. Believe the message (v.1) – Christ has paid the price in full – salvation is a gift.
