Spring House Worship Center Penllyn Pike & Dager Road Spring House, PA 19477 Rev. Charles W. Quann, Pastor Sunday Worship: 9:00 & 11:15 am Wednesday Bible Study: 7:00 pm Editor: Rev. Perkin Simpson Wounded for Our Transgressions Week of January 30, 2011 Nickelson, Ronald L.: The KJV Standard Lesson Commentary, 2010-2011 Cincinnati, OH : Standard Publishing, 2010., S. 153 Background Scripture: Isaiah 53 Printed Text: Isaiah 53:1 12 Lesson Outline Introduction A. Superman B. Lesson Background I. Servant s Appearance (Isaiah 53:1 3) A. Reported and Revealed (v. 1) B. Humble and Unattractive (vv. 2, 3) II. Servant s Suffering (Isaiah 53:4 9) A. Grief, Sorrow, Affliction (vv. 4 6) Take a Bullet? B. Oppression, Slaughter, Burial (vv. 7 9) III. Servant s Reward (Isaiah 53:10 12) A. God Wills (v. 10) Restored B. God Exalts (vv. 11, 12) Conclusion A. Servant People B. Prayer C. Thought to Remember
Introduction A. Superman We live in a world that needs a savior. Countless lives are broken, beaten, and confused. We need someone to intervene someone to expose the lies that dominate our lives and to set us on the right course. In the late nineteenth century, the atheistic philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche identified just the sort of savior he thought this world needed. His idealized savior was a man, but certainly no ordinary man. Nietzsche s description of a value-creating being translates somewhat loosely into English as superman. Nietzsche s superman would reject any notion that God or any other being outside the world should be the source of values to govern the world. Instead, this superman would trust his own intuitive sense of good and evil. If the brightest minds of our day were to design the savior they think this world needs, it might not look much different from Nietzsche s. After being decimated by Babylon, Israel needed a savior. Israel needed someone who could meet them where they were, overcome their sin, and set them on the right course. This weeks lesson reveals God s promise to send them the hero they needed. But the hero they received was nothing like anyone expected. B. Lesson Background Isaiah 53 addresses the same historical context that was addressed in the last three lessons: God comforted his people Israel, who were oppressed by the Babylonians (although that oppression was many decades in the future as Isaiah wrote). The people were calling into question God s sovereignty and their own future. This weeks lesson is quoted multiple times in the New Testament as a description of Jesus ministry, death, and burial (examples: Matthew 8:17; Luke 22:37; 1 Peter 2:22). Isaiah 53:7 describes the suffering servant as a sheep being led to slaughter. The last three verses of Isaiah 52, which precede this lesson, discuss how God s servant is to be exalted despite the reaction of the startled nations who were not expecting His arrival. The servant s coming was not revealed to them as it was to Israel. I. Servant s Appearance (Isaiah 53:1 3) A. Reported and Revealed (v. 1) 1. Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? This verse serves as a transition from the previous chapter to this text and reveals that Israel is the target audience. The have been called to believe this scandalous report of the Lord s power (see John 12:37, 38; Romans 10:16). Nickelson, Ronald L.: The KJV Standard Lesson Commentary, 2010-2011. Cincinnati, OH : Standard Publishing, 2010., S.156 1
B. Humble and Unattractive (vv. 2, 3) 2. He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. The servant whom God chooses to accomplish his purposes for Israel seems very unassuming at first. A feeble plant growing in bad soil. He does not appear to be superman in any sense of the word. Many scholars have debated about who this servant is. Some identify him as a subgroup of the nation of Israel, some say a prophet like Jeremiah, or as an Israelite governor such as Zerubbabel, or even as Darius I, a Persian king. The gospel reveals this servant as the future Messiah, where this passage would not be fulfilled until the coming of Christ. What causes us to overlook people who have great spiritual depth? What will happen when we solve this problem? 3. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. This verse continues the theme of the servant s unassuming nature. He is rejected, despised and grieved. The fact that God elects to use a servant like this to accomplish his purposes serves as a warning to those who judge people by external appearances. God often prefers to use those who appear least likely to succeed (example: 1 Samuel 16:7). In an age when the world values the outward appearance, we must discipline ourselves to retain God s perspective and recognize what true strength. What are some ways we do not esteem Christ as much as we should? How do we treat his word? How do we treat others? Nickelson, Ronald L.: The KJV Standard Lesson Commentary, 2010-2011. Cincinnati, OH : Standard Publishing, 2010., S.156 2
II. Servant s Suffering (Isaiah 53:4 9) A. Grief, Sorrow, Affliction (vv. 4 6) 4. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. God s people are to recognize His hand at work: it is God himself who strikes the servant. The servant somehow carries the burden of the people into his suffering. He does not suffer as a solitary individual, but as a representative of God s people. As Christians, we are reminded of Hebrews 4:15. Jesus is a high priest who can sympathize with our weakness. In becoming flesh, he bears our humanity and identifies with our weakness. In Him we see a model for ministry. Jesus suffering is not only a means to satisfy God s justice, it is also a model for how love conquers evil. It shows us how to break through the hard shell of resistance that surrounds people trapped in a life of sin. Jesus does not bear the sufferings of humanity only at the cross, but also throughout his ministry (Matthew 8:16, 17). 5. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. The servant s identification with God s people has saving consequences. The servant bears the sorrows of the people as well as their sins (transgressions). The servant s suffering is not for wrongs he has done, but for what others have done. Moreover, it is effective: healing and peace result from the servant s suffering. Take a Bullet? A phrase sometimes used to show one s devotion to another is, I would take a bullet for that person. The meaning is that if the object of one s love or loyalty were in a life-threatening situation, then the subject would risk life and limb even to the point of standing in the way of an oncoming bullet for the sake of the other. A parent who stands between her child and a vicious dog is an example. A policeman who dies in the cause of protecting the citizenry of his town is another. An arm of the U.S. Secret Service is tasked to protect the president no matter what. When asked how it felt knowing he may have to take a bullet, one agent said, It comes with the job. It s an honor to protect the president. End of discussion. The ultimate example of sacrificial concern, though, is Jesus Christ. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21). In an ironic twist, the very author of life lays down his own life. How should we respond to such a one? A. E. A. Nickelson, Ronald L.: The KJV Standard Lesson Commentary, 2010-2011. Cincinnati, OH : Standard Publishing, 2010., S.156 3
6. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Now we are told why the servant has to suffer: the servant suffers because God s people act like wandering sheep. Since they refuse to obey the shepherd, the shepherd has to break their cycle of rebellion. God in his sovereign will send the servant to suffer. God breaks the endless cycle of sin and punishment by introducing an innocent, but unexpected sufferer. We are not given a full-blown theory of atonement in this verse. We are not told here how the suffering of an innocent person can cover the sins of the guilty. No comparison is made to the sacrifices of animals in Israel s law. Romans 3:21 26 and Hebrews 7 10 tell us how and why Jesus death covers all human sin. Out of love and grace, God takes the initiative and makes a way for his people to avoid the endless cycle of guilt and punishment. That is the point of this passage, and we need to be careful not to miss this point. What can we do to have the mind of Christ toward the scattered sheep? B. Oppression, Slaughter, Burial (vv. 7 9) 7. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. The servant does not go kicking and screaming into the suffering. Fully submissive to the will of God, the servant accepts his fate without a fight. This passage compares such submission to a speechless lamb before it is butchered. Under what circumstances, if any, should we fight for our rights rather than face injustice with silence as Jesus did? Why? Nickelson, Ronald L.: The KJV Standard Lesson Commentary, 2010-2011. Cincinnati, OH : Standard Publishing, 2010., S.156 4
8. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken. We are told more of the severity of the servant s lot. The question who can speak of his descendants? indicates that the servant has none. Combined with he was cut off from the land of the living, this indicates a premature death. He not only suffers but also dies for the sin of the people. Jesus submits to his executioners and refuses to put up a fight. Jesus is judged and killed at a young age. 9. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, athough he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. Jesus fulfills this passage in two ways. First, Jesus is an innocent man who is tried, convicted and sentenced to die like a common criminal. Second, Jesus is buried in the grave of a rich man. Matthew 27:57 60 demonstrates that Jesus burial in the grave of Joseph of Arimathea fulfills this prophecy. III. Servant s Reward (Isaiah 53:10 12) A. God Wills (v. 10) 10. Yet it was the Lord s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. This verse begins by restating the Lord s desire to subject the servant to grief in order to atone for sin. But then an important transition takes place. The servant undergoes a reversal of fortune. He sees his offspring, lives longer (will prolong his days), and prospers in the Lord. Ultimately the Lord vindicates the servant and even death could not hold him (Philipp. 2:6 11). Jesus offspring are his disciples throughout the earth (Galatians 3:26 4:7). Restored Restoring antique automobiles or old furniture is big business. Finding that old, abandoned car or that forgotten piece of furniture is, for restorationists, like finding a gold mine. A great amount of time, money, and effort is put into restoring such things to their original condition. For others, restoration is a more personal task, such as dieting to try to return to a trimmer look. Surgery to remove wrinkles is another example. Again, time, money, and painstaking effort are required. But many find the results worthwhile. Jesus was beaten, bruised, and disfigured in his physical body. Spiritually, he took the sins of the world upon himself. He temporarily gave up his place with the Father in Heaven. But God took this one and restored him to that rightful place. Jesus was brought back to his original condition, and he now intercedes for us at the right hand of the Father. All this results in our own restoration, as the death-curse of sin is reversed. How can we possibly go back to our old ways? A. E. A. Nickelson, Ronald L.: The KJV Standard Lesson Commentary, 2010-2011. Cincinnati, OH : Standard Publishing, 2010., S.156 5
B. God Exalts (vv. 11, 12) 11, 12. After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. The final verses repeat the fact that the servant suffers to the point of death on behalf of the guilty. He bears their sin and is numbered among sinners. In doing so, he intercedes on their behalf and satisfies God s plan to reconcile them. There is a new revelation for the final result: The servant is counted among the great ones and divides shares His victory with the saints. The imagery is meant to convey the restoration of the innocent servant who gives his all so that the guilty may be reconciled to God. In what ways do you honor Jesus for what he has done? Prayers, worship, finances, etc Conclusion A. Servant People The last few lessons have shown how God intervened to deliver Israel from Babylonian captivity. He delivered them from both physical and spiritual bondage. The Babylonians had mocked both God and his people, dragging their names through the mud. The Israelites responded by doubting God s power and claiming that they were forgotten; many undoubtedly embraced the false idols of the Babylonians. God could have responded in various ways. He could have imposed His will supernaturally. He could have assembled the heavenly hosts and established his reign with brute force or raised a great warrior-king in Israel to crush Babylon. Instead, he told Israel that idol worship was wrong as he used arguments that could be accepted or rejected freely. God then used the foreigner Cyrus to execute judgment against Babylon without overriding Cyrus s own agenda. Finally, God used a gentle servant-leader to form a people to bear witness to his power of reconciliation and new life. Nickelson, Ronald L.: The KJV Standard Lesson Commentary, 2010-2011. Cincinnati, OH : Standard Publishing, 2010., S.156 6
God returned the Israelites home to rebuild their land and instructed them to wait for the faithful servant to arrive. That servant arrived in the person of Jesus. He taught God s people to follow his path of service in order to be God s light to the nations. God s strategy remains unchanged. Christians and churches today must take seriously the servant posture to which God calls us. B. Prayer Lord God, we thank you for not giving up on us. Though your people have deserved punishment upon punishment, you spare us the final judgment we deserve. Through the cross of your Son, Jesus, you have broken the power of sin. For this we thank you in the name of Jesus. Amen. C. Thought to Remember Give your life for the servant of God who gave his life for you. Nickelson, Ronald L.: The KJV Standard Lesson Commentary, 2010-2011. Cincinnati, OH : Standard Publishing, 2010., S.156 7