Copyright Mike Sullivan, 2018.
This study is part of a ten-week teaching series on Isaiah given at Xenos Christian Fellowship in 2017 and 2018.
Remember the main claim from our passage last week? God spoke through Isaiah and insisted that he alone is God.
This week we will consider whether this claim can be supported.
Down through history, many people have put themselves forth as prophets—people who receive messages from God. This modern prophet [show picture] says angelic watchers send him messages that God wants him to share with the world. Of course, to do this well, he needs your financial support. Last year he took in a quarter million dollars from his 230,000 Facebook followers!
There are dozens of internet prophets like this guy. Are any of them actually in touch with the true God? And what about prophets like Isaiah? Isaiah says he is relaying messages from God to us. How can we be sure?
Today we'll consider evidence in the book of Isaiah that God truly does exist and that he has spoken to us in the Bible. The evidence provided is something called fulfilled prophecy.
Fulfilled prophecy
God makes a big deal in this part of Isaiah about his ability to predict the future. He says he is the only one who can do this. Fulfilled prophecy is his calling card.
Isaiah 46:9b ...I alone am God! I am God, and there is none like me. 10 Only I can tell you the future before it even happens. Everything I plan will come to pass, for I do whatever I wish.
Thirteen verses in this section of Isaiah make the same claim. It's as if God is planting a flag in the middle of these chapters to say, "Hey, pay attention, watch this, I'm going to make predictions here about the future that come true." And sure enough, some of the most detailed fulfilled prophecies in the entire Bible are right here in this part of Isaiah.
Of course, not everyone is impressed by this. Some say there is nothing special about Isaiah's fulfilled prophecies because other people have managed to do the same thing. But is that true?
Here are a few supposed examples of fulfilled prophecy and reasons why they don't measure up to the predictions in Isaiah.
The Tui Bei Tu, a 7th century book of prophecy from China, makes predictions that some claim have come true. But it has been rewritten too many times to know what the original said. By contrast, we have a scroll of Isaiah that predates the fulfillment of its most detailed predictions by more than a century.
The Baha'i faith has some prophecies, but they are vague and impossible to verify. The predictions in Isaiah are detailed and verifiable.
Many people believe Nostradamus correctly predicted future events, but most haven't read his work. Here is an example of one of his "prophecies"...
"The senseless ire of the furious combat will cause steel to be flashed at the table by brothers: To part them, death, wound, and curiously, the proud duel will come to hurt France."i
According to modern interpreters, this is a reference to the Camp David accord between Israel and Egypt and the assassination of Anwar Sadat! The "proud duel" refers to international terrorism. Again, the problem with predictions like this is that they are too vague to verify.
The truth is, detailed, verifiable, fulfilled prophesy is unique to the Bible. None of the Hindu holy books, or the Tao Te Ching, or the Quran, or the Analects of Confucius or any other sacred books have prophecy like we find in Isaiah.ii
What, specifically, is being predicted in this part of Isaiah?
Isaiah's prophecies revolve around someone called "the servant."
Sometimes the servant refers to the nation of Israel.
See Isaiah 41:8-16; 42:19, 20; 43:10-12; 44:1-5; 44:21, 22; 45:4; 48:20-22; 54:1-17.
Sometimes the servant refers to an individual whom we'll call the Anonymous Servant.
See Isaiah 42:1-9; 49:1-13; 50:4-11; 52:13-53:12.
We don't have time to study the first set of passages, but they are fascinating. They accurately predict Israel's history from Isaiah's time until now, and they look ahead to what God has in store for Israel's future.
Instead we will devote our time to the anonymous servant passages. There are four of them. And, if you look at them closely, they provide an accurate description of Jesus' life, death, resurrection, and ultimate return as a ruling king. These predictions are amazing because they were written 700 years before Jesus was born!
E.g., Imagine going into your grandparents' house and finding a dusty old book that was written 150 years ago containing a detailed description of major events in your life. That would be creepy... and incredible! These passages about Christ are even more amazing. Isaiah was written 700 years before Jesus was born, and yet what it says about the anonymous servant perfectly fits the life of Christ.
I realize you'll need to see this for yourself to be persuaded, so let's use the time we have to look at each anonymous servant passage and see how, taken together, they provide a fitting description of the life of Jesus.
The anonymous servant passages
There is quite a bit of material here, so we won't read every verse. God starts out...
42:1 "Here is my servant... my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations. 2 He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets. 3 A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; 4 he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In his law the islands will put their hope... 6 I, the LORD, have called you... 7 to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness...
Similarities between Jesus and the Servant
Right away we see a few similarities between Jesus and the servant. God says, "I will put my Spirit on him," which is exactly what happened to Jesus at the beginning of his ministry. The spirit descended on Jesus like a dove and God said, "this is my beloved son."iii
The comment in v. 2 that the servant "will not... raise his voice in the streets" implies he won't call attention to himself, which fits the way Jesus persistently tried to avoid the spotlight.
Jesus was also gentle and compassionate, which is the sense of "a bruised reed he will not break" (v. 3). And this servant, like Jesus, has a healing ministry. He "opens eyes that are blind" (v. 7).
A contrast
In each of the anonymous servant passages, including this one, we see a striking contrast in the way the servant is described.
On the one hand, he brings justice to the ends of the earth. The Jews call this leader the Messiah. But on the other hand, the servant endures great suffering.
This passage in chapter 42 emphasizes the servant's first role as a great ruler, the Messiah. He "brings justice to the nations." People in the islands—the farthest away places on earth—will put hope in his law. He is an exalted figure whose rule extends around the globe.
But there is a hint of suffering. Look at v. 4: "he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on the earth." This implies it won't be easy. There will be obstacles to overcome.
Granted, that is just a hint of suffering, but as we go forward, the theme of suffering will become more and more prominent.
In Isaiah 49, verse 1, the servant speaks…
49:1 Listen to me, you islands; hear this, you distant nations: Before I was born the LORD called me; from my birth he has made mention of my name. 2 He made my mouth like a sharpened sword, in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me into a polished arrow and concealed me in his quiver. 3 He said to me, "You are my servant, Israeliv, in whom I will display my splendor."
If you stopped here, you'd think Isaiah was talking about the nation of Israel, but as we read on, it becomes very clear that the servant is not a nation, he is a person. The servant continues…
49:4 But I said, "I have labored to no purpose; I have spent my strength in vain and for nothing... 5 And now the LORD says— he who formed me in the womb to be his servant to bring Jacob back to him and gather Israel to himself... 6 he says: "It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth."
The servant clearly isn't Israel. His job is "to bring Jacob [to bring Israel] back to God." He isn't the nation. He is supposed to restore the nation, to "restore the tribes of Jacob and Israel."
Similarities with Jesus
In the first 6 verses of chapter 49, we again see similarities between the servant and Jesus.
The servant has a mouth like a sharpened sword. That fits Jesus. His words were powerful and cut people to the heart.
The servant is an arrow concealed in God's quiver. He is God's secret weapon to be released at the right time—a fitting description of Jesus' secret mission to suffer and die for the sins of the people.
And what we read in chapter 42 is reiterated here—the servant is "a light to the Gentiles who brings salvation to the ends of the earth." That's exactly what Jesus came to do. See Acts 26:23.
And what about the contrast?
49:7 This is what the LORD says... to him who was despised and abhorred by the nation, to the servant of rulers: "Kings will see you and rise up, princes will see and bow down, because of the LORD, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you." 8 This is what the LORD says: "In the time of my favor I will answer you, and in the day of salvation I will help you; I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people,"
On the one hand, this servant is "despised and abhorred by the nation." So he suffers greatly. But on the other hand, God says "kings will see him and rise up, princes will see him and bow down."
He will be a king of kings, an exalted figure, and yet we see an increasing emphasis on how much he suffers! What a paradox!
As we move to chapter 50, the note of suffering gets much more specific, and more intense.
Again, the servant speaks...
50:4 The Sovereign LORD has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught.
Similarities with Jesus
This servant, like Jesus, is continually listening to God and is sustained by him.
50:5 The Sovereign LORD has opened my ears, and I have not been rebellious; I have not drawn back. 6 I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting.
As you read about the beating, mocking, and spitting, you can't help but think of how Jesus' was mistreated during his trial before the religious authorities.
50:7 Because the Sovereign LORD helps me, I will not be disgraced. Therefore I have set my face like flint, and I know I will not be put to shame.
"I set my face like flint" implies the servant is resolved to endure suffering, if necessary, in order to obey God. We see the same resolve in Jesus as he prays in the garden of Gethsemane, "I don't want to drink this cup (suffer on the cross), but your will be done."
Where is the contrast?
50:8 He who vindicates me is near. Who then will bring charges against me? Let us face each other! Who is my accuser? Let him confront me! 9 It is the Sovereign LORD who helps me. Who is he that will condemn me? They will all wear out like a garment; the moths will eat them up.
We saw how the servant is beaten, mocked, spat on. And here, he has to deal with charges, accusations, condemnation. Can you see how the theme of suffering is growing stronger?
Strangely, even as the servant's sufferings become more pronounced, Isaiah never wavers in his conviction that the servant will ultimately be victorious. God will vindicate him, help him, and his enemies will "wear out like a garment."
So again in Isaiah 50 we see similarities between the servant and Jesus and a striking contrast in his life. He is a triumphant king who paradoxically suffers.
From the first three anonymous servant passages, you can see how aspects of Jesus' life and ministry, including his rejection by the people, are clearly predicted. But you may want even more specific details—more detailed similarities between Jesus and the servant. If so, consider what Isaiah says in 52:13-53:12.
52:13 See, my servant will act wisely; he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted. 14 Just as there were many who were appalled at him—his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness—15 so will he sprinkle many nations, and kings will shut their mouths because of him...
The first anonymous servant passage emphasized the servant's exalted role as Messiah-king, but now, in this fourth passage, the emphasis has wholly shifted over to his suffering.
The contrast
Right away we again see the contrast. On the one hand, the Servant is "raised and lifted up and highly exalted." Kings will stand in silence before him.
But on the other hand, look at the horrible way he suffers. He is "marred beyond human likeness." If you have seen the movie the Passion of the Christ, you remember how bloodied and unrecognizable Jesus was after his scourging and crucifixion.
The outcome of the servant's suffering
Here, for the first time in the anonymous servant passages, we learn about the OUTCOME of the servant's suffering. It isn't pointless. Through his suffering the servant "will sprinkle many nations."
"Sprinkle" is a very special word. The only other place this form of this particular Hebrew verb for sprinkle is used in the entire Bible is in Leviticus 16.
Leviticus 16:14 "Moreover, he [the High Priest] shall take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on the mercy seat... Then he shall slaughter the goat of the sin offering which is for the people, and bring its blood inside the veil and do with its blood as he did with the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it on the mercy seat and in front of the mercy seat."
Once a year, on the Day of Atonement, the people of Israel observed a special festival. They confessed their sins, and the Jewish High Priest entered a portable tent called the tabernacle to offer an unblemished lamb as a sacrifice. He did this in a special room called the Holy of Holies which contained a golden box [show picture from Raiders of the Lost Ark] called the Ark of the Covenant. The lid of the Ark, the mercy seat, was decorated with two gold angels. The angels faced each other with heads looking downv at the Ark, which contained objects associated with Israel's sin.vi Then the High Priest took the lamb's blood and sprinkled it on the mercy seat [show slide] as a covering, an atonement, for the people's sin.
Think about the imagery… When the angels look down, they don't see the sin of the people, they see the blood of the lamb. God sees this blood as a covering, an atonement, and forgives them.
Now think about the significance of the words in 52:15: through his suffering, the servant will "sprinkle many nations." What does it mean? The servant's own blood will be offered as an atonement, as a covering for the sins of the world!
If you know the story of Jesus, this is exactly what he accomplished when he suffered and died on the cross. When he died, he offered his own blood as a covering, an atonement for our sin, so that you and I could be forgiven.
53:1 Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? 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 is not from royalty. He is from humble beginnings. This is also true of Jesus. He was born in a barn! There was nothing special about him to attract people to him. In fact,
53:3 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 is such a fitting description of Jesus. He was seen as the illegitimate son of Mary, rejected by people in his own home town, and falsely accused by the religious authorities. The crowds demanded his crucifixion, and his own disciples abandoned him!
53:4 Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.
People watching the servant suffer consider him to be stricken by God, punished by God. When Jesus was crucified, onlookers assumed he was under God's curse.vii Ironically, they were right!
53:5 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. 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.
The Lord has laid the sin of the people on the servant! So, the people are right, the servant is being stricken by God. What they don't understand is that he was stricken for them!
The language here is emphatic: "all" went astray. "Each of us" turned our own way. We've all decided to live our life on our own terms, answerable to no one but ourselves. And yet, despite this, the servant will take the curse from God that we deserve onto himself! Look at how this is emphasized:
"He was pierced for their transgressions."
"He was crushed for their iniquities."
"The punishment that brought us peace was upon him."
"By his wounds, we are healed."
If you study all four of the Anonymous Servant passages and group every statement about the servant by theme, this is far and away the biggest emphasis: the servant is punished for the sins of the people. He was punished for your sins, and for mine.
What other details do we see about the suffering servant that fit the life of Christ?
53:7 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.
Jesus stood silently at his trial while the religious authorities beat him, mocked him, and spat on him. Exactly what Isaiah describes here.
53:8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away... For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken. 9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.
Here we see something truly amazing and puzzling. Despite being a great king, an exulted world leader who establishes justice all over the earth, the servant dies unjustly at the hands of his enemies!
This seeming contradiction caused some Jewish interpreters to believe that at least two Messiahs would appear: one as a conquering King named "Messiah Son of David," and another who suffers and is rejected by his people called "Messiah Son of Joseph."viii But here in Isaiah, again and again, what do we see? A single servant, one person, who suffers and dies and who is exalted.
53:10 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.
According to this, though the servant dies, he lives again. "He prolongs his days." A resurrection!
Every phrase in this chapter perfectly fits the life of Christ. I've actually given people a copy of this passage to read stripped of book, chapter, and verse references. When they finish, I ask, "who do you think that's about?" Every time I've done this, they conclude it's about Jesus. It's so accurate, it doesn't need much explanation. And yet it was written centuries before Jesus lived.
Here is the last verse…
53:12 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.
Finally, after reading this repeated contrast between the servant's suffering and his high, exalted position, we see how these two themes are related. He isn't great in spite of his sufferings; he is great because of them!
What is it about the servant that makes him so great? Isaiah says it is "because he poured out his life unto death," because "he bore the sin of many."
As we noted earlier, Jesus is God's hidden arrow, his secret weapon to deal with the problem of human sin. He is the ultimate sacrifice that all the sacrificial lambs in the tabernacle symbolized. And because he was willing to give himself over to death, for us, God has exalted him. Like Paul says in Philippians 2...
Philippians 2:8 [Jesus] humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal's death on a cross. 9 Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names...
So there you go... the anonymous servant passages. Taken together, they truly do point to Christ. They provide a detailed picture of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.
But wait minute...
Over the years, some people have refused to connect Jesus to the detailed predictions in the Anonymous Servant passages. Here are a few of their objection:
Maybe copies of Isaiah 53 were modified by Christians to fit the life of Jesus.
This view was widely held until just after WWII. Then this was discovered [show scroll of Isaiah] among the Dead Sea Scrolls: a complete scroll of Isaiah dating to the 2nd century before Christ. The text in this scroll is identical to the verses we have read. Our modern Bibles were not modified to fit the details of Jesus' life!
Maybe the story of Jesus' life was modified to fit the Anonymous Servant passages.
That would be difficult to do because key details in the story—Jesus' rejection by the people, his being pierced for us, his death, are corroborated by sources outside the Bible. The Roman historian Tacitus, for example, says Jesus was crucified at Pilate's direction when he was the governor of Judea.ix
Maybe Jesus deliberately fulfilled the anonymous servant passages.
Only someone with a death-wish who was mentally ill would deliberately fulfill these prophesies. Who wants to have their "form marred beyond human likeness"? Secular or Christian, many people recognize the teachings of Christ are filled with profound wisdom. They are not the ravings of a lunatic.
If these prophecies are so clear, why don't Jews today accept Jesus as their messiah?
Many do! The early followers of Jesus were all Jews. And there are Jews today, Messianic Jews, who accept Jesus as their savior.
For those Jews who don't, how do they interpret passages like Isaiah 53? Many Jews would say the servant in Isaiah 53 is the nation of Israel.
This is understandable to some extent, because there are some similarities between the anonymous servant and Israel.x But there are several striking differences that can't be ignored:
Servant as Israel | Anonymous Servant |
Disobedient (42:20). | Righteous (42:6; 53:9, 11) and obedient (50:5, 7). |
Spiritually deaf (42:19, 29). | Hears God and learns from him (50:4, 5). |
Described as a nation (41:8, 14; 44:1, 21; 48:20). | Despised by the nation (49:7; 53:3). |
Sins need to be swept away by God (41:14; 44:21, 22). | Sweeps away the sin of the world (52:14, 15; 53:5, 6, 10-12). |
These passages make a clear distinction between the anonymous servant and the nation of Israel. This distinction is so clear, that for at least 1,000 years after Christ, the dominant view among Jewish interpreters was that Isaiah 53 was not about the nation of Israel, but about an individual, and specifically, the Messiah!xi, xii
Responding to the Servant
Let's think about how to respond to these passages.
1. Thank him for the evidence he provides.
God claims to be the true God, the only one who can tell the future before it happens. And he supports that claim by making predictions about the future that come true. In these chapters, Isaiah provides a detailed and accurate picture of Jesus written centuries before he lived.
I for one am grateful that the God of the Bible recognizes our need for evidence. I grew up in a secular home. I was taught that the careful, tested assertions of science were solid, that religious truth claims should be viewed with suspicion, and that I should think critically. It is assuring to know that these predictions about the Anonymous Servant hold up to scrutiny.
2. Look into the evidence for yourself.
If you are intrigued by what you have heard, but not fully persuaded, I hope you further investigate the numerous lines of evidence supporting the Christian world view. A great place to start is Dennis McCallum's book, Discovering God. This book is very accessible and provides several persuasive reasons to believe that God exists and can be known
3. Take God up on his offer.
If you are persuaded that the anonymous servant passages predict key details in Jesus' life, what is your next step? You could be convinced Jesus fulfilled these prophecies and yet still walk out of here far from God. It's not enough to know this. You have to respond to what you have heard.
In Isaiah 55, God explains how to do that...
55:1 Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. 2 Why spend money on what is no bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest fare. 3 Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live...
God has his life to offer—his eternal life. That's what the water, the wine, and the milk symbolize. And he is appealing to you to come to him that your soul might live. Just remember, you can't buy his life or earn it. It comes "without cost." You have to receive it as a gift.
55:6 Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near. 7 Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
The life God has to offer is free. But you have to seek God and call out to him. That involves forsaking your way—acknowledging, like it says in Isaiah 53, that you have "gone astray" and turning to the Lord.
If you do that, if you turn to God, will he chastise you? No, it says he will have mercy on you. He will freely pardon.
If you're persuaded that Jesus is the one who died for your sin, I urge you, like it says here, to "seek the Lord while he may be found." Act now while the offer is on the table. Come to him and receive his mercy! 10 million years from now, that decision will prove to be the most important decision you ever made.
i Nostradamus, Century II Q 34.
ii Regarding the Quran: "Muhammad acknowledged that the biblical prophets were confirmed by miraculous signs (Surahs 3:184; 17:103; 23:45)—including prophecy, but when he was asked for similar confirmation that his message was from God, he refused (Surahs 2:118; 4:153; 6:8, 9, 37) and regarded the request as impious." – Norman Geisler, In Dean C. Halverson, ed., The Compact Guide to World Religions (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Bethany House, 1996), pp. 265, 266.
A prophecy from Baha'u'llah, the founder of the Baha'i faith: "In the days to come, ye will, verily, behold things of which ye have never heard before. Thus hath it been decreed in the Tablets of God, and none can comprehend it except them whose sight is sharp. In like manner, the moment the word expressing my attribute 'The Omniscient' issueth forth from my mouth, every created thing will, according to its capacity and limitations, be invested with the power to unfold the knowledge of the most marvelous sciences, and will be empowered to manifest them in the course of time at the bidding of Him Who is the Almighty, the All-Knowing." – Baha'u'llah, Gleanings, p. 142.
According to a Baha'i interpreter, this prophecy predicts the "explosive acceleration of scientific and technological progress" that we've seen in the last 150 years!
iv "Has he not taken his human origins from within this nation? Has he not also performed the function of being a light to the nations on behalf of the nation (Isaiah 42:6)? He is named 'Israel' because his seed is from the seed of the patriarchs, from David and his line. He will labor as their head, their representative, and their ultimate realization of everything that the nation can ever become." – Kaiser, Walter C. The Messiah in the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 1995), p. 176.
vi The contents included the book of the Law (law breaking), the rod/staff of Aaron (rejecting God's authority), and a jar of manna (ingratitude). See Exodus 16:33-34 (manna), Numbers 17:10 (rod of Aaron), Deuteronomy 31:26 (the book of the Law). Exodus 25:21 mentions objects testifying to Israel's sin being placed
in the ark. Hebrews 9:3 says that the manna, rod of Aaron, and tablets were in the ark with angels above.
viii "4Q372 (c. 200 BCE) features a suffering, righteous 'Joseph' king-figure, who cries out to God in his death-throes as 'My father', citing the suffering-messiah Psalms 89 and 22, and predicts that he will arise again to do justice and righteousness." - David C. Mitchell (2009). "A Dying and Rising Josephite Messiah in 4Q372" Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 18.3: 181-205.
"Babylonian Talmud Sukkah 52a records a dispute between Rabbi Dosa ben Harkinas and other unnamed rabbis. Rabbi Dosa takes Zechariah 12:10 to apply to the mourning for Messiah ben Joseph, while the rabbis think the mourning is for the evil inclination. The talmudic redactor sides with Rabbi Dosa: the mourning is for Messiah ben Joseph. (Mourning the Evil Inclination, he adds, would be absurd.) It then speaks of how Ben Joseph's death frightens Messiah ben David, so that he urgently prays for his life to be spared." – Alan J. Avery-Peck, ed. The Review of Rabbinic Judaism: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern (Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2005).
ix The Roman historian Tacitus, writing close to 115 A.D., regarding Nero's attempt to blame Christians for a terrible fire in Rome: "Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus [Christ], from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilate." – Tacitus, Annals, 15:44.
x
Anonymous servant
Israel
Called a "servant."
42:1; 49:3, 5; 49:7; 52:13; 53:11
41:8; 42:19; 43:10; 44:1, 21; 45:5; 48:20; 54:17
Chosen by God.
42:1
41:8; 44:1
Helped by God.
49:8; 50:7, 9
44:2
A "light to the nations."
42:6; 49:6
48:20
xi "Interestingly, the national interpretation is not found once in the Talmuds, the Targums, or the Midrashim (in other words, not once in all the classical, foundational, authoritative Jewish writings). In fact, it is not found in any traditional Jewish source until the time of Rashi, who lived in the eleventh century C.E. That is saying something! For almost one thousand years after the birth of Yeshua, not one rabbi, not one Talmudic teacher, not one Jewish sage, left us an interpretation showing that Isaiah 53 should be interpreted with reference to the nation of Israel." – Brown, Michael L. Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus: New Testament Objections. Volume Three (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker, 2003), p. 41.
Even after the time of Rashi, the view that the servant in Isaiah 53 is the Messiah was so dominant that Rabbi Moshe Alshech (16th c.) could say: "Our rabbis with one voice accept and affirm the opinion that the prophet is speaking of the King Messiah, and we shall ourselves also adhere to the same view." – Brown, Michael L. Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus: New Testament Objections. Volume Three (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker, 2003), p. 49.
xii Why are the servant passages about Israel mixed in with the anonymous servant passages? It almost seems deliberately confusing! Is it possible that God wanted it that way?
We know Satan entered into Judas to betray Jesus (Luke 22:3). But this act of treachery led to Jesus' crucifixion, and his crucifixion paid for the sins of the world—a huge strategic mistake on Satan's part!
Satan clearly knows his Bible well, so why did he steer Jesus toward fulfilling the anonymous servant passages and being a sacrifice for our sins?
The apostle Paul may have the answer...
1 Corinthians 2:7, 8 "We speak God's wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, which God predestined before the ages to our glory; the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory."
When Paul uses the term "rulers of this age," he could be referring to the Caesars and governors of the day. But Jesus, the Pharisees, and Paul often used similar language to refer to powerful demonic forces (see Matt. 9:34; 12:24; Lk. 11:35; Jn. 12:31; 14:30; 16:11; 2 Cor. 4:4; Eph. 2:2).
Paul could be saying if Satan and his demons knew the significance of Jesus' death, they never would have worked through people like Judas to have him crucified. Perhaps mixing the anonymous servant passages among passages about the servant as Israel prevented Satan from discerning God's true plan. This could have been one way that God kept Jesus, his "polished arrow" concealed in his quiver (Is. 49:2) until he reached his target.