THE SUFFERING SERVANT
Rev.
Francis Balla, (Isaiah 52: 13--53: 1-12)
(Presented
at Temple Israel, Sharon) 12/112017
1. Historical Background of Isaiah
2. The Messianic Prophecy
3. The prophetic fulfillment
(Internal evidence)
4. The prophetic fulfillment (External evidence)
5. Personal Journey
I. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF ISAIAH: (740 BC-686 BC)
The
Kingdom of Israel was known as the United Monarch between 1050 -930 BC. It was
divided into two kingdoms in 930 B.C. Twelve Tribes moved to the north forming Northern
Kingdom (Israel 930-722 BC). Two tribes moved to the south forming a Southern
Kingdom (Judah 930-586 BC). God calls the prophet Isaiah during the days of
Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah (Isa 1:1) Under Jotham and Uzziah the conditions
deteriorated. During Ahaz’s reign Assyria became a superpower and deported
Judah’s sister kingdom Israel in 722 B.C. King Ahaz saw, Syria and Israel as
greater threats. Isaiah’s ministry is placed between 740 BC-686 B.C.
Isaiah
tried to reassure Ahaz, asking he only have faith in God, but Ahaz refused and
later on in 701 BC, during Hezekiah’s reign Assyria ravaged the Judean country
side, and Jerusalem itself almost fell. Isaiah chapter 40, begins a major
section that looks ahead to Judah’s return from Babylonian exile in the sixth
century BC. The later parts of the book look even beyond Isaiah’s time, and
contain several prophecies regarding the coming of the Messiah.
The
New testament finds in many of these passages, including some in the first part
of the book, prophecies about the Messiah.
The most striking of these relate to Jesus, miraculous birth (Isaiah
7:4), and his suffering and death (Isaiah 53)
II.
THE MESSIANIC PROPHECY (Isaiah 52:13-53:1-12)
This
servant song makes some of the clearest references to the work of Jesus to be
found in the O.T, Jesus Himself taught His disciples that He fulfilled at least
part of it: Luke 22:37, “It is written:
‘And he was numbered with the transgressors; and I tell you that this must be
fulfilled in me. Yes, what is written about me is reaching its fulfillment.” (Isaiah
53:12)
Isaiah
53:1, “Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been
revealed? Interestingly Isaiah started with a question, it looks like the
audience of his time had hard time to hear, understand and believe this
prophecy regarding the suffering servant. Who is this suffering servant that
Isaiah was talking about? Down through the centuries, to the first century AD,
this question has puzzled many a people and continues to puzzle many even today.
Here
is just one encounter of an Ethiopian Eunuch around 70 AD, who had hard time
understanding this text. He needed someone who could explain it to him. Acts
8:26-40, Let me summarize: An Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge
of all the treasure of the Queen of the Ethiopians (like our Secretary of
Treasury), was returning home from worshipping in Jerusalem. In the chariot
reading the book of the prophet Isaiah.
The
Spirit directed Philip to go and talk to this man. Philip heard him reading
Isaiah the prophet. Do you understand what you are reading? Phillip asked. He
said, how can I unless someone explains it to me. He invited Philip to ride
along with him in the Chariot. This was what the eunuch was reading, Vs,32-33“He
was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is
silent, so he did not open his mouth. In his humiliation he was deprived of
justice. Who can speak of his
descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.” Isaiah 53:7-8 The eunuch
asked Philip, please tell me, who is the prophet talking about, himself or
someone else? Then Philip began with
that very passage of Scripture and told him how that was fulfilled in Jesus. In
the end the Ethiopian Eunuch believed in Jesus, was baptized in the desert and
went home rejoicing. This is one incident, unless under careful explanation,
this prophecy remains one of the most miss understood Messianic prophecies. Let
me unpack who is the “suffering servant,” in this prophecy: In Isaiah, there
are five passages called the “servant texts).
They
are: (Isaiah 42:1-7; 49:1-6; 50:4-9; 52:13—53:1-12). God’s “servant” can be identified as
corporate Israel, God’s people for example: Isaiah 41:8-9, “But you, Israel, my
servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen.”
Isaiah 42:19-20, “Who is blind but my servant, and deaf like the
messenger I send?” Isaiah 44:1, “But now listen, Jacob, my servant, Israel,
whom I have chosen.” Vs21 “Remember these things, Jacob, for you, Israel, are my
servant. I have made you, you are my servant; Israel, I will not forget you.”
These are
dealing with the servant being the corporate Israel. Yet this figure is also to
be identified as an “individual who will
restore Israel.”
Isaiah 49:5-6 “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, for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord and
my God has been my strength—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 my salvation may reach to the ends of
the earth.” This begs a question who is this servant that the prophet is
referring to here? Here are some of the
things that the servant will accomplish:
1. He will bring back Jacob (Isaiah
49:5-6) 2. He will be a light to the nations (Isa 42:6, 49:6). Luke 2:32
“a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your
people Israel.” 3. He will bring hope to the Gentiles (Isaiah 42:1-7).
Matt 12:17-21, “This was to fulfill
what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: “Here is my servant whom I have
chosen, the one I love, in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he
will proclaim justice to the nations…In his name the nations will put their
hope.” 4. He will open the blind eyes, release the prisoners (Isaiah 42:7, Isa
35:5-6, Isaiah 61:1-2,) see Luke 4:18-19 “The Spirit
of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the
poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of
sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the
Lord’s favor.”
5. He will justify many bearing
their inquiries (Isaiah 53:11) This servant figure is also known as the
“suffering servant.” This brings me to ask us a question, according to the
prophecy of Isaiah who is this suffering servant? Who has or will fit the
criteria? This is where my Christian
upbringing and, studying the scriptures comes into the picture. Reading the Bible
that was directly translated from the ancient Hebrew and Greek texts into my
vernacular language called Telugu, I always saw and believed, the suffering
servant as Jesus Christ, the Messiah.
Jesus was like a lamb that was led to the
slaughter. I believe this passage was referring to Jesus’ death on the cross,
it was pointing to the Lamb of God who bears the sins of Israel upon himself.
So, the servant is central to Israel’s salvation, but it is his death that will
ultimately accomplish God’s purpose in bringing Jacob and being a light to the
nations (= Gentiles)
More than any other prophet Isaiah envisioned
that, during this time of restoration, the nations will come and worship God in
Jerusalem (Isaiah 2:1-4) In accordance with God’s redemptive purposes, Isaiah
sees a time when the nations will be blessed by God. (Isa 19:23-24) Isaiah announces that when God’s
righteous king rules, the “nations” will turn to the root of Jesse (Isa 11:10)
It took about 700 years, to see the fulfillment of Isaiah’s message. Let me
share some internal, external evidence, and my personal story.
III. INTERNAL EVIDENCE:
The four gospel writers, Matthew,
Mark, Luke and John recorded their encounter with Jesus, his ministry, death
and resurrection. They often quoted several OT prophets, including from Isaiah
53. Here are a few scriptures that give us the internal evidence as to Jesus
being the prophesied Messiah. Matthew begins his gospel with these words, “This
is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham.” He
records a series of 14 generations from Abraham to David, from David to the
deportation, and from the deportation to the birth of the Messiah. This is to establish that Jesus was indeed
the, “seed of Abraham” “The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed.
Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and
to your seed, “meaning one person, who is Christ.” Galatians 3:16
Listen to the prophecy of Simeon who
took the baby Jesus in his arms at the time of dedication in the temple, “For
my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all
nations: a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people
Israel.” Luke 2:30-32. When Isaiah saw that the Servant will be a light to the
nations, he was effectively saying that he would be a light to the nations.”
During Jesus’ ministry one day he
went to a Synagogue he was given a scroll to read from, guess where did he read
from? Isaiah 61:1-2, “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the
Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor...” Then remarkably
says, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:21)
Let’s look at a few from Isaiah 53,
and see how precisely they were fulfilled during the death and resurrection of
Jesus. Isaiah 53:3, “He was despised
and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one
from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low
esteem.”
Fulfilment: Luke 18:31-33, “31
Jesus took the Twelve aside and told them, “We are going up to Jerusalem, and
everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled.
He will be delivered over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him and
spit on him; they will flog him and kill him. On the third day he will rise
again.”
Isaiah
53:4, “Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered
him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.” Fulfilment: This was to
fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: “He took up our infirmities
and bore our diseases.” Mat 8:17
Isaiah 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 its shearers is silent, so he did not open his
mouth.” Matthew 26:63, “Jesus remained silent.” Matthew 27:14
Isaiah 53:9, “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.” Matthew 27:57, “As
evening approached, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who had
himself become a disciple of Jesus.”
Isaiah, 53:11 “After he has suffered, 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” Romans 5: 18-19 “Consequently, just as one
trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act
resulted in justification and life for all people. For just as through the
disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the
obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.
IV EXTERNAL AVIDENCE
What began as a first Church in Jerusalem, with about 3,000
people on the Day of Pentecost, became a world-wide movement of people from
many nations. People from far ends of the earth have been justified and brought
into the Kingdom of God as they put their faith in the completed work of
redemption. Even after 2000 years, the gospel of Jesus Christ is bearing much
fruit gaining around 2 billion followers of Christ in the worldwide Church of
God. Though in the USA the Church attendance may seem to be declining, in Africa,
Asia, in Latin America it is increasing rapidly. World’s largest single Church
is the Yoido Full Gospel Church in Seoul South Korea with membership of 800,000
people. There is another mega Church in Nigeria. Etc. These are some of the external evidences of how the
Suffering Servant Jesus Christ bearing the sins of the world, healing the
broken hearted and setting people free who are imprisoned to their own guilt
and shame. We believe that one-day Jesus Christ will come back to earth, “in
his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person
according to what they have done.” Matthew 16:27 One of the disciples of
Christ, John the Evangelist saw how Jesus will be coming to the earth in the
last book of the Bible, Revelation 1:7 “Look, he is
coming with the clouds, “and “every eye will see him, even those who pierced
him”; and all peoples on earth “will mourn because of him.” So, shall it be!
Amen.
V. MY PERSONAL JOURNEY
Sometimes people have a misnomer,
that Christianity is a western religion, but the truth of the matter is it is
originated in the East, in Jerusalem from there it spread to the rest of the
world. One of the twelve disciples of Jesus who was a skeptic and known as the
“Doubting Thomas, when he was convinced that Jesus Christ was indeed the
prophesied Messiah according to Isaiah, he was willing to die for the one who
died for him.
Thomas travelled to India in the
first century AD, preaching the gospel to the high cast Brahmins. Many were
converted to Christianity. Eventually he was martyred for his faith, his tomb
is still there in a city called Chennai in the southern part of India.
I was born and brought up in a 4th
generation Christian family in a coastal village in the state of Andhra
Pradesh, India. India is the land of
millions of Hindu gods. Approximately 80% of all Indians are Hindus. Four
generations ago my family, too were Hindus.
My great grandfather became a believer of Jesus through the efforts of
some missionaries from UK.
I attend church regularly and read
my bible but never had a close relationship with Jesus. My grandmother used to pray for my salvation
earnestly. Since I did not have any bad habits like my friends I thought I was
a good Christian hence that would get me to heaven. One day while I was reading
a book about "The present and the near prophesied future,” Fear struck me
that I would be left behind if Christ came back to the earth that day. By the
end of reading the book I prayed and asked Jesus to come into my life, and that
decision changed my life completely.
Over the years Jesus, healed my broken heart,
forgave my sins and has given me a purpose to live for Him. After my graduation
in 1985, I joined YWAM serving with them for 20 years, involved in preaching
the gospel, teaching, discipling young people and challenging believers to love
and live for God. I’ve been married to a wonderful woman from the Netherlands
for 22 years, we are raising together our three teenage daughters. I graduated
with an MDiv from Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary in 2008. I’ve been in
pastoral ministry in Quincy MA for eight years and currently I am pastoring at
Hope Church in Sharon MA. It has been an exciting journey to get to know so
many wonderful people in Sharon. I enjoy working with the Sharon Interfaith
Clergy Association to make Sharon a better place.
