Isaiah [Part 17] - The Suffering Servant

Read the transcript below, or watch a video of the teaching by Joseph Shulam.

Shalom. We have arrived at one of the most important chapters in the Book of Isaiah—maybe the most important chapter in the prophets: Isaiah 53. I’m going to start from Isaiah 52 as an introduction that the prophet makes to the suffering servant. We already presented in the lessons previous to this one that the suffering servant started as Israel, as a nation representing God and His plan for the redemption of the world. In chapter 49 of Isaiah, the suffering servant becomes one person that will represent the whole nation. Now, we’re arriving at the very essence of what this suffering servant will do and what his role is in God's plan for the redemption of the world—not only the redemption of Israel, but the redemption of the world.

So, I’m going to start reading from Isaiah 52, verse 7, and I will actually read all the way to Isaiah 53, verse 12, which is the end of Isaiah 53. Then we will try to analyze this text and put it in context. Isaiah 52, from verse 7, very famous text:

The previous quote was an introduction to chapter 53. Now, chapter 53 verse 1:

The end of chapter 53 of Isaiah. Let's analyze it a little bit. Back to chapter 52. To chapter 52, I’m going back as an introduction to chapter 53—the sin-bearing servant of the Lord. That’s the subtitle that the New King James has there: the sin-bearing servant.

But this introduction to Isaiah 53 doesn’t end there; He will influence many nations, according to verse 15 of chapter 52. Yes, many kings will shut their mouths when they think about this servant of the Lord that is high and lifted up, sacrificed for the forgiveness of the transgressions of many.

I already said earlier in the earlier lessons that originally the servant of the Lord was the nation of Israel. But the nation of Israel, as a collective, failed to represent God. That’s already in chapter 49 of Isaiah. Then God changes the role of the nation and puts all the burden on one servant, one human being, one servant of the Lord that will do the work of bringing the knowledge of God to the rest of the nations. That one servant now is described here to be high and lifted up and to influence kings and kingdoms by His suffering.

Isaiah 53 is a chapter that has 33 different prophetic predictions that are all prophecies fulfilled by Yeshua, by Jesus, by His death, His burial, His resurrection, His rejection by the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem, by the high court in Jerusalem, and by many of the people of Israel—definitely not by all. The chapter has some very, very important high points—high truths—that we need to repeat in this lesson and we need to explain as much as possible in the time allotted for us to do so.

First of all:

This idea that the Messiah is a plant, is a vine, is not new in Isaiah. It already is in Jeremiah and Ezekiel, and it’s already in the Psalms. There are plenty of texts that the Messiah is a plant, a shoot from the House of David. We already saw that in chapter 11 of Isaiah, and He’s going to grow up in a dry land—a spiritually dry land, physically dry land, the land of Israel. He will not be somebody beautiful—not beautiful socially, not beautiful physically. I don’t know, we don’t have a photograph or a Roman statue of how Yeshua looked, but according to Isaiah, He’s not somebody that will be physically, outwardly impressive. There is no beauty that we should desire Him in verse 2. He was actually despised and rejected. Despised and rejected by His fellow men, by the leadership of Israel, by the high priest of Israel, by the Supreme Court of Israel. He was handed to the Roman governor by the Supreme Court of Israel, that chose Barabbas—a criminal, a terrorist, a radical—instead of the Lamb of God that came to take away the sins of the world. So, physically, politically, Yeshua was undesirable.

Verse 2: The end of verse 2 says:

He was not a stand-up artist that entertained the people when He spoke. He was not somebody that it was fun to be around Him because He was so jovial, so happy, so comforting, so politically correct. No, that was not Yeshua. Why?

...by God. It is God who sent Yeshua to the cross—not only the Sanhedrin and the high court of Jerusalem and Pontius Pilate, who washed his hands of Yeshua's judgment, but all of that is why—and that’s the important point in this chapter.

Our sins were the road/ the path, to the cross. And that is where the crux issues in Yeshua’s life and ministry and the work that He did for God because God sent Him to this world to do this work for us. As a nation, we didn’t do it. We couldn’t do it. That’s a fact. So, there had to be one man, one representative of the nation that would take the burden on himself, that would be willing to go to Jerusalem and die for the nation of Israel that was under Roman occupation and the corrupt government of the family of Herod, and the corrupt priesthood in the family of Caiaphas and Annas—Hellenized Sadducees that didn’t believe in the resurrection from the dead, didn’t believe in the universal judgment, didn’t believe in the coming of the Messiah. But He came, sent by God,

The suffering that He had, the chastisement—in the King James language—that He was chastised, beaten with whips, with a thorny crown shoved on His head, the thorns pierced Him, and blood ran down His face. It’s a picture from my imagination, but what happens when you get a crown of thorns shoved on your head? All this was for our peace. He would suffer for our peace. 'By His stripes, we are healed. But we, as sheep that are without a shepherd, went astray.' We’ve turned away from Him. 'But God laid on Him our iniquity, our sins. Oppressed, beaten, afflicted, but kept quiet.' Didn’t complain—not even against those that tortured Him in the Roman Fortress of Antonia, in front of Pontius Pilate. 'Kept quiet like a lamb led to a slaughter, like a sheep before its shearers, silent. He didn’t open His mouth. He was cut off from the land of the living; He died for our transgression', for the transgression of His people and the world as a whole.

But He was buried with the wicked, but in a tomb of a rich man, Joseph of Arimathea. 'He had not done violence, nor was there deceit in His mouth. It is God’s pleasure to bruise Him.' Why? To Give Him grief? Why? As a sin offering! 'You shall see His seed; He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.' You know, He died for God’s pleasure, for our transgressions, for our remission of sins. And therefore, God is going to put Him in the portion of the great men of history—one of the greatest men in human history. His knowledge and knowledge of Him reached to the ends of the earth.

I often say when I’m in Brazil, you can go to the Amazon—and I’ve been to the Amazon—and you can ask the Indians, "Have you heard of George Washington?" No. We don’t know him. Albert Einstein? No. We don’t know. We never heard of him. But if you ask them about Jesus Christos, "Ah, He is our Savior." To the ends of the earth, He took Moses, Isaiah, the prophets, the stories of Joshua and the conquest of the land, Elijah. Israel, because of Yeshua, Israel as a people and as a nation became famous around the world. Yes, 'He will divide His portion with the great'—great men of history.

But to end, I want to do something very special. In the prayer book for the Day of Atonement, there are medieval prayers, especially in the Ashkenazi prayer book, and it is a very special prayer. If you look at the Jewish prayer book, there’s no translation for it into English or to any other language. It’s only in Hebrew—very difficult Hebrew. Even most modern Israelis have a hard time understanding it because it’s medieval Hebrew. It is written in such a language that, on purpose, things are not made clear. I want to end this teaching with this rabbinical Orthodox Jewish prayer translated by an ex-member of our staff in the Netiviah. Reading from Isaiah 52 and 53, in the text of this article written in the magazine called Teaching from Zion. You can go to the Netiviah webpage and get all the magazines for free; download them for free. I’m reading now the translation of this medieval prayer from the Jewish prayer book of the Day of Atonement:

"Then, before the beginning, He has set the abode and Inon from the beginning before planting any nation or language." Now, Inon is a text taken from Psalm 72 in Hebrew, and verses in Psalm 72, Inon is one of the names of God.

I’m returning from the beginning of this prayer in English:

Like I said, Inon is one of the names of the Messiah, taken from Psalm 72 in the Hebrew Bible. That before the sun was created, Inon was already there. And this is in the Jewish prayer book for the Day of Atonement. Yes, Isaiah 53 is a chapter that is rejected in the yearly reading of the Torah and the prophets in the synagogues, but inside the prayer book of the Day of Atonement, this prayer is there. In other words, there were always rabbis that knew the truth and knew that Isaiah 53 is talking about Inon—the one that before the sun existed, He existed. The Messiah Himself, the one who participated in the creation of the world, the one that we are a part of the design, as God said to somebody in Genesis, "Let us make man in our form and in our image." We’re not exactly in the image of angels, as the rabbis interpreted, but we are in the image of the Son of Man that was there when God set creation in order.