Isaiah 53: The Value Of Silence Series

“He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth.”

SERIES REMINDER

We are currently in a sermon series focusing on Isaiah 53. Isaiah 52-53 focus on Someone called “the Suffering Servant” and based on normal interpretation of this passage; we see this Person being Jesus Christ. Isaiah 53 records for us a dynamic and important prophecy of prediction about Jesus and what He would do and endure. We should not overlook that 700 years before Jesus was born, lived, ministered, and died; a prophet of God looked forward inspired by the Holy Spirit and predicted some of what He would accomplish.

Isaiah is counted in the Major Prophets of the Old Testament with 66 chapters. We are just looking at chapter 53. Chapter 53 has solid teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16) because Isaiah 53 is God’s Word.

RE-READ ISAIAH 53:7 (ESV)

“He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth.”

WHAT DOES VERSE 7 SAY?

Verse 7 begins with the idea that the Suffering Servant was “oppressed.” That word is actually used in verse 7 and in verse 8. The picture we get of this word is that “a person or an animal is driven forward in a distressing and tyrannical manner making them hurt.” I imagine the picture in movies or TV shows when a prisoner has hands tied and their captor is riding a horse and they are stumbling and fumbling behind walking and falling and being drug by the enemy. There is physical exhaustion that can be brought on by mistreatment. This same word is used elsewhere in the Bible to refer to “taskmasters” (Exodus) and being “hard pressed” (1 Samuel). That is this word… “oppressed.”

Verse 7 continues by describing the Suffering Servant as “afflicted.” This word is used twice in Isaiah 53, here, and in verse 4. The word means “to look down on someone,” “to browbeat a person by saying harsh words,” or “to hurt someone by force.” When I think of this word, I think of a schoolyard bully. A bully does their best to afflict a person by words or by actions and to make another person feel weak. Nowadays that can happen in person or online. There is abuse that happens from one person to another and breaks another down physically, mentally, and emotionally. The same word is used elsewhere in the Bible to refer to “dealing harshly” with someone (Genesis 16), “humiliation” (Genesis 34), and “violating” someone to “torment” them (Deuteronomy 22, Judges 16, 19). This is the word… “afflicted.”

Verse 7 also has the idea that this Suffering Servant is “like a lamb led to the slaughter.” I am not sure why, but the word “slaughter” caught my eye. The word means “to butcher.” I must admit that I have never butchered anything in my whole life. I know how to clean a fish, but that somehow seems much different. Those of you who hunt or own animals on a farm probably have a much better idea about this than the rest of us. I half-way know how to carve a turkey, but that seems different as well. We are presented with this idea that the Suffering Servant is much like a helpless lamb that is butchered or even a sheep that is shorn and has no ability to resist. “Slaughter” is a pretty serious word that has blood, death, and sacrifice attached to it.