ISAIAH 53:1-3
THE DESPISED FRIEND
[JOHN 1: 10-14]
Chapter 53 continues to speak of the Messiah, Jesus, who would suffer for the sins of all people. Such a prophecy is astounding! Who would believe that God would choose to save the world through a humble suffering servant rather than a glorious king? The idea is contrary to human pride and worldly ways.
So people refused to heed the Servant of the Lord or His message and for that reason they do not experience the mighty power of the arm of the Lord. For it is through heeding the message that the mighty arm of the Lord brings salvation, to believer and lost alike. There are two reasons given here that the world reject the Servant of God. The first is because they find the Servant unattractive. Second, because the way of the Servant is not popular with the world system, so He is despised and friendless. His low condition and especially His sufferings make Him an object of contempt. Isaiah wrote that people will not value the hidden strength of the Servant. We would reject Him because He was considered an ordinary person. But God often works in ways we don’t expect. The Messiah’s strength is shown through humility, suffering, and mercy.
But despite the fact that worldly people avoid becoming a friend with such a one as He; He is the only completely faithful friend any one can have. He is the "friend that sticketh closer than a brother" (Prov. ). For this friend willingly received the punishment that is due each and everyone of us for our transgressions and iniquities so that we might go eternally free.
The world may despise our Friend but we who come to know His mighty arm of salvation say, -"What a Friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear, what a privilege to carry everything to Him in prayer."
I. MESSAGE DISBELIEF, 1.
II. HUMBLE MESSENGER, 2.
III. PUBLIC REJECTION, 3.
God has been promising in Isaiah to save not only Israel but the world. Again in verse 1 we find that objective or message. Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
The Servant passage begins with two rhetorical questions. Who has believed our preaching or teaching? And, who has experienced its saving power?
These two parallel thoughts express the same idea. Believing what has been proclaimed and the revelation of the Lord’s strength are two aspects of the same thing. Whoever believes the Gospel Message is one who will experience the Lord’s saving power being extended to him. It was the arm of the Lord that brought Israel of old out of Egyptian slavery and it is the arm of the Lord that brings people out of the bondage of sin and death and into being a servant of God.
God manifests His delivering saving power through belief in His Servant and His Word. If His Servant and His Word are not believed, the delivering power of God is not revealed. When Paul quotes this verse in Romans 10:16, he follows it up with verse 17 as the interpretation. "So faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ."
Who has believed our report? Who would believe that when the delivering arm of God is reveal to save His people that it would look like Jesus? Who would believe that a deliverer would be so lowly and would fall so low as the means of delivering them? [The two NT quotations of the passage understand we or our to be the people of God who have heard the news and seen the revelation but have refused to believe (John 12:38; Rom. 10:16). Oswalt, Isaiah, 381]
If Israel had believed this prophecy concerning the Suffering Servant’s life, they might have recognized Him when He appeared. Neither the Jews or the world at large believed Him to be who He claimed to be, "the Christ, the Son of the Living God." Neither would they believe His teachings nor His mighty signs and works which proved Him to be who He said He is (Jn. 12:30).
Our message is this Suffering Servant’s incarnate birth, perfect life, atoning death, powerful resurrection and His glorious return. Our message is these events and their interpretation. Those who have ears to hear will experience the arm of the Lord. The arm is used as means of active power or strength (Deut., 4:34, 5:15, 26: 8). The arm of the Lord is the power of God that brings victory. No matter what enemies you face, even Satan, sin or the grave, His power is sufficient for all who believe His word.
Yes, the message is powerful to save, but not many people will receive it. Mt. 7:13-14 says, "The way is broad that leads to destruction- and many are those who enter by it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it."
The faithful remnant (us) lament the fact that so few people believe their message about the Servant, and that so few acknowledge their message as coming from God and thus will not see His arm or experience His strength (40:10). Why do so few look to Jesus and believe on Him? The following verse indicates some reasons. Verse 2 reveals that disbelieve in the message was because it bore witness to a most unlikely person who brings deliverance in a most unlikely way.
[What is being said here can only be understood in direct relationship to what has been said previously in chs. 49-52. God has promised to deliver his people from their alienation from him so that they can indeed become his. servants to the world. Now he tells the means by which He proposes to effect that deliverance. Oswalt, Isaiah, 382]
The message of verse 1 becomes the person of verse 2. For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.
Having expressed disappointment that so few have experience the saving-delivering arm of the Lord, the report of the One who is coming is set before us. First, He is the sensitive One. (2 a) For He shall grow up before the Father as a tender plant, a suckling shoot. He would shoot up out of the long cut off stump of David (4:2; 11:1). We would expect Him to be called a mighty oak, or a cedar of Lebanon, but no He is called a tender shoot.
So tenderhearted is Jesus that, even as He was dying on the cross, He looked down and saw His mother with John. In the midst of His own unbelievable suffering He said to John, "behold your mother" and to her, "Behold your son," (John 19:26, 27), making sure that His mother would be cared for after His death.
The second description of the Servant is (2b) . . . and as a root out of dry ground, that is, from an area or conditions where one would not expect a large plant to grow. He is describe as a humble root, not a majestic branch. The background of His family and parents as well as the tiny village are not the well watered conditions that lead to development and growth.
Also when Jesus came on the scene, the ground was spiritually dry indeed. Politically, Rome had been oppressing the people of Israel. The people had received no word from God, no prophecies, no revival for four hundred years.
In Jeremiah 2, the Lord said, "My people have committed two evils. They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living water, and they have carved out cisterns (of their own making) that can hold no water." If you’re dry because you’ve forsaken the living water to draw from the cisterns of occupational success, materialistic pursuits, worldly pleasures or even physical relationships, you’ll eventually find that they don’t hold water, that their a broken cisterns. They will not refresh you the way you thought they would.
Jesus says, "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink, and out of his innermost being will gush forth torrents of living water" (see John 7:37, 38). If you’re in a dry place, consider the sensitive One, Jesus Christ, who comes in dry times to those who thirst for more.
2 (c) . . . He had no form nor majesty; that we should look upon Him. Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.
Form implies handsomeness like Joseph and David (Gen.; 39:6; 1 Sam. 16:19) had. He was not movie star material. In His appearance He did not look like a royal person in beauty or majesty. Christ had none of the trappings or bearing usually associated with power and royalty. He did not triumphantly ride into Jerusalem on horse back but was seated on a humble donkey. If we just judge Jesus on man’s prerequisites for leadership, Jesus would be found lacking. When God humbled Himself, He humbled Himself. The remnant was not excusing people for rejecting the Servant; it was merely explaining why the nation rejected Him. We like our heros brash, dashing, and colorful instead of meek, humble and pure like Jesus.
But God does not look on the outward appearance but on the heart. God desires that we look upon Jesus with eyes of faith instead of the eye of flesh if we would see real eternal beauty (1 Pet. 2:4).
The psalmist describes Messiah as "fairer than the children of men" (45:2). Because He wasn’t affected by sin and anxiety, tension and worry, there was no doubt a beauty about the Lord, but it was an inner beauty. Whatever attractiveness He might have for people will have to be from within, for it is certainly not on the surface. The true eternal beauty and glorious splendor of the Servant will be revealed at His second coming.
The demeanor of the Servant is shocking. Aren’t deliverers dominating, forceful, attractive people, who by their personal magnetism draw people to themselves and convince people to do what they want them to do? A John Wayne, a Carleton Heaston, a George W. Patton, a Michael Jordan? People who refuse to follow that leadership frequently find themselves crushed and tossed aside. This man does not fit that picture at all. We are not drawn to Him and His plans; rather, we are repulsed by Him and them. Instead of bursting on the scene like a mighty oak or a fruit tree in full bloom, He appears as a sprout or "sucker," the normally unwanted shoot that springs up from an exposed root of a tree. It is a matter of seconds for the gardener to snip it off. Or He is like a little plant"struggling for life in unwatered ground. Far from forcing its way on all around it, its survival is in doubt.
The Christian thinks inevitably of Jesus Christ a baby born in the back-stable of a village inn. This One would shake the Roman Empire? A man quietly coming to the great preacher John asking to be baptized. Is this they way a man who would save the world comes to it?
We expect, we want a movie star figure, bigger than life, triumphantly leading us. Our eyes are caught by the best looking and satisfied by superficial splendor. This man Isaiah says will have none of that. As a result our eyes flicker across Him in the crowd of humanity and we do not even notice Him. His unmatched splendor is not seen in His face, His clothing, His entourage, His demeanor, His personality, but in His inner man. And those who have no inclination to look beyond the surface, to hear the still small voice of God, will never even see Him, much less pay Him any attention. [Oswalt, Isaiah, 382]
Many people refuse to accept Jesus’ deity because He was so humble. They remind me of the young woman who was ENGAGED TO MOZART before he rose to fame. Impressed by more handsome men, she became disenchanted with him because he was so short. So she gave him up for someone tall and attractive. When the world began to praise Mozart for his outstanding musical accomplishment she regretted her decision. "I knew nothing of the greatness of his genius," she said. I only saw him as a little man."
We wonder why the Jews, who knew the Scriptures, failed to see Jesus’ true greatness. Perhaps they were looking for the beautiful King described in Isaiah 33:1 7. They did not understand that before Messiah came in all His glorious beauty, He must first come as the Man of sorrows described in Isaiah 53.
Some of Jesus’ contemporaries said He had "an unclean spirit" (Mark 3:30). Others tried to throw Him over a cliff (Luke 4:29).At first even His own brothers failed to recognize His true identity (John 7:5). Most of Jesus’ peers saw Him only as a man (Mark 6:3) and refused to accept Him as God.
Do you think of Jesus as a mere man, or do you know Him as Savior and Lord? Your destiny depends on a complete view of Christ. What you think of Christ determines where you will spend eternity.
How To BE SAVED
Admit you’re a sinner and can’t save yourself (Rom. 3:23).
Believe that Jesus died to pay for your sin (Acts 16:31).
Confess Jesus as your Savior and Lord (Rom. 10:9,10).
III. PUBLIC REJECTION, 3.
Not only did nothing about the Servant’s appearance attract a large following in verse 3 our treatment of Him and its effect on Him is abusive. He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
The Hebrew term translated despised means to consider something or someone be worthless or unworthy of attention. People too hastily dismissed Jesus. They did and still do not want to see Him as having any significance for them. This Servant will be considered unworthy of any special attention.
The next descriptive detail is Jesus was forsaken or rejected of men also. He was not a man’s man. He was abandoned by men. His claims were ridiculed. His words of wisdom mocked. His love was repulsed. He drank the bitter cup of contempt. Such rejection is tough.
A few years ago I heard a story that I feel is one of the saddest stories I have ever heard. An AMERICAN SOLDIER from the Midwest was seriously wounded in the conflict in Vietnam, and having been nursed back to health. he returned to the States.
When he reached San Francisco. he telephoned his father and mother and said, "Mom and Dad, I’ve come home." You can imagine how happy those parents were! The boy said, "Mom and Dad. I have a friend. He has been with me in the war and I am bringing him along. Is that all right?"
They replied, "Yes son. We would love to have him."
The boy said. "But he has been wounded. You do not realize how badly he has been hurt. He has to be cared for. He has one eye that is gone, an arm that is gone, and a leg that is gone."
"Well," said the father and mother, "we do not know about that son, we could not take care of a boy like that. There are government hospitals to take care of boys with such extensive injuries. We will help you take the lad to a hospital and there they can take care of him."
The boy replied, "All right, I will be seeing you soon."
The next day the father and mother received a call from a morgue in San Francisco. "We think we might have your son. Do you have a son from the Vietnam war by this name and is this your address?"
"Yes," they said. So they went and identified the lad. The boy had taken his life the previous night in a cheap hotel in San Francisco. When the couple saw his face, they immediately recognized him as being their son. But as they looked more closely they saw that he had one eye gone, one arm gone, and one leg gone. Their rejection was more than he could bear.
Not only will He have no special features, personality or physical characteristics, but He is full of His own problems. The third description is a man of sorrows. He was a man of pain. The word is often translated afflictions which could be physical, emotional or spiritual. He was the kind of individual with whom people do not normally want to associate because they are repulsed by Him and His problems.
According to Luke 2:52, as Jesus grew up, He found favor both in the eyes of God and men. But that changed. Men began to despise Him, reject Him, and turn away from Him to such a degree that He asked His disciples if they would leave, as well (John 6:67).
"You’ve heard it said that you’re not to commit murder, but I say to you that if you have anger in your heart toward your brother, you’ve already committed murder," He said. "If you’ve looked at a woman with lust, you’ve already committed adultery" (Matthew 5). Who wants to be called a murderer or an adulterer? People didn’t like the way Jesus spoke truthfully and honestly. They didn’t like what He said and what He stood for and against.
This man of sorrows was despised and rejected by those around Him and He is still despised and rejected by many today. Some reject Christ by standing against Him. Others despise Christ and His great gift of forgiveness. Do you despise Him, reject Him, or accept Him?
The forth description is He was acquainted with grief. That grief found its zenith in the crucifixion. The very One who had voluntarily entered into the sorrows of mankind was crucified. He experienced grief. He went through every school of suffering. "For it became Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings" (Hebrews 2:10). Jesus was exceedingly grieved in the garden when He sweat great drops of blood. The grief was even more excruciating on the cross when God the Father forsook the Son as He bore our sin on the tree. But God used these pains and griefs to refine His Son and mature Him into the Man He now is.
So He was like one from who men hide their face. All His life He walked in solitude. He walked in the solitude of un-comprehended and un-compromised aims. Even in His hour of extreme need, in the garden of Gethsemane, He could not find the solace of His companions and was then deserted by those He trusted most in His time of anguish. He was a lifelong martyrdom inflicted by men. His was a life long solitude which peaked in His last day. An He brought it all upon Himself because He would not stray from being God’s Servant, and man’s Savior.
The result is that Jesus was despised, and we did not esteem Him. He seemed to be sick, probably mentally ill. Most considered Him dangerous to be around. Most of us find the illness of others embarrassing if not repulsive. We consciously or unconsciously reject them. Such rejection is tough.
The point of this composite picture is that because he does not fit the stereotype of the arm of the Lord He will be treated as though He were ill; He will experience what the ill experience: avoidance (see John 1: 10-11).
Thus the revelation of the arm of the Lord that will deliver the Lord’s people is met with shock, astonishment, distaste, dismissal, and avoidance. Such a one as this can hardly be the one who can set us free from that most pervasive of all human bandages: sin, and all its consequences. To a world blinded. by selfishness and power, He does not even merit a second thought. Never has any man been so intent on blessing people and experienced so severely their ingratitude.
For these reasons the nation did not esteem Him; they did not think He was important. Yet He was and is the most important Person in the world, for He is the Servant of the Lord.
In Psalm 22, David spoke prophetically of Christ. But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised by the people (Psalm 22 :6).
The human race considered Him of such little value that Judas sold Him for a paltry 30 pieces of silver. But He willingly endured the disgrace and dishonor.
CONCLUSION / RESPONSE
Isaiah wrote that people will not value the hidden strength of the Servant. We would reject Him because He was considered an ordinary person. God often works in ways we don’t expect. The Messiah’s strength is shown through humility, suffering, and mercy.
I ask you, friend, what do you think of Christ? Your estimate of Him decides your eternal destiny. Do you esteem Him as He is, the Son of God, the Savior of sinners, God’s lamb slain and resurrected? Wonder of wonders, He was made sin for us that "we might be made the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Corinthians 5:21). From your heart, say to the Lord, I reject You no longer. From now on I will love and honor and serve You; I acknowledge my need and trust Your sufficient work for time and eternity."
It’s a perfect day to meditate on the amazing love that caused Jesus Christ to trade the glory of heaven for the pain of the cross. It’s even more amazing that He did it for us when we had nothing to offer Him. Love like this deserves our response today. If you have a favorite hymn that expresses your love for the Savior, sing it to Him as a sacrifice of praise.
