See, my servant will act wisely; he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted. 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--so will he sprinkle many nations, and kings will shut their mouths because of him. For what they were not told, they will see, and what they have not heard, they will understand.
Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? 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. 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.
Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. 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. 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.
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. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken. 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.
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. After the suffering of his soul, 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. 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.
Last week we ended our study of this passage with the Kings having their mouths shut. This week we continue the study looking at the first three verses in chapter 53. This chapter begins with two rhetorical questions. Both these questions remind me of a story.
As most of you may be aware, there is quite a controversy over the book of Jonah. Liberal scholars state that the book contains a myth of a man named Jonah who was swallowed by a whale whereas conservative scholars hold that the story is God’s truth. The controversy is not new and has it roots back in the late 1800’s. Let me share the story.
A devout father had a son who was studying for the ministry. The son decided to go to Europe for an advanced degree, and the father worried that his son’s faith would be spoiled by the sophisticated unbelieving professors. “Don’t let them take Jonah away from you,” he admonished, figuring the swallowed-by-a-great-fish story would be the first part of the Bible to go.
Two years later when the son returned, his father asked, “Do you still have Jonah in your Bible?”
The son laughed. “Jonah! That story isn’t even in your Bible!”
The father replied, “It certainly is! What do you mean?”
Again the son laughed and insisted, “It is not in your Bible. Go ahead, show it to me.”
The older man fumbled through his Bible, looking for the Book of Jonah, but he couldn’t find it. At last he checked the table of contents for the proper page. When he turned there, he discovered that the pages comprising Jonah had been carefully cut from his Bible.
“I did it before I went away,” said the son. “What’s the difference wheter I lose the Book of Jonah through studying under non-believers or you lose it through neglect?”
What is the difference of you lose the message of the gospel through studying under non-believers or if you lose it through neglect?
That is the message of our lesson today? This certainly is a Strange Attitude. Last week as you remember, Isaiah told the people to wake up. He told them to see that the Messiah’s appearance would be humble and surprising. It would be obscure and not want they anticipated.
The appearance of the Son of God, the Messiah of Israel would shut their mouths. The idiom is still in use some places in the south. You hear the old ladies say “Well, shut my mouth.” It is a statement that you are shocked, dumbfounded by what has just happened. And so it is with the appearance of Jesus.
Scripture tells us that when he was twelve he debated with the Rabbis and religious leaders in the temple (Lk 2:46,47). Later in his ministry he astonished the chief priests, the teachers of the law and even the Sadducees (Lk 20:20). But here Isaiah says that the Kings of the nations where astonished seeing what they had not been told understanding what they were not told.
How about you? Has the Spirit of God revealed to you who the Messiah is? Has he shown you that He is the King of Glory, that Jesus Christ is God’s only begotten son, sent to this earth to be disfigured in your place. To die in your stead, being the propitiation, the atoning sacrifice for your rebellion?
I. The Strange Message
But Who has believed our message? What is this strange message that Isaiah is declaring? Paul also quotes Isaiah in regard to this message. Turn with me to Romans chapter 15. Starting in verse 18 let us read to verse 21. I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done-- by the power of signs and miracles, through the power of the Spirit. So from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ. It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation. Rather, as it is written: "Those who were not told about him will see, and those who have not heard will understand.”
Paul was called to preach the gospel to fulfill Isaiah’s prophecy. And what is that message? It is the message of the prophets. It is the message of restoration. Last week, you will remember that Isaiah was speaking to the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. Tribes that had observed his former prophesies to the 10 northern tribes. They were to trust in Jehovah to subdue their enemies, but they failed and trusted in the might of the Assyrians. And in doing so they were led captive with fish hooks in their mouths (Amos 4:2). Now the southern tribes were in the same predicament. The southern tribes saw King Ahaz trust in Sennacherib and they were led into captivity. Hezekiah now to trusts the might of Babylon. Isaiah prophesied that they too would be led into captivity but that God, after punishing his people for their idolatry would bring them back. He would once again restore the glory to Israel, release them from their captivity, blessing their land redeeming it from pestilance, disease and famine redeeming them from their spiritual and political bondage.
The people would recieve their Messiah and he would deliver them. Isaiah proclaims that those who did not see Christ’s life and sacrifice will indeed hear. And Paul faithfully fulfilled his part in this commission. Those who previously did not hear will understand. Brothers and sisters, that is you and I. It is also the message that you and I have been given. Who has heard our report?
Isaiah’s rhetorical question has another part “...to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?” Vi zerovah Yahweh. The arm of the Lord. The Hebrew is reknown in its use of idioms. What does Isaiah mean by using the “arm of the Lord?” It is an idiom that Isaiah uses in fourteen different contexts between Isaiah 40 and Isaiah 66. We have all seen illustrations of the first of these. In Isaiah 40 the prophet speaks comfortingly of Yahweh as the great shepherd carrying his lambs in his arms. But then the tenderness of the idiom changes as we see in verse 10 of chapter 52. Here he says “The LORD will lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God.”
The picture Isaiah paints is a picture of a father. A man came up to two boys fighting in the park. He took one aside and began to spank him for his inappropriate behavior. An observant bystander came up to the man and asked indignantly why he didn’t do anything to the other boy. The man responded that this one was his son and the other was not.
But here God’s sleeves are not just rolled up to deal with his children, but he rolls up his sleeves and bares his arms in the sight of all the nations so that they will see his salvation.
Our nation is embroiled in a controversy to stop violence. One psychologist, John Valusek has argued that “The way to stop violence in America is to stop spanking children.” He declared to the Utah Association for Mental Health that parental spanking promotes the thesis that violence against others is acceptable. “Spanking,” Valusek stated “is the first half-inch on the yardstick of violence. It is followed by hitting, and ultimately by rape, murder and assassination. The modeling behavior that occurs at home sets the stage: I will resort to violence when I don’t know what else to do.”
His logic is airtight, isn’t it? Why, just think of it. Feeding a child is the first half-inc on the yardstick to gluttony? Hugging a child is the first half-inch on the yardstick to immorality?
Unfortunately, Mr. Valusek did not realize that there is a qualatiative difference between discipline and violence, just as there is between eating and gluttony, hugging and immorality, and all other acceptable human behaviors and their exaggerated counterparts. To not see the difference is to surrender a part of our humanity to the machines - and for Christians it means being disobedient to God’s will for parents.
No, God reveals his bare arm in Isaiah to show how he will discipline his people in their captivity first to Assyrian and then to Babylon. But he will be gracious, seizing his people from their captors and restoring them in the land. But this is not the end. He did not intend just to redeem Israel but all his people from the bondage of sin and death.
II. A Strange Plant
But the redemption of a people of God through a servant will come in a strange manner. Verses 2 and 3 describes the strange sight that the nations will see. In these verses Isaiah uses three participles to describe this servant.
First he says that “he will grow up before him.” In English we miss the strength of this phrase. The action of course is on the future verb “will grow up” but notice more particularly what follows, the words “before him.” The Hebrew word is lapaneu before his face. Before whose face. Before the face of God. Or as we hear more frequently in the Latin Corum Deo - before the face of God. This servant of Yahweh will grow up before the face of God - he will be continually in the presence of God.
Second he is called “a tender plant.” But again our reading in English obscures the meaning. The word does not mean a tender plant as such, like a sapling we set out after the last frost. No it has the meaning of another gardening term. One I think we might be more familiar with. The word would be better translated “a sucker”, a shoot that men will prune out as we do the suckers on our tomato plants or apple trees. This “tender plant” one men would prune out of a plant for their is no outward form that they see in it that will bring any honor to the plant.
And as such we come to the third clause there is “nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.” Here we will not be enamoured by his phyiscal appearance. Remember our sermons in John when Jesus stands before Pilate? Pilate knew the position of a king. He looked at Jesus and he found him wanting. There was nothing in his appearance that stood out as one of royal birth.
No Jesus did not have the glamour of a Kingly image, Kingly birth or Kingly prestige. There was nothing apparent that the people should desire him as thier king. But there is one additional word or rather phrase that stands out. Again we cannot see the comparison until we look at the Hebrew. The phrase is in English translated “desire” but the meaning is exactly the reading of the words in Exodus 20:17 or Deuteronomy 5:21. This word “desire” is the Hebrew word “covet.”
How often do we read the words of the final commandment as desire? “You shall not desire your neighbors’ wife. You shall not set your desire on your neighbor’s house or land, his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” No, we prefer the word “covet” because we don’t use the word often. But in our society “coveting” is a way of life. Television teaches our children “to covet” to desire this toy or the toy in that cereal box. How often do we find ourselves in the same situation.
No, the appearance of the man Jesus Christ is not something we covet. It is not something we desire. His ways are not our ways nor our ways his ways. We have no fleshly desire for him or need for him. Unless the Spirit of God works in your life drawing you to the Father, you will never see your need for him - you will never desire Him as your Lord and master.
Do you have a desire that is inquenchable, or is your desire to be obediant quenched by legalism? Do you have a heart for God or is it a heart of stone? Does selfishness and your own desire for self preservation win out. Do you desire to spend time in the Word? Do you desire to read great men of the faith, men who will lead you closer to knowing God? Or do you have too much else to read. Too much else that quenches your desire to know your savior?
Today we are gathering at our Lord’s Table. We are celebrating the finished work on the Cross. He gave up everything this world could offer, to be nailed on that cross for you. Is he the center of your desire? This indeed is a strange attitude for the world to understand. His desire was for you - Is your desire for Him? If it is not, please get on your knees confess your sin before the Amighty God. If your glory is not in Him alone, we request that you do not partake of this table to defile it. Our goal is that “whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” For it is then that his name is glorified among all the people.
