The Prophecy of Isaiah - Lesson 42: “The Suffering Servant” (Isaiah 52:13–53:12) [Part 2]

The Prophecy of Isaiah: A Bible Study
Lesson 42: “The Suffering Servant” (Isaiah 52:13–53:12) [Part 2]

1. The Servant’s Identity*

a. Isaiah?
b. Israel?
c. The Remnant of Israel?
d. Jesus the Messiah?

2. The Servant’s Introduction (52:13–15)

a. The Servant’s Wisdom (52:13)
b. The Servant’s Exalted Status (52:13)
c. The Servant’s Appearance (52:14)
d. The Servant and the Nations (52:15)

3. The Servant’s Rejection (53:1–3)

a. The Struggle to Believe in the Servant (53:1)
b. The Servant’s Ordinary Beginnings (53:2a)
c. The Servant Has No Special Appearance (53:2b)
d. The Servant Faces Derision and Rejection (53:3)

4. The Servant’s Suffering (53:4–6)

a. The Servant’s Suffering Is Substitutionary

⁴ Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. (Isaiah 53:4, NIV)

¹⁷ This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: “He took up our infirmities and bore our diseases.” (Matthew 8:17, NIV)

⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5, NIV)

²⁴ “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” (1 Peter 2:24, NIV)

²⁸ so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. (Hebrews 9:28, NIV)

⁶ We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:6, NIV)

²⁵ For “you were like sheep going astray,” but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. (1 Peter 2:25, NIV)

b. The Servant’s Suffering Is from God

⁶ ...the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:6, NIV)

5. The Servant’s Death (53:7–9)

a. The Servant Goes Quietly to Slaughter (53:7)

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. (Isaiah 53:7, NIV)

⁶² Then the high priest stood up and said to Jesus, “Are you not going to answer? What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you?” ⁶³ But Jesus remained silent. The high priest said to him, “I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God.” (Matthew 26:62–63, NIV)

²³ When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. (1 Peter 2:23, NIV)

b. The Servant Dies for God’s People (53:8)

⁸ By oppression and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished. (Isaiah 53:8, NIV)

²¹ She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21, NIV)

¹⁴ “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—¹⁵ just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. (John 10:14–15, NIV)

c. The Servant Dies Innocent (53:9)

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. (Isaiah 53:9, NIV)

²² “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.” (1 Peter 2:22, NIV)

⁴ Then Pilate announced to the chief priests and the crowd, “I find no basis for a charge against this man.” (Luke 23:4, NIV)

⁵⁷ As evening approached, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who had himself become a disciple of Jesus. ⁵⁸ Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body, and Pilate ordered that it be given to him. ⁵⁹ Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, ⁶⁰ and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away. (Matthew 27:57–60, NIV)

6. The Servant’s Triumph (53:10–12)

a. God Made the Servant a Guilt Offering (53:10)

¹⁰ Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin... (Isaiah 53:10, NIV)

²³ This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. ²⁴ But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. (Acts 2:23–24, NIV)

³² He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:32, NIV)

²¹ God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21, NIV)

b. The Servant Will See His Descendants (53:10–11)

¹⁰ Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. ¹¹ After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied... (Isaiah 53:10–11, NIV)

²¹ From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. (Matthew 16:21, NIV)

c. The Servant Will Justify Many (53:11)

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. (Isaiah 53:11, NIV)

²⁵ He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. (Romans 4:25, NIV)

¹⁸ Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. ¹⁹ 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. (Romans 5:18–19, NIV)

¹⁸ For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit. (1 Peter 3:18, NIV)

d. The Servant Receives God’s Reward (53:12)

¹² 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. (Isaiah 53:12, NIV)

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.” (Luke 22:37, NIV)

⁹ For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living. (Romans 14:9, NIV)

⁹ Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰ that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹ and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9–11, NIV)

*The outline is adapted from Bryan E. Beyer, Encountering the Book of Isaiah: A Historical and Theological Survey, Encountering Biblical Studies (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2007).