A Portrait of the Suffering Servant - Isaiah 53

A Portrait of the Suffering Servant - Isaiah 53

 

Is there a more vivid picture in all of the Old Testament than the portrait painted by Isaiah in Isaiah 53? The old prophet takes a hold of the paint brush, and the Hand of the Holy Spirit directs his hand to the questioning color of black. Isaiah 53 begins with a question. In some ways this question could have been asked by any of the prophets, as their prophetic utterances generally fell on ears that refused to hear. 

      “Who has believed what we have heard? 

And to whom has the Arm of the Lord been revealed?” (vs. 1)

 

The old prophet discards the used paint brush, reaches for a new one, once again, the Spirit of the Almighty directs his hand on to the palette to a very light shade of green, he then moves to the canvas and paints, what appears to be a “root out of dry ground” (vs. 2), so tender, you would think that the scorching sun and strong wind from the south would wither it into nothingness. Then, there was his brush strokes, honestly the least impressive you had ever seen, a 5-year-old could have done a better job. 

 

Keeping the same paint brush, and still directed by the Hands of the Almighty, the old artists hand's moved back to palette and then moves through every other shade of green, until the tip of the brush resembled what would proceed from the mouth of someone with a high fever. As he moves to the canvas, what came forth went from bad to worse, it was as sickening as the combination of all the green colors, actually, it was worse. You found yourself despising (vs. 3) what was appearing before you on the canvas. No longer able to “look” (vs. 2), you “turned away from” (vs. 2) the painting. It was hard to imagine there ever being any “value” (vs. 3) at all in this painting.

 The old artist placed the paintbrush on the palette, giving the impression that he had finished, however, moments later, something began to change, not so much in the portrait, it was more a change inside your heart. Honestly, it was impossible to put into words what was taking place. Somehow, the sick feelings and feelings of illness, some of which you didn’t even realize you had, began to move from inside of you and, strangely enough, move onto the canvas. As you think back on it now, you are taken aback by your initial reaction. Rather than a heart of gratitude at the transfer that had just taken place, you looked at the portrait with a deep disdain, a sense that the individual appearing on the portrait as being “stricken, struck down by God and afflicted.” (vs. 4) 

More than that, He was being “crushed” (vs. 5), as if the God of heaven were placing His foot upon the Figure on the canvas, Who now appeared to be alive, and crush the Him to pieces under God’s great wrath. Crushed, not because of any wrong done by Him, He was being crushed, experiencing the wrath of God, as a result of the “iniquity of us all” (vs. 6), past, present, and future. Throughout all of this, though all our iniquities were being thrust upon Him, “He did not open His mouth. Like a lamb being led to the slaughter and like a sheep is silent before her shearers, He did not open His Mouth” (vs. 7).

 Then something mysterious began to take place on the canvas. From the deep recesses of the background of the living form on the portrait, a cross began to move, though unnoticed up until now, you had a sense it was there all along, but now it was moving from the background to the forefront. It was an Old Rugged Cross with deep crimson blood appearing towards the top, bottom, and on the ends of both cross beams. At the center of the blood-stained bottom and at the center of the blood stains on both the crossbeams, nails, thick nails, nine inches in length, instantaneously appeared, and a stream of blood began to flow from each of the nail pierced holes. Even more mysteriously, small holes began to appear at the top of the cross, with blood beginning to drip in small droplets, as if thorns were being thrust deeply into the cross. Soon, blood was flowing there as well. 

The four streams of blood joined into one great stream of blood. So great a stream, that it completely encompassed the fading form on the portrait, until His life crumbled, then completely disappeared under the weight of the wrath of the Almighty, thrust upon Him through the iniquities that were laid on His weakened shoulders. What was at one time a living form, forsaken by God the Father, shouted, “It is finished!” (John 19:30), and took one final breath, before the last bit of life left His broken body. 

 

To the left, a grave, prepared for the scum of the earth appeared, in the grave, room was made for the broken form. Then, suddenly to the right, appeared a tomb for the wealthy, hewn out of a large rock. It was there the Body was placed. It seemed fitting, for while He was completely engulfed under the weight of the iniquities of all of mankind, He Himself had never acted in “violence and had not spoken deceitfully” (vs. 9).

 

Now gazing intently at the dark ugly canvas, the Face of the Most High God, the God of the universe appears, and on that Face, you see great pleasure, as if He were “pleased to crush” (vs. 10) the now lifeless body, that was enclosed in the tomb of the wealthy.

 

Overcome with… well you weren’t actually sure what you were overcome with, but for the next three days, your eyes were glued to the canvas, not able to turn to the left or the right, you just stared at the canvas. Somehow you sensed there was more to come. Then, early in the morning of the third day, before the sun had even risen, out of the midst of the dark ugly portrait on the canvas, a light begins to shine forth. Did I say shine? Let me change that, it wasn’t shining, it was flowing, flowing like a mighty flood from the very spots where the crimson blood flowed just three days earlier. And as it flowed, that mighty flood cleansed, completely and totally cleansed, the ugly iniquities of all who gazed upon it. 

 

 

At the same moment, the chest of the lifeless form on the canvas, began to expand and contract as if breath was flowing into the lungs. The eyes, once closed, opened, and the large stone that had been placed in the opening of the tomb, rolled away, releasing from the confines, the now living One, risen joyfully and triumphantly, never again to taste death, having once “willingly submitted to” (vs. 12) it. Now, the “righteous Servant” (vs. 11) Who had become the “Lamb being led to the slaughter” (vs. 7), reigns victorious. The portrait, once so ugly, your eyes turned away in disdain, was now so infinitely beautiful, you never wanted to turn your eyes away. 

 

Isaiah 53 

“Who has believed what we have heard?

And to whom has the Arm of the Lord been revealed?

² He grew up before Him like a young plant

and like a root out of dry ground.

He didn’t have an impressive form

or majesty that we should look at Him,

no appearance that we should desire Him.

³ He was despised and rejected by men,

a Man of suffering Who knew what sickness was.

He was like someone people turned away from;

He was despised, and we didn’t value Him.

⁴ Yet He Himself bore our sicknesses,

and He carried our pains;

but we in turn regarded Him stricken,

struck down by God, and afflicted.

⁵ But He was pierced because of our rebellion,

crushed because of our iniquities;

punishment for our peace was on Him,

and we are healed by His wounds.

⁶ We all went astray like sheep;

we all have turned to our own way;

and the Lord has punished Him

for the iniquity of us all.

⁷ He was oppressed and afflicted,

yet He did not open His mouth.

Like a lamb led to the slaughter

and like a sheep silent before her shearers,

He did not open his mouth.

⁸ He was taken away because of oppression and judgment,

and who considered His fate?

For He was cut off from the land of the living;

He was struck because of my people’s rebellion.

⁹ He was assigned a grave with the wicked,

but He was with a rich man at His death,

because He had done no violence

and had not spoken deceitfully.

¹⁰ Yet the Lord was pleased to crush Him severely.

When you make Him a guilt offering,

He will see His seed, He will prolong His days,

and by His Hand, the Lord’s pleasure will be accomplished.

¹¹ After His anguish,

He will see light and be satisfied.

By His knowledge,

my righteous Servant will justify many,

and He will carry their iniquities.

¹² Therefore I will give Him the many as a portion,

and He will receive the mighty as spoil,

because He willingly submitted to death,

and was counted among the rebels;

yet He bore the sin of many

and interceded for the rebels.”

Bowing to the Alter of the Perceived Important with my Back to the Cross

Back in early November, right after Pam and I had voted early, I posted on Facebook; “Just voted! Now can this election just end!” All National elections are contentious, but in my memory this one had exceeded them all. My hopeful thought was, “Ok, it’s over, can we all just move on!” Based on social media the answer to that is a resounding “NO!” In many ways a divided Nation has become even more divided. On the one side is what many perceive as sore losers (just to be clear, by losers I do not mean they are losers, just that their side came out on the losing end of the election!). On the other side you have….well you have sore winners (for the sake of full disclosure, this does not mean they are winners, just that they were on the winning end of the election!).

The rest of this post is directed at one particular group of individuals. It is directed to those who have committed their lives to Christ. Those whom the Apostle Paul calls “a new creation”, of whom Paul goes on to say “The old has passed away, the new has come.” (2 Cor. 5:17).

For most of us, we can go back to that moment when the new life began, when we threw our proverbial hands in the air, bowed at the foot of The Cross and said; “God, I surrender myself to You, I put my faith and trust in You….” I’ll let you fill in the blank on how it went for you. For me, it took place in the summer of 1966; back then seat-belts were an option, which included an additional cost! We didn’t have them! When we would travel, much of the time I, being the youngest boy, would sit in the middle of the back seat, leaning on the seat in front of me, arms resting, talking and listening to my parents. God blessed me with an awesome set of parents and I liked being near them. On this occasion, as I leaned forward, the gospel became clear to me and I received Christ. How did it happen with you? I ask this question for a reason, I want your mind to go back to that day, to remember it, to think on it, think on what was going through your mind that day. That day you became “a new creation”. For many of us, something began to burn inside of us, we had this desire to tell everyone what Jesus had done for us. But as time went on, that flame seemed to subside and now it at times seems hardly distinguishable. The Apostle Paul was worried that the same thing might happen to his young friend Timothy, so in a letter to him, Paul wrote “For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God…” (2 Tim. 1:6). As a camp counselor at Camp IdRaHaJe in the mountains south of Denver, I learned how to start a camp fire; I learned that fanning a flame took effort. It wasn’t enough to just start the fire; on chilly nights, or rainy days, when your main source of warmth was that fire, you did whatever it took to keep it going. You fanned the flame. Should we do any less as a follower of Christ?

As I peruse through the various social media platforms, I am getting the impression that we as believers are fanning the flame alright, but it’s not the flame Paul reminded Timothy to fan. It seems that we are desperate to get a message out, but it’s not the message of The Cross, the only message that carries with it an eternal significance, its other messages. It’s our political viewpoint, our view on the POTUS, the Electoral College, SCOTUS, Black Lives Matter or Blue Lives Matter, immigration. Our thoughts on abortion or a woman’s right to choose, on Obamacare or the abolishment of Obamacare…..the list seems at times to be endless. Now please don’t get me wrong, I am not saying these things are not important, each of these items have some importance to them. But we have turned these “important” items into hammers to drive home the nail of our message. With our backs to the cross of Christ, we pound nails into a different cross, one which holds no eternal significance, a cross of divisiveness, a cross that tears apart. The Apostle Paul, in writing to the churches in Galatia, was himself dealing with some divisiveness in the churches. He writes in chapter 5; “¹³ For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. ¹⁴ For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” ¹⁵ But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.” Verse 15 seems to be a pretty accurate description of what is happening all too frequently on social media right now, from the biting and devouring to the consuming. How this must grieve the Holy Spirit! Paul writes in his letter the Ephesian believers; “²⁹ Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” Shouldn’t this be the overriding principle behind all of our posts? If it is, then we don’t have to worry about the verses immediately following verse 29; “³⁰ And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. ³¹ Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.”

I get the impression that we have forgotten what it is we have been commissioned to do. Nowhere in the Gospels are we commissioned to set the world straight on our political view. I do not pretend to know the mind of God, but I am not sure that He gives a rip who we voted for or to which political party we belong. As important as the Pro-life movement is, it must absolutely take a back seat to the Pro-life movement that comes from those that are dead in their trespasses and sin accepting life eternal through Jesus Christ our Savior! And if our Pro-life post leads anyone away from the Cross of Christ, we need to think real hard before we click Post…..wait, let me change that, we need to pray before we click post! I must admit to you, outside of this post, I can’t remember the last time I prayed before I clicked post! Can you? It is no wonder there is a lot of biting and devouring going on out there. We have to do better, I have to do better. Our commission is to “¹⁹ Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them I the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” What we post in social media ought to reflect that commission!

Ok, so you have been pretty patient with me as you have read through this post. Perhaps you take issue with some of what I have written. That's fine, to be honest, most of the time when I write posts like this, the vast majority is self-directed. Maybe, just maybe I'm pointing a finger your direction, but 3 are pointed in mine. Can I ask you to do something? Can I ask you to pray? In fact, for those that are able, may I be so bold as to ask you to go to your knees and pray. I have, before I posted this I went to my knees, bowing at the foot of The Cross with my back to ALL else, seeking the face of God Himself. Oh that my life would be pleasing to Him, that my posts would be pleasing to Him, that my replies to others posts would be pleasing to Him. That His light would shine……even on social media!

Desperately wanting to hear “Well Done”,

Jim