COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH 53
by Jed Smock
UNBELIEVABLE
Isaiah 53: 1: “Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?”
Isaiah 53 is the great prophetic chapter of the Bible concerning the coming of the Messiah. The arm of the LORD represents God’s power. How is God’s power revealed in a cross which signifies weakness, grief, sorrow, shame, suffering, rejection and death? When one thinks of authority, a throne not a cross, comes to mind. No wonder the prophet questions anyone believing his report of a suffering Savior and Messiah.
In Christianity God’s “strength is made perfect in weakness (2 Cor 12:9).” And “the weakness of God is stronger than men (1 Cor 1:25.)
Who could believe that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself (2 Cor 2:19)?” Isaiah foresaw that “Many would be astonished at him—so marred would be his appearance, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of mortals (52:14).” What this is the Messiah, the King of the Jews, with a crown of thorns on his brow, hanging on a cross? It cannot be true. Who can believe that God would allow his messenger of the Covenant to suffer so? This is an incredulous report!
THE CRUCIFIXION WAS A HORRIBLE SIGHT
Isaiah 53:2: “For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he has no
form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.”
A root out of a dry ground represents the Messiah’s virgin birth which Isaiah had already prophesied in Chapter 7 verse 14, who would be called Immanuel, which is translated, God with us. The tender plant symbolizes his vulnerability to temptation like any other youth. He had humble beginnings.
THE SHAME OF THE CROSS
Isaiah 53:3: “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”
Jesus said, “They hated me without a cause (John 15:25). Jewish hatred brought great grief and sorrow to Christ. “He came unto his own, and his own received him not (John 1:11).” The Jews were ashamed of their own Messiah, whom they had expected to lead them out of Roman rule, much as Moses delivered the people from the Egyptian tyranny. They turned away from the one who would set them free from the bondage of sin and the fear of death.
Read More: Christ Crucified!Christ Crucified: The Wisdom and Power of God
