#1025 Isaiah 52:13 - 53:12 Part 9 I Earned His Stripes

 

Who has believed our message

and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

2 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.

3 He was despised and rejected by mankind,

a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.

Like one from whom people hide their faces

he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

4 Surely he took up our pain

and bore our suffering,

yet we considered him punished by God,

stricken by him, and afflicted.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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;

by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,

and he will bear their iniquities.

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 NIV

Isaiah 53:5 By His wounds

…24and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. 25God presented Him as the atoning sacrifice through faith in His blood, in order to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance He had passed over the sins committed beforehand. 26He did this to demonstrate His righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and to justify the one who has faith in Jesus.… Romans 3: 24-26

5And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us. 6For at just the right time, while we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die.…

…8But God proves His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9Therefore, since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from wrath through Him! 10For if, when we were enemies of God, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life!… Romans 5: 5-10

But He was pierced for our transgressions - Who is He? He is the Servant, and anyone with any familiarity of the historical Jesus, would be hard pressed to find another. It is singular in this confession, not Israel, for the group, the plural, is the "our", Christ was pierced for our transgressions. There is no other name under heaven, no other person or group that fulfilled all that was prophesied about Messiah. It is also interesting that He was pierced, for the sin which they wanted to kill Him for was blasphemy, which by Jewish law would require stoning.

…34and because it had not been declared what should be done to him, they placed him in custody. 35And the LORD said to Moses, “The man must surely be put to death. The whole congregation is to stone him outside the camp.”36So the whole congregation took the man outside the camp and stoned him to death, as the LORD had commanded Moses.… Numbers 15: 34-36

If they wished to further humiliate him after his death then they hanged him on a tree. This would also serve as a witness to others who may be tempted to blaspheme or commit other crimes worthy of death.

22If a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and he is executed, and you hang his body on a tree,23you must not leave the body on the tree overnight, but you must be sure to bury him that day, because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse. You must not defile the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.… Deuteronomy 21: 22-23

The Jews wanted to stone Him on more than one occasion, but this was not the will of the Lord. Technically, Rome had the power of life and death at the time, since Israel was under their governance. A thousand years before Christ though, David, the prophetic poet king, wrote about this very thing, a method of execution not practiced in his time. 

…15My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You lay me in the dust of death. 16For dogs surround me; a band of evil men encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet.17I can count all my bones; they stare and gloat over me.… Psalm 22: 15-17

…3For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Do you want to be unafraid of the one in authority? Then do what is right, and you will have his approval. 4For he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not carry the sword in vain. He is God’s servant, an agent of retribution to the wrongdoer. 5Therefore it is necessary to submit to authority, not only to avoid punishment, but also as a matter of conscience.… Romans 13: 3-5

It is also interesting that Pilate could find no wrong in Him worthy of such a sentence, yet the mob insisted, and Pilate caved. This all happens during the Passover as well. You can see both the gentile indifference and the Jewish disdain. Stoning would have actually been less cruel, with the fervor of this rabid mob, it would have gone quickly, but not according to plan. 

…22Jews demand signs and Greeks search for wisdom, 23but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.… 1 Corinthians 1: 22-24

17For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with words of wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. 18For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”… 1 Corinthians 1: 17-19

…2By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. 3For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,… 1 Corinthians 15: 2-4

He was crushed for our iniquities - Like a worm under foot, and you can see the picture from the link above to David's prophecy, "wrote about this very thing", and also in the context of this chapter we can see Who crushed Him in 53:10. This is the wrath of God towards sin, and this is the part that is played down by much of the so called church today, the Jews as well, and deemed ridiculous, over the top, unnecessary by our cultural standards. I would encourage you to look at these links, Isaiah 6 Part 1 , Isaiah 6 Part 2,  Isaiah 6 Part 3 and Isaiah 6 Part 4. I will go more into this in a later post, but I believe that the above links will help you see the answer to many of the usual protests that enter our fallen and depraved minds. It becomes a question of Who is God, what is His character?

John MacArthur says that iniquities ('avon) is essentially "a word that means to bend double, twisted like a pretzel, to bend double. It’s perversions."

The punishment that brought us peace was on Him - Chastisement that brought us well being, restored the relationship.

Well being is peace (shalom) and is a genitive of result which means His punishment resulted in our peace or well-being, giving redeemed sinners a sense of wholeness and restoration of a relationship with the Holy God which we all lacked while still in Adam (Ro 5:12+, 1 Cor 15:22, 45) and which we could never achieve had not the Messiah been chastened in our place, as our Substitute. Precept Austin

1Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.… Romans 5: 1-2

…4Do not turn to idols or make for yourselves molten gods. I am the LORD your God. 5When you sacrifice a peace offering to the LORD, you shall offer it for your acceptance.6It shall be eaten on the day you sacrifice it, or on the next day; but what remains on the third day must be burned up.… Leviticus 19: 4-6

…21“I hate, I despise your feasts! I cannot stand the stench of your solemn assemblies. 22Even though you offer Me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; for your peace offerings of fattened cattle I will have no regard.23Take away from Me the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps.… Amos 5: 21-23

And by His wounds we are healed - The language of penal substitution is thick throughout Isaiah 53. Some interpretations have this as stripes or scourging, His, again not ours, not lambs, bulls or goats, but by His stripes we are healed. From what? 

11Not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. 12Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, so also death was passed on to all men, because all sinned. 13For sin was in the world before the law was given; but sin is not taken into account when there is no law.… Romans 5: 11-13

From sin, and all its effects, disease, death, mistreatment, devaluing the image of God, from this we are healed through faith in Christ atoning work. The law reveals the disease, the gospel gives us the cure. 

…32He will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and insulted and spit upon. 33 They will flog Him and kill Him, and on the third day He will rise again. 34But the disciples did not understand any of these things. The meaning was hidden from them, and they did not comprehend what He was saying.… Luke 18: 32-34

…5Why do you want more beatings? Why do you keep rebelling? Your head has a massive wound, and your whole heart is afflicted. 6From the sole of your foot to the top of your head, there is no soundness— only wounds and welts and festering sores neither cleansed nor bandaged nor soothed with oil.7Your land is desolate; your cities are burned with fire. Foreigners devour your fields before you—a desolation demolished by strangers.… Isaiah 1: 5-7

…7But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. 8If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.… 1 John 1: 7-9