Isaiah’s Suffering Servant
Christians make a lot of this passage certain that it refers to the Jesus of the New Testament but just spending the tiniest amount of time researching this scripture will reveal who this ‘suffering servant’ REALLY is.
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Isaiah 52:13 - 53:12 52
53
4 Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth. 8 He was taken from prison and from judgment, And who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; For the transgressions of My people He was stricken. 9 And they made His grave with the wicked-- But with the rich at His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was any deceit in His mouth. 10 Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. 11 He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, And He shall divide the spoil with the strong, Because He poured out His soul unto death, And He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore the sin of many, And made intercession for the transgressors. |
The first question should be “Who is this suffering servant?” Well the logical thing to do is to page back through Isaiah and see if he tells us who God’s servant is. Sure enough Isaiah reveals that God’s servant is Israel: Isaiah 41:8-9, 42:1, 43:10, 44:21, 45:4, 48:20, 49:3.
As an example: Isaiah 49:3 And said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.” Nothing cryptic or puzzling, Isaiah says straight out that Israel is God’s servant.
Alright, Israel has been a silent sufferer enduring the transgressions of its gentile enemies but (unlike Jesus) its days will be prolonged and it will see its seed.
Relevance?:
Now let's examine relevance. Isaiah was the prophet of Judah during a very turbulent period. Israel and Assyria were attacking the nation with Assyria taking away large portions of the population. Under this pressure and stress was anyone at the time truly concerened with the arrival of some self-declared "Son of God" hundreds of years in the future? The people at the time were looking for reassurances that were relevant to their current struggles, not deliverance from a concept (original sin) that they were not even familiar with.
Imagine Civil War America but add on Canada attacking the North. An official prophet is declaring "The afflicted and despised man will suffer horror and death but if he sees things through to the end, he will prolong his days, see his children and divide spoil with the mighty." Obviously the people at the time see themselves as the man and take comfort in the promise that they will be rewarded for their current tribulations. It is absolutely silly to hang this "prophecy" on some self-declared prophet just because he manages to get himself killed. David Koresh could've easily grabbed this prophecy for himself, for example. Ancient prophecies are reassurances for the people living at the time, not random, irrelevant predictions of future cult leaders. Anyone attempting to grab an ancient prophecy for himself is a conartist.
Christian Apologetics:
Now what apologetic can Christians use against this very obvious interpretation?
http://www.gospelcom.net/rbc/ds/q1208/point2.html
Q) How can skeptics reconcile ‘The Suffering Servant’s moral purity with sinning Israel?
A: Israel is often depicted as a victim of Gentile aggression in which case it is a lamb to the slaughter. Psalm 79:1-7 for example. Getting kicked around doesn’t make you sinless.
Q) The Servant's death as a sacrifice comes through clearly in Isaiah 53:5, "He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities."
A) Jews - you know the guys who made the Hebrew language, should know best and they say Isaiah 53:5 should be translated: "He was pierced from our transgressions, He was crushed from our iniquities."
Q) The Servant is referred to as “him” or “he” instead of “them”.
A) This is common throughout the Bible and Israel is often referred to as “him.”
Exodus 1:10-12, Exodus 4:2, Deuteronomy 32:8-13, Jeremiah 48:27, Jeremiah 50:19, Hosea 8:3, Hosea 11:1, Hosea 14:5-6, Psalm 130:8, Isaiah 43:10.
Psalm 130:8 for example: “And He will redeem Israel from all his sins.”
Similar Verses:
It's my contention that Isaiah 53 is a poetic view of Israel similar to all those other prophecies of Israel throughout the Major Prophets. Over and over we read how Israel is pathetic, low and destroyed but if they keep the faith they will see their seed and enjoy prosperity. Messianic prophecies are pretty similar in that the Messiah would be a mortal, military leader preceded by a literal Elijah. He would cleanse the Levitical priesthood, be anointed by a prophet, judge the Gentiles, rescue Israel, bring the Israelis back to their homeland and rule an idyllic utopia from sea to sea.
Okay - let's look at a prophecy that really certainly, absolutely refers to Israel.
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NLT Isaiah 8 :
21 My people will be led away as captives, weary and hungry. And because they are hungry, they will rage and shake their fists at heaven and curse their king and their God. 22 Wherever they look, there will be trouble and anguish and dark despair. They will be thrown out into the darkness." Isaiah 9:
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Notice we have a Messianic prophecy and a prophecy of Israel. The Israeli prophecy shows the nation as devestated, pathetic, put down, weak and in desperate need of saving. The Messianic prophecy is the salvation of Israel through a powerful, mortal king descended from David. Like Isaiah 53; Israel is depicted in terrible shape - but if they hold on they will see their seed and share their spoils with the mighty. This is just the clear and obvious read of the text.
Now let's look at a one sentence version of Isaiah 53:
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NAS Isaiah 49 :
7 Thus says the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel {and} its Holy One, To the despised One, To the One abhorred by the nation, To the Servant of rulers, " Kings will see and arise, Princes will also bow down, Because of the LORD who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel who has chosen You." |
Wow, that was quick! The despised, abhorred one, servant of rulers (Israel) will be restored so that Kings will see and Princes will also bow down. Isaiah 53 in one sentence and undeniably referring to Israel.
Let's look at Isaiah 53 line by line:
| 1 Who believes our report? To whom is the arm of ADONAI revealed? 2 For before him he grew up like a young plant, like a root out of dry ground. He was not well-formed or especially handsome; we saw him, but his appearance did not attract us. |
Israel:
Israel did grow up in the presence of the Gentile nations and was most assuredly not a great culture. Cetainly the recipients of the only Word of God on Earth really should've been a great nation but no... Isreal trails nearly every other nation in government, medicine, science, philosophy and tolerance.
Jesus:
Jesus manages to pull a cult together out of nothing so there must've been something attractive about him or his speaking style. This is the beginning of the Jesus prophecy and yet we see nothing about a virgin birth, Son of God (come on!), Messiah etc.
| 3 People despised and avoided him, a man of pains, well acquainted with illness. Like someone from whom people turn their faces, he was despised; we did not value him. |
Israel:
Israel was well aquainted with disaster, illness (multiple plagues), conquests and enslavement. They felt despised because of their social placement among nations. Israel was least among Babylon, Assyria, Egypt, Persia etc - being an Israeli was like being a "total loser".
Jesus:
Jesus was not acquainted with pains or illness. He was not despised and he was valued by the lower echelons of Israel. He was only hated by priests and those literate enough to know the Torah. No celebrity or politician can count less enemies than Jesus.
| 4 In fact, it was our diseases he bore, our pains from which he suffered; yet we regarded him as punished, stricken and afflicted by God. 5 But he was wounded because of our crimes, crushed because of our sins; the disciplining that makes us whole fell on him, and by his bruises we are healed. 6 We all, like sheep, went astray; we turned, each one, to his own way; yet ADONAI laid on him the guilt of all of us. Or: and in fellowship with him 7 Though mistreated, he was submissive - he did not open his mouth. Like a lamb led to be slaughtered, like a sheep silent before its shearers, he did not open his mouth. |
Israel:
The observers are the Gentile kings mentioned in the last verse of Isaiah 52. "15 so now he will startle many nations; because of him, kings will be speechless. For they will see what they had not been told, they will ponder things they had never heard." Israel's misfortunes are due to the evils of the Gentiles who crushed and enslaved the nation. Israel's pain and destruction at the hands of the Gentiles was preordained by Jehovah and would eventually end up blessing even the Gentiles who harmed them.
Jesus:
Who are the observers? Everyone? That doesn't explain why it says above that "we despised him" since only Jewish priests despised him. If this only refers to Jewish leadership then why is this only refering to their sins and evil?
| 8 After forcible arrest and sentencing, he was taken away; and none of his generation protested his being cut off from the land of the living for the crimes of my people, who deserved the punishment themselves. |
Israel:
Assyrians were ransacking Israel and taking large chunks of the population at the time. "the crimes of my people who deserved the punishment" rings true if we see the observers as the Gentile kings.
Jesus:
We have to accept that the observers are Jewish leadership. Why would Jewish leadership ironically state "the crimes of my people (Israel) who deserved the punishment".?
| 9 He was given a grave among the wicked; in his death he was with a rich man. Although he had done no violence and had said nothing deceptive, |
Israel: The Israelis were dying in a foreign, wicked but rich land. Much more prosperous than Israel but wicked in their denial of Jehovah.
Jesus: I believe that the whole "rich man's tomb" thing was added to the Jesus stories later to artificially fulfill this verse. There is no mention of Joseph's tomb in the Pauline epistles and Paul even states three times that Jesus was buried.
| 10 yet it pleased ADONAI to crush him with illness, to see if he would present himself as a guilt offering. If he does, he will see his offspring; and he will prolong his days; and at his hand ADONAI's desire will be accomplished. |
Israel: Hit with occupation, plagues and disaster; Isreal could only see itself as a "guilt offering" for sin. Why else would they be beaten down so bad? Like Job, if they just stay patient and loyal they'll be rewarded by Jehovah who'll prolong their days and allow them to see their children.
Jesus: Jesus: Jesus was not crushed with illness - he was tortured to death. There was no doubt ("if") that he would present himself as a sin offering. Jesus never saw his literal offspring - the word only means literal offspring - and he certainly didn't prolong his days.
| 11 After this ordeal, he will see satisfaction. "By his knowing [pain and sacrifice], my righteous servant makes many righteous; it is for their sins that he suffers. |
Israel: After this temporary devestatation Israel will be made whole again. This is repeated over and over in prophecy. Israel's pain and suffering (notice NOT death) will teach the gentiles a lesson about Jehovah's wrath on idolaters (or something like that). Israel suffers (not dies) to teach the world a lesson about sin.
Jesus: "for their sins he suffers." You don't see the standard Christian doctrine of the absolution of sins by the death of the innocent anywhere here. The suffering, bruises and illness result from sin and knowing pain makes many righteous. If this was anything like the standard Christian doctrine of the "propitiatory sacrifice" it would be worded in a completely different way. "because he was innocent of sin, his death at the hands of gentiles absolved the world of sin." "His blood was shed as the final sacrifice for sins." "God's only son will give his life for the final forgiveness of sins." etc.
| 12 Therefore I will assign him a share with the great, he will divide the spoil with the mighty, for having exposed himself to death and being counted among the sinners, while actually bearing the sin of many and interceding for the offenders." |
Israel: Israel will become great and divide the spoil with the mighty because they endured all the pain and grief heaped on them by other nations. Israel will be rewarded for enduring the grief of sinners while praying for their captors.
Jesus: Okay - good verse except... when did Jesus ever "divide the spoil with the mighty". This is important because the servant gets rewarded for going through all these trials. What reward do you give the Son of God who is actually God himself? "Here's a portion of the spoils, Jesus." "Yeah thanks - I have everything already because I'm you, right?" "Yeah - we've really gotta start taking that Thorazine!"
Of my ten point Jesus as Messiah prophecy challenge
1) Son of God
2) Born of a Virgin
3) Miracle Worker
4) Messiah
5) Prophet
6) Rejected by the Jews
7) Accused of blasphemy and then handed over to Gentiles
8) Gentiles torture man to death
9) Propitiatory sacrifice for sin
10) Man is raised 3 days later to sit at the right hand of Jehovah.
Does it bother anyone that nothing is said of "Son of God", "Messiah" or "Ressurrection"? No, I'm sure it doesn't. This ‘prophecy’ arguably satisfies #9 and only with the mistranslated version. It also gives some specifics on #8. That’s about it for this amazingly specific prophecy!
Here are some great texts on the subject written by Jewish scholars:
http://www.messiahtruth.com/isa53intro.html
http://www.pearls.org/Jesus/isaiah_53.html