Open your Bibles with me, if you will, to Isaiah chapter 42. We are continuing this lengthy series of studies looking at the Bible’s story of salvation, trying to show that the Bible is, one, a story from beginning to end, and two, it is a story about Jesus, and then three, it is a gospel-shaped story about Jesus. That’s what the Bible really is about. And what we’ve been doing is trying to track that story through again and again with many of the major themes that carry the story.
Most recently, we’ve been looking at the subject of the Messiah who was promised in the Old Testament. We have tracked that through a few different ways. And now what I’d like to do this time and then next time as well is back up within that and just look at some of the most prominent of the messianic prophecies of the Old Testament to see how they are brought forward then into the new and how they carry the story of the Bible as well.
To start, we will do quite a bit of scripture reading this morning, but to start, I would like to read just the first verse of Isaiah chapter 42. The subject of the message this morning is the servant of the Lord. Isaiah 42 verse one: “Behold my servant whom I uphold, my chosen in whom my soul delights. I have put my spirit upon him. He will bring forth justice to the nations.”
Let’s bow together for prayer. Our Father, we have no better, we have no other testimony than this, that Jesus paid it all. We’re grateful for the sufficiency of his work for us, and we pray that you will open our eyes to your word this morning, that we may see him afresh, that we may rejoice in the good news about him, and we ask in his name, amen.
The Book of Comfort
Isaiah chapters 40 through 55 are known as the Book of Comfort, the Book of Comfort. You’ll see that announced, if you’d like, in chapter 40 in verse 1: “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.” And through chapter 55, Isaiah is known as the Book of Comfort, Isaiah 40 through 55. And we have there a graphic and exciting description of what God would do for his chosen people, Israel.
Now all of that stands somewhat in contrast to the previous part of Isaiah’s prophecy, where he has some not so good news. And he speaks of the coming defeat of Jerusalem, the coming captivity of the people to Babylon. Jerusalem will be in ruins. The people will be uprooted, resettled as captives elsewhere. And the comfort that he announces here in this section of his prophecy, chapters 40 through 55—the comfort that he announces is that God is the God of the universe. He’s not a local deity like so many of the nations around Israel would believe their gods to be. God is the only God who is. He is the God who created everything that is. That’s why in Isaiah you have the strong emphasis on God as creator. God is the only God who is. God is the one who created everything that is, and he is the God over all the universe. All people, all events, all of history are the artworking of his sovereign will. He calls it from beginning to end. In fact, it says he announces the end from the beginning. And it’s this very same God who is God over all. Isaiah announces it’s this very same God who will come again to the aid of his people.
Now at first, in this section of Isaiah, the central figure in view in bringing about this deliverance is a king by the name of Cyrus. He’s the king of Persia. You’ll see him, if you’d like, in chapter 41 and verse 25; he’s the king from the north whom God has stirred up to trample other kings and other rulers, and then finally he will come against Babylon as well. What’s interesting is that in chapters 44 and 45, Cyrus is named by name. If you like to look, chapter 44 verse 28, here’s God says, who says of Cyrus—there he is named—”he is my shepherd, and he shall fulfill all my purpose, saying of Jerusalem, she shall be built, and the temple, your foundation shall be laid.” And if you want to look again, chapter 45 and verse 1: “Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before him, and to loose the belts of kings, to open doors before him, that gates may not be closed.”
Fascinating here that this pagan king, Cyrus—mark that, a pagan king who did not know the Lord—and yet God calls him “my shepherd”? And in fact in chapter 45 verse 1 he calls him “my anointed.” Now that very simply is “my Messiah,” my anointed one. That language is used, of course, of this great messianic figure that we’ve been tracing through the Old Testament. But here that term is used of this pagan king Cyrus. He is God’s anointed. And what he means by that, of course, is that God has chosen to use this king to bring the deliverance of his people back from Babylon to their own land.
You can read of the occasion of Cyrus doing this in Daniel chapter 5 with the handwriting on the wall, the last night in Babylon before Persian King Cyrus comes and takes over Babylon. You can read of it in 2nd Chronicles chapter 36, Ezra chapter 1, where Cyrus now has defeated what was seemingly the impregnable walls of Babylon. And when Cyrus comes into authority, one of the first things he does is issues this decree to allow the captives, Israel, in Babylon to go back to their homeland. And so because he has accomplished God’s will for his people and this release of the people—in fact, it’s spoken of in terms of an exodus, a new exodus that will come, that the people will be brought, not from Egypt this time, but from Babylon, brought back into their own land. And because of all of that, Cyrus then is named as God’s anointed. What’s really interesting about that is that Cyrus is named by name, and this is some 200 years in advance. Who can do that? But this is the God that God announces himself to be in Isaiah, that he is the one who declares the end from the beginning.
The Servant Songs of Isaiah
Now as important as Cyrus is in the outworking of God’s plan for Israel, Cyrus is only a foreshadowing of another who was to come and who would accomplish God’s purpose more fully. You see that often. In fact, we’ve run into that many times in these studies where a certain person or institution or event crops up in the Old Testament and it becomes a picture of a greater institution or event or person to come, all of it pointing to Jesus. And that is the case here as well with Cyrus.
Often in Isaiah’s prophecy, God refers to Israel as his servant. You’ll see that in chapter 44 verse 1, verse 2, verse 21. You’ll see it in chapter 45 as well. Often Israel itself is referred to as God’s servant. And yet that what we have in this portion of the Book of Comfort is what are known as the Servant Songs of Isaiah. That is, God’s servant, God’s chosen servant will come, and he is the one foreshadowed by Cyrus. Cyrus, who read in this great exodus back to their land, foreshadows a greater king and greater anointed one, God’s servant, who will come and deliver his people in a greater kind of deliverance.
Now there are four of these servant songs in Isaiah. We are pressed for time, but I want to take the time to read through them so you’re familiar with them. And what I will be doing through the rest of the message then is referring back to these passages, these servant songs about God’s servant, and try to bring it all together at once. I hope I can get through before suppertime.
The first one is Isaiah chapter 42 verses 1 through 9. “Behold my servant whom I uphold, my chosen in whom my soul delights. I have put my spirit upon him. He will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice or make it heard in the street. A bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench. He will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth and the coastlands await for his law. Thus says God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it. I am the Lord. I have called you in righteousness. I will take you by the hand and keep you. I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison to those who sit in darkness. I am the Lord, that is my name. My glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols. Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare. Before they spring forth, I tell you of them.” That’s the first servant song.
The next one is Isaiah chapter 49, verses 1 to 13. “Listen to me, O coastlands, and give attention, you peoples from afar. The Lord called me from the womb, from the body of my mother. He named my name. He made my mouth like a sharp sword. In the shadow of his hand, he hid me. He made me a polished arrow. In his quiver, he hid me away. And he said to me, you are my servant Israel in whom I will be glorified. But I said, I have labored in vain. I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity. Yet surely my right is with the Lord and my recompense with my God. And now the Lord says, he who formed me in the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him, and that Israel might be gathered to him, for I am honored in the eyes of my Lord, and my God has become my strength. He says, It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel. I will make you as a light for the nations that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth. Thus says the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel and His Holy One, the one deeply despised, abhorred by the nation, the servant of rulers, kings shall see and arise, princes and they shall prostrate themselves because of the Lord who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you. Thus says the Lord, in a time of favor, I have answered you. In a day of salvation, I have helped you. I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people to establish the land and to apportion the desolate heritages. Saying to the prisoners, come out. To those who are in darkness, appear. They shall feed along the ways, and on all bare heights shall their pasture. They shall not hunger or thirst, neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike them, for he who has pity on them will lead them, and by springs of water will guide them. And I will make all my mountains a road, and highways shall be raised up. Behold, these shall come from afar, and behold, these from the north and from the west, and these from the land of Syene. Sing for joy, O heavens, and exalt, O earth. Break forth, O mountains, into singing, for the Lord has comforted and will have compassion on his afflicted.”
The next one is Isaiah chapter 50. We’ll read verses 4 to 11. “The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught. The Lord God has opened my ear and I was not rebellious. I turned not backwards. I gave my back to those who strike and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard. I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting. But the Lord God helps me. Therefore, I have not been disgraced. Therefore, I have set my face like a flint. And I know that I shall not be put to shame. He who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me. Behold, the Lord God helps me. Who will declare me guilty? Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment. The moth will eat them up. Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant? Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust the name of the Lord and rely on his God. Behold, all you who kindle a fire, who equip yourselves with burning torches, walk by the light of your fire and by the torches that you have kindled. This you have from my hand. You shall lie down in torment.”
And then finally the fourth song and most famous, Isaiah chapter 53. Actually it begins in Isaiah 52 verse 13. Isaiah 52 verse 13. “Behold, my servant shall act wisely. He shall be high and lifted up and shall be exalted. As many as were astonished at you, his appearance was so marred beyond human semblance and his form beyond that of the children of mankind. So shall he sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths because of him, for that which has not been told them they shall see, and that which they have not heard they understand. Who has believed what they have heard from us? To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep had gone astray, we’ve turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter and like a sheep that is before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. As for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. He has put him to grief. When his soul makes an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring. He shall prolong his days. The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul, he shall see and be satisfied. By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will divide him a portion with the many. He shall divide the spoil with the strong because he poured out his soul to death. He was numbered with the transgressors, yet he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors.”
What God Has Promised To Do Through His Servant
Well, these servant songs that we’ve read are the backbone of Isaiah’s book of comfort. The comfort that God will bring to Israel will come by means of his servant who will be faithful in serving him and carrying out his will. And this servant will lead in a greater exodus even than Cyrus. Now again, what’s interesting is that in Isaiah, it is Israel who is called “my servant.” In fact, we can see an illustration of that if you look back in chapter 49 verse 3: “And he said to me, you are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.” Well, it raises a question at first: how will God be glorified in Israel? Well, there is a way to take that of Israel itself. But now notice verse 5: “And now the Lord says, he who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him and that Israel might be gathered to him.” So here we have the servant distinguished from Israel, and what it seems to be the case in this is that we have Israel God’s servant, and yet rising up from within Israel is a representative of Israel who will carry out Israel’s calling, God’s purpose for Israel, and bring deliverance. This representative from within Israel will accomplish all that God has appointed for her.
So the comfort that God announced then is that God will, by his servant, do many wonderful things for his people. And let’s just survey quickly some of them. You will have to listen fast if you’re taking notes—you’ll have to write fast, I’m sorry, but we have to hurry through all of this.
Chapter 42, verse 1, we’re seeing now what God has promised to do through his servant. Verse 1, he will establish justice. He will bring forth justice to the nations. Verse 4, the coastlands await his law. So he’ll bring justice and judgment, God’s law, to the world. Verse 3, a bruised reed he will not break, smoking flax he will not quench. That is, his work will be marked by compassion, that which most would think is good only for the trash heap. He’ll pick up and tenderly care for. The idea is that he will gently restore the fallen and the downcast and the outcast and the poor. Verse 7, he will open blind eyes. He will bring prisoners out of prison and dark dungeons. That is, he’ll bring healing and liberation and restoration to his people. Verse 6 is a fascinating statement in the middle of the verse: “He will be the covenant for the people. I will give you as a covenant for the people.” That is, he will be the cause and the source and the dispenser of the covenant promises. God had promised to bless Israel. This is without doubt speaking in terms of the new covenant promise that God would promise to forgive their sins and to restore his people, and he says that this servant himself will be that covenant. He will accomplish the blessings for that covenant, and it is through him that all of God’s covenanted promises will be secured.
Now in all of this we have then the servant having a distinct prophetic function. Verse 1 and verse 4, he brings justice, he brings his law. So there’s a prophetic function of this prophet. But also there’s a kingly function as well. Again, verse one, this idea of bringing justice is more than just prophetic. That is a king ruling and enforcing justice. God’s law being enforced and brought into the world. That’s verse one. And also chapter 49 and verse two, you’ll see the same: “He made my mouth a sharp sword and he made me a polished arrow.” And the idea there is of an enforced righteousness being brought on the earth. “God has made me a polished arrow and a sharp sword out of his mouth.” You might remember that language is picked up in Revelation chapter 19 at the coming of Christ. Well, this is that champion theme picked up again that we’ve seen so often in this series, that this champion will come, he’ll defeat God’s enemies, and the kings here, it says, will lie prostrate before him. You don’t have to know much about kings to know that kings don’t lie prostrate before other kings unless they’re made to. And he’ll come with this kingly function to rule over all, including God’s enemies.
And there’s also in this not only a prophetic function and a kingly function, there’s also a priestly function of the servant as well. Look at chapter 53, verse 15: “So shall he sprinkle many nations.” Some of you might have it translated differently, but I’m convinced here that the translation, the traditional translation is right. He will sprinkle many nations. It’s the language of atonement and the sprinkling of blood. He is an intercessory or a priestly function. And that is picked up again at the end of that song in chapter 53 in verse 12: “He made intercession for the transgressors.” So he’s a prophet, he’s a priest, he’s king. And in all of this, the servant will come and he will accomplish God’s promised blessing to Israel.
Chapter 49 and verse 5, he will bring back Jacob. He is the representative of Israel, working behalf on Israel, behalf of Israel to accomplish Israel’s promised blessings. Look again at chapter 49. I told you we’d be hurrying back and forth through all of these. Chapter 49, verse 6. He says, “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel. I’ll make you a light for the nations that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” That is to say, he is coming to restore his people Israel, okay, but God says to him, no, that’s not enough. For a servant this great, we’ll make him a light for the nations. He’ll bring salvation to the ends of the earth. So we have that in chapter 42, verse one, bringing justice to the nations. 49, verses six and seven here, he brings, given as a light to the nations. Chapter 52, verses 12 to 15, he’s high and lifted up, sprinkling many nations. He has a work that is not for Israel only, but a work that will entail the restoration of the entire breadth of humanity. So Isaiah’s announced comfort has a large reference in view, not just bringing Israel back from captivity in Babylon, but bringing back the world from its captivity and bringing back a greater deliverance to come.
And what’s interesting then too in these servant songs, is this note rising in the songs about the faithfulness and the inevitable success of God’s servant who will come. No matter what the opposition, no matter how difficult the task, no matter what obstacles come, he’ll be faithful and he will be successful in doing the work he was sent to do. So for example in chapter 49 verse 4, he will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth. Chapter 50, and verse 5, begin reading there. Read along with me, if you would. Look along with me. Chapter 50, beginning with verse 5. “The Lord has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious. I turned not backwards.” Opened my ear—that’s the idea. I listen well, I hear him well, and it also has some references back to the old economy where, under Moses’ law, if a servant wanted to remain with his master, he would have his ear bored through, you remember. That’s the idea here. He’s a faithful, willing servant. “I was not rebellious. I turned not backwards. Verse 6, I gave my back to those who strike and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard. I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting, but the Lord God helps me. Therefore, I have not been disgraced. Therefore, I have set my face like a flint. And I know that I shall not be put to shame.” I love that language there. “I’ve set my face like a flint,” just this expression of determination to do God’s will and to finish this out, no matter what the opposition and what the difficulty. The note of success is sounded in the final song as well. In chapter 52 verse 13, “my servant shall act wisely. He shall be high and lifted up, and he shall be exalted.” The success of the servant and his faithfulness. Oh, this is just such a quick overview.
The Means of the Servant’s Success
And yet, while he is successful and while he is faithful, despite all of that faithfulness and righteousness and success, evolving in these servant songs is a note of opposition and the note of seeming defeat. We’ve already seen some of it. Chapter 50 and verses 5 and 6. For example, verse 6: “I gave my back to those who strike and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard. I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting.” So we have this idea of opposition and even seeming defeat that is coming for him. We find the same in chapter 52, verse 14, chapter 53, verses 1 to 3, where we have he didn’t seem like anything that we should look at. He seemed like a young plant, a root out of dry ground. He didn’t seem like he was promising anything; we consider him despised, rejected of men. What was there about him that we should notice that he was anything special?
In fact, in chapter 53, the most startling of all, in chapter 53, verse 9: “And they made his grave with the wicked, with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence. There was no deceit in his mouth,” so he was a righteous man. Verse 10, yet—and here’s what’s startling—”it was the will of the Lord to crush him. He has put him to grief.” So here we have this righteous servant, not only facing opposition and seeming defeat, but the very worst of all things, God himself is opposed. It was the will of the Lord to put him to death and to crush him. And here’s the enigma of all of this. God’s servant, God’s anointed, faithful, righteous, and yet it pleased the Lord to crush him. Verse 4 of chapter 53: “smitten by God.”
And all of this, of course, points to the means of the servant’s success. The needs of God’s chosen people were greater than political deliverance. They needed more than just return from the captivity in Babylon. There was, after all, a reason for their captivity, and it is a reason shared by all humanity. It’s the reason of sin. And for them to experience God’s restoration, that sin question must be dealt with first. And so in chapter 53 and verse 4 and following, the servant somehow becomes not only a representative of his people, but he becomes a substitute for his people, and I want you to see how that is emphasized here, that he’s not just a representative of Israel, but he is their substitute as well.
Chapter 53 and verse 4—in fact, the translation I’ll give you just brings out how pungent it is in the original: “Surely our sicknesses he bore them, and our pains he suffered them.” Verse five: “he was pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities. The punishment for our salvation laid on him, and by his wounds healing has come to us.” Verse six: “we all have strayed like sheep. Each one has turned to his own way, but the Lord has caused to fall on him the iniquity of us all.” Verse eight: “he was stricken for the sins of his people.” Verse 11: “their iniquities, he will bear them.” Verse 12: “for he, the sins of many, he bore them.” He bore their sins. They were laid on him. And all this language of bearing their sin—verse four, verse 11, verse 12—bearing or carrying their sin, this connotes bearing the punishment of sin. This is the language of Leviticus chapter 16, the day of atonement, when the animal bore the sin of the people, carrying away the sin of his own. This is what the servant will do. He comes and in the place of his people, bears their sin, takes the punishment in their place.
In fact, verse 10 of chapter 53, perhaps most startling of all: “Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him and to put him to grief when he makes his soul”—that is God makes him the servant—”an offering for sin.” Our translation has it smoothed out, “an offering for sin.” It’s just the sin offering. It’s a regular term used in Leviticus chapter 5 of the guilt offering that is made. God will make him the guilt offering. All of that in the old covenant ceremonial law, the sacrificial system offering these guilt offerings—they pointed forward to another guilt offering, an ultimate guilt offering. And that, Isaiah says, is God’s servant who will be that guilt offering. The result of his work, verse 11: “he will justify many.” The sins of his people were put on him. They no longer bear their sins. He took their sins. He took the punishment. And therefore, they go free. That is to say, he is the covenant for the people. How is it God will bring about forgiveness of sins for his people? Answer: his servant will come. He’ll bear the curse that all the promises of forgiveness will be fulfilled for his people. So the servant then secures the covenant blessings for the people of God, he establishes God’s rule, and he does it by means of bearing their sin. Isaiah 42 verse 3: “he will faithfully bring forth justice.” That is—and the way this works out—God will not simply let bygones be bygones. The sin question, the justice question must be answered and God’s justice will be fully meted out against their sins on the person of their substitute, God’s righteous servant.
Who Is This Servant?
Well, all that is left then after going through all of that is to ask the question then, who is this servant? Now, we’re in church. You know the answer. The answer is always Jesus. And you gotta say, reading through this, it sounds a lot like Jesus, doesn’t it? It’s curious that Isaiah chapter 53, this marvelous servant song, is not regularly read in the synagogues, in their regular reading. But our question then is to ask, who is this servant?
My favorite answer to it is found—we won’t take time to turn to it—is found in Acts chapter 8, where Philip the deacon is preaching to the Ethiopian official. One of those perfect textbook witnessing opportunities. He comes across this Ethiopian official and he’s reading Isaiah 53 and asks, “Of whom does this prophet speak?” And Luke records for us, beginning at that very place, Philip preached unto him Jesus. And Philip’s not the only one to interpret this portion of Isaiah in this way. In fact, we have it many times sprinkled throughout the New Testament, where the New Testament writers pick up on these servant songs and apply them to Jesus.
If you’d like to mark them down: Acts chapter 3, verses 13 and following, Peter twice refers to Jesus as God’s servant, and he summarizes the servant theology here with regard to the exalted and crucified Christ. One of my favorite in this, and we’ll do this sometime at length, is to look in the Gospel of John in particular, where Jesus and John both refer back to this language of Isaiah 52 and 53 about the exalted servant sprinkling many nations and successful in his work. And they pick up this exalted language and refer it to Jesus on the cross, lifted up, exalted, lifted up on the cross. And there’s that double entendre intended there that in the moment of his shame and defeat, he is successful in accomplishing God’s saving purpose.
We have it in Romans chapter 4 verse 25, where Paul says he was handed over for our transgressions. Handed over for our transgressions—that’s right out of Isaiah 53 verse 12. Romans 5: “by the obedience of one, many are justified,” right out of Isaiah 53 verse 11. In Romans 8 verse 32, he was handed over for our sins, right out of Isaiah 53 and verse 6. 1 Corinthians 15: “he died for our sins,” again echoing Isaiah 53. 1 Peter 2 verses 20 and following, we have the same thing: “He bore our sins in his body on the tree, by his wounds we are healed,” a direct quotation from Isaiah 53. So we have the New Testament writers referring all of this to Jesus over and over and over again.
And one question that comes up with that is where’d they learn that? The answer is they learned it from a good source. You remember when Jesus was baptized, the voice came from heaven: “This is my son in whom my soul delights,” right out of Isaiah 42. The same again in this transfiguration in Matthew 17. Jesus himself picked up on it as well, where Jesus said, “this scripture”—this is Luke 22—”this scripture must be fulfilled in me,” quote, “and he was numbered with the transgressors,” Isaiah 53 and verse 12. Jesus says that he has come as the servant, not to be ministered to, but to minister to others and to give his life a ransom for many. Again, picking up on Isaiah 53. In Mark chapter 14, we’ll cite again later this morning at the Lord’s table, Jesus says, at the first Lord’s supper and the last Passover, “this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.” This is the language of the servant songs, where he becomes the covenant for the people, giving his life to secure their promised blessings.
At least on reflection of all of this, the apostles just had to notice. And in fact, Luke records it for us. In Isaiah 50 and verse 7, we have that language of the servant determined in his faithfulness: “He set his face like a flint.” He’s determined to go through with all that is required of him to accomplish the salvation of his people. He set his face like a flint. And Luke picks up on that, noticing in reflection how determined Jesus was to go to Jerusalem and to be crucified. And Luke tells us in chapter 9, Jesus was not just determined to go to the cross, but he tells us in this language, Jesus set his face to Jerusalem.
Beyond all of that, just consider the things that are said of this servant. He is the one in whom the Lord delights. He’s the one who never fails to accomplish the Lord’s will. He’s the one who comes to establish justice. He’s the one who’s come to give light to the Gentiles and a covenant for the people. He’s the one in whom the Lord will be glorified. He’s the one who says to prisoners in dungeons, “go forth,” and they’re free. He’s the one who opens the eyes of the blind, proclaims liberty to the captives. He is the one who suffered righteously under the hand of God. Who else could this be but Jesus?
I have a friend who is a professor of Old Testament at the seminary where I teach. His name is Peter Gentry. Long beard, gray now, very professorial look. If he is sitting down reading his Hebrew Bible, he looks like a rabbi. One day he was in Germany on the train, and he’s sitting there reading his Hebrew Bible. And a rabbi comes by and assumes the obvious: there’s another rabbi here reading his Bible. Sits down next to him, strikes up a conversation. All of this is in German, of course. And asks him, “What are you reading?” Well, Peter happened to be at Isaiah 53. And it’s Acts 8 all over again. “That passage has always puzzled me. Who’s he talking about?” Peter—he just allows him to think he’s a rabbi—”Well, it’s very clear who it’s about. It’s about Messiah.” How? Well, Peter’s been teaching this for decades; you know, he’s got this nailed down, and he went through all the connections with him, both in Isaiah and elsewhere, and went through the story of it all. The guy is just shocked by it and just astounded by it. It was a wonderful conversation. Just then they arrive at the stop with the train, and Peter gets up to leave, and he’s walking out, and the rabbi asks him, “What rabbi did you study under?” And not to miss the opportunity, Peter turns and says, in German, of course, “Rabbi Yeshua, Jesus.”
Well, wouldn’t you love to know the rest of that story? But you see, it is not enough. It is not enough at this point in history to read Isaiah and say God has promised a servant. We have to say God has sent his servant. His name is Jesus. The good news is God has not decided simply to let bygones be bygones and to just overlook sin. God has sent his servant to take the sin to himself. In place of his people, he made atonement. He took the blame and he bore the wrath.
Well, of course, all of this is picked up later in the book of Revelation. We read the culmination of God’s purposes. And again, it’s carried out by God’s servant, culminating in his return in glory, defeating all of God’s enemies and bringing rest for the people of God. It’s all set up for us in Revelation chapters four and five: throne room, and the only one worthy to carry out God’s purposes of salvation and judgment for history. The only one worthy is the lion of the tribe of Judah, who is in fact the lamb who has been slain. And all the redeemed stand there in heaven singing exactly that: “You are worthy because by your blood you have redeemed us to God out of every tribe and kindred and nation and tongue.” He’s established the right by his successful redeeming work and then through the book of Revelation he carries out those rights, brings about God’s purposes for judgment and salvation, culminating in his return in chapter 19 when he comes in glory with that sword, sharp sword coming out of his mouth, speaking the defeat of his enemies and establishing a new world order, bringing about God’s promised blessing.
So here we have again the Bible’s gospel-shaped story about Jesus. God’s servant sent to restore his people from the exile of their sin through the sacrifice of himself. Amen. Let’s pray. Our Father, what a wonderful servant we have to celebrate. What a wonderful work he has done. We thank you for him. We rejoice in him, and as we come to the table now, we come to celebrate the great work that he has done for us. Thank you, Lord, for sending him to save us. In his name we pray, amen.