Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Isaiah 53:1-3 | Date: January 12, 2025 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

The Servant Despised

Isaiah chapter 53, the servant despised. We saw last time the beginning, the first stanza of this servant song, Isaiah 52, verses 13 through 15, where we learned, or the prophet tells us, that the servant will come and he will both suffer in the extreme and be exalted. And now for the rest of the song, he will expound on that. In this stanza, he tells us now of the servant’s rejection, the servant despised, Isaiah 53, verses one through three.

“Who has believed what they heard from us? And 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, and 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.”

Three Questions

Before we can get anywhere in this stanza, we’ve got to answer three questions very quickly.

The first one is, how do we understand this phrase in verse one, “Who has believed what he has heard from us?” Who has believed our message? And the question then, is it the message that we gave, or is it the message we have heard, the message that we have received? The Hebrew is ambiguous, could be understood either way. The NIV actually leaves the ambiguity and translates this, “Who has believed our message?” Is this a message we have spoken, or a message that we have heard?

The word—I took time this afternoon to track down this word, this Hebrew expression here—and as far as I can tell, everywhere in Isaiah that it is used, everywhere in the prophets that it is used, and in fact every time I could find it in the Old Testament where it is used, it has to do with what is heard, not what is spoken, a message that is heard. So it has to do with a message, a news, a report that has come. It’s twice quoted in the New Testament. I think connotations there are the same. It has to do with what message we have heard. So the Christian Standard Bible translates it in a way that I would prefer, and that is, “Who has believed what we have heard?” There’s something of a contrast there and a setup then with chapter 52 verse 15, where there we had the Gentile kings who had never heard, and now hear it and believe. Here we have those who have heard it, and he asks, who has believed it?

So the second question then is, what is it they had heard? And the answer, of course, is the prophetic message about the Messiah, about the servant of the Lord, the whole of chapter 52, verse 13 through the end of chapter 53.

Then the third question then, and this is the big one, who is the “we”? Who is the we? We have it twice, at least in verse two. We have it in verse three. “He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, no beauty that we should desire him. We esteemed him not.” Verse three. What we have here, obviously, in the words of one commentator, this is at once a confession of guilt on the part of the people who are speaking, and also an expression of faith. We saw him, we heard of him, and we didn’t perceive him rightly, but now we do.

So it’s a collective confession of some group of people. They’re looking back in retrospect on the servant, the Lord’s servant who has come, and they say, we saw nothing in him. We esteemed him as nothing. And now they look back in retrospect and see that and confess that. And now, knowing better, they lament their rejection of the servant. So this is not the Gentiles. They never heard the report. When they did hear it, they believed. Here we have some who are hearing it, and they have heard it, didn’t believe it. Now they confess that unbelief.

Keil and Delitzsch, the famous Old Testament commentators of the last century, of a couple of centuries ago, comment here: whenever we find a “we” introduced abruptly in the midst of a prophecy, it is always Israel that speaks. Sometimes the prophet will include himself in that “we,” but it is always Israel that speaks. So here we have a confession on the part of Israel saying, we saw him, we despised him, we rejected him. That’s the way this New Testament understanding seems to be as well, both in John chapter 12 and in Romans chapter 10; this verse is cited with regard to Israel’s hearing of this message and disbelieving it.

So here we have Israel’s collective lament. We have something of a precedent to this in the servant song back in chapter 42. Israel sees what God has done, and they express their repentance that God has done this to us because of our sins. So there’s some precedent for that. But here they are speaking with a new realization of the identity of the servant. In verses 2 and 3 here, we didn’t see God at work in the servant. We didn’t recognize him. He seemed insignificant. Worse than that, he seemed one that should be shunned and someone who should be like a diseased person. You don’t want to be with him. We didn’t know. They’re confessing their previous unbelief.

So this is Israel’s confession and lament when finally they recognize her Messiah. So chapter 52 verses 13 to 15 that we saw last time, we have Gentile kings who will be amazed at what they hear now that they had not heard previously. And now in 53 verses one and following, Israel herself is confessing her disbelief, recognizing horror: we’ve heard this message, we saw him, we didn’t believe it, we rejected him. And this is their—as the one commentator that I’ve mentioned earlier—it’s at once a confession of guilt and now a new expression of faith.

Now, centuries later, we should take time to look at this. Centuries later, look at Zechariah. Centuries later, the prophet Zechariah reflects on this prophecy. Zechariah chapter 12 and verse 10. Here he reflects on this prophecy of the pierced Messiah, and the prophet Zechariah says in verse 10, Zechariah 12:10, “I will pour out”—he’s telling of the coming day—”I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him as one weeps over a firstborn.”

So Zechariah reflects on it, tells the same that there’s coming this day when God in mercy will pour out his spirit upon Israel. They will recognize the previous unbelief and they’ll mourn over it and now recognize the Messiah with new eyes. We saw something like this in Hosea, the prophecy there in chapter three of that prophecy some months ago when we were there, where the prophet there says Israel will return to the Lord God and seek the Lord God and David, their king. They’ll seek the Lord in fear, and they’ll find him in the goodness, in a new expression of goodness. It’s Hosea 3, verse 5.

This is equivalent to what I’ve pointed out before, Matthew 23, where Jesus pronounces his woe on Jerusalem. And he says, your house is left to you desolate. You’ll not see me again until you say, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” So it’s not without precedent that we find some coming repentance on the part of Israel recognizing her Messiah. What’s interesting here in Isaiah, and something unique about it, is that here we have the substance of that confession. Israel in mournful realization of previous unbelief.

The Arm of the Lord

And what they’ve rejected, verse 1, is the arm of the Lord. “Who has believed what they have heard? To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” This expression, the arm of the Lord, is—we find it several times in the Old Testament, several times in the prophecy of Isaiah as well. The arm of the Lord is a metaphor of God’s overwhelming power, his strength. You’ll find expressions like God laying bare his mighty arm, a graphic language of God going to work on behalf of his people. If you’d like to note them, it’s Isaiah 14, verse 10: “Behold, the Lord comes with his might, and his arm rules for him.” Isaiah 51 and verse 9: “Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord, awake as in the days of old and generations of long ago.” Just in the previous chapter, Isaiah 52 in verse 10: “The Lord has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.”

Some other passages as well. This is a metaphor of the powerful working of God on behalf of his people. Here, it is the servant who is the arm of the Lord. And the question is, who in the world ever believed that? We saw him. We didn’t see that in him. We didn’t recognize him as the powerful arm of God. Who knew? Who knew that Jesus was the arm of God to accomplish his will? Answer? Who knew? Not many. God sent his servant. The servant’s own people didn’t recognize him, and they rejected him.

And in fact, he hints at the answer here: “Who has believed our message, what they’ve heard, to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” Well, that question answers itself, doesn’t it? The ones who believed were those to whom it was revealed. There was a blindness on the part of all the others. There’s a reflection of this in the famous passage in Matthew chapter 16, when Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do men say that I am?” And there’s the survey of the answers. “Who do you say that I am?” And Peter makes the confession, “You’re the Christ, the son of the living God.” And you remember how Jesus responds? “Blessed are you.” He doesn’t say, “Hey, you figured this out, Peter. Good for you, congratulations.” What he says is, “Blessed are you, Peter. Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.” God has revealed to you who Jesus is.

We have teachings of this that we’re familiar with here at RBC, 1 Corinthians 1 and 2, the blindness of the natural man, thinking the things of God are foolishness, but when God repairs the mind, opens the eyes, we see differently. And what he’s lamenting here is that not many have seen that about the servant.

Like a Young Plant

Verse two explains, “For he,” that is the servant, “grew up before him,” that is before the Lord, “like a young plant, like a root out of dry ground.” To stand before the Lord generally connotes to stand in his favor. He grew up before the Lord, that is before him, before the Lord. From the beginning and all through the servant’s years of growing up, the Lord’s eye was on him. His favor was on him. He, after all, had sent him on this mission, and God’s favor was on him. So he grew up before the Lord. There are hints of that, by the way, in earlier servant songs as well, where “I’m upholding him. Behold my servant whom I uphold, whom I have called.”

And then he tells us he grew up as a young plant. It’s a horticultural term. A twig. Or you might translate this even, a sucker. Those of you who’ve done work with plants and bushes, you know what that is. I haven’t done much of that, but I understand what that, a sucker, is. It’s a growth on the plant, a little twig that really has no purpose, and it actually will hinder the production of fruit in the plant, and so you cut it off. You get rid of it. And they’re saying here, this is how we considered him. He didn’t belong here. So we cut him off and we threw him away.

Now there’s some contrast here that’s interesting too in other prophecies in Isaiah. In Isaiah chapter 11 you might remember when we were there back some time ago. The messianic king is described as the root from the stump of Jesse, or the shoot from the stump of Jesse. So you have this stump that’s been cut down, the dynasty has been cut down, and out of that stump is growing this shoot. And this branch of the Lord comes out of that shoot, and he will reign, and he, of course, as it’s described in Isaiah chapter 11, “In that day, the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the people, of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious.” So in other passages, he’s this great king who will rule and the nations will recognize him. Here in Isaiah 53, he’s just a frail twig, even a bother, and he needs to be cut off.

And then it says he’s like a root out of dry ground. The nation, after all, was under Rome’s boot. His own family relations seemed questionable. “We were not born of fornication.” Remember they said that of Jesus? Reflecting on Mary and the virgin birth, they of course wouldn’t believe. He hailed from Nazareth of all places. Nothing good comes out of Nazareth. He was like a withering plant in dry soil. We’re sure he won’t live. We’re sure he’s insignificant.

The last part of verse 2 then interprets those metaphors. Here it comes in more literal language. “He had no form or majesty that we should look at him. No beauty that we should desire him.” So he appeared weak. He appeared unimpressive, unpromising. He didn’t look like a king. He had no glory. The word here is splendor. There was nothing about him. They say, “Oh, there’s a king. There’s a leader. We’ll follow him.” There was nothing like that about him. There were no obvious qualities that commanded our admiration at all. And so we didn’t give him a second glance.

Think even in terms of Jesus’ triumphal entry. He comes in riding on a young donkey. What, the size maybe of a Great Dane? His feet dragging the ground? Not exactly the picture of a great conquering king. If Jesus had come on a white horse, clad in mail armor, with an army behind him, oh, they’d have loved that. But the way he came, it just wasn’t what they expected. He was meek, he was lowly. In fact, in chapter 42, we saw that he wouldn’t even lift up his voice in the streets. He wouldn’t even assert himself. This doesn’t sound like a messianic king.

Despised and Rejected

And so, verse three, we have the contempt of the nation. “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.” Despised and rejected. That sums up this stanza. The servant despised and rejected. Jesus echoes this, you might remember, in the parable of the nobleman in Luke chapter 19. The nobleman goes away on the journey, leaves his estate in the hands of his servants, and they use it selfishly. “We don’t need him.” The nobleman sends his messengers and his servants to collect. They kill them. Then he sends his son. “Surely they’ll listen to him.” “We won’t have this man reign over us.” Despised and rejected.

Next, he’s a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. That’s not a reflection on his demeanor, that he was glum, but that he was marked by grief and sorrow. Grief and sorrow brought on him by others. And so verse two is: we saw nothing promising about him. We despised him and we rejected him. And then verse three: so we made him suffer. He seemed like someone who should be cut off and thrown away. In fact, verse three, “as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised.” There was a willful avoidance. It’s like you see roadkill, you turn away and you don’t want to see that. Or you look at a leper whose disease—it’s just repulsive. That’s how they perceive Jesus. They didn’t want to be associated with him. They didn’t want to be seen as associated with him. And so he’s turned away. We don’t need him.

There has been no one in the history of Israel more despised than Jesus. It continues to this day, and I think I mentioned it in our introductory message on this fourth servant song. I think I mentioned that somehow, in an interesting kind of a way, Israel’s continued rejection of Jesus and despising of Jesus is a reverse kind of way of evidencing that Isaiah 53 really is about him. “We esteemed him not.” When we saw him, we considered him as nothing. He is of no account.

So he came to his own. As John says, they wouldn’t have him. He came to bless. And they said, we won’t have him. Away with him. Crucify him. Give us Barabbas. We esteemed him not. We found him repulsive. We found him embarrassing. And so we turned our faces from him and we gave him no regard.

So verse two, we didn’t recognize him. He didn’t meet our expectations. We saw no evidence of royalty. We saw no majestic bearing of any kind. We saw no messianic glory. No kingship. He was insignificant, like a twig on a tree. And then verse three, he seemed to us as one who should be shunned, like a leper, someone with a disease. And so we turned away. This was the reception of the servant of the Lord that he would receive.

Fascinating the specifics that were prophesied 700 years in advance. We read this, of course, in John chapter one. He was in the world, the world was made through him. The world knew him not. He came to his own, but his own people would not receive him. You know I have a liking for some of the old spirituals. There’s one of them that captures this so well. “Sweet Little Jesus Boy.” Some of you know that? Yeah, okay. “Sweet little Jesus boy, they made you be born in a manger. Sweet little holy child, we didn’t know who you were. Didn’t know you’d come to save us, Lord, to take our sins away. Our eyes was blind. We couldn’t see. We didn’t know who you were.” That captures well exactly what Isaiah is prophesying here 700 years ahead of time.

And of course, that reception of Jesus is spelled out for us in the Gospels. We read verses one through three here, and we can’t read it without our minds running immediately to what we know happened in the life of Jesus as it’s recorded in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. There was some initial popularity of Jesus because of his miracles, but very quickly on, the Jewish leadership had no time for him. They set out ways to plot against him. They tried for a while to tie him up in theological arguments. That wouldn’t work. Finally, they brought up, trumped up charges against him, handed him over to the Roman authorities. Roman authorities, of course, couldn’t care less about another Jewish man. His life makes no difference to them. Politics is politics. So they hand it over to the Roman authorities. Pilate has him whipped, scourged, and beaten. And then, of course, put on a cross.

And that’s chapter 42, verse 14. “His appearance was so marred beyond human semblance and his form beyond that of the children of mankind.” Why? Because he claimed to be the servant of the Lord. And if they had read Isaiah’s prophecy more carefully, they would have seen this is what the prophet had said they would do when he comes. They thought they knew better. He didn’t meet their expectations. He grew up before them as a tender plant, as a root out of dry ground. They saw nothing in him, no regal authority, nothing attractive. No bearing that would make them think, “Here’s our king, we’ll follow him.” And blind to who he was, they put him to grief, crucified him because, well, after all, that’s what he deserved.

Yet in truth, he was the promised servant of the Lord. Verses one to three here tell us of his rejection by the nations. Verses four through six will tell us why that was necessary. He’ll unpack for us then in the next stanza why the rejection of the servant was important in order for the servant to accomplish this great mission to the nations that the prophet had foretold.