Today's reading is a messianic hymn of Isaiah of Babylon, well known to every reader of the Bible...
Today's reading is a messianic hymn of Isaiah of Babylon, well known to every reader of the Bible. It is here that the Old Testament image of the Messiah comes closest of all to the Gospel image. As in another hymn of Isaiah of Babylon, the Messiah here least of all resembles a lawgiving king or a judge. He is barely noticeable (v. 2), and not because He is short in stature, but because Isaiah's Messiah holds no prominent position in society. He is not going to be the leader of a great messianic war. His task is different: He takes upon Himself the sin of the people, being Himself sinless, and thereby delivers the people from sin (vv. 3-5).
Such an image of the Messiah looked somewhat paradoxical against the background of the triumphalism that had seized the people in the first years after their return to the land of their fathers: that return itself seemed an indisputable testimony that all sins had been forgiven and all the people's transgressions forgotten. And now Isaiah spoke of the Messiah as the One who alone can deliver the people from sin. Of course, the full depth of the meanings connected with the person of the Messiah-Christ had only begun to open slightly to the prophet. But even this, one may think, was hard for his contemporaries to take in.
The death of the Messiah, as Isaiah of Babylon describes it, became still less understandable. It should be noted that he alone in the Old Testament has the image of a suffering Messiah. But if the image of the suffering and persecuted Messiah (vv. 6-7) over time nevertheless became part of rabbinic tradition, the image of the Messiah executed and dying (vv. 8-10) remained misunderstood. Apparently this prophecy of Isaiah was viewed more as a kind of prophetic hyperbole, with death understood to mean certain persecutions that would place the Messiah on the verge of death, which He would ultimately still successfully avoid. That is apparently how the closing verses of the hymn (vv. 11-12) were understood: having miraculously escaped death, the Messiah would finally still triumph and then enjoy the fruits of His victory.
Only the first generation of Christians understood that, in speaking of the Messiah's death, Isaiah was by no means exaggerating, although even the apostles understood only after the Resurrection the words about His coming death on the cross that they had heard many times from Jesus Himself. As for the resurrection of the Messiah, the prophet says nothing about it. And no wonder: if even the apostles believed in the resurrection of their Teacher with great difficulty, what could be expected from Isaiah's contemporaries, who lived several centuries before the coming of Christ? And still, it is precisely in Isaiah of Babylon that the image of the Messiah proved closest to the Gospel image. It is no accident that later Christians began to call him the "Old Testament evangelist."
52 The church redeemed and called upon to rejoice therein, Isa 52:1-6.
The universal preaching of the gospel glorious, Isa 52:7-10.
A call to free ourselves from bondage, Isa 52:11-12.
Christ's kingdom shall be exalted, Isa 52:13-15.
52:13 Behold - This is the beginning of a new prophecy, which is continued from hence to the end of the next chapter. My servant - That it is Christ who is here spoken of, is so evident, that the Chaldee paraphrast, and other ancient, and some later Hebrew doctors, understand it directly of him, and that divers Jews have been convinced and converted to the Christian faith, by the evidence of this prophecy.Prosper - This is fitly put in the first place to prevent those scandals which otherwise might arise from the succeeding passages, which describe his state of humiliation. Very high - Here are three words signifying the same thing to express the height and glory of his exaltation.
52:14 Astonished - At his humiliation. Thee - At thee, O my servant.His form - Christ, in respect of his birth, breeding, and manner of life, was most obscure and contemptible. His countenance also was so marred with frequent watchings, and fastings, and troubles, that he was thought to be near fifty years old when he was but about thirty, Joh 8:57, and was farther spoiled with buffetings, and crowning with thorns, and other cruel and despiteful usages.
52:15 So - His exaltation shall be answerable to his humiliation.Sprinkle - With his word or doctrine; which being often compared to rain or water, may be said to be sprinkled, as it is said to be dropped, Deu 32:2 Isa 52, Eze 20:46, .Kings - Shall be silent before him out of profound humility, reverence, and admiration of his wisdom. For - They shall hear from his mouth many excellent doctrines, which will be new and strange to them. And particularly that comfortable doctrine of the salvation of the Gentiles, which was not only new to them, but strange and incredible to the Jews themselves.
53 The incredulity of the Jews; the death of Christ, and the blessed effects thereof, Isa 53:1-10.
His exaltation and glory, Isa 53:11-12.
53:1 Who - Who, not only of the Gentiles, but even of the Jews, will believe the truth of what I say? And this premonition was highly necessary, both to caution the Jews that they should not stumble at this stone, and to instruct the Gentiles that they should not be seduced with their example. The arm - The Messiah, called the arm or power of God, because the almighty power of God was seated in him.Revealed - Inwardly and with power.
53:2 As a root - And the reason why the Jews will generally reject their Messiah, is, because he shall not come into the world with secular pomp, but he shall grow up, (or spring up, out of the ground) before him, (before the unbelieving Jews, of whom he spake ver. Isa 53:1, and that in the singular number, as here, who were witnesses of his mean original; and therefore despised him) as a tender plant (small and inconsiderable) and as a root, or branch, grows out of a dry, barren ground. No form - His bodily presence shall be mean and contemptible.No beauty - This the prophet speaks in the person of the unbelieving Jews. We - Our people, the Jewish nation.
53:3 We hid - We scorned to look upon him.
53:4 Yet - Our people believed that he was thus punished by the just judgment of God.
53:5 Wounded - Which word comprehends all his pains and punishments.For our iniquities - For the guilt of their sins, which he had voluntarily taken upon himself, and for the expiation of their sins, which was hereby purchased. The chastisement - Those punishments by which our peace, our reconciliation to God, was to be purchased, were laid upon him by God's justice with his own consent. Healed - By his sufferings we are saved from our sins.
53:6 We - All mankind. Astray - From God. Have turned - In general, to the way of sin, which may well be called a man's own way, because sin is natural to us, inherent in us, born with us; and in particular, to those several paths, which several men chuse, according to their different opinions, and circumstances. Hath laid - Heb. hath made to meet, as all the rivers meet in the sea. The iniquity - Not properly, for he knew no sin; but the punishment of iniquity, as that word is frequently used. That which was due for all the sins of all mankind, which must needs be so heavy a load, that if he had not been God as well as man, he must have sunk under the burden.
53:7 He opened not - He neither murmured against God, nor reviled men.
53:8 Taken away - Out of this life. By distress and judgment - By oppression and violence. and a pretence of justice. His generation - His posterity. For his death shall not be unfruitful; when he is raised from the dead, he shall have a spiritual seed, a numberless multitude of those who shall believe in him. Cut off - By a violent death.And this may be added as a reason of the blessing of a numerous posterity conferred upon him, because he was willing to be cut off for the transgression of his people.
53:9 With the wicked - This was a farther degree of humiliation.He saith, he made his grave, because this was Christ's own act, and he willingly yielded up himself to death and burial. And that which follows, with the wicked, does not denote the sameness of place, as if he should be buried in the same grave with other malefactors, but the sameness of condition.
53:10 He - God was the principal cause of all his sufferings, tho' mens sins were the deserving cause. When - When thou, O God, shalt have made, thy son a sacrifice, by giving him up to death for the atonement of mens sins. His soul is here put for his life, or for himself.Shall see - He shall have a numerous issue of believers reconciled by God, and saved by his death. Prolong - He shall live and reign with God for ever. The pleasure - God's gracious decree for the salvation of mankind shall be effectually carried on by his ministry and mediation.
53:11 Shall see - He shall enjoy. The travel - The blessed fruit of all his labours, and sufferings. Satisfied - He shall esteem his own and his father's glory, and the salvation of his people, an abundant recompence.By his knowledge - By the knowledge of him. Justify - Acquit them from the guilt of their sins, and all the dreadful consequences thereof. And Christ is said to justify sinners meritoriously, because he purchases and procures it for us. Many - An innumerable company of all nations.For - For he shall satisfy the justice of God, by bearing the punishment due to their sins.
53:12 I - God the father. A portion - Which is very commodiously supplied out of the next clause. With the strong - God will give him happy success in his glorious undertaking: he shall conquer all his enemies, and set up his universal and everlasting kingdom in the world.Because - Because he willingly laid down his life. Transgressors - He prayed upon earth for all sinners, and particularly for those that crucified him, and in heaven he still intercedes for them, by a legal demand of those good things which he purchased; by the sacrifice of himself, which, though past, he continually represents to his father, as if it were present.