THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION

Isaiah: Jahweh Is Salvation

Part LXII: Messiah's Suffering And Glory, Isaiah 52:13-53:12

B. Israel's Confession Regarding Messiah At His Second Coming, Isaiah 53:1-12

3. Israel's Confession Of Messiah's Salvation By His Atonement Apologetically Considered

(Isaiah 53:7-11)

I. Introduction

A. 1 Peter 3:15 directs Christians to defend their faith to all who question it, and the complete Isaiah scroll of the Dead Sea Scrolls, dated 150 B. C. (Z. P. E. B., v. Three, p. 321) that contains Isaiah 53:7-11, predicts Christ's death, burial and resurrection along with the Gospel of justification by faith in Him long before Jesus' birth!

B. We thus study this passage for our insight and edification toward defending our Christian faith (as follows):

II. Israel's Confession Of Messiah's Salvation By His Atonement Apologetically Considered, Isaiah 53:7-11.

A. Isaiah 53:7a predicted that at Christ's Second Coming, saved Israel would recall that Messiah had not opened His mouth though oppressed and afflicted in His trials before His death, what is fulfilled in Matthew 26:60b-63a. Only when the High Priest put Him under a divine oath when He Biblically had to speak to avoid sinning did He speak, affirming His deity, Matt. 26:63b-64; Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, ftn. to Isaiah 53:7-9.

B. Messiah was the Lamb of God sent to take away the sin of the world (John 1:29), so, like a passive sheep that is brought to the slaughter and before its shearers is dumb and passive, Messiah opened not His mouth that He might die in man's behalf for man's welfare, Ibid., Bible Know. Com., O. T., p. 1108; Isaiah 53:7b.

C. By Messiah's oppression (arrest and binding) and judgment (sentencing to death) was He taken away to be executed (Ibid.), and Israel's later believers at Christ's Second Coming will ask who in His generation in Israel considered that He was thus being executed for the transgression of His people Israel, Isaiah 53:8a,b ESV.

D. When Messiah died, though people convicted to death like Him were buried with the wicked in dishonor, Messiah would be buried with the rich, a culturally positive turn of events for Him since He was sinless and had performed God's will. God thus directed that Messiah be honorably buried with the rich, Isaiah 53:9; E. J. Young, The Book of Isaiah, 1974, v. III, p. 352-353. This prediction was fulfilled when the rich man, Joseph of Arimathea, buried Jesus in his own new tomb that had been hewn out of a rock, Matthew 27:57-60.

E. Messiah's dreadful death would actually be performed with God's pleasure (Isaiah 53:10a), for by it would the Messiah actually become a "sin offering" ('asham) for man, Isaiah 53:10b; Ibid. This Hebrew word is used in Leviticus 5:15; 6:5 and 19:21 "and elsewhere of an offering to atone for sin" (Ibid., Bible Know. Com., O. T., p. 1109), and only the actual physical death of the sacrificial animal involved would atone for the offerer's sin.

F. Though Messiah's physical death and burial would end His earthly life, He would still see His offspring, those who by His death would benefit with salvation life, for God would prolong Messiah's days, and the will of the Lord would prosper in His hand, Isaiah 53:10c; Ibid. A sin offering of necessity dies to be effective, so this prediction of the prolonging of Messiah's days after His death foretells Messiah's bodily resurrection after His physical death, and Isaiah 53:9-10 therefore predicts Messiah's death, burial and bodily resurrection!

G. Thus, when God would look on the anguish of Messiah's "soul," His nepesh, or physical, mental, spiritual and emotional life, the totality of His Person (Kittel, Bib. Heb., p. 684; Robert B. Girdlestone, Syns. of the O. T., 1973, p. 56-59), God would be "satisfied" (saba', Ibid., Kittel; B. D. B., A Heb.-Eng. Lex. of the O. T., p. 959). His wrath against man's sin on Messiah would thus be fully satiated, what Paul in Romans 3:25 KJV calls "propitiation" (Isaiah 53:11a; Leon Wood, The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross, 1972, p. 277).

H. Based on the propitious disposition of God due to Messiah's having totally absorbed God's wrath against man's sin, "by knowledge of Him" (NIV margin), i. e., by acknowledging Messiah as Savior, God would justify, or declare as righteous, the "many" who believe in Messiah, Isaiah 53:11b; Ibid., B. K. C., O. T. This prediction anticipates the justification by faith in Christ that is taught in New Testament passages like Romans 3:23-28!

Lesson: Long before Christ's birth, Isaiah 53:7-11 predicted Messiah's subsitutionary death, burial and bodily resurrection and the justification of those who by faith acknowledge Him as Savior based on God's wrath against man's sin being fully expended on Messiah at His death! This passage thus precisely predicted the Christian faith!

Application: (1) May we defend the Christian faith to be true because Isaiah 53:7-11 so exactly predicted its arrival long before Jesus was born. (2) May we trust in Christ as Savior from sin to be justified by God and have eternal life, Romans 3:23-28. (3) May we defend the Christian faith as true due to its fulfillment of Isaiah 53:7-11.