Monday Evening, April 8, 1974
Richmond, Virginia
Ministry through Brother Stephen Kaung
Behold, My servant shall deal wisely;
He shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high.
As many were astonished at Thee
(His visage was so marred more than any man,
And His form more than the sons of men),
So shall He sprinkle many nations;
Kings shall shut their mouths at Him:
For that which had not been told them shall they see;
And that which they had not heard shall they understand.
Who hath believed our message?
And to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed?
For He grew up before Him as a tender plant,
And as a root out of a dry ground:
He hath no form nor comeliness;
And when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him.
He was despised, and rejected of men;
A Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief:
And as one from Whom men hide their face,
He was despised; and we esteemed Him not.
Surely He hath borne our griefs,
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we did esteem Him stricken,
Smitten of God, and afflicted.
But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement of our peace was upon Him;
And with His stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned every one to his own way;
And the Lord hath laid on Him
The iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed, yet when He was afflicted He opened not His mouth;
As a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
And as a sheep that before her shearers is dumb,
So He opened not His mouth.
By oppression and judgment He was taken away;
And as for His generation, who among them considered
That He was cut off out of the land of the living
For the transgression of My people to whom the stroke was due?
And they made His grave with the wicked,
And with a rich man in His death,
Although He had done no violence,
Neither was any deceit in His mouth.
Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He hath put Him to grief:
When Thou shalt 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.
He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied:
By the knowledge of Himself shall My righteous Servant justify many,
And He shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore will I 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 was numbered with the transgressors:
Yet He bare the sin of many,
And made intercession for the transgressors.
Last night, we saw the Lord on the throne in His temple. There you find the seraphim crying, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory.”
How necessary it is for us to catch this vision. How we need to see the Lord—not only in His house, but upon the throne of His house. We who are the Lord’s, we are His house; and we need to see Him high and lifted up upon the throne of His own house. Then we will understand the meaning of holiness.
Brothers and sisters, I wonder if we know what holiness really is. Or may I put it this way: Do we know what righteousness is?
To a certain degree, I believe we who have been justified and reckoned righteous before God know what righteousness is. But, as a matter of fact, righteousness is something that we need continually to learn to know.
But what is holiness? Do we see the holiness of the Lord? If we catch a vision of His holiness in His house, how we will seek His face; how we will be before Him on our face. Because He is holy.
How we need to surrender our whole being to Him and lift Him up as the Holy One of Israel. We need to have such a vision, because only after we have caught such a vision, if the Lord shall entrust us with anything, we will in no way change it or correct it. He is able to manifest Himself through us.
That is the reason why Isaiah must first see the Lord before he heard the calling.
This morning we shared together on another vision of Isaiah: the vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem. God had a controversy with His people, and the controversy was stated at the very beginning of the book of Isaiah.
God said, “I have raised you up. I have nourished you as My children. But you have rebelled against Me.”
Our relationship with God is a relationship of Father and children. In that relationship, that which God requires is obedience. I am afraid this is the one thing that we do not always give Him.
We try to give Him all kinds of things. Like the children of Israel at that time, they tried to offer sacrifices, burn incense, and declare holy convocations. But they wearied God with all these things. Why? Because what God demanded of them was just one thing: obedience.
Does God have a controversy with us today? Do we know what it is that God requires of us? Are we trying to substitute obedience with many other things?
To obey is better than sacrifice. But thank God, in spite of our condition, if we only see God’s purpose concerning His people, we find how glorious it is.
This evening we would like to come to the third vision of Isaiah. As a matter of fact, this is the vision of Isaiah.
The Bible has sixty-six chapters, but of those sixty-six chapters, forty-seven chapters are either directly quoted or indirectly alluded to in the New Testament. Twenty-one times the name of Isaiah is mentioned in the New Testament.
There is no prophet more quoted by our Lord and His disciples than the prophet Isaiah. Of all the Old Testament prophets, Isaiah is the most evangelical. Sometimes we call him the Paul of the Old Testament.
Why? Because God gave him such a vision of Christ. Remember, Isaiah lived about eight hundred years before Christ, and yet here we see such a vision of Christ. You can find nowhere else in the Old Testament where the vision of Christ is so complete and so glorious.
Our Lord Jesus said, “Isaiah saw His glory; and he spake of Him.” In John 12:41, you find it recorded that Isaiah saw the glory of Christ, and because he saw the glory of Christ, he spoke of Him.
Of course, physically Isaiah did not see the Lord, because Christ was born eight hundred years later. But in the spirit he was shown such a vision of Christ. He saw His glory, and therefore he spoke.
In the same way, Abraham looked forward to the day of Christ, even though he lived so long before Christ. So in Isaiah we find the fullest vision of Christ.
The whole book of Isaiah is filled with the vision of Christ—the Messiah, the Savior. Sometimes we say the book of Isaiah is divided into two parts: the first part is from Chapter 1 through Chapter 39; the second part is from Chapter 40 through Chapter 66.
The second part is especially Messianic in character. There you find not only a description of the deliverance of the Lord, but a very full description of the Deliverer—that is, Christ.
I would like to go through this very briefly, just to give us some idea of how much Isaiah knew of Christ as we find it in this book. I will mention several points, and after that we will concentrate on the portion we read in the beginning.
First, Isaiah was given the vision of God’s promise of a Son. In Isaiah 9:6–7 we read:
For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government shall be upon His shoulder:
And His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of His government and of peace there shall be no end,
Upon the throne of David, and upon His kingdom,
To establish it, and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness
From henceforth even for ever.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.
Here you find Isaiah was given a vision of Christ. Who is this Christ? Unto us a Child is born, but this Child is the Son given. He is the Son of God, and yet the Son is given to us.
This Child is destined to sit upon the throne of David. Upon His shoulder shall be the government, and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Father of Eternity, Prince of Peace.
The title “Father of Eternity” means that He is the beginning, the origin, the giver, and the source of eternal life. He is the Father of eternity and the Prince of Peace.
He shall sit upon the throne of David. He shall receive His kingdom, and there shall be no end. These things are God’s promise: the promise of the Son. This Son shall be born as a Child.
If you refer to the New Testament, for instance Luke 1:31–33, you find the angel Gabriel appearing to Mary:
And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a Son,
And shalt call His name Jesus.
He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Most High:
And the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David:
And He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever;
And of His kingdom there shall be no end.
Eight hundred years before the birth of Christ, Isaiah prophesied of the Son coming as a Child. Eight hundred years later, in the word of Gabriel to Mary, that promise was fulfilled.
Second, Isaiah was given an understanding that this Christ should come out of the stock of Jesse. That is to say, He is to be the Son of David. This is found in Isaiah 11:1:
And there shall come forth a shoot out of the stock of Jesse,
And a branch out of his roots shall bear fruit.
And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him,
The spirit of wisdom and understanding,
The spirit of counsel and might,
The spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.
Christ shall come out of the stock of Jesse. He shall come out from the household of David. He is the Son of David, and yet He is greater than David. David called Him Lord:
The Lord said unto my Lord,
Sit Thou at My right hand,
Until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool.
When you open the New Testament, its first verse tells us the genealogy of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham. Isaiah was given that understanding eight hundred years ahead of time.
Third, how would this Christ be born? This Christ should be born of a virgin. This is found in Isaiah 7.
The king of Syria and the king of Israel were planning war against the king of Judah. Ahaz was frightened because two kings were allied against him. But the Lord sent Isaiah to King Ahaz and told him that these two kings would be destroyed.
King Ahaz did not have faith. He did not believe in God. Therefore, God, through Isaiah, gave Ahaz a sign. The Lord said, “Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above.”
Why does God give a sign? A sign is for those who do not believe, to make them believe. God was going to give a sign to Ahaz so that he might believe what God said.
Ahaz pretended to be very godly. He said, “I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord.” Actually, he had no faith in the Lord.
So the Lord said:
Hear ye now, O house of David:
Is it a small thing for you to weary men,
That ye will weary my God also?
Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign:
Behold, the virgin shall conceive,
And bear a Son,
And shall call His name Immanuel.
When you read Matthew 1:22–23 concerning the birth of our Lord Jesus, you find the fulfillment:
Now all this is come to pass, that it might be fulfilled
Which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying,
Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a Son,
And they shall call His name Immanuel;
Which is, being interpreted, God with us.
Christ was born of a virgin, and this was fulfilled.
Fourth, Christ was given as a great light. Those who sit in darkness shall see a great light. This is found in Isaiah 9:
The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light:
They that dwell in the land of the shadow of death,
Upon them hath the light shined.
You find the fulfillment in Matthew 4:13–16. When the Lord came out to preach the gospel, He traveled in the land of Galilee, and there a great light shone in the land of darkness.
Fifth, the Spirit of the Lord was upon Him. In Isaiah 61:1–3:
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me;
Because the Lord hath anointed Me to preach good tidings unto the meek;
He hath sent Me to bind up the broken-hearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives,
And the opening of the prison to them that are bound;
To proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor,
And the day of vengeance of our God.
The Spirit of the Lord was upon Him, and He was to declare the glad tidings. The fulfillment is found in Luke 4:16–19.
Sixth, the Lord called Him from the womb. In Isaiah 49 we read:
Listen, O isles, unto Me;
And hearken, ye peoples, from far:
The Lord hath called Me from the womb;
From the bowels of My mother hath He made mention of My name:
And He hath made My mouth like a sharp sword;
In the shadow of His hand hath He hid Me:
And He hath made Me a polished shaft;
In His quiver hath He kept Me close.
How powerful is the word of the Lord. When people listened to Him, they said they had never heard anyone who spoke with such authority. Yet people rejected Him.
In spite of all people’s rejection, you remember the Lord lifted His eyes to heaven and said, “Father, I thank Thee, for this is Thy will.” His judgment was with God. You can find this in many places in the New Testament.
Seventh, He has borne our infirmities and our diseases. Isaiah 53:4 says that He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. In the New Testament, we find that He has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases.
According to Matthew 8:16–17, this was fulfilled when the Lord healed those who were sick.
Eighth, His voice was not heard in the street. A bruised reed He would not break, and a smoking flax He would not quench. This is found in Isaiah 42:1–4, and its fulfillment is recorded in Matthew 12:15–21.
Ninth, Isaiah 42:19–21 describes the Lord’s attitude:
Who is blind, but My Servant?
Or deaf, as My messenger that I send?
Who is blind as He that is at peace with Me,
And blind as the Lord’s Servant?
Thou seest many things, but Thou observest not;
His ears are open, but He heareth not.
It pleased the Lord, for His righteousness’ sake,
To magnify the law, and make it honourable.
Our Lord Jesus, in one sense, was blind and deaf. He saw as if He had seen nothing. How people rejected Him, persecuted Him, and spoke evil words against Him—and yet He was blind; He was deaf. He did not hear. He did not see.
That was His attitude. In spite of all that He had done and the reaction He received, He carried on. Nothing affected Him. Consider the attitude of our Lord: He set His face toward Jerusalem.
Tenth, in Isaiah 28:16, God said He had laid a foundation stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. In Matthew 21:42, the Lord Himself quoted this word. The stone which the builders rejected became the cornerstone.
Eleventh, in Isaiah 53 we find the suffering Servant. Oh, how He suffered in order to accomplish the work of redemption. If you read the four Gospels—the story of His judgment, crucifixion, and all that followed—you find it all fulfilled.
Twelfth, He is the coming King. He shall come in judgment, and He will bring in the millennial kingdom, where righteousness shall reign. Beyond that are the new heaven and the new earth. All these things are fulfilled in Christ.
Brothers and sisters, I am only lifting up some of the major points. In these twelve points concerning Christ, you find how Isaiah was given such a clear vision of Christ: His life, His work, His coming as the suffering Servant, and then His coming in glory.
Everything concerning Christ seems to have been given to Isaiah the prophet in such a vision. No wonder people call him the Paul of the Old Testament.
Now let us concentrate for a while upon the passage that we read in the beginning, Isaiah 52–53.
Unfortunately, the division of chapters is arbitrary. In the original there were no divisions of chapters or verses. These divisions were man-made for convenience, but they are not part of the original inspiration.
All students of the Bible agree that Isaiah 53 should begin with Isaiah 52:13. In Isaiah 52:13–15, you have a general introduction to the whole chapter. Therefore, we must begin with Isaiah 52:13.
Here you find a very full vision of Christ as Isaiah saw Him:
Behold, My Servant shall deal wisely,
He shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high.
Whenever in the Bible you find the word behold, God is trying to attract your attention. God is trying to tell you that what is going to be seen is of tremendous significance. He does not want you to lose that vision.
What is it that God wants us to behold? What is so beautiful to behold? “Behold, My Servant.”
Our Lord Jesus is the Son’s Servant. So far as His life relationship with God is concerned, He is the only begotten Son. So far as His service is concerned, He is the Servant of God—the perfect Servant.
As a matter of fact, the concept of servanthood in the Bible is the concept of son-servant. We cannot be good servants of the Lord if we are not sons of God. We need to have His life first before we can serve Him and please Him.
Here you find Christ as the Servant of God. God says, “My Servant shall deal wisely.”
This prudence is not human prudence. It is not that He tried to maneuver Himself into a favorable position among men.
Sometimes, as you read the Bible, you find the Lord saying, “Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.” Babes have an open, honest heart. But as we grow up, we begin to be wise and prudent in ourselves. We know how to maneuver our position and get into a favorable place so that we may be seen as better than we really are.
That is human prudence, but not so with Christ. The Lord said, “My Servant shall deal wisely.” That is to say, everything that God entrusted to Him, He did wisely and faithfully. He was able to carry out the will of the Father.
He never did anything rashly. He never did anything carelessly. He never did anything for Himself or in consideration of Himself. But He dealt wisely with whatever God entrusted to Him.
There were many occasions when He could have thought of Himself. You remember when He revealed to His disciples how He must go to Jerusalem, be rejected, be killed, and on the third day be raised from the dead. Peter took Him aside and said, “Be merciful to Thyself.”
That is human prudence. Yet the Lord turned around and said, “Get thee behind Me, Satan: thou art not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”
He could very well have been prudent in Himself. When He was on the Mount of Transfiguration, Moses and Elijah came and talked with Him about His departure. So far as He Himself was concerned, He could have departed from that mountain into heaven. He would not have needed to go to the cross and die.
He was the perfect Man. He had every right to return to heaven and to the right hand of God, but He would be alone there. He refused to ascend at that moment. The way of ascension is by the way of the cross.
Whatever God entrusted to Him, He did well. Therefore, He shall be exalted, lifted up, and very high.
Because He is such a faithful Servant, and because He wisely accomplished the work of redemption, God highly exalted Him and gave Him the name which is above every name. At that name every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. This is Philippians 2.
Here, in the introduction, God shows us what this Servant has done and the glory that this Servant shall have.
Then there is a complete contrast in Isaiah 52:14:
As many were astonished at Thee
(His visage was so marred more than any man,
And His form more than the sons of men).
What a contrast. Isaiah has just said that He shall be highly exalted, lifted up, and very high in glory. Suddenly you find that many are astonished at Him. Why?
We would think that One who is so highly exalted must be so glorious and so beautiful. Yet His visage was marred more than any man.
Brothers and sisters, I believe that when the Lord was born, He must have been a very beautiful baby. As a matter of fact, every baby is beautiful. He must have been beautiful.
The Bible says that He grew in wisdom and in favor with God and man. Our Lord was not ugly in any way. Yet you find here that His visage was marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men. How could it be?
It was because, first, of the burden of His life. Remember how He was weary, how He sat by the well of Sychar under the scorching sun, how He thirsted. He said, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head.”
The weariness and burden of this life must have changed and marred His visage. The suffering and persecution He suffered at the hands of men must have marred His visage.
When He was only about thirty years old, people thought He was close to fifty. He said, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day,” and they said, “Thou art not yet fifty years old.” Actually, He was only in His early thirties.
All because of His sympathy with man. He was a Man who bore our sorrows. That marred His visage.
Then remember how He was scourged, the thorn crown, and the crucifixion. When He was crucified, you could hardly recognize Him as a human being. His visage was marred more than any man.
Sometimes we think that if a person has been in a plane crash and the face is so marred, we cannot recognize that person. But the visage of our Lord was so marred upon the cross that you could not recognize Him as a human being. Think of the sufferings of it.
He did all this for us. No wonder people were astonished. You would never think that this One who suffered so much was the Savior of the world.
Then the third verse says:
So shall He sprinkle many nations;
Kings shall shut their mouths at Him:
For that which had not been told them shall they see;
And that which they had not heard shall they understand.
The result of His sufferings was the finished work of Christ on the cross. The world will marvel. The world begins to see what it has never seen and to hear what it has never heard. Even kings shall shut their mouths before Him.
We are told that when Queen Victoria was on the throne, she said that if Christ should come at that moment, she would lay her crown at the feet of Christ. Kings shall shut their mouths before Him. He is the King of kings and Lord of lords.
These three verses serve as an introduction to the Servant of the Lord.
After that introduction, Isaiah begins to deliver the message. Isaiah 53:1 is another introduction to the whole chapter:
Who hath believed our message?
And to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed?
Isaiah was going to report something of tremendous nature. He had already given us a forecast in the three opening verses, but now he was going to give us a detailed report—something that he had seen and heard.
That report was of such tremendous nature that it was almost unbelievable. “Who hath believed our report?” And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? It is too good. It is too marvelous. It is completely different from any human concept, and that is why people cannot believe it.
You find this quoted in the New Testament. John quotes it in John 12, and Paul quotes it in Romans 10. “Who hath believed our report?” The report is too good, and people find it hard to believe.
Only those to whom the Father has revealed the Son are able to believe such a report. Remember when Peter confessed the Lord: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” The Lord said, “Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father Who is in heaven.”
No one knows the Son but the Father, and those to whom the Father is pleased to reveal Him. Paul said, “It pleased God to reveal His Son in me.”
Oh, brothers and sisters, how thankful we should be. Naturally speaking, we cannot believe. We would not believe. It is too good, unbelievable. Thank God, by grace, we have believed the report.
When we believe in the Savior, we experience His salvation. That is the arm of the Lord. It is not merely believing in a concept; you experience salvation.
The arm of the Lord is outstretched to those who believe in Christ. “As many as received Him, to them gave He the right to become children of God.” There is the arm of the Lord. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes.
What a privilege, brothers and sisters, to think of that. We have believed the unbelievable—not because we can believe, for even our faith is given. He has not only given us the Savior; He has also given us the faith to believe in the Savior. It is all of grace.
Then Isaiah 53:2–3 describes the life of Christ on earth:
For He grew up before Him as a tender plant,
And as a root out of a dry ground:
He hath no form nor comeliness;
And when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him.
What a contrast. So far as His relationship with God is concerned, He is like a tender plant growing up before God. He draws His nourishment from God. He is fresh.
The Bible says that He grew in stature, in wisdom, and in favor with God and man. He derived all His resources from the Father. He grew up before the Father as a tender plant—full of life, fresh, and new.
But so far as His relationship with the world is concerned, He is like a root out of a dry ground. The world was very hard and harsh toward Him. The world did not give Him much.
He was born in a manger. There was no room in the inn and no room in any house. He was not raised in Jerusalem; He was raised in the back country, in the hills, in Nazareth. “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?”
He was like a root out of dry ground. That is His relationship to the world. But before God He was a fresh and tender plant. “This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased,” said the Father.
Our Lord Jesus, as a man, was not ugly at all; nor was He remarkably handsome, I am afraid. In other words, when He came to become a man, He was simply one of us.
There was no form or comeliness about Him. Consider King Saul: before he was chosen king, he was a head taller than other people. There was that form and stateliness. But our Lord Jesus did not have that.
That does not mean He was ugly—not at all. But He was not physically striking in a way that would draw people’s attention to Him. He was like a common person. When He walked by, you might not even have noticed Him.
We have our ideas of the Lord. But when He came into this world as a man, He was just like one of us. There was no pride, no lordliness, no physical feature that drew attention. Nothing.
The beauty spoken of here refers to physical attraction. There was nothing outwardly that attracted people to Him. Even in His background, He had not attended the rabbinical schools to become a recognized rabbi. There was nothing in His background that made Him stand out.
You might have passed Him many times and not known it at all. That was the Lord when He was on earth—just like one of us.
He was despised, and rejected of men;
A Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief:
And as one from Whom men hide their face,
He was despised; and we esteemed Him not.
When He stepped out to preach the gospel, even though He was welcomed in the very beginning, people were watching Him. They were hoping that He was the Messiah.
But when He did not fit their image and concept of Messiah, they rejected Him. They despised Him. They left Him alone. The Pharisees, the scribes, and the elite of society would not touch Him. He was considered defiled and untouchable.
Remember the discussion among the Pharisees and scribes when Nicodemus tried to say something in His defense. They said, in effect, “Do you not know? No one among us will have any dealing with that person.” They left Him alone.
He was a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. His sorrows came from different directions. He came to bring us the love of the Father, and yet we did not understand. We rejected Him. We hurt Him. That is sorrow. That is grief.
More than that, His sympathy with man was so deep that it added to His sorrow. Remember how He stood before the tomb of Lazarus. He groaned. He wept. His sympathy with them was so profound. He was a Man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.
Yet we did not esteem Him. The world looked down upon Him and even said, “Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him. We do not want anything to do with that Man.”
That describes the life of our Lord Jesus. Isaiah saw that in his spirit.
Then, in Isaiah 53:4–6, Isaiah was given a deeper insight into Christ.
Outwardly, there was nothing to attract men. Outwardly, it appeared that He labored in vain. People did not respect Him but rejected Him. How quickly His life appeared to be a failure: He was rejected and crucified.
But then Isaiah was given God’s estimate of that life and that death:
Surely He hath borne our griefs,
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we did esteem Him stricken,
Smitten of God, and afflicted.
But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement of our peace was upon Him;
And with His stripes we are healed.
We thought that God had afflicted Him. We thought He was so bad that He was crucified. But He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.
Oh, dear brothers and sisters, what an insight into the cross of Calvary.
When Christ was crucified on the cross, people went by and mocked Him, saying, “If Thou art the Son of God, come down.” Even the robber crucified with Him mocked Him. Nobody knew the meaning of the cross of Christ unless spiritual insight was given by God.
The spiritual insight is this: He was wounded for our transgressions; He was bruised for our iniquities; by His stripes we are healed. Our salvation is in Him. He bore our sins in His body upon the tree.
Therefore, we who are sinners are made the righteousness of God.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned every one to his own way;
And the Lord hath laid on Him
The iniquity of us all.
I remember a story about a man who was deeply concerned about his soul. He went to see a servant of the Lord. At that moment, the servant was very busy and did not have time to talk with him. So he simply told the man, “Go and read Isaiah 53:6. Enter by the first ‘all’ and come out by the second ‘all.’”
The man did so, and he was saved. The first “all” is, “All we like sheep have gone astray.” The second “all” is, “The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”
Here you find the meaning of Calvary being revealed to us.
Then, from Isaiah 53:7 onward, you find a more detailed description of the death of our Lord Jesus and its meaning:
He was oppressed, yet when He was afflicted He opened not His mouth;
As a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
And as a sheep that before her shearers is dumb,
So He opened not His mouth.
If you read the last few chapters of the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke, you find how our Lord Jesus was taken in the Garden of Gethsemane. He was taken to the house of Caiaphas. They judged Him and used false witnesses to accuse Him. He was silent. He did not say a word.
Until the high priest put Him under oath and asked, “Art Thou the Son of God?” He answered, “Thou hast said: nevertheless, I say unto you, henceforth ye shall see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
But otherwise, He did not say a thing. He was brought to Pilate, the Roman governor. Again, men accused Him of many things, but He did not answer. When Pilate said, “Art Thou the King of the Jews?” the Lord said, “Thou sayest.”
Then He was sent to Herod. Herod was curious about the Man, hoping to see Him perform some wonder like a magician. But the Lord would not even say a word to him. Herod became angry, mocked Him, and sent Him back to Pilate.
In other words, He was like a sheep led to the slaughter, like a sheep dumb before her shearers.
At first I did not quite understand this until, in 1970, I was in New Zealand. I watched them shearing sheep in a contest. Shearers came from different parts of New Zealand, trying to see who could shear sheep the fastest and best.
They had six sheep for each person, with judges watching. One sheep would come out, and the man would grab the sheep, put it under his arm, and shear it very quickly.
In one case, because it was a contest and they sheared so fast, I saw half of the sheep’s ear cut off. But there was no sound. No sound at all.
Immediately I remembered the word of the Lord: “As a sheep dumb before her shearers.” You could see blood coming out from different parts of the body, but no sound. The sheep would jerk a little bit, but no sound.
Look at our Lord Jesus. He did not say a word.
By oppression and judgment He was taken away;
And as for His generation, who among them considered
That He was cut off out of the land of the living
For the transgression of My people to whom the stroke was due?
He was crucified. Why? For the transgression of God’s people was He stricken. That was the reason.
As a criminal, when they took down a criminal, they would throw that person into the common grave of criminals. Yet Christ was buried with a rich man.
Joseph of Arimathea was one of the counselors, one of the seventy in the highest court of Judaism—a secret disciple. He asked for the body of Christ and buried Him in a tomb he had prepared for himself. Our Lord was buried with a rich man.
Brothers and sisters, eight hundred years before Christ, God gave Isaiah this vision of Christ. Why? Because He had done no violence, neither was there guile in His mouth.
After that, from Isaiah 53:10, you find that God gave Isaiah still deeper insight into the cross and its consequences. Christ was crucified by men, but here you find something unknown to men. It had to be revealed by God.
Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He hath put Him to grief:
When Thou shalt 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.
The first three hours our Lord was on the cross, He suffered at the hands of men. During those first three hours, all the powers of darkness surrounded Him to attack Him. But the Father was not far away.
His first word on the cross was, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” He suffered at the hands of men, at the hands of the world, and at the hands of the prince of this world—Satan.
But then it was twelve o’clock. The whole land became dark. The sun hid its face. Then you remember our Lord Jesus cried out, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”
He did not address God as His Father. Here He was as a creature, as a man, under the hand of the Creator. “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” He was forsaken by God.
In other words, God’s hand was heavy upon Him. God crushed Him on the cross. During those three hours, He was made a sin offering for the world.
He Who knew no sin was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God. During those three hours, He literally suffered all the sufferings of hell, of eternal death—separation from the Father, separation from God. He tasted death for every man.
It pleased God to bruise Him. Think of that. Why? Because He was the sin-bearer. He bore all sins in His body upon the tree.
He offered Himself as an offering for sin. But because of that, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.
It is God’s will that there should be a people gained unto God, a people as God’s possession, a people who are the seed of Christ.
The Lord said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone; but if it die, it beareth much fruit.”
Brothers and sisters, because of that grain falling into the ground and dying, here is a harvest.
He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied:
By the knowledge of Himself shall My righteous Servant justify many,
And He shall bear their iniquities.
The Lord can look upon His own people. The Lord can look upon His church and be satisfied.
He not only bore our iniquities, but He shall teach many in righteousness, that we may walk righteously and holy before Him.
Finally, it concludes that because of the suffering He has gone through, He is given glory. Should not Christ suffer and then enter into glory?
Therefore will I 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 was numbered with the transgressors:
Yet He bare the sin of many,
And made intercession for the transgressors.
He shall divide the spoil with the strong. Who is the strong? God. He shall share the glory of God with the Father.
He is raised from the dead. He has risen, ascended, and is seated at the right hand of the Father to receive honor, glory, dominion, and power. How worthy He is.
Brothers and sisters, God gave Isaiah such a vision of Christ. No wonder, when Isaiah saw the glory of Christ, he spoke of Him.
Do we see Christ? Do we have this vision of Christ? If we see this vision of Christ, we cannot help but love Him.
Lord, Thy servant Isaiah was shown a vision of Thyself even eight hundred years before Thou wast born. Because of that, he spoke of Thee.
O Lord, we who have been redeemed, we who have been given to know Thee and what Thou hast done for us, do not allow us to lose the vision of Thyself.
May Thyself always be before us, that we may always walk in that light, that we may always be touched by Thy love, and learn to love Thee and to be a witness, a testimony, for Thy name.
So, Lord, once again we ask Thee to renew our love through Thy greater love to us. We worship and thank Thee for what Thou art and what Thou hast done for us.
We thank Thee, Lord, in Thy great name. Amen.