No. 46. >> Isaiah 53:3 to 7 is a very familiar text. It describes in detail the horrors visited upon the Messiah. Can you discuss some of the details of this text? >>DR. DANIEL L. GARD: Of course this text, as we've seen, is placed within the center of the Book of Comfort. And it's the last of the four Servant Songs. Now, those texts, the four Servant Songs, are certainly known and beloved by Christians as messianic prophesies fulfilled in the person of Jesus. In this final Servant Song, it's not only the longest. But as we've seen, forms the literary center of Isaiah 40 through 66. And it has been quoted more frequently in the New Testament than, perhaps, any other Old Testament passage. Some have called it the Gospel of the Old Testament. Or some may even refer to it as the fifth Gospel. I noted for you earlier August Pieper's description of the structure of the text. And especially this center, Isaiah 52 through 53. Let's look at some of these verses. Verse 3, he was despised and rejected by men. A man of sorrows and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised. And we esteemed him not. The beginning of this verse has a couple terms that really intensify the lowliest state of the servant by being one thought on another. He was despised. And then he was rejected by men. Moreover, according to this verse, he was a man of sorrow. A man of pain. And that includes not only physical but also emotional and spiritual sorrow, as well. Isaiah says he was familiar with suffering. The noun that's used here in Hebrew refers to sickness or disease. So the servant is said to know the pain of humanity. To comprehend it fully. Like one from whom men hid their faces, he was despised. And we esteemed him not. The servant is regarded as an outcast, one who is absolutely despised by everybody. The failure to esteem him is better understood as we esteemed him for nothing. By giving with Luther an emphasis to a particular Hebrew particle that occurs within that verse. So in the first verse we see the suffering servant portrayed as one who totally understands and knows because he, too, has experienced that which is common to all human beings. This is important. Because the Christ did not come as some sort of a phantom. Or as some sort of an imaginary human being. He came as fully human. Sharing all that this world gives to us in terms of our own suffering and pain. And in fact, in many ways, much, much worse. And yet, just as Isaiah says, men hide their faces. Despite all of this, he's despised and we esteem him as nothing. Now, in Verse 4 Isaiah writes: Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows. Yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him and afflicted. The servant is said here to be one who took up our infirmities and carries our sorrows. In Matthew 8:17 Jesus' healing ministry is said to fulfill Isaiah. He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases. Interestingly, the Septuagint translates this as he carried our sins and distresses. The Septuagint, again, is the Greek translation of the Old Testament. Illness, sickness and all human suffering is the result of the sinfulness that infects all of the children of Adam. Thus, the servant bears that which his creation bears. And for this Isaiah says we considered him to be stricken by God. Smitten by him. Afflicted. Now, note the emphatic use of we consider him. We see him as a suffering servant. Thus, we consider him as one who deserved divine punishment. And that is precisely how the world continues to understand the Christ, as one who deserved this. But in Verse 5, Isaiah says he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our inequities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon him. And by his wounds we are healed. This is an absolute contrast to what was said in Verse 4. Where it was said that we consider him to be a certain way. And Isaiah comes back in this verse and says: It is not his sin that he bears. Rather, it is our sin. But he was pierced because of our transgressions. He was crushed because of our inequities. Whereas, we consider him to be stricken because he deserves divine punishment in Verse 4, in point in fact, he was stricken because we deserve divine punishment. What's the result of that? His being pierced and crushed resulted in our peace. And his wounds in being in our being healed. In Verse 6: We all, like sheep, have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the inequity of us all. And that verse is very familiar to us from I Peter 2. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree. So that we might die to sin and live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you are like sheep going astray. But now you have returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls. Like sheep going astray we have been returned to the true shepherd. One who is none other than the suffering servant of Isaiah 53. The healing his wounds have brought to us is a healing of the sins which he bore on the tree. He was the final scapegoat. The one who was prefigured in Leviticus 16. You remember that text of the scapegoat? Leviticus 16:21 through 22. He, the priest, is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites, all their sins, and put them on the goat's head. He shall send the goat away into the desert into the care of a man appointed for the task. The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a solitary place and the man shall release it in the desert. And in Verse 4 we read how we esteemed him as one guilty and thus, stricken by God. In Verse 5 we read, though, that it was our transgressions and inequities for which he suffered. Now we read the great truth behind the servant suffering. The Lord has laid on him the inequity of us all. He becomes that great scapegoat. This is the mystery of the atonement. The one who knew no sin becomes sin for us. Sometimes it can shock people to say that Jesus was not only the most -- in fact the only innocent man that ever lived. But he was also the most guilty. When he went to the cross, he, indeed, was accounted guilty of the sin of the entire world. Yours, mine, the people we serve. As God saw his Son hang on the tree, Jesus was cursed. He was the one who bore the sin of every human being that's lived since Adam to the last day. And because he bore that sin, we bear his righteousness. That's the great exchange. Jesus took our sin and places upon us his complete and total righteousness. His innocence. So that when God sees you and me, the baptized, sees those who live by faith in Christ, he does not see our sin. That was gone. That was placed on the Christ, on the suffering Messiah, this lamb that went to the cross. Instead, he sees upon us pure and holiness -- purity and holiness, righteousness. All that which is truly Jesus own is now accounted to us. So that when we proclaim the Gospel, we are proclaiming that which God sees. And to those who are in Christ, there is no accounting of sin. That sin is gone. In its place, it's the righteousness of Christ. Isaiah concludes. He was oppressed and afflicted. Yet, he did not open his mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep before shears is silent. So he did not open his mouth. Here is the Lamb who goes to the Altar of Sacrifice without protest. There the blood of the Lamb covers the altar and covers the sins of his people. That atonement is finished and complete.