A Holy Place - Isaiah 53 (1)

 

There are some passages, I think, that we ought not to teach or preach until we are soaked with them through and through; until we have read them again and again, prayed them, pondered them, bowed our hearts and minds and souls before them and in them – and have seen Jesus the Lamb in His terrible beauty and glory in them. Isaiah 52:13 – 12 is such a passage.

 

Of course, if we don’t begin the climb somewhere by teaching and preaching and speaking of the passage, we’ll not learn the depths of Christ’s invitation to us, so we will teach and preach the passage, we will speak of it to others – but let us learn to do so with our faces to the earth as we prostrate ourselves before Him who sits upon the Throne and before the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

 

We can no more fathom this passage than we can fathom what occurred on the Cross of Jesus Christ, and yet we can be touched by the Messiah in this passage, and we can touch Him – we can die with Him and be raised to life with Him, and by God’s grace the Holy Spirit can display this passage to others through our lives, individually and as the People of God.

 

If we pick the passage up in verse 13 of Chapter 52, we see, “Behold, My servant will prosper, He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted” (NASB). But then we have, “Just as many were astonished at you, My people, so His appearance was marred more than any man and His form more than the sons of men.”

 

We begin with the end, with the telos, the purpose, the goal, the fruit – and then immediately are plunged into the depths of the Offering, the Sacrifice – the One who will be “high and lifted up and greatly exalted” “has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him” (53:2b).

 

This sequence of seeing the exaltation before seeing the suffering that precedes the exaltation is found in Paul’s words to the Philippians (3:10), “…that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death…” In Hebrews 12:2 Jesus sees “the joy set before Him” and endures the cross and despises the shame. We might say that by keeping our eyes on the prize we begin at the prize and then experience the pilgrimage, the race, the sufferings – always keeping our eyes on the prize, the goal, the finish line.

 

Again, in Romans 8:17 - 18, “…and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” We see the glory of our inheritance in God and Christ, followed by “if indeed we suffer with Him.” We see the telos, the end, the goal – and then we drop back and see what lies between “then” and “now.” We see the ground over which we must traverse.

 

If we follow the narrative of Isaiah 52:14 – 53:10a we may wonder if the Suffering Servant will see the light of day, we may wonder if we will see the light of day as we walk with Him, but then we come to 53:10b; “He will see His offspring [seed], He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of Yahweh will prosper in His hand. As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied…Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the booty with the strong…” (53:10 – 12 passim).

 

If we continue into Chapter 54 we discover, “Shout for joy, O barren one, you who have borne no child; break forth into shouting and cry aloud, you who have not travailed; for the sons of the desolate one will be more numerous than the sons of the married woman, says Yahweh…And your descendants [seed] will possess nations and will resettle the desolate cities.”

 

The Suffering Servant and the barren woman show us that things are not what they appear to be; the woman who was thought to be desolate and the Servant who was thought to be desolated beyond hope, have brought forth offspring as the stars of the heavens. Hence Paul writes:

 

“But the Jerusalem above is free; she is our mother. For it is written, ‘Rejoice, barren woman who does not bear; break forth and shout, you who are not in labor; for more numerous are the children of the desolate than of the one who has a husband.’ And you brethren, like Isaac, are children of promise.” (Galatians 4:26 – 28).

 

We are the seed, the offspring of the Suffering Servant and the Barren Woman, we are the fruit of the One who is “high and lifted up and greatly exalted.”

 

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” (John 12:24).

 

Are we dying with Jesus Christ so that others may live?

 

Can we say with Paul, can we say with Christ and as the Body of Christ, “So death works in us, but life in you”?