Isaiah 52:13

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE FOURTH SONG OF THE SERVANT

"Behold, my servant shall deal wisely; he shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high. Like as many were astonished at thee, this 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 been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they understand."

Here is the introduction to the several revelations in this Great Passional, as it was called by Rawlinson. (1) The superlative exaltation of The Servant; (2) the marred visage of the Servant brought on by his extensive suffering; (3) the sprinkling of all nations, a reference to the incredible success of his kingdom; and (4) the patronage of kings, and the adherence of the great men of the earth to his teachings, are all subjects that are treated in Isaiah 53.

As Rawlinson said, "Some would attach these verses to Isaiah 53, but that is not necessary. These verses are complete in themselves and form a link to the following chapter."[16]

"He shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high ..." (Isaiah 52:13). This places the emphasis of this presentation of the Servant where it belongs, namely, upon the exaltation of Christ, not merely upon his sufferings. Instead of viewing these passages as an account of Jesus' sufferings, we should rather see the picture of His Marvelous Victory and Exaltation Through Suffering. The best comment ever made upon this verse is that of Paul:

"(Christ) emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross. Wherefore also God highly exalted him, and gave unto him the name which is above every name; that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things on earth, and things under the earth. and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. See Philippians 2:7-11."

The significant thing, is that by means of his terrible sufferings, Christ attained to his glorious victory and exaltation to the right hand of the Majesty on high.

Right here is the reason that we know that these songs of the Servant were not produced by the Hebrew people, but given of Almighty God through Isaiah. The conception of a suffering, humiliated, chastised, rejected, crucified Saviour was contrary to absolutely everything that the Jews desired; and when the Christ came, it was his faithful adherence to the pattern laid down here that caused their rejection and their clamoring for his death.

Paul's remarks quoted above, "Suggest Psalms 89:27 where Jehovah said of the Messiah, `I also will make him the Firstborn, supreme above the kings of the earth.'"[17]

Jamieson remarked that, The genuineness of this passage is certain; "Because the Jews would not have forged it, since it is opposed to their notions of a Messiah; and the Christians could not have forged it",[18] because the prophecy of Isaiah that contains it has never been in the custody of Christians. The Jews, enemies of Christianity, were "our librarians," as stated by an apostle (Romans 3:2).

As Lowth stated, "From Isaiah 40 to the end of the prophecy, three great deliverances make up the theme, all of them closely connected,"[19] namely, (1) the deliverance of the Jews from Babylon, (2) the deliverance of the Gentiles from their ignorance and idolatry, and (3) the deliverance of all mankind from the captivity of sin and death. But here in this Servant Song the third of these, the Great Deliverance, is in focus. Kidner's comment is, "Here we turn to the solitary figure whose agony was the price of it. We are at the heart of the book, the very center of its whole pattern of sin and righteousness, grace and judgment."[20] Kelley was also impressed with accolades given to this portion of the Sacred Scriptures:

"This Servant Song has been described as the most influential poem in any literature, the highest peak of Old Testament revelation, and the heart of the Old Testament. If it were to be taken out of the Old Testament, it could. be almost completely reconstructed from the quotations taken from it in the New Testament."[21]

Homer Hailey was impressed with the fact that the outline of Isaiah 53, which appears here in Isaiah 52:13-15, mentions the great themes in the reverse order of their treatment in the following chapter. "Here exaltation is followed by suffering; and in Isaiah 53, the suffering is followed by exaltation."[22] This is a significant perception by Hailey, because exactly the same phenomenon occurs in other portions of the Bible, as for example, in the prophecy of Revelation where the great enemies of mankind, (1) Satan; (2) persecuting godless government; and (3) apostate religion are introduced in Isaiah 12-13 in the reverse order of the record of their destruction prophesied in successive chapters!

"This visage was so marred ..." (Isaiah 52:14). "We know that this was to be the result of his maltreatment at the hands of Pilate's soldiers."[23] They were the ones who mocked him, platted the crown of thorns, and were the instruments of his brutal scourging.

"So shall he sprinkle many nations ..." (Isaiah 52:15). We find no objection whatever to the translation "sprinkle all nations," which to us seems far more appropriate than "startle all nations." As a matter of fact, before any man shall ever be saved, he must have his heart sprinkled from an evil conscience, and his body washed in pure water" (Hebrews 9:22), the same being twin references to faith in Christ through knowledge of Christ's sufferings and the consequent repentance and also to Christian baptism which constitutes the ceremonial gateway into the Christian religion. We are "baptized into Christ." (Galatians 3:17). We still wonder why so much controversy has been stirred up over this translation. Of course, the passage has no reference whatever to any "alleged form" of baptism. Christ and all the apostles were immersed; and sprinkling as a "baptism" was never known until centuries after the founding of the Church.

"Kings shall shut their mouths at him ..." (Isaiah 52:15). "Here Yahweh announces that his Servant Israel (the New Israel, Christ) shall be raised to a position so glorious, that even as many were appalled at his pitiable sight, so nations shall do him homage and kings shall be reverently silent in his presence, beholding so wonderful, so unheard-of a transformation."[24]

"That which had not been told them...and that which they had not heard ..." (Isaiah 52:15). This means that, "Men, even kings, will learn the facts of Christ's humiliation, sufferings, death, resurrection, and ascension to heaven, events which had never even entered into the hearts (imaginations) of men, and of which, therefore, no tongue had ever spoken."[25]