"Isaiah 52:13-52:15-the Suffering Messiah, the Lord Jesus (#1), Introduction to Isaiah 53" is section 4.17 in the series on teaching an evangelistic Bible study, looking at study #4, “How Can God Save Sinners? The Gospel of Jesus Christ!” from the FaithSaves website. Part 4.17 begins the exposition of Isaiah 52:13-53:12.

Isaiah 52:13-15 reads:

13 Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high. 14 As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men: 15 So shall he sprinkle many nations; the 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 consider.

In Isaiah 52:13-15 Jehovah speaks. These verses contain a short summary of what is enlarged upon in Isaiah 53. as E. W. Hengstenberg in his Christology of the Old Testament explains, the very deepest humiliation of the Servant of God shall be followed by His highest glorification. In consequence of the salvation wrought out and accomplished by Him, the nations of the earth and their kings shall reverently submit to Him. In Isaiah 53:1-10, the Prophet utters the sentiments of believing Israel; this sort of confession will characterize believing Israel in the Tribulation period. At first, in His humiliation, Israel had not recognized the Redeemer; but now they acknowledged Him as their Redeemer and Saviour, and saw that He had taken upon Him His sufferings for our salvation, and that they had a substitutionary character. The commencement forms, in Isaiah 53:1, the lamentation that so many do not believe in the report of the Servant of God, that so many do not behold the glory of God manifested in Him. In Isaiah 53:2-3, we have the cause of this fact, that is, the appearance of the Divine, in the form of a Servant—the offence of the cross. In lowliness, without any outward splendour, the Servant of God shall go about. Sufferings, heavier than ever befel any man, shall be inflicted upon Him. In Isaiah 53:4-6, the vicarious import of these sufferings is pointed out. The people, seeing his sufferings, and not knowing the cause of them, imagined that they were the well-merited punishment of His own transgressions and iniquities. But the Israel of God, now brought to believe in Him, see that they were wrong in imagining thus. It was not His own transgressions and iniquities which were punished in Him, but ours. His sufferings were voluntarily undergone by Him, and for the salvation of mankind, which else would have been given up to destruction. God himself was anxious to re-unite to himself those who were separated from Him, and who walked in their own ways. To the vicarious import of the sufferings of the Servant of God corresponds, according to Isaiah 53:7, His conduct: He suffers quietly and patiently. In Isaiah 53:8-10 we have the reward which the Servant of God receives for His obedience in suffering. God takes Him to himself, and He receives an unspeakably great generation, Isaiah 53:8, burial with the rich, Isaiah 53:9, numerous seed and long life, and that the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand; Isaiah 53:10. In Isaiah 53:11-12, the Lord again appears as speaking, and confirms that which has been declared by believing Israel. Isaiah 53:11-12, together with the introduction, Isaiah 52:13-15, occupy five verses. The main body, ten verses, is divided into seven referring to the humiliation and suffering, and three referring to the exaltation of the Servant of God. The seven are, as usual, divided into three and four. In the three verses, the suffering of the Servant of God is exhibited; in the four, its cause and substitutionary import.

After the Prophet has, in Isaiah 51:1-52:12, described the transition of the Israel of God from humiliation and sorrow to glorification, it is quite natural that he should now turn from the members to the Head, through whose mediation this transition was to be accomplished, after the same contrast had been exhibited in Himself. There is the most intimate connection between the people of God and God's redemptive Servant, for, all that He does and suffers. He does and suffers for them; and all that befals them is prefigured by the way in which He has been led by Jehovah. What follows is Isaiah 54, where the people of God are comforted by pointing to their future glorification, based on the work of the Messianic Servant on their behalf.

So Isaiah 52:13-53:12 explains not only what will happen after the people get out of Babylon, but how Babylon can be taken out of the people, by solving the sin problem. The Servant of Jehovah accomplishes this by His atoning death and resurrection, the value of which is applied to the people as described in Isaiah 54-55.

In Isaiah 52:13 the Messiah acts wisely or prudently, fulfilling Jehovah's will and receiving His blessing, like David. In 52:14-15, Christ's blood sprinkles many nations