The Sufferings Of Christ As Predicted In Isaiah 53

Feature 1 – April 2021 – Grace & Truth Magazine

The Sufferings Of Christ As Predicted In Isaiah 53

The book of Isaiah is sometimes referred to as the “fifth gospel” or “the gospel in the Old Testament.” The 53rd chapter is the heart of that gospel.

Reading this wonderful chapter, one cannot help but see that it was predicted for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to suffer in many ways. Let’s consider four of them.

1. He Suffered Spiritually – In His Spirit
Who hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For He shall grow 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 shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from Him; 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. — Isaiah 53:1-4 KJV

There was no earthly thing that could sustain Him or delight His heart while here. Can you believe that the One who is Truth was slandered as “that deceiver” (Mt. 27:63)? The One who is Goodness was referred to as having a demon (Jn. 8:48). All His rights were taken away.

2. He Suffered Physically – In His Body
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. —Isaiah 53:4-5

The brutality that was meted out to Christ at the hand of His creatures was great and terrible. As a result of all the abuse by men to His body, His pains were excruciating and far beyond the threshold of any human being. His suffering included being beaten, spit upon, buffeted, scourged, thorns pressed down upon His head and nails pierced through His hands and feet – holding His body to the cross. It is said that after they had whipped Him, His back was like a plowed field (Ps. 129:3).

3. He Suffered Emotionally – In His Soul
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 His knowledge shall My righteous servant justify many; for He shall bear their iniquities. —Isaiah 53:10-11

How He must have longed for the love and understanding of His friends and relatives – the understanding of a mother, a hand on the shoulder by His brothers. Instead, we are told of the Christ, “I am become a stranger unto My brethren, and an alien unto My mother’s children” (Ps. 69:8). He was not the One who alienated them; they alienated Him from themselves.

4. He Suffered Social Rejection
He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. —Isaiah 53:3

His own people despised Him. The word “despised” brings the following words to mind: hated, reviled, loathed, shunned, scorned, derided and detested, among many others. These things do not only affect one socially but they also affect the soul and spirit. We can see all of these working in relation to the Lord Jesus while here. In the Gospels, men did these things to Him. He was shunned by the upper class and the religious people of His day. However, we find that every now and then there were those who defied the norms, such as the Pharisee who invited the Lord to a meal (Lk. 11:37). It takes a very strong person to endure social rejection. The human being is a social creature and therefore needs other humans for growth, encouragement, companionship and fellowship.

The following hymn by J. N. Darby aptly describes the suffering of our Lord:

Oh, day of deepest sorrow, Day of unfathomed grief, When Thou didst taste the horror Of wrath without relief.
Thou soughtest for compassion, Some heart Thy grief to know, To watch Thine hour of passion – For comforters in woe.
No eye was found to pity, No heart to share Thy woe, But shame and scorn and spitting: None cared Thy name to know.
Then, finished all, in meekness Thou to Thy Father’s hand, Perfect Thy strength in weakness Thy spirit didst commend.
O Lord, Thy wondrous story Our inmost soul doth move; We ponder o’er Thy glory — Thy lonely path of love.

By Milton Jamieson

Although the Lord Jesus deeply felt the physical sufferings with which men dared to abuse Him, those sufferings did not compare in the least with His agony of being judged by God for our sins. It was not His body that bore our sins, but He “bore our sins in His own body on the tree” (1 Pet. 2:24 NKJV). That suffering was not merely physical, but it was felt in the depths of His soul. In Isaiah 53:10, in words referring to God, we read: “When You make His soul an offering for sin.” The soul is the center of the emotional being, as illustrated by the Lord’s words in the garden of Gethsemane: “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death” (Mt. 26:38). In those innermost depths of His soul He felt the supreme agony of being forsaken by God, but this was the only way we could be delivered from our guilt. What immeasurable love filled His heart! —Leslie M. Grant (Lord Is Near Daily Meditations, October 4, 2020).