suffering servant = Messiah = Jesus!

[Metacrock]

Can we demonstrate that the suffering servant of Isaiah 53 is Jesus?

(1) we can demosntrate that he is the Messiah and not just Israel

(2) we can demonstrate that it fits Jesus better than anyone else.


by saying ss is not Isreael I am not excluding the possiblity that since Messiah comes out of Israel that it is both Isreal and an idnivudal person called "Messiah."



I. close reading of chatper will follow.



II. Messiah Will be Light to the Gentiles


A. Israel's Original Mission.


B. Israel cannot accomplish its mission without Messiah.


Messiah is contrasted with wayward Israel in several places Isaiah. Is 50:1-3 "Where is your mother's cirtificate of divorce withwhich I sent her away? OR to which of my creditors did I sell you? Becasue of your sins you were sold, because of your transgressions your mother was sent away....do I lack the strength to rescue you?

To which Messiah responds "...I have not been rebellious, I have not drawn back..." (v5)


1) Messiah to be covenant for Israel

"will keep you," God tells the Messiah "and will make you to be a covenant for the land." (Is 49:8-


2) Messiah to bring Israel back to God


Is 49:5

And now says the Lord, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant, To bring Jacob back to Him, in order that Israel might be gathered to Him (For I am honored in the sight of the Lord, And My God is My strength)

C. Messiah to bring Israel back AND be light to Gentiles.

49:6

He says, "It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also make You a light of the nations So that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth."



D. What the Sevant does in 53 is exactly

what the book says Messiah will do.


1) Messaih emerges out of Israel

Is 43:10 "You are My witnesses," declares the Lord, "And My servant whom I have chosen, In order that you may know and believe Me, And understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, And there will be none after Me.

"My witnesses" is plural, "My servant" is signular. The servant is part of the witnesses, coming out of Israel, produced by the line of David. Edersheim documents that Rabbical authorites recognize this verse as pertianing to Messiah.



2) Messiah rejected

Is. 50:6 "I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard, I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting..." And we see a rejected servant in 53, a "man of sarrows accounted with greif." This is one who "was despised and rejected."


3) Messiah accomplishes his task

Is 41:4


"here is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight, I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring jutsice to the nations." Or chater 11: 1 which is clearly marked out as the Messiah: "A shoot will come up from the stump of Jessey; from his roots a branch will bear fruit...(4) but with rigtheousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decsions for the poor...(10) in that day the root of Jessey will stand as a banner for the people, the nations will raly to him and his place of rest will be glorious."


Is, 42:6 (established as Messiah on previous page) "I will keep you and make you to be a covenat for the people and a light for the gentiles."

Compare: "(2)" He grew up before him like a tener shoot, and like a root out of dry ground....(12) "because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the trasngressors. For he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors."


We see that clearly throughout the book of Isiah, Israel is in no shape to be a redeemer, but itself must be redeemed. It cannot be a light to the nations without one from among it's people, Messiah, brining it back to God. In that process Messiah will be a light to the Gentiles, and the covenant for the land. Chapter 11 sasy explicitly that Messiah (the Branch) will do do this, he will be the light to the gentiles. And that is just what we see happening in 53, the servant is marked by the same, or close epithet, Branch, shoot, and is redeeming many. In fact in 52 we see that he will draw the nations to himself. This chapter (53) fits everything it says about Messiah, his mission, and his function, it does not fit anything about Israel.


III. The functin of the Passage in the overall book (s) of Isaiah.



A. Dialectical pattern of the book


1) God condemns Israel for waywardness

2) God calls Israel back and encourages her to be faithful.

3) The Messiah as Intsurment of God's plan

punctuates the pattern of dialogue



B. Chapter 53 as Crucial pivot in God's plan


1) Servant takes the rap for the many and redeems


2) After 53 Israel is seen in the blessed Kingdom in peace and prosterity.


3) The Servant's work as redeemed Israel.

The editor/redactor has placed this passage in the central location. After all the interwoven messages of confonfation and comfort, punctuated by expecations of the Messiah as redeemer, the suffering servant takes the balme for transgressions, it punished on behalf of the people, and than we see the people livng in the blessings of God . The editor used this passage as a means to express the hope and promise that as a result of the Lord's work Israel would return to God and live in peace and abanundance. Although the edtor probably invisioned this as looking forward to the return form exile, the work of Messiah in accmplishing redeemption, it does not necessarily mean that it refurs to a chronological event in that day priror to return from exile. But it looks forward to an event that would transpire at some point in the futre.


C. Israel as redeemer of Itself and others doesn't fit the pivital function.

There is no sense of how Israel was redeemed. Without the work of the SS being that of Messiah the work is incomplete. Irael would go from being wayward and weak to suddenly being strong enough to serve as suffering redeemer with no sense of how it got there and the interwoven strands of Messianich promise for this function would just be loose ends that are never tired up.

Note: this view works even better if one is determined to see the final chapters as eschatological (end times, Messianich Kingdom).

[einstein]

Just one example among hundreds:

Ezek 18:9-(The man who) Has walked in My statutes, and has kept My ordinances to deal truly- he is a righteous man; he shall surely live, says the Lord God.

Additionally, prophets such a Ezek give God's message that even when we sin, true repentance, tshuvah, allows for forgiveness of sin and restores our righteousness.

[Cathar1950]

But there is no righteous Israel remnant. How is righteousness achieved? By totally keeping the law? Who has ever done that, especially considering the 600+ commandments Judaism teaches? Like Isaiah said, "All our righteous works are as filthy rags."

That has always been the stumbling stone of Judaism - that somehow people can keep the law, and that the keeping of the law is somehow related to salvation.

To the honest reader, just review the Ten Commandments alone. Can anyone say they have never broken any of them during their lives, much less all of them? No. The law, as the OT and NT teaches, defines sin, shows us the moral character of God, is a framework for Godly living, and sets the "fences" so people do not suffer the adverse consequences of their sins. It is also a tutor to lead people to Christ, who is the only one who has kept the law.

How do you know there is not righteous remnant or has never been except NT propaganda? Totally keeping the law is not to understand the spirit of that law and is adolescent moral development. Christianity suffers from this lack of growing in favor of the bought diploma. What did Isaiah have in mind as something other then their " righteous works" ? Remember the widow and the orphan or was that some one else?
He wasnt saying they couldnt do anything right which is your position.
The law is still a tutor. You just replaced God and his forgiveness your idea of Christ and a different story usually missing the point. It is not a stumbling block to Judaism it is an obsession to Christianity for feeling like a flirty second wife. You start with your idea of Christ and work your way backwards missing the lessons and replacing it with magic and a human sacrifice and call it a graduation.

[einstein]

Cathar: It's the age old conundrum for EZ and other Christians who believe in original sin ie we are born depraved, works are useless, we need salvation. Show them that righteousness is achievable by "walking humbly" with God and presto chango- no original sin, and no need for the final atoning vicarious sacrifice of the nazarene!

[Cathar1950]

I think there a significant issue being batted around Law and Christ, Judaism and Christianity, Light and Dark. But Easyrider said something that stuck a cord.
Now I am in some sense an insider on both sides of this fence. Now I think I found the gate and enjoy both sides and come and go at my leisure. I can even run around the house with scissors. Yet I am an outsider looking inside out.

It is also a tutor to lead people to Christ, who is the only one who has kept the law.

I tend to think Paul was mostly anxious the world was ending soon and no longer saw a need for a teacher or tutor but he liked to teach and talk with Jesus. By pointing to Jesus it seems they miss the lesson of the law and develop a neurotic sorrow for sin with guilt.
It is like their teacher really messed them up. It reminds me of a book call "for your own good" where bad teachers and parents raise children to be just like them even when they know the punishment and discipline was unfair, cruel and of little value. "It worked on me it should work on then". To me it is like your children when they become adults I no longer make their rules or enforce them. They grew and learned and moved beyond me. This is the lesson of the law besides a contrite heart there is the development of human sympathy.
The laws today as back them were for social stability but we learn to be social as children. I remember telling my son not to pick on his sister now I tell her to give him his head back. I guess for me it seems time for Christianity to look beyond their myths and maybe even learn a little. Of course I dont speak of all Christians or all Jews. They both got their nuts. But Christians seem to have trouble dealing with the possibility that Paul could be wrong. You would think they would with all their talk about being save and made righteous by faith and realize they didnt need a Saviors death as much as they need the effort and learning. As you grow up you realize it is not the law that makes me do right but my sense of relationship and sympathy for all and everything. Sure I will hug a tree and build a bookcase. What many Christians fail to realize is that Judaism has changed and grown from its inceptions. They are not a bunch of legalistic hypocrites as often found in Christian circles but like many Christians many have grown beyond the needs of a child.

[Easyrider]

What many Christians fail to realize is that Judaism has changed and grown from its inceptions. They are not a bunch of legalistic hypocrites as often found in Christian circles but like many Christians many have grown beyond the needs of a child.

Jeeesh....

So there's no legalistic hypocrites in Judaism? Even Jesus documented the hypocrisy of the pharisees. I'm sure it goes on today in various Judaic circles.

[Cathar1950]

What many Christians fail to realize is that Judaism has changed and grown from its inceptions. They are not a bunch of legalistic hypocrites as often found in Christian circles but like many Christians many have grown beyond the needs of a child.

Jeeesh....

So there's no legalistic hypocrites in Judaism? Even Jesus documented the hypocrisy of the pharisees. I'm sure it goes on today in various Judaic circles.

I donb't knwo but I know there are legalistic hypocrites in every church. Your battle is with them.

[Goat]

What many Christians fail to realize is that Judaism has changed and grown from its inceptions. They are not a bunch of legalistic hypocrites as often found in Christian circles but like many Christians many have grown beyond the needs of a child.

Jeeesh....

So there's no legalistic hypocrites in Judaism? Even Jesus documented the hypocrisy of the pharisees. I'm sure it goes on today in various Judaic circles.

I donb't knwo but I know there are legalistic hypocrites in every church. Your battle is with them.

Of course, many of those legalistic hypocrites don't realise they are the hypocrites. It's a shame, really, that so many people can be so unaware of themselves.

[Cathar1950]

What many Christians fail to realize is that Judaism has changed and grown from its inceptions. They are not a bunch of legalistic hypocrites as often found in Christian circles but like many Christians many have grown beyond the needs of a child.

Jeeesh....

So there's no legalistic hypocrites in Judaism? Even Jesus documented the hypocrisy of the pharisees. I'm sure it goes on today in various Judaic circles.

I donb't knwo but I know there are legalistic hypocrites in every church. Your battle is with them.

Of course, many of those legalistic hypocrites don't realise they are the hypocrites. It's a shame, really, that so many people can be so unaware of themselves.

I wonder how many "pharisees" are in their churches? I bet he must be referring to those Jews again.

[Easyrider]

There's tons of hyporcrites outside the church, that's for sure. Problem is most of them don't even know it.

They teach their kids one thing and do another.

They chastize employees for using the internet for non-business reasons and then they do it themselves.

And 1,000 other things.

Fill up the measure of your own unrighteousness, 'O hypocrites!

[Cathar1950]

There's tons of hyporcrites outside the church, that's for sure. Problem is most of them don't even know it.

They teach their kids one thing and do another.

They chastize employees for using the internet for non-business reasons and then they do it themselves.

And 1,000 other things.

Fill up the measure of your own unrighteousness, 'O hypocrites!

That could be anyone in the church where the phrase belongs. Are any of them Pharisees?