Behold the Lamb of God

The Gospel According to Isaiah: Discovering the Blessed Hope of the Evangelist-Prophet

Part Four: “Behold the Lamb of God”

1. Introduction: Four Servant Songs

Thus far in our journey through Isaiah, we have seen many amazing prophecies that far excel all human wisdom and imagination. The Immanuel-King complex of prophecies in chapters seven through twelve is the preeminent prediction in all the Old Testament of the incarnation of Christ. It is no accident that many of our favorite Christmas passages come from this portion of Isaiah; because hundreds of years before the virgin birth, he looked ahead with crystal clarity and probed to the depths the incomprehensible mystery of the birth of the God-Man. But for all this, the climax of his Messianic expectation had still not come.

What kind of prophecy could outshine even the splendor of what we have already seen? The sign that God gave to wicked Ahaz already surpassed anything that the wisest of men could have devised. Then, the surprising growth of a shoot from the burned-over stump of Jesse, with its resurrection power, promised to blossom into a universal and everlasting purpose. And accordingly, immediately after this Shoot springs up, we are lifted up on the wings of faith to see the Almighty God reigning as king over every nation, directing the flow of human history for the purpose of enacting a greater salvation than the redemption from Egypt. What further revelation could come that would reveal the wisdom of the sovereign God in an even fuller way? Could such a thing even be possible?

The wisdom of God knows no bounds; and even after the predictions of the first part of Isaiah, there is a greater complex of prophecies yet to come, a final pinnacle, a climax higher than which nothing in all creation could ever soar. As we enter the sacred vistas of the second part of Isaiah, we will see the very apex of God’s whole purpose in history, and the full and final revelation of the character of the unsearchable Godhead. As staggering a thought as it is, even the revelation of chapters seven through twelve will be surpassed. But the subject of the prophecy which surpasses it can never be surpassed. For all eternity, it will remain the climax of all the world and time, the purpose for all creation, the one greatest good that wraps up infinity in its folds. This prophecy attains its sharpest relief in what some have called the four “Servant Songs”.

All precious jewels require a setting which enhances their innate beauty; and the four servant songs, being the most exquisite jewels in all creation, are embedded in a background of breathtaking beauty that is fully worthy of its invaluable merchandise. This backdrop begins in the fortieth chapter of Isaiah; and it is no mistake that chapter forty and following is one of the most treasured portions of Isaiah. Many of you to whom the whole book is daunting and difficult have found a few favorite verses in this section that have been a source of unending comfort when trials have multiplied. It’s easy to see why. There is simply no more brilliant and stirring a portrait of the Almighty God who reigns over all the earth, and who has stooped down to comfort his people, than the exalted description we meet in these chapters. God reigns over all. He is bigger than any problem we could face. And all that he is, he is for us. That is the message of these chapters.

But what is the ultimate proof and capstone-confirmation of that comforting truth? It is only this: the coming Servant of the Lord, who would fully demonstrate God’s infinite power to save, for all eternity. Who this Servant is and what he will do is the very highest revelation of who God is. It is not just the greatest revelation of who God is in the book of Isaiah; it is the announcement of what will become the greatest revelation of God in all history. It’s theme is the very reason that history was designed. It is the one great truth that can give our lives meaning, purpose, and stability in any trial. It is, in a word, that greatest prediction in all the Old Testament of the all-important Lamb-work of Christ, the God-Man of whom Isaiah has already prophesied. And the Lamb-work of Christ is the perfect revelation of the triune God in all his diverse glory. Let us walk quickly through these Servant Songs, drawing out some quick observations as to how perfectly they have been fulfilled in the life of Christ, before we look in some more detail at the conclusion of the last and greatest of them.

A Covenant for the People: Isaiah 42:1-9

Behold my servant, whom I uphold [as the Lord promises to uphold the righteous man, in whose way he delights, Ps. 37:17, 23-24],
   my chosen, in whom my soul delights [and so the Father testifies of Christ both at his baptism and on the Mount, Mat. 3:17; 17:5];
I have put my Spirit upon him [so he is the Christ; Mat. 3:16; Jn. 1:32-34; Lk. 4:1, etc.];
   he will bring forth justice to the nations [so he gives life to whomever he will and brings all into judgment, Jn. 5:21-24].
He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice,
   or make it heard in the street [Pilate marveled at his silence, Jn. 19:9-11];
a bruised reed he will not break,
   and a faintly burning wick he will not quench; [he is pitiful, Mat. 11:28-30; 9:35-36]
   he will faithfully bring forth justice. [as said of God in Ps. 9:8; made Messianic in Ps. 72; Is. 11:3-4; Dan. 7:13-14; fulfilled in Rev. 19:11-16]
He will not grow faint or be discouraged [Heb. 12:2-3]
   till he has established justice in the earth;
   and the coastlands wait for his law [fulfilled in the seeking of the Gentiles, Jn. 12:20-21].

Thus says God, the LORD,

   who created the heavens and stretched them out,

   who spread out the earth and what comes from it, [by Wisdom, Prov. 8:27-31; that is, by Christ, Col. 
1:15-16] who gives breath to the people on it

   and spirit to those who walk in it:
 [Christ, the Spirit-anointed One, gave the same Spirit from the Father, Jn. 15:26]
“I am the LORD; I have called you in righteousness; [and he will delight to do God's righteous will, Ps. 40:7-8; Mat. 3:15; Jn. 4:34, 17:4, etc.]

   I will take you by the hand and keep you; [again, Ps. 37:17, 23-24]
I will give you as a covenant for the people, [so his blood became our New Covenant, Lk. 22:20]

   a light for the nations, [strong theme in Isaiah (9:2; 60:1-3, 19, etc.); dominant theme in John's writings (Jn. 8:12; said ultimately of God in 1 Jn. 1:5; two conflated in Rev. 21:23-24)]

to open the eyes that are blind,
 [only Christ, Jn. 9:32-33]
to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,

   from the prison those who sit in darkness.
 [and so he binds the strong man, the Prince of darkness, Mat. 12:29; Heb. 2:14-15]
I am the LORD; that is my name;

   my glory I give to no other,
 [at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow, Phil. 2:9-11]
   nor my praise to carved idols.
 [Paul gloried only in the cross, the full display of God's glory, Gal. 6:14]
Behold, the former things have come to pass,

   and new things I now declare;

before they spring forth

   I tell you of them.” [just as Jesus declared, Jn. 13:19ff]

The True Israel: Isaiah 49:1-13

Listen to me, O coastlands,
   and give attention, you peoples from afar. [So Jesus commands in Mat. 28:18-20. Paul is eager for it in Rom. 15:11, 21]
The LORD called me from the womb,
   from the body of my mother he named my name. [by his angel Gabriel, Mat. 1:20-21; Luke 1:26-38]
He made my mouth like a sharp sword; [We see this in Mat. 23; ultimately, Rev. 19:15]
   in the shadow of his hand he hid me;
he made me a polished arrow;
   in his quiver he hid me away. [and so the powers of this world did not know how he would triumph over them, 1 Cor. 2:7-8]
And he said to me, “You are my servant,
   Israel, in whom I will be glorified.” [so Matthew sees Jesus as the true Israel, e.g. Mat. 2:15]
But I said, “I have labored in vain;
   I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity;
yet surely my right is with the LORD,
   and my recompense with my God.” [an indication of the true and mysterious struggle of Christ in Gethsemane, Mat. 26:38-39; but he commends his soul to God, 1 Pet. 2:23]
 And now the LORD says,

   he who formed me from the womb to be his servant,

to bring Jacob back to him;

   and that Israel might be gathered to him—
for I am honored in the eyes of the LORD,

   and my God has become my strength—
he says: [he who is called "Israel" comes to bring Israel back; shows the union of Christ with his Church, suggests the Head/Body analogy and the predominance of the phrase “en Cristo” in the NT (cf. Col. 3:4)]
“It is too light a thing that you should be my servant

   to raise up the tribes of Jacob

   and to bring back the preserved of Israel;

I will make you as a light for the nations,

   that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” [a theme we've already seen; see Mat. 24:14. quoted by Paul on his first missionary journey, Acts 13:47]
 Thus says the LORD,

    the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One,

to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nation,

   the servant of rulers: [he was abhorred by kings and governors, the religious and political leaders of the Jews, cf. all the gospel accounts of the Passion]

”Kings shall see and arise;

   princes, and they shall prostrate themselves;
 [so the magi, Mat. 2:1-12; ultimately, Rev. 21:22-24]
because of the LORD, who is faithful,

   the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”

 Thus says the LORD: "In a time of favor I have answered you;

   in a day of salvation I have helped you; [as prophesied, for example, in Psalm 16, which Paul and Peter remember in their sermons, Acts 2:15-36; 13:26-41]
I will keep you and give you
   as a covenant to the people, [as we've already seen, 1 Cor. 11:23-26, etc.]
to establish the land,
   to apportion the desolate heritages,
saying to the prisoners, ‘Come out,’
   to those who are in darkness, ‘Appear.’
They shall feed along the ways;
   on all bare heights shall be their pasture;
they shall not hunger or thirst,
   neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike them,
for he who has pity on them will lead them,
   and by springs of water will guide them.
And I will make all my mountains a road,
   and my highways shall be raised up.
Behold, these shall come from afar,
   and behold, these from the north and from the west,
   and these from the land of Syene.”
 Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth;

   break forth, O mountains, into singing!

For the LORD has comforted his people

   and will have compassion on his afflicted. [Our suffering sojourn on earth is really a triumphal procession in Christ, 2 Cor. 2:14, through which he will never leave us, Heb. 13:5; so we are admonished to let the Word of Christ be our song, Col. 3:16. cf. all the songs of the saints in Rev.]

A Face like a Flint: Isaiah 50:4-9

The Lord GOD has given me

   the tongue of those who are taught,
 [even as a child, Luke 2:46-51]
that I may know how to sustain with a word

   him who is weary.
 [the weary and struggling he always comforted, Mat. 11:28-30]
Morning by morning he awakens;

   he awakens my ear

   to hear as those who are taught.
 [so Christ went out early in the mornings to commune with God in prayer, Mk. 1:35, Lk. 6:12]
The Lord GOD has opened my ear,

   and I was not rebellious; [as he promised in Ps. 40:6-8; see Heb. 10:5-10]

   I turned not backward.
 [from suffering for sin; not even when Peter tempted him to do so, Mat. 16:21-23]
I gave my back to those who strike,

   and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard;

I hid not my face

   from disgrace and spitting. [all of which is graphically portrayed for us in the gospel accounts]
 But the Lord GOD helps me;

   therefore I have not been disgraced;
 [even in his deepest humiliation, in the Garden, by divine power the soldiers all fell to the ground; but ultimately, proved in the resurrection by which he was demonstrated to be God's Son, Rom. 1:1-4]
therefore I have set my face like a flint,
 [as said in Luke 9:51]
   and I know that I shall not be put to shame.


 He who vindicates me is near.
 [he knew full well the glory that should follow his passion, Jn. 13:31-32; 17:1-5]
Who will contend with me?

   Let us stand up together.

Who is my adversary?

   Let him come near to me.

Behold, the Lord GOD helps me;

   who will declare me guilty?
 [his vindication came, in the resurrection, which all the cavils of the Jews could not destroy]
Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment;

   the moth will eat them up. [so all his accusers have decayed and gone to dust; but Jesus is still alive, in his resurrected body!]

A Lamb to the Slaughter: Isaiah 52:13 – 53:12 [these I will read without comment, for they have an eloquence by themselves which any commentary of my own would only mar]

Behold, my servant shall act wisely;
   he shall be high and lifted up,
   and shall be exalted.
As many were astonished at you—
   his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance,
   and his form beyond that of the children of mankind—
so shall he sprinkle many nations;
   kings shall shut their mouths because of him;
for that which has not been told them they see,
   and that which they have not heard they understand.

 Who has believed what he has heard from us?

   And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
For he grew up before him like a young plant,
   and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
   and no beauty that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by men;
   a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
   he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
 Surely he has borne our griefs

   and carried our sorrows;

yet we esteemed him stricken,

   smitten by God, and afflicted.

But he was wounded for our transgressions;

   he was crushed for our iniquities;

upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

   and with his stripes we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray;

   we have turned—every one—to his own way;

and the LORD has laid on him

   the iniquity of us all.
 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,

   yet he opened not his mouth;

like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,

   and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,

   so he opened not his mouth.

By oppression and judgment he was taken away;

   and as for his generation, who considered

that he was cut off out of the land of the living,

   stricken for the transgression of my people?

And they made his grave with the wicked

   and with a rich man in his death,

although he had done no violence,

   and there was no deceit in his mouth.
 Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him;

   he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,

   he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;

the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,

    make many to be accounted righteous,

   and he shall bear their iniquities.

Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,

   and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,

because he poured out his soul to death

   and was numbered with the transgressors;

yet he bore the sin of many,
   and makes intercession for the transgressors.

2. The will of the Lord for Christ (53:10)

At the conclusion of the last and greatest of the servant songs, which describes the unimaginable sufferings of Christ, we are introduced at once to a truth which, as unexpected as it seems, is at the very heart of the gospel. Jesus didn’t ultimately suffer because the Jews hated him. He didn’t suffer because Pontius Pilate feared an uprising. He didn’t suffer because the Roman soldiers were cruel and desensitized, or even because we ourselves were sinful and needed atonement. Behind all those moving forces was one great and foundational ordaining cause: it was God’s will for him to suffer. Oh, the mystery of divine grace! That the righteous God would choose to suffer for his wicked people, who deserved all the fiery pangs of hell! There is no reason we could assign to this unspeakable gift but pure, undeserved mercy alone, arising from no other fount than the ineffable character of the God whose love is greater than all imagination. What a great comfort this is, for if his love were in any measure conditioned upon anything in ourselves, we would have cause to despair whenever we saw our graces wilting or our faith flagging. But if our redemption arises from God’s will, then it is firm. The almighty Christ, who could not be swayed even in the face of the full knowledge of his coming sorrow, drew deep draughts of resolve from his knowledge of the divine will for mercy, and at his time of fiercest temptation said,

nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will (Mat. 26:39)

and again,

Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so? (Mat. 26:53-54)

And the idea that his life would be taken from him by men he rejected with these words,

For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord (John 10:17-18)

The apostles all corroborate this testimony, as Peter, for example, in his sermon on Pentecost:

this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men (Acts 2:23)

a. The suffering

What does this suffering, which God has willed, entail? We see three things in this verse:

Bruising

Just as we have seen earlier in this song, Isaiah 53:5, the manifold physical sufferings of Christ may be summed up under the term, “bruising”. This is similar to what God first promised, when our parents transgressed in the Garden (Gen. 3:15). No matter how great a bruising this would be, the Messiah would willingly endure it all, the stripes and the shame, in order to crush the Serpent’s head and deliver us.

Grief

But as deep a bruising as Isaiah looks ahead to, and as sharply as the lash stung and the nails pricked, that physical pain was as nothing to the anguish of soul that awaited the Savior. Thus, Isaiah not only says of Christ that the Lord would bruise him, but also that he would put him to grief. We may see the depths of that spiritual grief in the Savior’s anguished cry in the Garden:

My soul is very sorrowful, even to death (Mat. 26:38);

but greater yet was that excruciating cry of dereliction,

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (Mat. 27:46),

a groan deeper than all the depths of human sin and misery that have ever accrued throughout all the generations.

Becoming sin

This immense combination of physical and spiritual pain is all included in the final description we have, that our Savior’s very soul would become a sin offering – no, but sin itself! – to take away the guilt of the people. Thus he speaks of himself being lifted up like the serpent in the wilderness:

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up (John 3:14);

and so Paul proclaims that he was made sin and a curse for us:

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21);

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree” (Gal. 3:13).

Such depths of humiliation are beyond all comprehension. Oh, the love of Christ!

b. The success

Offspring multiplied

But it was not just the suffering that the Father willed; so too it was the success that Christ should have in the midst of the suffering. He would not be overwhelmed by the grave; but after he had poured out his very life as an offering for guilt, he would rise again to the power of an incorruptible life, having burst open the doors of the grave and won an innumerable offspring, raised with him to new and eternal life from the double death of sin and the grave. So this shoot from a dry ground would rise again, and spread out branches to make the whole earth fruitful – whose branches we are, who are joined to him by faith. Thus, before he went to the cross, he looked ahead to when he, the one seed, after his burial, would spring forth in much fruit, and bear many other seeds like himself:

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

Eternal life

This eternal life which he would win would therefore not be for himself alone, but for all who belong to him, for whom he suffered and rose again; and so his life would be the firstfruits and guarantee of us all, as the apostle many times shows:

Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. (Rom. 6:8-9)

But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. (1 Cor. 15:20-22)

Perfect fulfillment of God’s will

The final thing that Isaiah mentions here is that the will of the Lord, which we have been discussing, would prosper in Christ’s hand. By this, we may learn that it is God’s will that Jesus alone reveal and accomplish God’s will. So God made the worlds through Christ, he spoke grace and truth into the world through Christ, he revealed himself through Christ; it is God’s will that his will have no bare fulfillment, apart from the work of Christ. This is a very great glory, and so Jesus delights to do the will of God, as he says in Psalm 40, and all throughout John’s gospel, most notably at his last great prayer, when he says,

this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed (John 17:2-5)

3. The complete success of Christ (53:11)

a. His complete satisfaction

In the next verse we see that, not only is it God’s will for the Christ to have success; but he will certainly have that success indeed. We may see two ways in which this success will be noted: with respect to himself and with respect to those for whom he came. Concerning himself, we see that he will be completely satisfied with what he has done – and how great a thing that is, considering he is very Wisdom, and knows all things to their depths! If he can find no flaw in the work he has done for us, will we find it lacking for anything of which we have need? So the apostle tells us that Christ was sustained in his humiliation by looking ahead to the accomplishment of a perfect satisfaction and joy:

looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Heb. 12:2)

b. His perfect salvation

Jesus will be perfectly satisfied when he sees the fruits of the anguish of his soul; because by coming to know in pure human experience all the perfect righteousness that God demands and the terrifying punishment that rebellion merits, he will win a perfect salvation. We may see this salvation defined in two parts:

Free justification by the imputation of his righteousness

What Christ has done for us is utterly different than what any other great leader or philosopher may boast of having done for his followers. For he did not just teach us what it means to be righteous; he himself won a righteousness by which to justify us, or account us righteous. This distinction is at the heart of what separates true Christianity from all the impostor religions and manmade philosophies that have ever been devised. Thus Paul, who had learned well, from the Law, what it meant to be righteous, and who had won a very considerable righteousness of his own, when he considered the righteousness by which Christ justifies us, was pleased to throw it all away, saying,

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith (Phil. 3:8-9)

Full forgiveness by his sin-bearing death

So he would win for us a perfect righteousness, to merit all the blessings of God. But he would do more than that. He would also bear the iniquities they had already committed, and win a perfect pardon for them, having suffered all the righteous wrath of God against those sins. O blessed exchange! The perfect righteousness of Christ for all the putrid, stinking mass of our sins! Who but the God-Man could have taken those filthy sins and cast them into the depths of the sea, having made a full satisfaction for them? As the beloved disciple has said,

He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2:2)

4. The glorious reward of Christ (53:12)

a. The reward: the firstborn heir among many brothers

In the last verse, we may see the reward that God has designated for Christ, in consequence of his perfect success in accomplishing the divine will. And in sum it is this: that Christ should be the firstborn heir among many brothers. All the inheritance which his perfect righteousness merited, that is, the knowledge of God and a place to dwell with him in peace, in a restored earth, forever and ever, would be his first of all. But it would not be his alone, for he would divide his portion among the many – that is, among us; and share it with the strong – that is, with us whom he has strengthened by his grace and made to persevere. Thus, part of his reward is that we be rewarded. We are his portion, and our glorious inheritance is part of his glory, just as the beauty and splendor of a bride reflects glory upon her husband (1 Cor. 11:7). So we read in Rom. 8:29, that God’s eternal purpose for us is that we might

be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

b. The reason for the reward

infinite humiliation – there was no depth to which he did not go

And finally, we discover the twofold reason for this glorious reward: there was no depth he did not stoop to, in order to our salvation; and there is no end to his ministry for us, until he has brought us all safely home. So we read on the first point that

though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Phil. 2:6-11)

eternal perseverance – there was no end to his ministry

And on the second point, that

The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. (Heb. 7:23-24)

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