By His Wounds We Are Healed
Isaiah Chapters 49-53
The Servant of the Lord
The book of Isaiah does not, as other prophetic works do, begin with a statement of commission. Instead, it is Chapter 6 (6:1;8) that is generally accepted as the commission of Isaiah. But there is in Chapter 42 (42:1-4) a new statement of commission for one identified as the Servant of the Lord. As we have previously discussed, there are those who believe that after Chapter 39 we hear a new prophetic voice; if that were the case, then a new statement of commission would not be out of place. This is not the only explanation, however, as evidenced by the “recommission” of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 15:19-21).
However, the idea Servant of the Lord, introduced in Chapter 42 and referred to again in 49:1-3, is more mysterious than the simple commission of a new prophet or the recommission of one that has begun to falter. To begin with, in the manner of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:5) and Paul (Galatians 1:14-16) the Servant acknowledges the eternal call of God who knew him from before his birth. But, in the face of this most personal confession, the Servant identifies himself as “Israel”, the priestly nation of God. We must add to this multiplicity of identity the New Testament viewpoint that claims this Suffering Servant as our Lord Jesus Christ (Matthew 12:17-21).
Who, then, is this servant? Is it Isaiah? Is it Israel? Is it Christ? The prophet seems purposely to suspend, rather than resolve, this enigma as he speaks for the Servant in the first person, attributes to the Servant the hoped-for recovery of the remnant of Israel, and further names the Servant as the as yet unimagined redeemer of the ends of the earth (49:5-6).
I Will not Be Disgraced
Through the rest of Chapter 49 and into Chapter 50 the voice of the Servant continues in dialogue with the voice of the Lord. In the second section of the latter chapter (50:4-9) we again see the Servant's prefiguration of Christ, who taught in word and deed that we must submit ourselves to our enemies (Matthew 5:43-48; 27:27-31). Here, the Servant says a surprising thing: it is the power of men to beat us, mock us, and spit upon us, but not to disgrace us; our help is in the Sovereign Lord, and we cannot be insulted or put to shame.
The words of Paul to the Romans are not only in agreement with the command to submit ourselves to those who would abuse us, specifically (Romans 12:14) and to all earthly authorities in general (Romans 13:1-6) but in the idea that these powers cannot cause us eternal harm because our trust is in the Christ of God (Romans 9:33). Our God gave us his own Son to redeem us; there is no one who can condemn us (Romans 8:31-34).
Awake, Awake!
In the middle of Chapter 51 we find the first of three calls to “Awake, Awake!” This first call (51:9-11) goes out to the arm of the Lord to act as in former days; the strength that was of old still is and will always be. The second call (51:17) is to Jerusalem, to shake off the drunkenness of the cup of the wrath of God. In the Bible, the image of the cup is used both to symbolize the salvation of God (Psalm 116:13; Matthew 26:27-28) and the wrath of God (Jeremiah 25:15-16; Revelation 14:10). There is no ambiguity in this image. The same dichotomy is attributed the the stone that was rejected by the builders (Matthew 21:42-44). The same word of God will fall upon those who reject it and uphold those who accept it. Israel had become drunk on their own devices – the cup of wrath – and was invited to put away that cup and drink the cup of salvation. It is this escape of ourselves to which we, with Jerusalem, are invited in the third call (52:1-2). The chains around our neck are of our own making, but we are invited to shed the chains and clothe ourselves in strength, to put on the armor of righteousness (Ephesians 6:10-11).
By His Wounds We Are Healed
It is the nature of all prophecy that it has meaning not only in the setting in which it was originally proclaimed, but in all later times, as well. There are passages in Chapter 53 that are so familiar to us in their New Testament recapitulation that it is now hard for us to imagine what they might have meant in their Old Testament setting (53:1-7). Was there an Old Testament servant of whom this passage speaks, or was Isaiah, as John implies, completely caught up in the glory of Jesus (John 12:37-41)? If not Christ, who was it who took our infirmities and carried our sorrows (Matthew 8:16-17)? If not the Son of God, whose are the wounds that heal us (1 Peter 2:23-25)?
The Advent of Christ now seems to us frozen in time. What Isaiah looked forward to with such fervent anticipation as to ease the suffering of his day, we look back upon as our foundation of faith. But this is the nature of the Word of God: it is in this world never a thing achieved, but a goal before us and a help beside us. The sacrificial death of Christ was, in fact, an event in time which became for us the propitiation of our sin. By his wounds we are healed. Yet we are each in our own time called to take his wounds upon us – to lose our very lives in order to find them (Matthew 10:38-39). By his wounds we are healed.
