Bible passage: Isaiah 53:4-6
Prophet: Isaiah
Written: Between 701-681 BC
This article is contributed by Ray Konig, the author of Jesus the Messiah, Jesus the Prophet, Jesus the Miracle Worker, and 100 Fulfilled Bible Prophecies.
By Ray KonigPublished: May 12, 2008Updated: May 7, 2024
In Isaiah 53, Isaiah gives a detailed prophecy about a righteous servant of God -- the Messiah -- who would suffer and die for the sins of others, for the benefit of others.
This prophecy is known as Isaiah 53 and as the Suffering Servant prophecy. It is considered by many to be the most detailed prophecy about the suffering of the promised Messiah and can be found in Isaiah 52:13-53:12.
Although the suffering of the Messiah is directly and indirectly indicated throughout the prophecy, three key verses focus on the significance of that suffering:
4 Surely he has borne our sickness and carried our suffering; yet we considered him plagued, struck by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought our peace was on him; and by his wounds we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray. Everyone has turned to his own way; and Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:4-6, WEB)
With these verses, Isaiah is making it clear that the Messiah would suffer and die for the sins of others, and that others would be healed through his suffering.
Isaiah speaks of this person as being a righteous servant of God (Isaiah 53:11), who had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth, meaning he is blameless and without sin (Isaiah 53:9).
Isaiah does not give a name for this servant, which actually is a clue that this servant is the Messiah. Throughout the Old Testament, the prophecies about the Messiah have the characteristic of not assigning a name to the Messiah. Instead, they identify the Messiah by description.
In the case of Isaiah 53, the prophet describes the servant as being righteous, blameless, as having perfect obedience to the will of God, and as having unwavering faith in God.
The quality of being righteous is present also in the Messianic prophecies of Isaiah 9:6-7, Jeremiah 23:5-6 and Zechariah 9:9-11. The qualities of having perfect obedience to the will of God, and as having unwavering faith in God -- even when suffering -- are present also in the Messianic prophecies of Psalm 22, Isaiah 42:1-9, Isaiah 49:1-6 and Isaiah 50:4-10.
What all this means is that the prophets of the Old Testament have clearly -- and repeatedly -- defined these qualities as being Messianic. These are qualities that point to, describe, and identify the Messiah.
Even so, some commentators claim that the servant of Isaiah 53 is not the Messiah but a different person, such as Isaiah, or Jeremiah, or Moses, or an unnamed leper, or the people of Israel, or a faithful remnant of the people of Israel.
That claim, however, for reasons explained above, is based on an ignorance of Messianic prophecy. It is also based on an ignorance of the book of Isaiah. When Isaiah speaks of a servant of God who is not the Messiah, he names the servant.
We see this in Isaiah 20:3, when Isaiah himself is named as a servant of God. We see this again in Isaiah 22:20, when a man named Eliakim is named as a servant of God. We see this again in Isaiah 37:35, when David, who was ancient Israel’s greatest king, is named as a past servant of God.
And we see several examples of this when the book of Isaiah speaks of the people of Israel as being servants of God, such as in Isaiah 41:8-14, 42:19-24, 43:1-10, 44:1-23, 45:1-4, 48:1-22. In each of these cases, Isaiah refers to the people of Israel by two names -- Israel and Jacob. When Isaiah is speaking about the people of Israel, he makes it doubly clear that he is speaking about the people of Israel, as in the descendants of Jacob.
But, the servant of God who is featured in Isaiah 53 is not named, which, again, is the first clue that Isaiah is speaking of the Messiah. The second clue is that Isaiah is speaking of this servant in clearly defined Messianic ways, that he is righteous, blameless, perfectly obedient to the will of God, with unwavering faith in God -- even when suffering and dying for the sins of others.
The record of history presents us with only one person who has ever been widely regarded as being the servant that Isaiah predicted. And that person is Jesus, who is revered by hundreds of millions of Christians, throughout the world, as the Messiah who suffered and died for the sins of others, for the benefit of others.
Christians acknowledge that Jesus is the fulfillment of this prophecy, that he suffered and died for our sins, that he paid the price for all of our sins. Sin and atonement are themes that run throughout the Bible, from the first book in the Bible (Genesis), to the last book in the Bible (Revelation). Sin separates people from God. This is expressed in many Bible passages, including the following verses:
But your iniquities have separated you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. (Isaiah 59:2, WEB)
for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God; (Romans 3:23, WEB)
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23, WEB)
But, Jesus paid the price of sin. He did this by living a sinless life and by suffering and dying, in our place, as the perfect substitute for all sinners, when he was crucified about 2,000 years ago. He died for us, and through him we have life - the gift of eternal life with God. These things are expressed in various places, including in the following verses:
27 Inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once, and after this, judgment, 28 so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, without sin, to those who are eagerly waiting for him for salvation. (Hebrews 9:27-28, WEB)
And he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world. (1 John 2:2, WEB)
For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. (John 3:16, NIV)
© Ray Konig.
Ray Konig is the author of Jesus the Messiah, Jesus the Prophet, Jesus the Miracle Worker, and 100 Fulfilled Bible Prophecies.