The Suffering Servant

by G. Prasher, Manchester, England | Category: Gleanings From Isaiah | Jan 1996

Isaiah's prophecies give a profound insight to the Lord Jesus as Jehovah's Servant in His devoted obedience to the Father's will.

The lovely passage in chapter 50:4 opens a window into the inner thoughts of the Lord Jesus as He approached the sufferings of the Cross:

The Lord GOD hath given Me the tongue of them that are taught, that I should know how to sustain with words him that is weary: He wakeneth morning by morning, He wakeneth Mine ear to hear as they that are taught.

How perfectly the Lord fulfilled these words in His earthly experience. We read of Him being alone in a solitary place long before daybreak to enjoy communion with His Father in heaven. Daily His ear was wakened to hear what His Father would say, the true spirit of a disciple, one who is taught. He repeatedly said that His teaching was not His own, but the Father's who sent Him. 'He that sent Me is true', we read in John 8:26, 'and the things which I heard from Him, these speak I unto the world'. From the secret place of communion with the Father He came out to speak God's Word to a needy people. The Gospels are rich in illustration of the fact that He knew how to sustain with words him that is weary. People hung upon His words, forgetting their need of food or the approach of sunset as they became absorbed in His match-less teaching. Soldiers sent to arrest Him felt unable to do so, excusing themselves by telling their masters that 'No-one ever spoke the way this Man does' (John 7: 46 NIV). The prophetic word in Isaiah continues:

The Lord GOD hath opened Mine ear; and I was not rebellious, neither turned away backward. I gave My back to the smiters, and My cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not My face from shame and spitting.

The time had come that the opened ear of Jehovah's Servant heard it was the Father's will that He should go forward to suffer as the Lamb of God, to bear the sin of the world. In the Garden of Gethsemane, with strong crying and tears, He offered up prayers and supplications to Him who was able to save Him out of death:

O My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass away from Me: nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt (Mat. 26:39).

But there was no thought of rebelling against the Father's will, or turning back. When Peter tried to defend his Master, the Lord told him to put up the sword into its sheath, and added, 'The cup which the Father hath given Me, shall I not drink it?' (John 18:11). This was the hour for which He had come into the world: all that was written concerning Him must have fulfilment, including the word, 'He was numbered with the transgressors'. And as Isaiah bad prophesied, He gave His back to the smiters, and His cheeks to those who plucked off the hairs. He did not hide His face from shame and spitting. Here was the ultimate in loving devotion to the Father's will; the Servant of Jehovah obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the Cross.

Just two chapters later Isaiah is moved by the Spirit to foretell the exaltation of the One who had so deeply humbled Himself:

Behold, My Servant shall deal wisely, He shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high. Like as many were astonished at Thee' (His visage was so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men) so shall

He startle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths because of

Him (Is. 52:13-15 RVM).

There can be no doubt about the identity of the Lord Jesus in this quotation. Whose visage and form but His were marred more than any other? There was never suffering so intense as His. Others have suffered fearful physical torture, but He alone has known the depth of spiritual anguish involved in bearing the sin of the world.

He shall deal wisely, wrote Isaiah, He shall be exalted and shall be very high. In Philippians chapter 2 we read that God highly exalted Him, and gave Him the Name that is above every name. From Ephesians 1:20 we learn that God raised Him from the dead and made Him to sit at His right band in heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this world but also in that which is to come. Ephesians 4:10 tells us that He has ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all

things. And Hebrews 8:1 confirms that He sat down on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens.

How little we can enter into the fulness of Christ's exaltation and power! But may its truth so grip us that we'll gladly sanctify Him in our hearts as Lord. Not that we yet see all things subjected to Him.

Now myriads own, above the skies, His right divine to reign, But still the guilty world denies His title with disdain.

Yet there's a place God set apart where He may reign on earth;

'Tis in the willing-opened heart of one of heavenly birth.

At the future manifestation of the Lord Jesus to take His power and reign in this world, the prophetic Word will be fulfilled: 'Kings shall shut their mouths at Him'. How little He said when earth's rulers presumed to judge Him! To king Herod He said not a word. Pontius Pilate was irritated by the Lord's silence. but in the coming day of His power the situation will be reversed. Before His holiness and glory the greatest of earth will have no word to say for their own justification.

We read from verses 11 and I2 of Isaiah chapter 53:

By His knowledge shall My righteous Servant justified many: and

He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide Him

a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with

the strong; because He poured out His soul unto death,

and was numbered with the transgressors.

How rich the eternal rewards of God's Holy Servant Jesus! He will see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied. As He looks on the myriads of the redeemed, all justified by His blood, and sharing with Him eternal joys, all the sorrows of the Cross will be seen so worthwhile. His deep satisfaction will be shared by all who have put saving faith in Him; as a hymn-writer has beautifully expressed it:

He, who in the hour of sorrow bare the Cross alone;

I, who through the lonely desert trod where He had gone;

He and I in that bright glory one deep joy shall share,

Mine to be for ever with Him, His that I am there.

G. Prasher, Manchester, England | Jan 1996
Gleanings From Isaiah