Isaiah 53 Commentary
Please choose a passage:
Isaiah 53:1-3
Isaiah continues an unusual prophecy about the Messiah that He began in Isaiah 52:13. He predicts that the neither He nor the Messiah will be believed.
Isaiah 53:4-5
Isaiah prophesies that the Messiah will bear our griefs and sorrows. People will wrongly think that God is punishing Him for His wickedness, but in reality He will be punished for our sins. And we will be healed by His punishment.
Isaiah 53:6
Isaiah prophesies that all of us like sheep have gone astray in our sin, but instead of punishing us, the LORD caused the sin of the world to fall on the Messiah
Isaiah 53:7-8a
Isaiah predicts that the Messiah will be as mild as a sheep just before it is slaughtered. He will not protest or complain about what is unjustly happening to Him. He will be oppressed and judged. Isaiah prophesies these things in a chiasm.
Isaiah 53:8b-9
Isaiah predicts that no one will complain when the Messiah is killed. He also predicts that even though the Messiah is innocent, He will be regarded as a wicked man. But even though He will be perceived as a criminal, the Messiah will be buried as if He were a rich man.
Isaiah 53:10
Isaiah predicts that the Messiah will willingly lay down His life as a guilt offering which will please the LORD. Isaiah also predicts that the Messiah will rise and continue to accomplish the LORD’s good will.
Isaiah 53:11
Isaiah predicts that the Messiah’s suffering and death will produce good results that He will live to see. This will include justifying many and removing the stain of sin from Israel. This is one of the ways the Messiah will serve the LORD.
Isaiah 53:12
Isaiah predicts that because the Messiah will be a Righteous Servant of the LORD that obeyed Him even to death, that the LORD will richly reward Him. And even though the Messiah will unjustly be regarded as sinner, He interceded on behalf of sinners to take away their reproach.
Additional Resources
The Book of Isaiah is the first and longest book of prophecy in the Bible. Its sixty-seven chapters make it the Bible’s second longest book after the Psalms. Isaiah’s message is one of the LORD’s justice and grace. Written 700 years before Christ, its prophecies concern the geopolitical events during the reign of King Hezekiah who was a contemporary of Isaiah, the Babylonian exile, Judah’s return, and the end times. The book of Isaiah also contains numerous prophecies about the Messiah’s birth, mission, character, suffering, and triumph.
Isaiah offers an unusual vision of the Messiah. Instead of describing Him as victorious King or powerful Prophet, he describes Him as a lonely, misunderstood, and much despised and abused servant. The prophetic vision describes the Messiah’s sacrifice. Isaiah compares the Messiah to a sacrificial lamb who is slaughtered as an offering to pardon our transgressions.
This chapter is often referred to as “The Suffering Servant.”
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