CHRISTOLOGY: THE DOCTRINE OF MESSIAH
by Dr. Arnold G.
Fruchtenbaum
This is the third Shofar study of Dr. Fruchtenbaum's
Christology series.
The first and second studies may be accessed by links
in our Library.
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Before Abraham
was born, I am ~ John
8:58
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I am the way, and
the truth, and the life: no one
cometh unto the Father, but by me ~
John 14:6
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He that hath seen
me hath seen the Father ~ John 14:9
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Few doctrines
can be considered more
fundamental than the nature, character and works of
Messiah; and few teachers are able to convey such
truths with the thoroughness, detail, accuracy,
clarity, organization and fluidity that so
characterizes Dr. Fruchtenbaum. So fasten your
seatbelts, and let's continue!
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Study 3: Ariel
Ministries' Messianic Bible Study # 11:
THE
SUFFERING MESSIAH OF ISAIAH 53
by
Dr. Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum
© 1983, 2005 Ariel
Ministries. All rights reserved. This
manuscript is for your
personal use only. No part of this
manuscript may be reproduced in any form,
except
in brief quotation in a review or
professional work, without written
permission from the publishers.
Email: Homeoffice@ariel.org
• Website: www.ariel.org.
This manuscript is
republished by special permission of Ariel
Ministries.
*
|
INTRODUCTION
This Messianic Bible study will focus on
the Suffering Messiah of
Isaiah 53. This
chapter will be dealt with rather extensively because the proper interpretation is the
major bone of contention
between Jews who believe in Yeshua (Jesus) and Jews
who do not believe in Him.
This passage will be
divided into five main sections: the paradox, the
source of the paradox, the text,
clues to the interpretation of the text, and the conclusion.
I. THE PARADOX
Anyone who sets himself
to the task of seeking to know what the Old Testament
has to say about the coming of the Messiah soon finds
himself involved with a seeming paradox. At times, one
even seems to be faced with an outright contradiction,
for the Jewish prophets gave a twofold picture of the
Messiah who was to come.
On the one hand, the inquirer will find numerous
predictions regarding the Messiah, which portray Him
as One who is going to suffer humiliation, physical
harm, and finally death in a violent manner. This
death was stated by the Jewish prophets to be a
substitutionary death for the sins of the Jewish
people. On the other hand, he will find that the
Jewish prophets also spoke of the Messiah coming as a
conquering king who will destroy the enemies of Israel
and set up the Messianic Kingdom of peace and
prosperity.
Thus there is the
twofold picture the Jewish prophets gave of the Messiah.
For centuries past, during the formulation of the
Talmud, the rabbis made serious studies of messianic
prophecies and concluded that the prophets spoke of
two different Messiahs. The Messiah who was to come,
suffer, and die was termed Mashiach
ben Yosef or Messiah, the Son of
Joseph. The second Messiah who would then come following
the first was termed Mashiach
ben David or Messiah, the Son
of David. This One would raise the first Messiah back
to life and establish the Messianic Kingdom of peace
on earth. That the Old Testament presents these two
lines of messianic prophecy was something that all the
early rabbis recognized. The Old Testament never
clearly states that there will be two Messiahs. In
fact, many of the paradoxical descriptions are found
side by side in the same passages in which, it seems,
that only one person is meant. Nevertheless, for the
early rabbis, the Two Messiahs Theory seemed to be the
best answer.
For centuries, Orthodox Judaism held to the concept of
two Messiahs. However, since the Talmudic period in
the history of the Jewish people, Messiah, the Son of
David alone was played up in the imaginations of
Jewish hearts and minds. The other messianic figure -
Messiah, the Son of Joseph, the Suffering One - was
ignored. He
was there in Jewish theology when needed to explain
the Suffering Messiah passages contained in
the Old Testament, for His existence provided an escape
clause when thorny questions were raised. Otherwise,
this messianic figure was largely ignored. Today,
few Jews have heard of Messiah, the
Son of Joseph or know of his existence in Jewish
theology of days gone by. Today, the Messiah that Jews
know of is Messiah, the Son of David, the Conquering
One.
II. THE
SOURCE OF THE PARADOX
One of the major
sources from which the rabbis developed their concept
of the Suffering Messiah, the Son of Joseph, was
Isaiah 53. The present-day bone of contention
regarding what the Old Testament says about the Messiah
centers on this chapter. The passage speaks
of the Servant of Jehovah. This Servant undergoes a
great deal of suffering, ending in death. The chapter
goes on to state that this suffering is a vicarious
suffering, that the death is a substitutionary death
for sin. He is suffering and dying for the sins of
others. The passage goes on to indicate that this
Servant is resurrected. The bone of contention is not
so much over what the passage says, but of whom it
speaks.
The question today is, "Of whom was Isaiah speaking?"
Did he prophesy
concerning the Messiah here? Rabbis say that this is
the "Christian"
interpretation of this passage, not the Jewish one.
"The Jewish interpretation," they would say, "is that
Isaiah is speaking about the people of Israel, the
Jewish people suffering in the Gentile world, and it
does not speak of the Messiah at all."
But to make the passage speak of the collective body
of Israel seems almost to force an interpretation.
Taken by itself, the passage seems to have only one
individual in
mind.
In a book I wrote several years ago, titled "Jesus was
a Jew," I quote source after source showing that the
historical Jewish interpretation of Isaiah 53 is that
it speaks of the Messiah, not of the nation. In fact,
the first rabbi ever to interpret Isaiah 53 to speak
of the nation and not of an individual was Rashi,
about A.D. 1100. I might add that he was opposed in
this interpretation by the majority of the rabbis of
his day and they continued to oppose that
interpretation for centuries after him. Historically
speaking, it was not until the 1800s that the national
interpretation of Isaiah 53, instead of the messianic
interpretation, actually became the dominant view
among the rabbis.
To interpret Isaiah 53 as speaking of Messiah is not
unJewish. In fact, if the traditional Jewish
interpretation is spoken of, it would be that this
passage speaks of the Messiah. Again, the first one to
expound the opposite view was Rabbi Rashi who lived
from 1040 to 1105. As I mentioned, this view was to go
contrary to all rabbinical teaching of that day and
the preceding rabbinical teaching of 1,000 years.
Today, Rashi's position has become dominant, but it is
not the
traditional Jewish view. When
one speaks of the traditional Jewish view,
it is that Isaiah 53 speaks of the Messiah, not of the
nation.
III.
THE TEXT OF ISAIAH 52:13 TO 53:12
Before
dealing with some specific details given in the
text, several things by way of introduction
should be discussed.
There are four Servant passages. The first is found in
Isaiah 42:1-4, which spelled out the ministry of the
Servant at His First Coming.
The second passage is found in Isaiah 49:1-13 and
contains three main points: first, the Servant came as
described in Isaiah 42:1-4 and accomplished His
mission with great difficulty because He was rejected
by Israel (vv. 1-4). Secondly, because of His
rejection, the Servant will now become a light to the
Gentiles (vv. 5-7). Thirdly, all Israel will
ultimately come to a saving knowledge of this Servant
and then the final regathering and restoration of
Israel will take place.
The third Servant passage is found in Isaiah 50:4-9
and deals with the sufferings of the Servant, just
short of His coming death.
The fourth and most strategic passage is Isaiah
52:13-53:12 because it deals with two things: first,
the reason for the sufferings of the Servant, and
secondly, the death of the Servant.
One way of dividing the text is to see that verses
13-15 of chapter 52 are God's introduction to the
entire section. Verses 1-9 of chapter 53 contain
Israel's confession. These are future events that are
viewed as having already taken place. Finally, verses
10-12 give the theology of the Suffering Servant.
For this study, the text will be divided into five
basic strophes or stanzas, with the theme given in
each opening line. This is followed by a summary of
each strophe. The text itself should be able to help
determine whether the Suffering Servant is the
individual Messiah or the nation of Israel.
A.
Behold, My Servant Shall Deal Wisely - Isaiah
52:13-15
Behold, my servant shall
deal wisely, he shall be exalted and lifted
up, and shall be very high. Like as
many were astonished at you (his visage was
so marred more than any man,
and his form more than the sons of men), so
shall he sprinkle many nations;
kings shall shut their mouths at him: for
that which had not been told them shall
they see; and that which they had not heard
shall they understand. |
In the first strophe,
God is doing the speaking. He is calling the attention
of all to the Suffering Servant. God declares that His
Servant will act wisely,
and His actions will gain Him a position of glory. God further
states that His Servant will suffer, but this
suffering will eventually gain the silent
attention of world rulers when they begin to understand
the purpose of His suffering. Furthermore, the
Servant will be terribly disfigured but will, in the
end, save many.
B.
Who Has Believed Our Message? - Isaiah 53:1-3
Who has believed our
message? and to whom has the arm of Jehovah
been revealed? For he grew up before
him as a tender plant, and as a root out of
a dry ground: he has no form
nor comeliness; and when we see him, there
is no beauty that we should desire
him. He was despised, and rejected of men; a
man of sorrows, and
acquainted with grief: and as one from whom
men hide their face he was despised; and we esteemed
him not. |
The second strophe contains Israel's
confession for not recognizing the Servant in His
person and calling.
In verse 1, the faithful Remnant asks two questions:
"Who has believed
our message?" and "To whom has the arm of Jehovah
been revealed?" The arm of
Jehovah, a motif developed in previous sections
of Isaiah (Is. 40:10; 51:5, 9; 52:10), is identified
here as God the Son, not God the Father.
Verse 2 brings out the humanity of the Servant. They
claim to be surprised at what they have just learned
from the three preceding verses. They note that, at the
time the Servant was with them, there did not seem to be
anything special about Him. His childhood and growth
were no different than that of others. He was not
particularly charismatic in His personality that would
attract men to Him. His outward features were hardly
unique.
On the contrary, verse 3 points out that the opposite
was true. Instead of drawing people to Him in general, He was despised and rejected of
men; He was a
man of sorrows, acquainted with personal grief;
He was a man acquainted with pain and disease. His
rejection was not merely passive, it was active and
the people did their best to avoid Him.
C.
Surely He Has Born Our Griefs, and Carried Our
Sorrows - Isaiah 53:4-6
Surely he has borne our
griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we did
esteem him stricken, smitten of God,
and afflicted. But he was wounded for our
transgressions, he was bruised for
our iniquities; the chastisement of our
peace was upon him; and with his
stripes we are healed. All we like sheep
have gone astray; we have turned every
one to his own way; and Jehovah has laid on
him the iniquity of us all. |
In the third strophe,
the people confess that at the time of His suffering,
they considered it to be the punishment of God for His
own sins. Now, however, they acknowledge that the
Servant's suffering was vicarious: He suffered for the
sins of the people, not for His own sins. The people
confess that it was they who went astray; they each
one had gone their own selfish ways, and the
punishment of their sins was laid upon this Servant of
Jehovah. This passage, then, is a confession of a
change of attitude on the part of the people toward
the Servant as they recognized the true nature of His
sufferings. The severe
judgment that the Servant had suffered led the
people to form an opinion of Him, since His suffering
seemed to mark Him as a special victim of Jehovah's
anger. But now confession is made concerning the
reversal of this opinion, marking the beginning of
repentance.
In verse 4, those who formerly misunderstood and
despised the Servant on account of His miserable
condition are now better instructed. They now
recognize that the Servant of Jehovah was vicariously
suffering for them and took upon Himself what was
actually due to them. They confess that His sufferings
were of an altogether different nature than they
had supposed. They are now
bearing witness against themselves, lamenting
their former blindness to the mediatorial and
vicarious character of the deep agonies of body and
soul that were involved in His suffering. The error
being confessed is that they had considered His
sufferings as a punishment for sins He Himself had
committed.
In verse 5, the people confess that the vicarious
suffering of the Servant of Jehovah resulted in
reconciliation and spiritual healing. Seeing the
connection between His passion and their sins, this
verse penetrates more deeply into the meaning of the
Servant's sufferings. The connection is
twofold: first, the chastisement for our sins; His suffering
was the penalty due to the people's transgression, not
for His own sins. Secondly,
the means of reconciliation; it was the remedy by
which the people are restored to spiritual health.
In verse 6, the people confess that the necessity of
the sufferings spoken of in the preceding verses was
that the people were so wholly estranged from God that
substitution was required for reconciliation. They had
strayed and selfishly sought their way; yet Jehovah
laid their sins on the Servant. Thus the people
confess with penitence that they have long-mistaken
Him whom God has sent to them for their good, even
when they had gone astray to their own ruin.
D.
He Was Oppressed, Yet When He Was Afflicted He
Opened Not
His Mouth - Isaiah 53:7-9
He was oppressed, yet when
he was afflicted he opened not his mouth; as
a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and as a sheep that before its shearers is
dumb, so he opened not his
mouth. By oppression and judgment he was
taken away; and as for his
generation, who among them considered that
he was cut off out of the land of the
living for the transgression of my people to
whom the stroke was due? And they made
his grave with the wicked, and with a rich
man in his death; although he had done
no violence, neither was any deceit in his
mouth. |
In the fourth strophe,
the Prophet Isaiah appears to be doing the speaking as
he describes and details the sufferings of the Servant
that lead to His death.
In verse 7, the Servant is pictured as humbly
submitting Himself to unjust treatment. He does not
speak a word in His own defense. He suffers quietly, never
crying out against the injustice done to Him. All
four gospel writers emphasize the fact that He
suffered in silence (Mat. 26:62-63; 27:12-14; Mk.
14:60-61; 15:3-5; Lk. 23:8-9; Jn. 19:10).
In verse 8, we find the death of the Servant of
Jehovah. Here we are told that, after a judicial trial
and judgment, He was taken away for execution. The
Servant of Jehovah was being executed for the sins
of the prophet's own people, the
ones who deserved the judgment of judicial execution.
But no one seemed to realize the holy purpose of God
in this event. Verse 8 is a key verse to the entire
passage in that we learn that this was a sentence of
death pronounced in a court of law and then executed.
This verse clearly states that He did
not deserve death. Those for whom
He was dying never realized the true reason for His
death. But, as verses 4-6 have related, they assumed
He was dying for His own sins.
In verse 9, the burial of the Servant is described.
After His death, those who executed Him assigned a
criminal's grave for Him along with other criminals. A
criminal is what they considered Him to be, and that
is the way He was executed. Yet He would be buried in
a rich man's
tomb! This is true poetic
justice since, in actuality, the Servant had
done nothing wrong nor was there anything wrong in His
character. The fulfillment of this is found in all
four Gospels (Mat. 27:57-60; Mk. 15:42-46; Lk.
23:50-54; Jn. 19:38-42).
E.
Yet It Pleased Jehovah To Bruise Him; He Has Put Him
To Grief - Isaiah 53:10-12
Yet it pleased Jehovah to
bruise him; he has put him to grief: when
you shall make his
soul an offering for sin, he shall
see his seed, he shall prolong his
days, and the
pleasure of Jehovah shall prosper in his
hand. He shall see of the travail of his
soul, and shall be satisfied: by the
knowledge of himself shall my righteous
servant justify 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: yet he
bore the sin of many, and made
intercession for the transgressors.
|
The fifth strophe
contains the results of the sufferings and death of
the Servant of Jehovah. These results, in the end, are
very beneficial.
Verse 10 records how God was pleased
to allow the Servant to suffer and die. This was the
means by which God was going to make the atonement for
the people. The death of the Servant was an offering for the sins of the
people. The ones who had gone astray and
sinned would now be forgiven on the
basis of the death of the Servant for, by His
substitutionary death, He provided the atonement for
the people. God punished the Servant instead of the
people, and thus the sins of the people were atoned
for. This verse further states that the Servant will
see his posterity, and His days will be prolonged. How
can that be if the Servant is killed? The only way
this would be possible is by means of resurrection. So
the pleasure of
the Lord, the verse concludes, will continue to prosper in His hand,
for He will live again because of His Resurrection.
Verse 11 declares that God will be satisfied with the
work of the Servant. The Servant of Jehovah dies a
substitutionary death for the sins of the people. The
question now is, "Will God accept this substitution?"
And the answer is, "Yes." For God will see the
sufferings and death of the Servant and God's
justice will be satisfied.
This is the meaning of
the word "propitiation." Therefore, God can make the
next statement: it is because of the Servant's
vicarious suffering and death that the righteous
Servant will justify many.
To justify means
to "declare righteous." So the Servant, who suffered
and died and is now resurrected, will be able to make
many righteous. The people who were sinners and could
do nothing because of the separation from God will be
able to be made righteous by the Servant. This verse
concludes by telling us how this is possible: the
Servant bears their sins. In other words, their
sins are put on the Servant's account, and the account
is considered "Paid in Full" by the Servant's blood.
So to be justified in the knowledge of himself,
for He will bear their sins.
Verse 12 records that the Servant will be tremendously
and greatly blessed by God in the end, above all
others. Four reasons are given for this. First, He
willingly and voluntarily suffered and died. Secondly,
He was humble enough to allow others to consider Him a
sinner and to consider Him as suffering and dying for
His own sins. However, thirdly, He actually bore the sin of many.
For the many who are justified and made
righteous are made so only because He has put their
sins on His account. And fourthly, the Servant makes intercession and
pleads to God on behalf of the sinners.
This, essentially, is the summary of the content of
the passage. If the Servant is Israel, then the people
are the Gentiles. If the Servant is the Messiah, then
the people are Israel, the Jewish people. Until Rashi,
all Jewish theology taught that the passage refers to
the Messiah. Since the 1800s, most of rabbinical
theology teaches that it refers to Israel. But if the
passage is taken literally and read simply, it speaks
of a single individual.
IV. CLUES
TO INTERPRETATION
The text itself
provides a number of clues as to which interpretation
is really meant. In itself, it makes plain whether it
refers to an individual Messiah or to the collective
body of Israel.
A.
The Consistent Usage of Pronouns
An important clue as to whom this passage refers is
the consistent usage of pronouns. A distinction is
maintained between my, we,
us, they, them, and our as
over against he, him, and his. The
use of my, we,
us, they, them, and our in
the passage must refer to Isaiah the Prophet and the
people to whom Isaiah is speaking. The use of he, him, and his must refer to the
Suffering Servant. Now Isaiah was a Jew, as were also
the people
to whom he was speaking.
It will be good to re-quote a portion of this passage
to bring out the emphasis of the various pronouns in
order to get a clearer understanding of the point
being made. The following quotation is Isaiah 53:4-9:
Surely HE has borne OUR
griefs, and carried OUR sorrows; yet
WE did esteem HIM stricken, smitten of God,
and afflicted. But HE was wounded for OUR
transgressions, HE was bruised for OUR
iniquities; the chastisement of OUR peace
was upon HIM; and with HIS stripes WE are
healed. All WE like sheep have
gone astray; WE have turned every one to his
own way; and Jehovah has laid on HIM
the iniquity of US all. HE was oppressed,
yet when HE was afflicted HE
opened not HIS mouth; as a lamb that is led
to the slaughter, and as a sheep that
before its shearers is dumb, so HE opened
not HIS mouth. By oppression and judgment
HE was taken away; and as for HIS
generation, who among THEM considered
that HE was cut off out of the land of the
living for the transgression of
MY people to whom the stroke was due? And
THEY made HIS grave with the
wicked, and with a rich man in HIS
death; although HE had done no violence, neither
was any deceit in HIS mouth. |
Obviously, the MY, WE, THEY, US, THEM,
and OUR are the
Jews: Isaiah and the people. Isaiah is speaking to the
nation of Israel, the Jewish people as a whole. He is
including himself with the collective body of Israel.
Isaiah represents the Suffering Servant as being in a
different
category: HE, HIM,
and HIS. HE is the One who is
suffering for US;
HE is the One upon
whom God is laying OUR sins; HE is the One who is going to
die for OUR
sins so that WE
can have salvation through HIM.
The constant and consistent use of pronouns and the
identification of the pronouns exclude the Suffering
Servant from being interpreted as the nation of
Israel. Rather, the Suffering Servant is the Messiah
Himself!
B.
Isaiah's View of the Servant's Death
The second clue is in the closing sentence of verse 8,
which also serves to exclude Israel from being the
Suffering Servant. It reads: he
was cut
off out of the land of the living for the
transgression of my people to whom the stroke was
due?
As Isaiah the Prophet views the death of the Suffering
Servant, he discloses that His death is for the sins
of my people. Who
are Isaiah's people? No one questions that
Isaiah was a Jew. Thus, Isaiah's people must be
the Jews; they must be the people of Israel as well.
And if my people
are Israel, they cannot also be the Suffering
Servant. Hence, the Suffering Servant must
refer to the individual Messiah.
C.
A Single Human Personality Portrayed
A third
clue lies in the fact that throughout the entire
passage, the Suffering Servant is portrayed
as a singular human personality. There is no hint of
allegory or any clue that the Suffering Servant is to
be taken allegorically as referring to Israel. The
Servant goes through all the functions that an
individual personality goes through. There is no
personification of Israel at all in this passage.
Israel is kept distinct from the Suffering Servant.
The Messiah is being viewed as a future, historical
person who would accomplish the prophecy of Isaiah.
Israel is the people looking on while this is
happening. Again, this is no personification of
Israel - only the view of a future, historical
person.
D. An
Innocent Sufferer
The fourth clue lies in the fact that the Suffering
Servant is presented in the passage as an innocent
sufferer (vv. 4-6, 8b, 9b). It is easy to see how this
can be true of the Messiah, but not of Israel. Moses
and the prophets never told Israel, "You will suffer
for being innocent." But rather, "You will suffer for
your sins unless you repent and conform to the
revealed will of God." God punished Israel many times
and in various
ways, and it was always because of sins. According
to the prophets, both the
Babylonian Exile and the present-day Dispersion were
results of disobedience on the part of Israel to the
revealed will of God. This is in sharp contrast with
the Suffering Servant, who is portrayed as an innocent
sufferer.
E.
A Voluntary, Willing, and Silent Sufferer
The fifth clue is the fact that the Suffering Servant
is further portrayed as a voluntary, willing, and
silent sufferer (v. 7). He willingly submits to the
suffering He undergoes and voices no complaint as to
the injustice done Him. Furthermore, as He undergoes
these sufferings that lead to His death, He is silent.
In Israel's history, the Jews have been
oppressed, gone into captivity, exile, and finally
into present-day Dispersion. But none of these
occurred on a voluntary basis on Israel's part. Israel
has generally fought back. These things fell on Israel
only because she was defeated and Israel was never
defeated willingly. But the Messiah would be a willing
sufferer. Furthermore, reading through the literature
of Jewish history, it can hardly be said that Israel
was a silent sufferer. Rather, during her sufferings,
Israel has always cried out against the inhumanity of
those who were perpetrating the sufferings on her.
Israel has produced a long line of literature
cataloging her sufferings and complaints. The
activities of the Jewish Defense League show that
there is a violence directed against anti-Semites and
a desire to see them destroyed. So this, too, rules
out interpreting the Suffering Servant as the
personification of Israel and again points to it as
referring to the Messiah.
F. The
Servant's Vicarious and Substitutionary Death
The sixth clue is that in this passage the Suffering
Servant suffers a vicarious and substitutionary death
(vv. 4-6, 8, 10, 12). He suffers for the sake of
others, so that they need not suffer for their own
sins. Nowhere in the Scriptures or in Jewish history
do we ever see Israel suffering for the Gentiles.
Israel often suffers because of the Gentiles, but
never for the Gentiles. Israel suffers, but Israel
always suffers for her own sins. There is no
substitution where Israel is concerned, only where the
Messiah is concerned.
G.
The Servant's Justification and Spiritual Healing
The seventh clue that is given is that the sufferings
of the Servant of Jehovah bring justification and
spiritual healing to those who accept it (vv.
5b, 11b). The sufferings of Israel have failed to
bring justification and spiritual healing to the
Gentiles. After three thousand years of Jewish
suffering, the Gentiles are hardly justified and are
still spiritually sick, as became obvious by the way;
the Gentile nations were involved in the Holocaust.
But Messiah's suffering was to bring this
justification and spiritual healing to Jewish lives.
H. The
Death of the Servant
The eighth clue is a crucial one. The Suffering
Servant dies (vv. 8, 12). The sufferings of the
Servant lead to and end in death. This especially
makes the personification of Israel in this
passage impossible. The Jewish people are alive and
well and have never been destroyed in spite of many
attempts to destroy them by anti-Semites throughout
the centuries. This again forces one to the conclusion
that the Suffering Servant cannot be Israel
personified, but rather, the individual personality of
the Messiah. As for the people of Israel, they live.
I.
The Resurrection of the Servant
The ninth
and final clue naturally follows: the Suffering
Servant is resurrected (vv. 10-11). The One
who died for sins does not stay dead, but is
resurrected. And we can see the results of His
suffering in that He brings justification and
spiritual healing to many. Since Israel never died,
there is no need for a resurrection. But if a person
like the Messiah dies, God will certainly resurrect
Him to life again.
CONCLUSION
This, then, is the
conflict over Isaiah 53. If one simply reads the
chapter as one would read any chapter of another book,
no other conclusion can be reached than that Isaiah
speaks of an individual person suffering for the sins
of the Jewish people. And for centuries, this was the
only conclusion that Judaism ever had; they labeled
the Suffering Servant as the Messiah, the Son of
Joseph. Later rabbinical interpretation that made the
Suffering Servant the personification of Israel seemed
more like an attempt to explain away rather than an
actual explanation of the passage. This chapter must
be read without prejudice and taken simply for what it
is saying. It must not be interpreted in any way that is only a
defense against Christian polemics, but only
for what the content of the passage really is. The
traditional Jewish viewpoint is most in harmony with
the simple statements of the text itself, speaking of
the sufferings of the Messiah for the sins of Israel.
All scriptures are in the
American Standard Version unless otherwise noted.
*
RECOMMENDED READING
If you
enjoyed this Bible study, Dr. Fruchtenbaum
recommends the following messianic Bible studies
(mbs):
mbs 011: The
Suffering of Messiah of Isaiah 53
mbs 012: The Messiah of the Old
Testament
mbs 013: What the New Testament Says About Jesus
mbs 014: Why Did the Messiah Have to Die?
mbs 025: Jesus' Right to David's Throne
mbs 028: The Olivet Discourse
mbs 032: The Baptism and Temptations of Jesus
mbs 035: The Three Messianic Miracles
mbs 036: The Sabbath Controversy Between Jesus and the
Pharisees
mbs 044: The Transfiguration of Jesus
mbs 052: The Names and Titles of the Messiah
mbs 054: The Incarnation
mbs 056: The Triumphal Entry
mbs 060: The Upper Room Discourse
mbs 062: The Feasts of Israel
mbs 063: The Deity of the Messiah
mbs 067: The Seventy Sevens of Daniel
mbs 070: The Death and Burial of the Messiah
mbs 075: The Resurrection of the Messiah
mbs 078: The Present Work of the Messiah
mbs 094: The Sermon on the Mount
mbs 127: The Birth and Early Life of the Messiah
mbs 133: The Lordship of the Messiah
The Shofar editor also recommends Ariel Ministries'
series on Christology by Dr. Fruchtenbaum.
*
Many of Dr.
Fruchtenbaum's studies are available for free online
reading and
listening at Ariel Ministries' Come and See. All of
his materials are
available for purchase at Ariel
Ministries in various formats.
Other select materials and resources are
available at Ariel, as well.
Arnold G.
Fruchtenbaum, Th.M, Ph.D,
is founder and director of Ariel Ministries.
*
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