Week 28 Isaiah 53
Isaiah was talking about an anonymous person that he called “the Servant”. Isaiah didn’t name any names. He only gave hints. The Servant stayed in the shadows. A bit of a gray man. Mysterious & enigmatic.
I decided to look for concrete things that Isaiah said about the Servant – observable & testable things. What he was like & what happened to him. A guy would have to fit that description to be the Servant. He couldn’t be just anybody. I found twelve things:
• There was nothing beautiful or attractive about his appearance
• He was despised and rejected
• He was a man of sorrows
• He was acquainted with bitterest grief
• He was wounded and crushed
• He was beaten
• He was whipped
• He was oppressed and treated harshly
• He was led as a lamb to the slaughter
• From prison and trial he was led away to his death
• He had done no wrong and he never deceived anyone
• He was counted among those who were sinners.
The one stand-out feature in this list is that even though the Servant was treated like a criminal he had done no wrong, and he never deceived anyone.
Anyway today I was just looking at Isaiah’s summary of a) what the Servant was like and b) what happened to him. They seem pretty objective. Seem like they have a high testability rating. Whoever the Servant turns out to be I know he has to check all twelve boxes.
Note: quotes from Isaiah 53:2 3 5 7 8 9 12 (NLT)