“Messiah – the Man of God”

Scripture: Isaiah 53

As we continue through our visions of Messiah – of who he would be, and what he would do – we have been discovering that the people of Israel, the very ones who the prophecies were given for, have misinterpreted the prophets’ words to suit their own desires and expectations. They wanted him to be powerful and authoritative; they wanted him to defeat and punish the nations who had always given them so much grief; they wanted Messiah to restore them to the glory that they believed they so rightly deserved as the “chosen people” of God!

Messiah might not be the one they wanted, but he would certainly be the one they needed – desperately! They wanted a redeemer who would restore their nation to glory, and a power who would bring retribution on all who had destroyed the hope that they once knew.
But instead, the Lord would be sending one who was totally different. He would redeem them from their condemnation in sin, and would be the power that raised them from the pit of death. They thought that Messiah would do it all for them, and he would. But it would be through his own blood sacrifice, not through the blood of other nations.

Messiah, the Anointed One of God would be, as they believed, a man of God, but he would also be, surprisingly, the Son of God. And while the life that they saw in him wasn’t all that remarkable, the life that was within him, and the life that he brought for each one of them, would be divine.

Read Isaiah 53:1-3

The prophet begins with a series of admonitions – first, this entire chapter is given in the past tense, as though Messiah had already arrived. Second, he chastises the people with the question “who has believed our message”, implying that no one has believed a single word he has shared with them in the past, so why would any believe him now, and third, he asks if anyone has actually experienced the Messiah’s arrival. He had been part of the creation, he had known the nation since before they came into existence, he had been an integral part of every Godly covenant they had ever received, and he had been revealed through the law that Moses brought down from Mount Sinai. He had always been with them, but had they ever tried to be with him?

The problem was that Messiah appeared to be all too ordinary for their taste! The law would be pondered and reinterpreted and reexamined until it bore no semblance of what God had originally intended. They saw no beauty in him, no power, no connection whatsoever to Jehovah – there was nothing about him that anyone would see as a reason to want him as a friend, let alone as their Savior.

As a matter of fact, he was so plain that he might have been described as ugly. Not only would people not see him as someone they would want to associate with, he was avoided, and hated, and denied any position of authority and honor in polite society. And as far as his divine wisdom and truthfulness goes, there would be no trust, no acceptance, no love shown toward this Man of God.

Read Isaiah 53:4-6

This Anointed One of God would be so ordinary, from the world’s perspective, that nothing he ever did had any semblance of Godliness. He taught the truth of eternity, but it would make no sense to the worldly, the love he would show to the masses wasn’t to their liking, and when his final act of glory was lived out on the Cross, it was only seen as a sentence of condemnation that he so richly deserved.

Why couldn’t the people see this Anointed of God not only as a gift that they truly needed, but as a Gift that their great God Jehovah wanted them to have? The truth is that he wasn’t who they thought he should be! He was humble, not strong; He was a Savior and one who would right the wrongs of the world, but never as one who could condemn his own people; he was loving toward all, while his people wanted to define for themselves what this love should be, and who it shouldn’t embrace.

And the very thought that Messiah should even be considered as a sacrifice for their sin was outrageous! Oh, they understood the need for sacrifice – they had to do it all the time! But it was always through an animal or a bird or a portion of grain. It could be for forgiveness, or healing, or for praise and thanksgiving. But by a man? Never! And what could human sacrifice accomplish anyway? The law said nothing about that – not for healing, and definitely not for forgiveness!

This prophecy was so strange that it was inconceivable!

Read Isaiah 53:7-9

The prophet’s words would sound more like those describing a criminal, an undesirable, an outcast than it would about the majestic Messiah! Who in their right mind would ever take a stand against this glory? And who among his people would ever refuse to stand with him, regardless of what came against them? Isaiah’s words weren’t so much about a judgment that would condemn Messiah to the penalty of death, as it was a sentence against the nation, for the sinful lives they had led, against the faithless lives they had lived.

What kind of Savior, what kind of Godly appointee would even allow this to happen? Where’s his courage? Where’s his power? Why would he even submit to the authorities of this earth, and let his body be resigned to the ground when he was totally innocent of all that the hateful would say about him?

Read Isaiah 53:10-12

This is the Man of God, the Anointed of God, the Christ of Calvary. It is the life he has been called to accept, and the death and resurrection that will bring glory to both him and to his Father. He will heal the nations by his gracious nature and by the power of his blood, and all who come to his side will be justified to eternal life. His suffering will pay the penalty for the world’s sin, and his restored life will be the promise of eternal life for all who believe in him, and for all who will stand with him against the ways of earth.

This is the plan and will of Almighty God. In his wisdom, it would be the only possible way – that only through the blood sacrifice of God Himself could the people be freed from the condemnation of their sin. And Jesus Messiah would be the One chosen to be the people’s Redeemer. Born a Child, becoming a King, to give His life in sacrifice for the forgiveness of his people, and to rise again in glory.

What a God! What a Messiah! What a Lord! What a Savior!