A Quick Compelling Bible Study For Those Who Don’t Read The Bible

Author’s Note: After receiving positive comments and emails from readers about Vol. 2 of this nascent, occasional Sunday series, I was encouraged to write Vol. 3.

Today’s study explores a set of extremely controversial passages, Isaiah 52:13 – 53:12 — found in the Old Testament, also referred to as the Hebrew Bible. The Book of Isaiah is influential and prophetic, with 66 chapters written by its namesake around 700 BC (or 700 BCE (or 700 BCE if you are trying to be politically-correct.)

Isaiah also has the distinction of being the Old Testament book that Jesus quoted from second most frequently during his earthly ministry. (The Book of Psalms was first.) But please don’t ask what New Testament books Jesus quoted from most often because that is a trick question.

The controversial passages, known by their shorthand name “Isaiah 53,” is sometimes referred to as the "Forbidden Chapter" since it is omitted from regular synagogue readings. Therefore, most Jewish worshippers are unfamiliar with its message by design.

And what is Isaiah 53’s “banished message” written approximately 700 years before the birth of Christ? Hint: My NIV Study Bible (among the most popular) titles the passages: “The Suffering and Glory of the Servant.”

NIV’s title aptly captures Isaiah’s description of the servant. One whose suffering and glory unmistakably mirrors Jesus Christ as recorded in the New Testament Gospels — Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John — all written between AD 50-80 or 50-80 CE. (CE means Common Era, beginning with the birth of Jesus. The term is now widely used, replacing the traditional AD (Anno Domini) Latin for “In the year of our Lord,” but again, let’s not go there.)

Instead, let’s read what’s in the “Forbidden Chapter.” (And, having been born a Jew who later became a believer in the Divinity of Jesus, the “forbidden” content makes it one of my favorite Old Testament passages.)

Isaiah wrote in 52:14 – “… his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being and his form marred beyond human likeness… ” (How Jesus looked after his torture and crucifixion.)

53:2 – “He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.” (Jesus came from humble beginnings, was not royal or handsome.)

53:3 – “He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.” (Jesus was rejected by his people who turned him over to the Romans for crucifixion.)

53: 4-5 – “Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.” (Christians of all denominations believe that Christ took on our sins for our salvation.)

53:11 – “After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.” (Writing, “after he has suffered, he will see the light of life” was Isaiah prophesizing that after death, Jesus would be resurrected? Christians know that Jesus was resurrected and is the light of the world.)

However, you must decide for yourself if Isaiah, the great Hebrew prophet, is describing a future rabbi named Yeshua — later anglicized as Jesus.

Alternatively, Jewish rabbis and scholars widely interpret Isaiah 53’s “suffering servant” as the nation of Israel. Moreover, the organization Jews for Judaism (a name mocking the long-established Jewish evangelism group, Jews for Jesus) offers the following defense in a quote from "Isaiah 53 Explained":

“In Chapters 52 - 54, the prophet is referring to the gentile nations who have tormented and inflicted pain and suffering on the Jewish people. It is THESE nations who will be astounded and shocked to see that God has saved us from their persecution and returned us to our home, Israel: and, that ultimately, God will vindicate us for our suffering The same promises appear in the Book of Ezekiel 36:6-9 & 15 and in Jeremiah 30:8-13.”

Given that explanation which ignores Jesus — whom I believe the prophet Isaiah was clearly describing — means that my people are still waiting for their Messiah. And they will wait and wait and wait.

The first volume of Christendom College founder, Warren Carroll’s series on history, has the following, distilled ideas:

“Cyrus is my anointed king.” Is 45:1 Thus Isaiah declared the word of the Lord two centuries prior to the rise of Cyrus. Cyrus attributed his rise to Isaiah. Cyrus’s favorable treatment of the Jews was directly caused by this fact.
Atheist/Agnostic “higher critics”, starting with Adolf von Harnack (1851 – 1930), fall all over themselves trying to disprove the accuracy of the Bible as history, because of their pretext that “miracles are impossible”.
The most critical scholars acknowledge that the Bible as history is the most historically valid document. Ongoing archaeological discoveries implicitly acknowledge this fact. As each discovery is made, it has to refer to the Bible as the historical, ancient Near Eastern reference document. Atheist/Agnostic researchers suffer continual tension over this fact.
Warren Carroll shows the Parting of the Red Sea is essentially, factually correct, but based on geological, geographic and historical precedents, it is not as radically supernatural, it has happened before and will happen again.
The other great, faith challenge to Atheist/Agnostic higher critics, the Resurrection, is supported by an historical artifact which cannot be naturally explained. Once Shroud of Turin critics overcome their own bias against the possibilities of miracles, they have to acknowledge that it is a scientific mystery, “a problem whose data encroaches upon itself” (Gabriel Marcel,1889–1973). The study dating the Shroud as originating in the late Middle Ages was shown to be defective because the sample area from which the Carbon-14 dating was made was of material that had been used to repair the artifact, not from an area of the original, central fabric.

Adapting Longfellow’s “Three Kings” with The Golden Carol

A new, Star of Bethlehem and Three Kings song, to assume third place with the classics, "We Three Kings of Orient Are" and Bizet's "March of the Three Kings".

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote "The Three Kings" poem in 1877. Sir John Stainer arranged a late medieval melody used with it here for the first time, as "The Golden Carol of Melchior, Casper and Balthazar". Longfellow’s poem has not previously been arranged with this overall melody, and apparently, not with any other. Longfellow's "Three Kings" rhymes and is in rhythmically free-verse, it does not have a beat. This arrangement is in the rhythmic short-long × 4 iambic tetrameter.

6 minute audio file, piano and voice

1) Three Kings came riding from far away, Melchior and Gaspar and Baltasar; Three Wise Men out of the East were they, And they travelled by night and they slept by day, For their guide was a beautiful, wonderful star.	2) The star was so beautiful, large and clear, That all the other stars of the sky Became a white mist in the atmosphere, And by this they knew that the coming was near Of the Prince foretold in the prophecy.
3) Three caskets of they bore on their saddle-bows, Three caskets of gold with golden keys; Their robes were of crimson silk with rows Of bells, pomegranates and furbelows, Their turbans like blossoming almond-trees.	4) And so the Three Kings rode into the West, Through the dusk of the night, over hill & dell, & sometimes they nodded with beard on breast, And sometimes talked, as they paused to rest, With the people they met at some wayside well.
5) “Of the child that is born,” said Baltasar, “Good people, I pray you, tell us the news; For we in the East have seen his star, And have ridden fast, and have ridden far, To find and worship the King of the Jews.”	6) And the people answered, “You ask in vain; We know of no King but Herod the Great!” They thought the Wise Men were men insane, As they spurred their horses across the plain, Like riders in haste, who cannot wait.
7) And when they came to Jerusalem, Herod the Great, who had heard this thing, Sent for the Wise Men and questioned them; And said, “Go down unto Bethlehem, And bring me tidings of this new king.”	8) So they rode away; and the star stood still, The only one in the grey of morn; Yes, it stopped—it stood still of its own free will, Right over Bethlehem on the hill, The city of David, where Christ was born.
9) And the Three Kings rode through the gate and the guard, Through the silent street, till their horses turned And neighed as they entered the great inn-yard; But the windows were closed, and the doors were barred, And only a light in the stable burned.	10) And cradled there in the scented hay, In the air made sweet by the breath of kine, The little child in the manger lay, The child, that would be king one day Of a kingdom not human, but divine.
11) His mother Mary of Nazareth Sat watching beside his place of rest, Watching the even flow of his breath, For the joy of life and the terror of death Were mingled together in her breast.	12) They laid their offerings at his feet: The gold was their tribute to a King, The frankincense, with its odor sweet, Was for the Priest, the Paraclete, The myrrh for the body’s burying.
13) And the mother wondered and bowed her head, And sat as still as a statue of stone, Her heart was troubled yet comforted, Remembering what the Angel had said Of an endless reign and of David’s throne.	14) Then the Kings rode out of the city gate, With a clatter of hoofs in proud array; But they went not back to Herod the Great, For they knew his malice and feared his hate, And returned to their homes by another way.

Having bee raised a Christian, and now in my 70s finding out that the grandfather that died when I was 9 was Jewish (His parents arrived in the mid1800s from eastern Europe) I find it intriguing to discover the two different opinions on the subject. Often in Scripture there is a dual meaning, and some references also apply to short term and long-term occurrences, so events are played out in succession but over several years, such as 167 BC when Antiochus Epiphanies desecrated the temple and the future Antichrist who will do the same.

In the case of Isaiah 52-53 you could say both opinions hold true to an extent, as God will bring Israel back into the land & in the Messianic era, she will finally perform her calling as being the light to the nations. However, I totally agree that Isaiah was talking of Yeshua Hamaschiach when he wrote these chapters.
After the torture ordered by Pilate, I think he fully believed that the people would relent and feel that he had suffered enough and not condemn Hm to death, but Pilate was not aware that God’s plan was for Him to become our sacrifice. His death paid for our sins. It could be no other way. His spilled blood covered our sins like the Paschal lamb covered the door posts so the death angel would pass over because our sins were covered and His resurrection would be the promise of our own resurrection, Yeshua being the first fruit and we to follow.
I am doing a self study from Kay Arthur on the book of Isaiah that can be ordered in 2 parts. It is such an awesome book study. I could sit and do this whole thing in hours, but I do 2-3 chapters each morning before I go to work. It is both humbling and encouraging. I’d read through Isaiah before as I have read the Bible and heard many sermons on it. However, this book study is in more depth, and is so interesting and exciting I wonder that I didn’t see more when I read it in the past. Our son taught the book of Jeremiah one year and it was so interesting (our son being a scholar) that you felt as though you were living during that time. It was heart-breaking. I have done the study on Daniel repeatedly. If you want to really understand God’s promise of future redemption you MUST study the old testament prophets...they are not just for the Jews, as so many people are prone to think. we are living Daniel right now. It behooves us to understand what was spoken and ask God for wisdom to know it’s significance for today.
Great article and thank you from a Messianic Jew for explaining the passage. We Americans interpret the Bible from an American viewpoint, totally disregarding the Jewish significance because so many prominent Bible teachers to day believe the church has replaced Israel. Paul made it clear that we do not do such a thing! Pray for discernment and God’s wisdom. Then you will see clearly and be ready for the things to come. By all means pray for the peace of Jerusalem, with the understanding that no peace will come until Yeshua returns, but pray for the Israelis to see Yeshua as their Messiah. Many Moslems , Buddhists, Sihks, and other faiths are beginning to find Yeshua. Pray that the scales will be removed from Jewish eyes.

Thank you for bringing your interesting point of view to this discussion.

My own observation aligns with yours, that many Biblical prophecies (and ante-types and foreshadowings and theme imagery and so forth) have a dual meaning, one relatively contemporaneous, and the other long-term.

Many studies find passages which are even "multivalent" in the sense that the themes appear over and over again, not as identical reiterations but as examples following an observable pattern. As they say, "history does not repeat, but it rhymes."

You can find passages which point, in significant ways, to Eve as "Mother of the Living," "Daughter Zion" as personifying the Faithful of Israel, the Bride of Solomon from the Canticle, the Church as "Lady Ecclesia" or "Holy Mother the Church," and Mary, Mother of the Messiah.

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