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May 1929
T h e
K i n g ' s
B u s i n e s s
“For Me B y R ev . R oy A llison Tenghsien, Shantung, China
tp gjggg^HE fifty-third chapter of Isaiah is one of the best known of all the prophecies of the Old Testa- ment. Luther said that every Christian ought to be able to repeat it by heart. Another devout ¡K ir German scholar said that “ it looks as if it had *- ^ been written beneath the cross.” In it are ten prophecies that were fulfilled the day of the crucifixion, and eleven references to Christ bearing our sins. Mr. David Baron says: “This glorious prophecy of the sufferings of the Messiah and the glory which should fol low has been used of God more than any Scripture in opening the eyes of the Jews to recognize in Jesus Israel’s Redeemer-King,” and then he adds : “Is this the reason why this chapter is omitted from the public reading in the synagogue?” J ew ish I nterpretation From olden time among the Jews there have been various ideas of its meaning. We recall the question of the Ethiopian treasurer to Philip, “O f whom speaketh the prophet this? o f himself or o f some other?” And how Philip showed him that this referred to Christ, and led the man step by step until he confessed his faith in Christ (Acts 8:26-40). In the eleventh century a Jew by the name of Rashi said that the “servant” mentioned referred to the Jewish nation. Before his time the majority of the Jewish writers claimed that the “servant” referred to their Messiah. Since Rashi’s time the Jews have generally considered that the “servant” referred to the Jewish nation, and during the last one hundred years a number of Protestant writers have followed this interpretation. If a person is inclined to that view there is one thing that needs to be pointed out: Does the description of Israel in Isaiah correspond to the description of the “ser vant” in Isaiah ? For example, turn to Isaiah 1 :4 : “Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evil doers, children that deal corruptly : they have forsaken Jehovah, they have despised the Holy One o f Israel, they are estranged and gone backward.” Verse 6: “From the sole of the foot unto the head there is no soundness in it.” Verse 9: “Except Jehovah of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom.” But when we turn to the prophecies concerning the “servant” we find Him described as an absolutely inno cent sufferer, voluntary, unresisting; and His suffering ends in death; and His death is for the sins of the people. None of these things are found in the Jewish nation, for in all their history there is no record of their being either a voluntary or unresisting sufferer, nor is their suffering for the sins of the nations. What we do find again and again is their suffering for their own sins. For example, Isaiah 42 :24: “Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the rob bers? did not Jehovah? he against whom we have sinned and in whose ways they would not walk, neither were they obedient unto his law.” If it is claimed that the “servant” refers to the spirit ual remnant, then we should investigate how they spoke of
themselves. We find these words: “We are all become as one that is unclean, and all our righteousnesses are as a polluted garment : and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away” (64:6). In verse eleven is the phrase, “my righteous servant,” and the word “righteous” in the Hebrew language is placed before the noun rather than after it as is the cus tom, in order, to emphasize the word “righteous” to show that the righteousness of this servant was of a preeminent kind. In Isa. 52:13, the verse which begins this prophecy, are the words, “Behold, my servant shall deal wisely, he shall be exalted, and lifted up, and be very high,” words which find no fulfillment in the nation but which taken as a reference to Christ do find their fulfillment in His resur rection, ascension, and sitting at the right hand of God. To make these words refer to the Jewish nation, the prophecy must be paraphrased, words changed from their meaning in everyday life and given a hollow and fictitious meaning. T h e M an of S orrows Turning now to the real meaning, we find crowded into fifteen verses, that is, Isaiah 52 :13 to 53 :12, a very brief prophecy of the earlier life of Jesus from His youth to His grave. Here is a description of His appearance, sorrows, burdens, death, and sacrifice for the sins of the world. Doubtless many thousands of Jews asked the question, “When the Messiah comes, what will He look like? Will he be like David the King, who was ‘ruddy, and o f a fair countenance’? Would He have a striking appearance so that He would be recognized everywhere as an unusual personage?” What does this prophecy say? “His visage was so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons o f men.” We are accustomed to think of Jesus as a person of exceeding beauty. This idea has prevailed since the time of Constantine. Previous to that time, the idea was that Jesus was homely in appearance. And so we read, “He hath no form nor comeliness, and when we see Him there is no beauty that we should desire Him.” In those early years which Jesus spent at Nazareth, there seemed to be nothing about Him to attract attention. “He was like a root out of dry ground,” not like the stately cedar, but lowly and unattractive. People passed Him by. He lived quietly as a carpenter. Later He said of Himself, “I am meek and lowly.” What people longed for was a mighty magnificent king, not for one who came to make His soul an offering for sin. Do we not need to heed this lesson that is here for us? When people pass us by thoughtlessly and uninten tionally, let us not allow such an act to mar our happiness, but let us rejoice in the fact that we are in the place where our Father wants us to be and if we please Him, little else matters. In this prophecy we find a downward plunge. The path that He trod became increasingly hard until it ended in His crucifixion. Notice the next statement, “He was de-
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