Introduction | Song 1, Part 1 | Song 1, Part 2 | Song 2, Part 1 | Song 2, Part 2 | Song 2, Part 3 | Song 3 |
The fourth Servant Song is the one everybody knows about, and I expect it would still be even if Handel hadn’t included so much of it in his oratorio Messiah. We teach verse 6 to all the children in Sunday school, and we hear much of the Song read at Christmas time and at Easter.
This is the longest of the Songs and is very much a climax to all that we have seen in the earlier ones. It is probably the clearest statement of the vicarious atonement in all the Old Testament; of course the Mosaic sacrificial system testifies to that, but it doesn’t speak directly of a final, perfect sacrifice as this passage does.
One peculiarity of this Song is its grammatical instability. There are constant shifts among past, present, and future tenses (Is 52.13-15; 53.2-3, 7, 10) and second and third persons (Is 52.14; 53.10). We can only speculate on the reason for this; it seems to me to indicate an extreme emotional state in the writer, a constant change of perspective perhaps indicating the apparent chaos of what he’s seeing and describing.
I suppose some people think the Song consists of just chapter 53, but it actually begins with the last paragraph of chapter 52, where verse 13 names the Servant directly. The Song consists of 5 sections (it’s too much to call them stanzas) of 3 verses each. The initial paragraph contrasts the Servant’s unimpressive early appearance with that which will eventually be revealed. The first three verses of chapter 53 focus more closely on the Servant’s humble appearance, while verses 4 through 6 speak of our sin, for which he is the substitute sacrifice. Verses 7 through 9 describe the sequence of his suffering, and the final three verses address God’s motivation in planning and directing the event.
Isaiah 52.13-15 is something of an umbrella section, summarizing all that is to follow. The Servant is introduced with honor, as one who “shall deal prudently” and who “shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high” (Is 52.13). So Isaiah begins with the end in mind.
But immediately he turns to the irony of the situation: the Servant appears in such a humble condition that “many were astonished at thee” (Is 52.14) due to the brutality that has been imposed on him; his face and his body are damaged beyond anything previously seen. While this might be hyperbole, it might not be, either.
Yet this graphic disfiguration is not accidental or without purpose; this is the very means by which “he shall sprinkle many nations” (Is 52.15). This phrasing may well puzzle the modern reader, but Isaiah’s hearers would instantly grasp its meaning. The sprinkling of blood was an inherent part of the Mosaic sacrificial system; in an ordinary sacrifice the priest would sprinkle the blood of the sacrificed animal on the sides of the altar (e.g. Le 1.5, 11), and on the annual Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) the high priest would enter the Holy of Holies and sprinkle the blood of a bull and a goat upon the Mercy Seat, the solid gold covering of the Ark of the Covenant (Le 16.14-16). This was Israel’s holiest day, and the sprinkling was that day’s holiest act.
And now the Servant will extend this sprinkling, this cleansing, this forgiveness, far beyond the Temple to extend over “many nations.” This of course echoes statements in the earlier Songs (Is 42.1, 4, 6; 49.1, 6, 12) that the farthest nations of the earth will come under the umbrella of his salvation.
And the result will be that kings will be awed to silence by his presence and his work. Again this repeats an earlier theme (Is 49.7). Their awe will spring from the fact that this One is like no one or nothing they have ever seen before.
The next three sections of this Fourth Song, all of which are more familiar to us, will expand on these ideas. We’ll get to the second section next time.
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