Isaiah 53

Today as we begin our celebration of Holy Week, we meditate on Isaiah 53 and its prophetic message about our Savior from sin. We’ll come back to this text in our Good Friday Devotion. (Look for new devotions this week on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.)

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Who has believed our report,
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

He grew up before him like a tender shoot
and like a root from dry ground.
He had no attractiveness and no majesty.
When we saw him, nothing about his appearance made us desire him.
He was despised and rejected by men,
a man who knew grief,
who was well acquainted with suffering.
Like someone whom people cannot bear to look at,
he was despised,
and we thought nothing of him.

Surely he was taking up our weaknesses,
and he was carrying our sufferings.
We thought it was because of God
that he was stricken, smitten, and afflicted,
but it was because of our rebellion that he was pierced.
He was crushed for the guilt our sins deserved.
The punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
We all have gone astray like sheep.
Each of us has turned to his own way,
but the Lord has charged all our guilt to him.

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth.
Like a lamb he was led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that is silent in front of its shearers,
he did not open his mouth.
He was taken away without a fair trial and without justice,
and of his generation, who even cared?
So, he was cut off from the land of the living.
He was struck because of the rebellion of my people.
They would have assigned him a grave with the wicked,
but he was given a grave with the rich in his death,
because he had done no violence,
and no deceit was in his mouth.

Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him
and to allow him to suffer.
Because you made his life a guilt offering, he will see offspring.

He will prolong his days,
and the Lord’s gracious plan will succeed in his hand.
After his soul experiences anguish, he will see the light of life.
He will provide satisfaction.
Through their knowledge of him, my just servant will justify the many,
for he himself carried their guilt.
Therefore I will give him an allotment among the great,
and with the strong he will share plunder,
because he poured out his life to death,
and he let himself be counted with rebellious sinners.
He himself carried the sin of many,
and he intercedes for the rebels.

(EHV)