This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Suffering Servant” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, September 2, 1986.
Tonight we begin our study of Isaiah 53, but before looking at Isaiah 53 specifically, we want to read Isaiah 6. So our scripture reading this evening is Isaiah chapter 6, and I read this because it is characteristic of the entirety of the prophecy of Isaiah. And the events described here certainly are determinative for Isaiah’s perspective on life and his ministry. So Isaiah chapter six. In the year of King Uzziah’s death, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of his robe filling the temple.
Seraphim stood above him, each having six wings. With two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called out to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. and the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of Him who called out while the temple was spilling with smoke. Then I said, Woe is me, for I am ruined, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts, Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with palms.
And he touched my mouth with it and said, Behold, this has touched your lips, and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin is forgiven. Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? when I said, here am I, send me.
And he said, go and tell this people, keep on listening, but do not perceive. Keep on looking, but do not understand. Render the hearts of this people insensitive, their ears dull and their eyes dim, lest they see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and repent and be healed. Then I said, Lord, how long?
And he answered, Until cities are devastated and without inhabitants, houses are without people, and the land is utterly desolate, the Lord has removed men far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land, yet there will be a tenth portion in it, and it will again be subject to burning like a tab of keratin or an oak, whose stump remains when it is felled.
The holy seed is its stump.” Our Father, we heartily feel adequate to take up the word of your servant, for we know that he stands on your side and speaks for you. We realize, our Father, that we are those who are addressed and that your word comes to us with threatenings and rebuke, with correction and chastisement. At the same time, we delight in that word, for heard through all of these things, is also that note of mercy and grace and gospel triumph, whereby we are reconciled to the Holy God through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, your Son. Lord, encourage us as we, your people, have gathered. We gather, Lord, not to turn a deaf ear to your quickenings and chastisements, But yes, Lord, we come as well to hear that message of refreshment, that message of grace found only in you. Hear us therefore, our Father, as we make our prayer to you. For Jesus’ sake, Amen.
We have been taking up familiar passages. And the first passage that we spent a great deal of time on was 1 Corinthians 13. The second, just included, was John 3. Now we want to take a look at Isaiah, chapter 53. And we want to look at it in some detail.
In setting the tone for this study, We want to say something about the time of Isaiah, also the man, and something about the comprehensiveness of his message recorded here in the sixty-six chapters of this book. First of all, then, the times of Isaiah. that Isaiah began his official ministry in the year in which King Uzziah died. That’s spoken to you at the beginning of this sixth chapter. The year, as we calculated, was 742 B.C. 742 B.C. Although Isaiah was of work in his ministry then, in those immediately subsequent years, the years of the reign of Joseph, 742 to 735, his early ministry was eventful, concentrated in the reign of the following king. the infamous Ahaz, who reigned from 735 to 715.
These kings reigning in Jerusalem over the southern kingdom of Judah. Ahaz, as you know, was a particularly wicked king. His wickedness was emphasized in many ways. not the least of which was as he turned to the empire of Assyria and sought from that empire help against an alliance that had been organized against him. That alliance was made up of the kingdoms of Syria. and the Israelis, or the kingdom of Israel, to the north. Razan was king in Syria, the capital of Syria being Damascus, and Pekah was king in Israel, his capital city was Samaria.
What about Assyria, the empire to which Ahaz turned? What do we know about Assyria? There was no empire more treacherous. The Assyrians proved power-hungry, driven by a bloodlust. The Assyrians at the request of Ahaz, did attack Damascus. They destroyed it in 732 B.C. And next, they set their sights upon Samaria. And yes, they destroyed Samaria and the northern kingdom in 721. But as a result of the aid offered by Assyria to Judah, the Assyrians gained the upper hand even with Judah. And now, as Ahaz’s reign comes to an end, the Assyrians are extracting a heavy price for their support. kingdom, Judah, Jerusalem, the inhabitants thereof, are reduced to the state of a vassal kingdom beneath the Assyrian war machine. Now comes, after Ahaz, Hezekiah.
And an amazing reigning from 715 B.C. to 687. He now, King of Judah, reigning in Jerusalem, and under him those who live in Judah initiate a number of revolts against the Assyrians. There are various appeals. There is an appeal to the Egyptians And in the end, there is an appeal to the Babylonians for help.
Still, Hezekiah, son of this wicked king Ahaz, is a glorious king, a king in whom we see the very patterns of the coming Messiah, the true son of David. He is a king. He is a king who learns obedience through the things which he suffers, who, through these ordeals of sufferings and maturing, presents to us a figure in whom we find some of the greatest of the Bible’s stories. of the book of Isaiah. Then, there stands these things and these events, culminating, it would seem, in a siege brought against Jerusalem and Hezekiah in 701 B.C. A siege by the Assyrian horde, as they are alleged by their leader, a combination of themes, namely God’s judgment upon His people in the North and to the South, His miraculous deliverance of Judah, together with the story about the sufferings and the humiliation of the king who sits upon the throne of David. These themes provide background for the overtures of Isaiah 5. Well, so much for the historical circumstances. What about Isaiah the man? What can we say about him?
In giving a fix on Isaiah, it is interesting to contrast him with his contemporary, Micah. Micah appears to have hailed from the rural communities west of Jerusalem, a man of the country who sees the power in the cities corrupt as it is, especially the power of Jerusalem as that power reaches out into the countryside and wreaks havoc amongst the simple believers. Micah displays in his prophecies an intimate acquaintance with life in the countryside. While, on the other hand, Isaiah seems to be the city boy. well conversant in urban life. It is thought, therefore, that Isaiah was a resident in Jerusalem.
It seems, from what we find in his prophecy, that he was a Levite, or a priest who served in the temple. Note, Isaiah says. He was a man, also, if we were to go on and read chapter seven, who seems to have had ready access to the court of the king. This proved by his confrontation with Ahaz in that seventh chapter.
Some have thought that his ready access to the king was a result of his office, others because of his high social standard. there is even a Jewish tradition that claims that Isaiah even had royal ties. He was thought by some Jews to be the cousin of Uzziah, or so the story goes, since his father Amoz and Amaziah, Uzziah’s father, were brothers. But again, this is merely Jewish tradition.
But what of Isaiah’s religious character and disposition? Isaiah seems to be extraordinary among the prophets. His life is imprinted by the event of his call, which we have read. He is absolutely captivated by the transcendent holiness and glory of God, which breaks forth in the description of the events there in Isaiah 6. So total is Isaiah’s submission to the vision of divine glory. that he seems to be taken up in a sublime union with the Lord. From this standpoint, Isaiah seems to be an appropriate vehicle for revealing the character and the ministry of the coming Savior. My wife tells me it’s psychological. It is true that in Isaiah we have given to us a remarkable picture of the coming Savior. and not just simply through the things that Isaiah says.
Equally, through the medium of the prophet himself, so that we are able to perceive in the prophet the pattern of the coming Lord. But what of the actual content of his prophecy? We have spoken about the historical circumstances, we have spoken about the man. Now, what of the content of his prophecy?
The book of Isaiah could be divided in various ways. I have divided it into five sections. provided this way by any authority. It’s a convenient way, in my estimation, to divide the book, and I present it to you this evening. First, chapters 1 through 12. In these chapters, God presents his case against And we hear that right off in the first chapter.
But these chapters also speak about the prospects of God’s glorious kingdom, and how, even in the midst of Judah’s indifference, Judah’s rejection, and Judah’s sin, the prophet and his disciples will become a picture of a salvaged woman. True, God’s case against Judah, against his people, is unmistakable. True, Judah’s sin is compounded because she refuses to hear the message of the first out of indifference, and then in open rejection. Yet, nevertheless, as the message of these opening chapters of Isaiah progresses, we hear of unmistakable hope and promise. We hear about the victory of God’s glorious kingdom. These people, rebellious as they are, cannot withstand. In the midst of this rebellion and rejection, this sin and judgment, the prophet himself stands for and those whom the Lord has given him. I and my brothers, he says in chapter eight.
The prophet and his own the Prophet and those who are his disciples then become a picture of a salvaged remnant, and the theme of the remnant becomes one of the dominant themes throughout the book. But there’s more. There is more to this image of the remnant than just its existence. So the question is, how is the remnant sustained in the midst of all around that remnant that depresses and distresses it? That is why, you see, we have this central chapter, Isaiah 6, placed as it is for us in the opening section of Isaiah.
We see that vision of glory given the prophet becomes the means by which the prophet himself and those who stand with him are sustained. They see the glory of the Lord. They see the King, the true King, high and lifted up, and it is by the root of this vision that then the remnant endures. It is similar, is it not? As we come to the New Testament. For how will the disciples of the true prophet of God, the last and final prophet of God, be sustained? It will be through the vision of glory. The vision of glory. The prophet and the king superimposed upon one another. They being one, prophet and king together. The vision, then, of the risen Christ being that which sustains. in the midst of the world, and all the destructive that people have done.”
The prophecy continues, chapters 13-27. Here Isaiah, in chapters 13-23, God’s case against the various nations that have set themselves against him, and he includes in this list, once more, Judah herself, and specifically Jerusalem. God’s judgment is inevitable. But then there follows chapters 24 through 27, rounding out this section. being called, in these chapters, Isaiah’s little apocalypse in which we are treated to a vision of God’s triumph over the enemies of his people. Summarily, in conclusion, the greatest enemy, death itself. God we are told will prepare for his people a lavish banquet upon Mount Zion and there he shall bring all of his own from all of the nations of the world and they shall feast before him and he then will remove from them the terror of death and he shall wipe from their eyes every tear Next comes chapters 28 through 35, and here we have a litany of woes pronounced by the prophet, six out of twelve. Pronounced, yes, against God’s people, principally, but also against the present threat, a sin.
The theme is falseness, and falseness obvious in the hearings, but also a falseness that is apparent in Judah herself, a faithlessness to the Lord. Once more, this session ends with a little apocalypse, chapters 34 and 35, in which the struggle of God’s people against the world is portrayed for us in the struggle between Zion and Edom, you remember, Edom, the descendants of Esau, and here in view then is that ancient struggle between Jacob and Esau, and once more we have here laid before us the truth of the fact that God loves Jacob, but Esau he has hated. The struggle then between Zion and Edom becomes the pattern for universal conflict between the forces of God and the forces of Edom. And in the end, Zion gaining the victory and Edom destroyed. The fourth section. Chapters 36 through 39. the fulcrum of Isaiah. Read these chapters.
Here we have an historical interview descriptive of Sennacherib’s siege of Jerusalem and God’s miraculous intervention. But we also have here the description of a greater consequence, a greater struggle. For it is in these chapters that we have described for us Hezekiah’s bout with sickness and the shadow of death that comes over him. We are here treated to a description of Hezekiah’s plea to God that he might be spared. and God’s gracious answer to them. He spared from the ultimate enemy, death itself. On then to the final section, 42-66. As we said, Isaiah 36-39 is the fulcrum of the prophecy, a historical interview, and foundational for the rest of the chapters of this prophecy. The development in these chapters is like this.
Israel and Judah have been severely judged by God. Israel has been destroyed, and now Judah will follow suit. However, there is an and intervening of the grace of God, who keeps covenant, who keeps his promise. His promises do not fail. There have been, of course, various salvations tried by the kings of Judah. A has tried Assyria, as we call, Hezekiah himself has tried various salvations, but given even Hezekiah’s good character at heart, a good king is not enough, for here even the weaknesses of Hezekiah are stoned, as those historical chapters come to a close, we notice in them there is an exposure of Hezekiah’s weakness.
He yields to vanity, he exposes the glory of God’s own kingdom and throne, the glory of God’s temple house in Jerusalem to the furious Babylonians, the eventual invading enemies themselves. But if the invading enemies have not been enough, there remains the most awesome foe of all, death. And who, what, can deliver from death?
Considered by themselves, you might suggest that we turn to the Prophet. We turn to the Prophet and his little band, those that we’ve mentioned earlier. the picture of the remnant. Maybe they can deliver, but not even the Prophet and his band of disciples can deliver. And if the circle of the Prophet cannot save the way being Israel’s best, much less can anyone else be found to save. But while there is this descent into the pit of despair, there is also the corresponding ascent of the glorious picture of glory, glorious picture of deliverance and salvation. Although we have progressed from Ahaz to Hezekiah, we realize that there is no help or hope to be found in them. There is no hope to be found in the Prophet as he stands by himself or with his company with him. None of this will save. So it is, you see, that when we come to Isaiah 40-66, there is no one left to turn to but God Himself.
The cry of Israel must be for the Lord! I know it. crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord. God himself. No one else will do. And this is so because when I was second-born, going back to Isaiah, Is Uzziah really the King? Is Joseph, is Ahab, is Hezekiah? No. The Lord is King.
The Lord is King. With this assertion, you see, The prophetic tradition. The word of the prophet reaches its end point. It is this which is brought to light in the siege of Jerusalem. God alone is king. He alone can save. His power is checked not by any threat, physical or spiritual. And such power belongs to God, that there is nowhere in all creation where it can be resisted. And there is no God, no idol that is His match. His power is executed by His sword, the Word. By whose decree? Who can say his hand? His word shall accomplish his purpose and not return to him void. The extent of his word’s power shall not be restricted to Israel, but mediated by his servant.
It shall touch the ends of the world, and it shall be the means of restoration and transformation of all that is, the full cosmos. everything that has been made, the new heavens, the new earth, the finance of the vision of our day. And at the center of this restoration and reclamation by God the King, we see that one who is the servant of the Lord, that one who bears his word. That one who descends into the pit, the pit of our greatest foe, no, not an Assyrian, not a Babylonian, but death itself. And that one who descends will emerge victorious, and by that means he will become the root of our vindication, our justification. the substance of our righteousness.
Isaiah 53. That description of the suffering servant of God. In that chapter, we shall plumb the depths of the heart of God, revealed in a king long ago, revealed in a prophet equally long ago, but fulfilled in the true king and the last prophet, the Lord Jesus Christ. How could we ever summarize your message through Isaiah, your servant, our God? How can we ever think that we have comprehended it in all of its vastness and scope? but before us now in this latter day there stands one the Lord Jesus Christ and we know that even though there may be many things that we fail to comprehend or even consider in Jesus Christ we have a content, a message of the prophet Isaiah. And yes, we have in him the meaning of that prophet as well. For his ministry was to the end, that Jesus Christ might be held for it. Lord, we pray that as we look into this prophecy, we would see our Savior and love him all the
The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.