INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 53 This chapter treats of the mean appearance of Christ in human nature, his sufferings in it, and the glory that should follow. It begins with a complaint of the small number of those that believed the report concerning him, the power of God not being exerted, Isaiah 53:1, t... [ Continue Reading ]
WHO HATH BELIEVED OUR REPORT?.... Or "hearing" a. Not what we hear, but others hear from us; the doctrine of the Gospel, which is a report of the love, grace, and mercy of God in Christ; of Christ himself, his person, offices, obedience, sufferings, and death, and of free and full salvation by him:... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR HE SHALL GROW UP BEFORE HIM AS A TENDER PLANT,.... Which springs out of the earth without notice; low in its beginning, slow in its growth, liable to be crushed with the foot, or destroyed with the frost, and no great probability of its coming to any perfection; or rather as a little "sucker", a... [ Continue Reading ]
HE IS DESPISED, AND REJECTED OF MEN,.... Or, "ceaseth from men" f; was not admitted into the company and conversation of men, especially of figure; or ceased from the class of men, in the opinion of others; he was not reckoned among men, was accounted a worm, and no man; or, if a man, yet not in his... [ Continue Reading ]
SURELY HE HATH BORNE OUR GRIEFS, AND CARRIED OUR SORROWS,.... Or "nevertheless", as Gussetius k; notwithstanding the above usage of him; though it is a certain and undoubted truth, that Christ not only assumed a true human nature, capable of sorrow and grief, but he took all the natural sinless infi... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT HE WAS WOUNDED FOR OUR TRANSGRESSIONS,.... Not for any sins of his own, but for ours, for our rebellions against God, and transgressions of his law, in order to make atonement and satisfaction for them; these were the procuring and meritorious causes of his sufferings and death, as they were tak... [ Continue Reading ]
ALL WE LIKE SHEEP HAVE GONE ASTRAY,.... Here the prophet represents all the elect of God, whether Jews or Gentiles; whom he compares to "sheep", not for their good qualities, but for their foolishness and stupidity; and particularly for their being subject to go astray from the shepherd, and the fol... [ Continue Reading ]
HE WAS OPPRESSED, AND HE WAS AFFLICTED,.... He was injuriously treated by the Jews; they used him very ill, and handled him very roughly; he was oppressed and afflicted, both in body and mind, with their blows, and with their reproaches; he was afflicted, indeed, both by God and men: or rather it ma... [ Continue Reading ]
HE WAS TAKEN FROM PRISON, AND FROM JUDGMENT,.... After he had suffered and died, and made satisfaction to divine justice; or after he had been arrested by the justice of God, and was laid in prison, and under a sentence of condemnation, had judgment passed upon him, and that executed too; he was tak... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HE MADE HIS GRAVE WITH THE WICKED, AND WITH THE RICH IN HIS DEATH,.... These words are generally supposed to refer to a fact that was afterwards done; that Christ, who died with wicked men, as if he himself had been one, was buried in a rich man's grave. Could the words admit of the following tr... [ Continue Reading ]
YET IT PLEASED THE LORD TO BRUISE HIM,.... The sufferings of Christ are signified by his being "bruised"; Isaiah 53:5, and as it was foretold he should have his heel bruised by the serpent, Genesis 3:15, but here it is ascribed to the Lord: he was bruised in body, when buffeted and scourged, and nai... [ Continue Reading ]
HE SHALL SEE OF THE TRAVAIL OF HIS SOUL, AND SHALL BE SATISFIED,.... "The travail of his soul" is the toil and labour he endured, in working out the salvation of his people; his obedience and death, his sorrows and sufferings; particularly those birth throes of his soul, under a sense of divine wrat... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE WILL I DIVIDE HIM A PORTION WITH THE GREAT,.... The great ones of the earth, the kings and princes of the earth: these are the words of God the Father, promising Christ that he shall have as great a part or portion assigned him as any of the mighty monarchs of the world, nay, one much more... [ Continue Reading ]