The Lamb of God 9 min read Lesson 6 of 12

Isaiah’s servant, who bore what we did and did not open his mouth, the law’s own word for his death, and the question an Ethiopian asked in a chariot

Led Like a Lamb

Seven centuries before the Jordan, a prophet described someone despised and rejected, struck for other people’s wrongs, silent under it like a sheep at the shearer, buried with the wicked, and then alive and satisfied, with many made righteous by what he bore. Who he was is the oldest argument between the synagogue and the church. The chapter itself asks the question first: who has believed our message?

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Lesson 6 of 12 · The servant

Isaiah 53 is the chapter the Ethiopian was reading when Philip climbed into his chariot, and the question he asked is the honest one: is the prophet talking about himself, or about someone else? The song describes a servant of Yahweh who is despised, who carries sickness and sorrow that are not his own, who is pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities, who goes to his death silent, like a lamb led to the slaughter, and whose life is made a guilt offering, the law’s own name for a sacrifice. Then it says he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and that by what he bore my righteous servant will justify many. Jewish readers since the Middle Ages have read the servant as Israel suffering among the nations, and Isaiah does call Israel the servant two chapters earlier; older Jewish readers and every Christian reader have read him as one person, and the New Testament quotes the chapter of Jesus more than any other passage of the prophets. This series reads it as they did, and says so. What it asks first is not who the servant is but who the we are: the speakers who thought him struck by God and learned that the striking was for them.

The we of the chapter

The song is sung by a group who have changed their minds, and the change is the chapter’s whole movement.

Surely he has borne our sickness and carried our suffering; yet we considered him plagued, struck by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought our peace was on him; and by his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. Everyone has turned to his own way; and Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all. — Isaiah 53:4–6 · WEB

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Surely he has borne our sickness and carried our suffering; yet we considered him plagued, struck by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought our peace was on him; and by his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; everyone has turned to his own way; and Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all. The pronouns do the work. We thought he was being punished for himself; he was being punished for us. We are the sheep, straying; he is the lamb, led. The exchange in verse 6 is stated as flatly as a ledger: our iniquity, laid on him. Nothing in the chapter says the servant deserved any of it; the next verses say the opposite, that he had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth.

Like a lamb

He was oppressed, yet when he was afflicted he didn’t open his mouth. As a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he didn’t open his mouth. — Isaiah 53:7 · WEB

Read the comment on He Poured Out His Soul to Death

He was oppressed, yet when he was afflicted he didn’t open his mouth; as a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he didn’t open his mouth. The lamb of the second and third lessons was chosen and led; it did not consent, because it could not. This lamb is silent by choice. Mark records that Pilate marveled at the prisoner who answered nothing, and the fourth series noted the silence before the high priest that ended with one word. Isaiah had described the silence, and its reason, in the same breath as the slaughter.

אָשָׁם ʼâshâm H817

from אָשַׁם; guilt; by implication, a fault; also a sin-offering; guiltiness, (offering for) sin, trespass (offering).

Guilt; a fault; and the offering that answers it — the guilt offering of Leviticus 5 to 7, brought for a wrong that had a measurable cost, with restitution added. Isaiah 53:10 says that Yahweh makes the servant’s soul an asham, this word: his life is a guilt offering. It is the only place in the Old Testament where a person is called by the name of a sacrifice. The prophet is not reaching for a metaphor; he is using the law’s own category, the offering for a debt that must be paid back, and saying that the servant is it.

My righteous servant will justify many

The song does not end at the grave, and the sentence after it is where this series turns toward its last four lessons.

Yet it pleased Yahweh to bruise him. He has caused him to suffer. When you make his soul an offering for sin, he will see his offspring. He will prolong his days and Yahweh’s pleasure will prosper in his hand. After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light and be satisfied. My righteous servant will justify many by the knowledge of himself; and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give him a portion with the great. He will divide the plunder with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was counted with the transgressors; yet he bore the sins of many and made intercession for the transgressors. — Isaiah 53:10–12 · WEB

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When you make his soul an offering for sin, he will see his offspring; he will prolong his days. My righteous servant will justify many by the knowledge of himself, and he will bear their iniquities. He poured out his soul to death and was counted with the transgressors, yet he bore the sins of many and made intercession for the transgressors. Justify is the verb of the word tsedaqah, righteousness: to make or declare righteous, the verb of a court. The servant justifies many, and the sentence says how, not by teaching them and not by their imitating him, but by bearing their iniquities. Righteousness for the many comes from what the one carried. That is the sentence Paul will unpack in Romans, and the ninth lesson begins from it.

Who is the servant?

The question should be put plainly, because a reader will meet both answers.

Isaiah names the servant in chapter 49: you are my servant, Israel (Isaiah 49:3), and in the same passage gives the servant a mission to Israel, which is hard if the servant simply is Israel. The oldest Jewish paraphrase of chapter 53, the Targum, read the servant as the Messiah; from the eleventh century the great Jewish commentators read him as Israel, suffering among the nations for the nations’ sins, and that is the reading of the synagogue today. Christian readers from the first generation read him as Jesus: Philip in the chariot, Matthew over the healings, Peter over the cross, Jesus himself at the last supper. The debate is old, serious and unresolved between the two communities, and this series holds the Christian reading while telling the reader that the other exists and is held by people who know the Hebrew better than most Christians do.

“Now the passage of the Scripture which he was reading was this, “He was led as a sheep to the slaughter. As a lamb before his shearer is silent, so he doesn’t open his mouth. In his humiliation, his judgment was taken away. Who will declare His generation? For his life is taken from the earth.” The eunuch answered Philip, “Who is the prophet talking about? About himself, or about someone else?” Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture, preached to him about Jesus.” Acts 8:32–35 · WEB
He was led as a sheep to the slaughter. The eunuch answered Philip, who is the prophet talking about? About himself, or about someone else? Philip, beginning from this Scripture, preached to him about Jesus: the question, and the church’s first answer.
“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness. You were healed by his wounds. For you were going astray like sheep; but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.” 1 Peter 2:24–25 · WEB
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree; you were healed by his wounds; for you were going astray like sheep: Peter rewrites verses 5 and 6 with the tree in them.
“that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through Isaiah the prophet, saying, “He took our infirmities and bore our diseases.”” Matthew 8:17 · WEB
He took our infirmities and bore our diseases: Matthew reads verse 4 of the healings in Capernaum, before any cross.
“For I tell you that this which is written must still be fulfilled in me: ‘He was counted with transgressors.’ For that which concerns me is being fulfilled.”” Luke 22:37 · WEB
This which is written must still be fulfilled in me, he was counted with transgressors: Jesus, on the last night, quoting verse 12 of himself.

The last line is the one that settles it for Christian readers: the servant song was applied to Jesus by Jesus, at the table, before anyone else could have thought to.

What the song asks

It asks the reader to join the we. The chapter is written in the first person plural, by people who watched a man suffer, drew the obvious conclusion that he had it coming, and were wrong; and the whole of it turns on the moment they saw that the wounds were theirs. Isaiah does not argue that the servant is innocent or that the many are guilty. He has the many say it. A reader who can say "we considered him struck by God, but he was pierced for our transgressions" has read the chapter; a reader who cannot has only read about it.