The sufferings of Jesus.
It is the great object of Isaiah, in this chapter, to declare to his countrymen
I. THE MESSIAH A SUFFERING MESSIAH. Hitherto Isaiah had looked upon the promised Redeemer on the side of his glories and his triumphs. His names were to be "Immanuel," or "God with us" (Isaiah 7:14), "Wonderful," "Counsellor," "The Mighty God," "The Everlasting Father," "The Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9:6). "Of the increase of his government and peace there was to be no end, upon the throne of David, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever" (Isaiah 9:7). "The Spirit of the Lord was to be upon him … and with righteousness was he to judge the poor, and to reprove with equity for the meek of the earth, and to smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips to slay the wicked" (Isaiah 11:2-4). He was to "bring forth judgment to the Gentiles" (Isaiah 42:1); he was not to "fail nor be discouraged" (Isaiah 42:4); he was to be "upheld ever by God's hand" (Isaiah 42:6); "the isles were to wait for his Law" (Isaiah 42:4). But now the prophet has to speak in another strain. Psalms probably written before his time (as Psalms 2:1-12; Psalms 22:1-31; Psalms 31:1-24; Psalms 40:1-17; Psalms 49:1-20; etc.) had partially drawn aside the veil, and given indications that the career of the Deliverer would not be all glory or all triumph. But it was difficult to determine how far they were historical, how far prophetic. It was a part of Isaiah's mission to reveal, in language that could scarcely be mistaken, the darker aspect of Messiah's coming, the "contradiction of sinners" which he would encounter, and its consequences. Messiah was to be "despised," "forsaken" (verse 8), "pierced," "crushed," made sore with "stripes" (verse 5), "oppressed" (verse 7), "cut off" before his time, "stricken" (verse 8), "dealt with grievously" (verse 10). He was to be condemned by an iniquitous "judgment" (verse 8), to be "brought as a lamb to the slaughter" (verse 7), to be "assigned his grave with the wicked" (verse 9), and "reckoned with transgressors" (verse 12). His earthly life was to be such as would be best summed up in the brief phrase, "A Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief" (verse 3).
II. THE SUFFERINGS OF MESSIAH VICARIOUS. Men make a difficulty about vicarious suffering; but half the suffering in the world is of this nature. Who that watches by a sick-bed, and supports and props the sufferer, and stays unmoved in a cramped position not to disturb the sick one's snatch of slumber, but suffers to assuage or remove another's pain? Who that, hungry himself, passes on to another the food that he might eat himself, but does the same? What mother but bears a thousand discomforts to shield her child from them? What soldier but tries to take himself the blow which he sees must otherwise prostrate his chief? How are the young, who rush into ruinous extravagance which would cripple them for life, saved but by a father or a guardian taking on him the grievous trouble of paying the debts incurred? What do not refined ladies undergo to rescue and recover those among their sisters who have fallen? Men's and women's kindness of heart is continually leading them to undergo vicarious suffering; nor is there often any other way by which the sufferings of our fellow-creatures can be removed. If I take the load that is galling another's back and put it on my own, I do it with the full knowledge that my back will soon ache. If I transfer my wraps to a sick fellow-traveller on a wintry day, I am quite aware that the cold will clutch me instead of him. The vicarious character of Messiah's sufferings is the direct subject of seven distinct assertions:
It is indirectly implied in four others:
III. THE SUFFERINGS OF MESSIAH PROPITIATORY. The idea of propitiation is implied in the three passages where Messiah is said to have borne the sins of men. No otherwise can one man bear the sin of another than by doing something which propitiates him whom the sin has offended. But it is further distinctly asserted in verse 10, when it is said that the soul of the Servant should be "made an offering for sin." As the whole notion of offering for sin was grounded on the idea of expiation, so it was now made plain that the real expiation, the real atonement, the real propitiation, to which the entire ritual system of the Israelitish nation pointed, was the offering up of that "righteous Servant" of the Lord, who, "having done no wrong," having been guilty of no "guile," nevertheless was made sin for man, and became a willing and meritorious Sacrifice. "It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin" (Hosea 10:4). It is impossible for sinful man to redeem his fellow-man (Psalms 49:7, Psalms 49:8). Only One who was without sin, "holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners" (Hosea 7:1-16:26), could make atonement for others' sins; only One who was perfectly pure himself could purify them; only One who needed none to intercede for him could intercede for his brethren. It is strange how men dislike, and kick against, and endeavour to explain away, the doctrine of vicarious suffering and substitution, and of atonement made for man by the blood of Christ. Yet why should this be? "The doctrine," as Mr. Urwick says, "is in perfect keeping with all that the Jewish ceremonial embodied, and with the teaching alike of the Redeemer himself (Matthew 20:28; John 10:11; Luke 22:20) and his apostles, St. Paul (Romans 3:24-26), St. Peter (1 Peter 2:24, 1 Peter 2:25), and St. John (1 John 2:2). It satisfies the Divine holiness, and the demands of the sinner's own conscience. It fully recognizes the reality of sin and its exceeding sinfulness, whereas all other attempted explanations tend to make light of sin, or at least to represent it more or less as a matter of human weakness, which a good-natured God will readily pass over and forgive without a ransom. It presents the way of salvation as simple and straightforward; all can understand it; whereas other attempted explanations of the efficacy of Christ's redemptive work are cloudy, indefinite, mystified, abstruse, and difficult of apprehension even by the learned".