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.
Parallel Translations
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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.
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Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
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Therefore will I divide him a portion among the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the mighty; because he bared his soul unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Cross-references (33)
Passages linked to Isaiah 53:12 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Luke 22:37 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 has an end.”
- Hebrews 9:28 so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, without sin, to those who are eagerly waiting for him for salvation.
- Mark 15:27 With him they crucified two robbers; one on his right hand, and one on his left.
- Luke 23:32-34 There were also others, two criminals, led with him to be put to death. When they came to the place that is called “The Skull”, they crucified him there with the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left. Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” Dividing his garments among them, they cast lots.
- Colossians 1:13-14 who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the Kingdom of the Son of his love, in whom we have our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins.
- 1 John 2:12 I write to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name’s sake.
- Isaiah 53:6 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.
- Romans 8:34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, yes rather, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.
- 1 Timothy 2:5-6 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, the testimony in its own times,
- Hebrews 9:26 or else he must have suffered often since the foundation of the world. But now once at the end of the ages, he has been revealed to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
- Titus 2:14 who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good works.
- Hebrews 2:14-15 Since then the children have shared in flesh and blood, he also himself in the same way partook of the same, that through death he might bring to nothing him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might deliver all of them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
- Hebrews 12:2 looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
- 1 John 2:1 My little children, I write these things to you so that you may not sin. If anyone sins, we have a Counselor with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous.
- Psalms 2:8 Ask of me, and I will give the nations for your inheritance, the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession.
- Psalms 22:14 I am poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. It is melted within me.
- Isaiah 52:13 Behold, my servant will deal wisely. He will be exalted and lifted up, and will be very high.
- Isaiah 53:8 He was taken away by oppression and judgment. As for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living and stricken for the disobedience of my people?
- Isaiah 53:10-11 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.
- Colossians 2:15 Having stripped the principalities and the powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.
- Hebrews 9:24 For Christ hasn’t entered into holy places made with hands, which are representations of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us;
- Isaiah 52:15 so he will cleanse many nations. Kings will shut their mouths at him; for they will see that which had not been told them, and they will understand that which they had not heard.
- Daniel 2:45 Because you saw that a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God has made known to the king what will happen hereafter. The dream is certain, and its interpretation sure.”
- Matthew 26:38-39 Then he said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here, and watch with me.” He went forward a little, fell on his face, and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass away from me; nevertheless, not what I desire, but what you desire.”
- Matthew 26:42 Again, a second time he went away, and prayed, saying, “My Father, if this cup can’t pass away from me unless I drink it, your desire be done.”
- Luke 23:25 He released him who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, for whom they asked, but he delivered Jesus up to their will.
- Acts 26:18 to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’
- Philippians 2:8-11 And being found in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, yes, the death of the cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave to him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, those on earth, and those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
- Hebrews 7:25 Therefore he is also able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, seeing that he lives forever to make intercession for them.
- Genesis 3:15 I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel.”
- Isaiah 49:24-25 Shall the plunder be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captives be delivered? But Yahweh says, “Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the plunder retrieved from the fierce, for I will contend with him who contends with you and I will save your children.
- Matthew 12:28-29 But if I by the Spirit of God cast out demons, then God’s Kingdom has come upon you. Or how can one enter into the house of the strong man, and plunder his goods, unless he first bind the strong man? Then he will plunder his house.
- Philippians 2:17 Yes, and if I am poured out on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice, and rejoice with you all.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (19 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain That is, of all that believe in him.
That is, of all that believe in him.
Because he humbled himself, therefore he shall be extolled to glory, Phil. 2:7-12.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Isa 53:12 Therefore will I divide him [a portion]…
Isa 53:12 Therefore will I divide him [a portion] with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Ver. 12. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the great.] Or, I will give many to him. {Psa 2:8} Some sense it thus: I will give him to conquer, plunder, and spoil the evil spirits; {as Col 2:15} and this he shall have for a reward of his ignominious death, and his intercession for some of his enemies, whom he conquered by a new and noble kind of victory, viz., by loving them and by praying for them.
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And he was numbered with transgressors.] So he became a sinner, though sinless: 1. By imputation; 2. By reputation.
And he bare the sins of many.] Not of all, as A. Lapide here would have it, because all are many, &c.
And made intercession.] For those that with wicked hands crucified him; {Luk 23:34 Act 2:23} so for others still. {Heb 7:25}
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Therefore will I, God the Father, the Spectator and…
Therefore will I, God the Father, the Spectator and Judge of the action or combat,
divide him; give him his share; or, impart or give to him; for this word is oft used without respect to any distribution or division, as Deu 4:19; 29:26, and elsewhere.
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A portion; which is very commodiously supplied out of the next clause, where a word which answers to it,
the spoil, is expressed. With the great; or, among the great; such as the great and mighty potentates of the world use to have after a sharp combat and a glorious victory. Though he be a very mean and obscure person, as to his extraction and outward condition in the world, yet he shall attain to as great a pitch of glory as the greatest monarchs enjoy.
He shall divide the spoil with the strong: the same thing is repeated in other words, after the manner of prophetical writers. The sense of both clauses is, that God will give him, and he shall receive, great and happy success in his glorious undertaking; he shall conquer all his enemies, and lead captivity captive, as is said, Eph 4:8, and Set up his universal and everlasting kingdom in the world.
Because he hath poured out his soul unto death; because he willingly laid down his life in obedience to God’s command, Joh 10:17,18, and in order to the redemption of mankind. Death is here called a pouring out of the soul, or life, either because the soul or life, which in living men is contained in the body, is turned out of the body by death; or to signify the manner of Christ’s death, that it should be with the shedding of his blood, in which the life of man consists, Lev 17:11,14.
He was numbered with the transgressors; he was willing for God’s glory and for man’s good to be reproached and punished like a malefactor, in the same manner and place, and betwixt two of them, as is noted with reference to this place, Mar 15:27,28.
He bare the sin of many; which was said Isa 53:11, and is here repeated to prevent a mistake, and to intimate, that although Christ was numbered with transgressors, and was used accordingly, yet he was no transgressor, nor did submit to and suffer this usage for his own sins, but for the sins of others, the punishment whereof was by his own consent laid upon him.
Made intercession for the transgressors; either,
1. By way of satisfaction; he interposed himself between an angry God and sinners, and received those blows in his own body which otherwise must have fallen upon them. Or,
2. In way of petition, as this word is constantly used. He prayed upon earth for all sinners, and particularly for those that crucified him, Luk 23:34; and in heaven he still intercedeth for them, not by a humble petition, but by a legal demand of those good things which he purchased for his own people by the sacrifice of himself, which, though past, he continually represents to his Father, as if it were present.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Therefore will I divide him a portion with the…
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 large and ample; that he would make him higher than the kings of the earth, and give him a name above every name in this world, or that to come; and all this in consequence of his sufferings, and as a reward of them; see Phi 2:8 and whereas the Lord's people are his portion, and with which Christ is well pleased, and greatly delighted, Deu 32:9, they may be intended here, at least as a part of the portion which Christ has assigned him. For the words may be rendered (e), "therefore will I divide, assign, or give many to him": so the Vulgate Latin version; and which is favoured by the Targum,
"therefore will I divide to him the prey of many people;''
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and by the Septuagint version, therefore he shall inherit many, or possess many as his inheritance; so the Arabic version. The elect of God were given to Christ, previous to his sufferings and death, in the everlasting council of peace and covenant of grace, to be redeemed and saved by him; and they are given to him, in consequence of them, to believe in him, to be subject to him, and serve him; and so it denotes a great multitude of persons, both among Jews and Gentiles, that should be converted to Christ, embrace him, profess his Gospel, and submit to his ordinances; and which has been true in fact, and took place quickly after his resurrection and ascension.
And he shall divide the spoil with the strong; or "the strong as a spoil"; that is, he shall spoil principalities and powers, destroy Satan and his angels, and make an entire conquest of all his mighty and powerful enemies. The Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and Arabic versions, render the words, "he shall divide the spoil of the strong"; of Satan and his principalities; those they make a spoil of he shall take out of their hands, and possess them as his own. The best comment on this version is Luk 11:22. Or rather the words may be rendered, "he shall have or possess for a spoil or prey very many" (f); for the word for "strong" has the signification of a multitude; and so the sense is the same as before, that a great multitude of souls should be taken by Christ, as a prey out of the hands of the mighty, and become his subjects; and so his kingdom would be very large, and he have great honour and glory, which is the thing promised as a reward of his sufferings. Some understand, by the "great" and "strong", the apostles of Christ, to whom he divided the gifts he received when he led captivity captive; to some apostles, some prophets, &c. Eph 4:10, and others the soldiers, among whom his garments were parted; but they are senses foreign from the text.
Because he hath poured out his soul unto death; as water is poured out, Psa 22:14 or rather as the wine was poured out in the libations or drink offerings; for Christ's soul was made an offering for sin, as before; and it may be said with respect to his blood, in which is the life, that was shed or poured out for the remission of sin; of which he was emptied,
and made bare, as the word (g) signifies, when his hands, feet, and side, were pierced. The phrase denotes the voluntariness of Christ's death, that he freely and willingly laid down his life for his people.
And he was numbered with the transgressors; he never was guilty of any one transgression of the law; he indeed appeared in the likeness of sinful flesh, and was calumniated and traduced as a sinner, and a friend of the worst of them; he was ranked among them, and charged as one of them, yet falsely; though, having all the sins of his people upon him, he was treated, even by the justice and law of God, as if he had been the transgressor, and suffered as if he had been one; of which his being crucified between two thieves was a symbolical representation, and whereby this Scripture was fulfilled, Mar 15:28.
and he bore the sin on many; everyone of their sins, even the sins of all those whose iniquity was laid on him, of the many chosen in him, and justified by him; See Gill on Isa 53:11 where this is given as the reason for their justification; and here repeated as if done, to show the certainty of it; to raise the attention of it, as being a matter of great importance; see Pe1 2:24.
And made intercession for the transgressors; as he did upon the cross, even for those that were the instruments of his death, Luk 23:34 and as he now does, in heaven, for all those sinners for whom he died; not merely in a petitionary way, but by presenting himself, blood, righteousness, and sacrifice; pleading the merits of these, and calling for, in a way of justice and legal demand, all those blessings which were stipulated in an everlasting covenant between him and his Father, to be given to his people, in consequence of his sufferings and death; see Rom 8:33.
(e) "ideo dispertiam ei plurimos", V. L. "propterea ipsi attribuam (vel addicam) permultos", Bootius, Animadv. I. 4. c. 12. sect. 20. p. 251. "idcirco dispertiam ei sortem, multitudinem Gentium", Vitringa. (f) "et plurimos (seu innumeros) habebit loco praedae, vel plurimi obtingent ipsi pro praeda", Bootius, ibid. (g) "denudavit morti animam suam", Forerius.
Next: Isaiah Chapter 54
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain I - God the father. A portion - Which…
I - God the father. A portion - Which is very commodiously supplied out of the next clause. With the strong - God will give him happy success in his glorious undertaking: he shall conquer all his enemies, and set up his universal and everlasting kingdom in the world. Because - Because he willingly laid down his life. Transgressors - He prayed upon earth for all sinners, and particularly for those that crucified him, and in heaven he still intercedes for them, by a legal demand of those good things which he purchased; by the sacrifice of himself, which, though past, he continually represents to his father, as if it were present.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 12. He bare the sin of many] רבים…
Verse 12. He bare the sin of many] רבים rabbim, the multitudes, the many that were made sinners by the offences of one; i.e., the whole human race; for all have sinned - all have fallen; and for all that have sinned, and for all that have fallen, Jesus Christ died. The רבים rabbim of the prophet answers to the οι πολλοι, of the apostle, Ro 5:15; Ro 5:19. As the πολλοι of the apostle means all that have sinned; so the רבים rabbim of the prophet means those for whom Christ died; i.e., all that have sinned.
And made intercession for the transgressors.] For יפגיע yaphgia, in the future, a MS. has הפגיע hiphgia, preterite, rather better, as agreeable with the other verbs immediately preceding in the sentence.
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He made intercession for the transgressors. - This was literally fulfilled at his death, "Father, forgive them; they know not what they do!" Lu 23:34. And to make intercession for transgressors is one part of his mediatorial office. Heb 7:25; Heb 9:24.
IN this chapter the incarnation, preaching, humiliation, rejection, sufferings, death, atonement, resurrection, and mediation of Jesus Christ are all predicted, together with the prevalence of his Gospel, and the extension of his kingdom through all ages.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Isa 53:12. Therefore will I — Namely, God the…
Isa 53:12. Therefore will I — Namely, God the Father; divide him a portion — This word portion (though there is nothing for it in the Hebrew)
is properly supplied out of the next clause, where a word, which answers to it, rendered the spoil, is expressed; with the great — Or, among the great — such as the great and mighty potentates of the world use to have after a short combat and a glorious victory. Though he be a very mean and obscure person, as to his outward condition in the world, yet he shall attain to a greater pitch of glory than the greatest monarchs enjoy. He shall divide the spoil with the strong — The same thing repeated in other words. The sense of both clauses is, I will give him great and happy success in his undertaking: he shall conquer all his enemies, and lead captivity captive; and he shall set up and establish his kingdom among and over all the kingdoms of the world: see Eph 1:20, &c.; and Php 2:8-9. Because he hath poured out his soul unto death — Because he willingly laid down his life in obedience to God’s command, and in order to the redemption of mankind. And he was numbered with the transgressors — He was willing, for God’s glory, and for man’s salvation, to be reproached and punished, like a malefactor, in the same manner and place with them, and between two of them, Mar 15:27-28. And made intercession for the transgressors — He prayed upon earth for all sinners, and particularly for those that crucified him, and in heaven he still intercedes for them, by a legal demand of those good things which he purchased by the sacrifice of himself, which, though past, he continually represents to his Father as if it were present.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Therefore will I divide him - I will divide…
Therefore will I divide him - I will divide for him (לו lô). This verse is designed to predict the triumphs of the Messiah. It is language appropriate to him as a prince, and designed to celebrate his glorious victories on earth. The words here used are taken from the custom of distributing the spoils of victory after a battle, and the idea is, that as a conqueror takes valuable spoils, so the Messiah would go forth to the spiritual conquest of the world, and subdue it to himself. Rosenmuller renders this, Dispertsam ei multos - ‘I will divide to him the many;’ that is, he shall have many as his portion. Hengstenberg, ‘I will give him the mighty for a portion.’ So the Septuagint, ‘Therefore he shall inherit (κληρονομήσει klēronomēsei) many.’ So Lowth, ‘Therefore will I distribute to him the many for his portion.’ But it seems to me that the sense is, that his portion would be with the mighty or the many (ברבים bârabbı̂ym) and that this interpretation is demanded by the use of the preposition ב (b) in this case, and by the corresponding word את 'êth, prefixed to the word ‘mighty.’ The sense, according to this, is, that the spoils of his conquests would be among the mighty or the many; that is, that his victories would not be confined to a few in number, or to the feeble, but the triumphs of his conquests would extend afar, and be found among the potentates and mighty people of the earth.
The word rendered here ‘the great’ (רבים rabbı̂ym), may mean either many or powerful and great. The parallelism here with the word עצוּמים ‛ătsûmı̂ym (the mighty), seems to demand that it be understood as denoting the great, or the powerful, though it is differently rendered by the Vulgate, the Septuagint, the Chaldee, by Castellio, and by Junius and Tremellius. The sense is, I think, that his conquests would be among the great and the mighty. He would overcome his most formidable enemies, and subdue them to himself. Their most valued objects; all that constituted their wealth, their grandeur, and their power, would be among the spoils of his victories. It would not be merely his feeble foes that would be subdued, but it would be the mighty, and there would be no power, however formidable, that would be able to resist the triumphs of his truth. The history of the gospel since the coming of the Redeemer shows how accurately this has been fulfilled. Already he has overcome the mighty, and the spoils of the conquerors of the world have been among the trophies of his victories. The Roman empire was subdued; and his conquests were among these conquerors, and his were victories over the subduers of nations. It will be still more signally fulfilled in coming times, when the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever Rev 11:15.
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And he shall divide the spoil with the strong - And with the mighty, or with heroes, shall he divide the plunder. The idea here is not materially different from that which was expressed in the former member of the sentence. It is language derived from the conquests of the warrior, and means that his victories would be among the great ones of the earth; his conquests over conquerors. It was from language such as this that the Jews obtained the notion, that the Messiah would be a distinguished conqueror, and hence, they looked forward to one who as a warrior would carry the standard of victory around the world. But it is evident that it may be applied with much higher beauty to the spiritual victories of the Redeemer, and that it expresses the great and glorious truth that the conquests of the true religion will yet extend over the most formidable obstacles on the earth.
Because he hath poured out his soul unto death - His triumphs would be an appropriate reward for his sufferings, his death, and his intercession. The expression ‘he poured out his soul,’ or his life (נפשׁו napeshô; see the notes at Isa 53:10), is derived from the fact that the life was supposed to reside in the blood (see the notes at Rom 3:25); and that when the blood was poured out, the life was supposed to flow forth with it. As a reward for his having thus laid down his life, he would extend his triumphs over the whole world, and subdue the most mighty to himself.
And he was numbered with the transgressors - That is, he shall triumph because he suffered himself to be numbered with the transgressors, or to be put to death with malefactors. It does not mean that he was a transgressor, or in any way guilty; but that in his death he was in fact numbered with the guilty, and put to death with them. In the public estimation, and in the sentence which doomed him to death, he was regarded and treated as if he had been a transgressor. This passage is expressly applied by Mark to the Lord Jesus Mar 15:28.
And he bare the sin of many - (נשׂא nâs'â'). On the meaning of this word ‘bare,’ see the notes at Isa 53:4; and on the doctrine involved by his bearing sin, see the note at Isa 53:4-6, Isa 53:10. The idea here is, that he would triumph because he had thus borne their sins. As a reward for this God would bless him with abundant spiritual triumphs among people, and extend the true religion afar.
And made intercession for the transgressors - On the meaning of the word rendered here ‘made intercession’ (יפגיע yapegı̂y‛a), see the notes at Isa 53:6, where it is rendered ‘hath laid on him.’ The idea is. that of causing to meet, or to rush; and then to assail, as it were, with prayers, to supplicate for anyone, to entreat (see Isa 59:16; Jer 36:25). It may not refer here to the mere act of making prayer or supplication, but rather perhaps to the whole work of the intercession, in which the Redeemer, as high priest, presents the merit of his atoning blood before the throne of mercy and pleads for people (see Rom 8:34; Heb 7:25; 1Jo 2:1). This is the closing part of his work in behalf of his people and of the world; and the sense here is, that he would be thus blessed with abundant and wide extended triumph, because he made intercession. All his work of humiliation, and all his toils and sufferings, and all the merit of his intercession, became necessary in order to his triumph, and to the spread of the true religion. In consequence of all these toils, and pains, and prayers, God would give him the victory over the world, and extend his triumphs around the globe. Here the work of the Mediator in behalf of human beings will cease. There is to be no more suffering, and beyond his intercessions he will do nothing for them. He will come again indeed, but he will come to judge the world, not to suffer, to bleed, to die, and to intercede. All his future conquests and triumphs will be in consequence of what he has already done; and they who are not saved because he poured out his soul unto death, and bare the sin of many, and made intercession, will not be saved at all. There will be no more sacrifice for sin, and there will be no other advocate and intercessor.
We have now gone through perhaps at tedious length, this deeply interesting and most important portion of the Bible. Assuming now (see the remarks prefixed to Isa 52:13 ff) that this was written seven hundred years before the Lord Jesus was born, there are some remarks of great importance to which we may just refer in the conclusion of this exposition.
1. The first is, the minute accuracy of the statements here as applicable to the Lord Jesus. While it is apparent that there has been no other being on earth, and no “collective body of men,” to whom this can be applied, it is evident that the whole statement is applicable to the Redeemer. It is not the general accuracy to which I refer; it is not that there is some resemblance in the outline of the prediction; it is, that the statement is minutely accurate. It relates to his appearance, his rejection, the manner of his death, his being pierced, his burial. It describes, as minutely as could have been done after the events occurred, the manner of his trial of his rejection, the fact of his being taken from detention and by a judicial sentence, and the manner in which it was designed that he should be buried, and yet the remarkable fact that this was prevented, and that he was interred in the manner in which the rich were buried (see the notes at Isa 53:2-3, Isa 53:7-10).
2. This coincidence could never have occurred if the Lord Jesus had been an impostor. To say nothing of the difficulty of attempting to fulfill a prediction by imposture and the general failure in the attempt, there are many things here which would have rendered any attempt of this kind utterly hopeless. A very large portion of the things referred to in this chapter were circumstances over which an impostor could have no control and which he could bring about by no contrivance, no collusion, and no concert. They depended on the arrangements of Providence, and on the voluntary actions of people, in such a way that he could not affect them. How could he so order it as to grow up as a root out of a dry ground; to be despised and rejected of men; to be taken from detention and from a judicial sentence though innocent; to have it designed that be should be buried with malefactors, and to be numbered with transgressors, and yet to be rescued by a rich man, and placed in his tomb?
This consideration becomes more striking when it is remembered that not a few people claimed to be the Messiah, and succeeded in imposing on many, and though they were at last abandoned or punished, yet between their lives and death, and the circumstances here detailed, there is not the shadow of a coincidence. It is to be remembered also that an impostor would not have aimed at what would have constituted a fulfillment of this prophecy. Notwithstanding the evidence that it refers to the Messiah, yet it is certain also that the Jews expected no such personage as that here referred to. They looked for a magnificent temporal prince and conqueror; and an impostor would not have attempted to evince the character, and to go through the circumstances of poverty, humiliation, shame, and sufferings, here described. What impostor ever would have attempted to fulfill a prophecy by subjecting himself to a shameful death? What impostor could have brought it about in this manner if he had attempted it? No; it was only the true Messiah that either would or could have fulfilled this remarkable prophecy. Had an impostor made the effort, he must have failed; and it was not in human nature to attempt it under the circumstances of the case. All the claims to the Messiahship by impostors have been of an entirely different character from that referred to here.
3. We are then prepared to ask an infidel how he will dispose of this prophecy. That it existed seven hundred years before Christ is as certain as that the poems of Homer or Hesiod had an existence before the Christian era; as certain as the existence of any ancient document whatever. It will not do to say that it was forged - for this is not only without proof, but wound destroy the credibility of all ancient writings. It will not do to say that it was the result of natural sagacity in the prophet - for whatever may be said of conjectures about empires and kingdoms, no natural sagacity can tell what will be the character of an individual man, or whether such a man as here referred to would exist at all. It will not do to say that the Lord Jesus was a cunning impostor and resolved to fulfill this ancient writing, and thus establish his claims, for, as we have seen, such an attempt would have belied human nature, and if attempted, could not have been accomplished. It remains then to ask what solution the infidel will give of these remarkable facts. We present him the prophecy - not a rhapsody, not conjecture, not a general statement; but minute, full, clear, unequivocal, relating to points which could not have been the result of conjecture: and over which the individual had no control. And then we present him with the record of the life of Jesus - minutely accurate in all the details of the fulfillment - a coincidence as clear as that between a biography and the original - and ask him to explain it. And we demand a definite and consistent answer to this. To turn away from it does not answer it. To laugh, does not answer it, for there is no argument in a sneer or a jibe. To say that it is not worth inquiry is not true, for it pertains to the great question of human redemption. But if he cannot explain it, then he should admit that it is such a prediction as only God could give, and that Christianity is true.
4. This chapter proves that the Redeemer died as an atoning sacrifice for people. He was not a mere martyr, and he did not come and live merely to set us an example. Of what martyr was the language here ever used, and how could it be used? How could it be said of any martyr that he bore our griefs, that he was bruised for our iniquities, that our sins were made to rush and meet upon him, and that he bare the sin of many? And if the purpose of his coming was merely to teach us the will of God, or to set us an example, why is such a prominence here given to his sufferings in behalf of others? Scarcely an allusion is made to his example, while the chapter is replete with statements of his sufferings and sorrows in behalf of others. It would be impossible to state in more explicit language the truth that he died as a sacrifice for the sins of people; that he suffered to make proper expiation for the guilty. No confession of faith on earth, no creed, no symbol, no standard of doctrine, contains more explicit statements on the subject. And if the language used here does not demonstrate that the Redeemer was an atoning sacrifice, it is impossible to conceive how such a doctrine could be taught or conveyed to people.
5. This whole chapter is exceedingly important to Christians. It contains the most full, continuous statement in the Bible of the design of the Redeemer’s sufferings and death. And after all the light which is shed on the subject in the New Testament; after all the full and clear statements made by the Redeemer and the apostles; still, if we wish to see a full and continuous statement on the great doctrine of the atonement, we naturally recur to this portion of Isaiah. If we wish our faith to be strengthened, and our hearts warmed by the contemplalion of his sufferings, we shall find no part of the Bible better adapted to it than this. It should not only be the subject of congratulation, but of much fervent prayer. No man can study it too profoundly. No one can feel too much anxiety to understand it. Every verse, every phrase, every word should be pondered until it fixes itself deep in the memory, and makes an eternal impression on the heart. If a man understands this portion of the Bible, he will have a correct view of the plan of salvation. And it should be the subject of profound and prayerful contemplation until the heart glows with love to that merciful God who was willing to give the Redeemer to such sorrow, and to the gracious Saviour who, for our sins, was willing to pour out his soul unto death. I bless God that I have been permitted to study it; and I pray that this exposition - cold and imperfect as it is - may be made the means yet of extending correct views of the design of the Redeemer’s death among his friends, and of convincing those who have doubted the truth of the Bible, that a prophecy like this demonstrates that the book in which it occurs must be from God.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Many. Even to the ends of the earth, Psalm…
Many. Even to the ends of the earth, Psalm ii. 8. --- Strong. Demons, Jews, &c. Hebrew, "with the strong" apostles. --- Wicked thieves. Barabbas, &c. --- Transgressors. His executioners. The gospel could not speak plainer. (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain divide--as a conqueror dividing the spoil after a victory…
divide--as a conqueror dividing the spoil after a victory (Psa 2:8; Luk 11:22).
him--for Him.
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with . . . great--HENGSTENBERG translates, "I will give Him the mighty for a portion"; so the Septuagint. But the parallel clause, "with the strong," favors English Version. His triumphs shall be not merely among the few and weak, but among the many and mighty.
spoil . . . strong-- (Col 2:15; compare Pro 16:19). "With the great; with the mighty," may mean, as a great and mighty hero.
poured out . . . soul--that is, His life, which was considered as residing in the blood (Lev 17:11; Rom 3:25).
numbered with, &c.--not that He was a transgressor, but He was treated as such, when crucified with thieves (Mar 15:28; Luk 22:37).
made intercession, &c.--This office He began on the cross (Luk 23:34), and now continues in heaven (Isa 59:16; Heb 9:24; Jo1 2:1). Understand because before "He was numbered . . . He bare . . . made intercession." His meritorious death and intercession are the cause of His ultimate triumph. MAURER, for the parallelism, translates, "He was put on the same footing with the transgressors." But English Version agrees better with the Hebrew, and with the sense and fact as to Christ. MAURER'S translation would make a tautology after "He was numbered with the transgressors"; parallelism does not need so servile a repetition. "He made intercession for," &c., answers to the parallel. "He was numbered with," &c., as effect answers to cause, His intercession for sinners being the effect flowing from His having been numbered with them.
Israel converted is compared to a wife (Isa 54:5; Isa 62:5) put away for unfaithfulness, but now forgiven and taken home again. The converted Gentiles are represented as a new progeny of the long-forsaken but now restored wife. The pre-eminence of the Hebrew Church as the mother Church of Christendom is the leading idea; the conversion of the Gentiles is mentioned only as part of her felicity [HORSLEY].
Next: Isaiah Chapter 54
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 12. Therefore — That is, for all this mediatorial…
12. Therefore — That is, for all this mediatorial suffering and work; for this whole victorious combat with the powers of sin.
Will I divide him — Hebrew, to him.
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With the great — Or, among the great. The figure is, of spoils from great conquests, and its meaning as applied to a suffering Messiah is, that his victories shall be very great. The language is mixed with ellipses, and is therefore obscure. To arrange it into orderly thought is difficult. A fair theory of the course of thought in the verse is, that it runs on a line of glorious promise between Messiah, humiliation, and exaltation, just now to be entered on. Out of trial, suffering, and combat, he is to come forth victorious. He shall build up a spiritual kingdom that is to crush all other powers, that is never to be diminished, and is to be unending. And all this, because, first, he freely poured out his life, that is, his blood, for life is in the blood, (Lev_17:11;) second, because he submitted to an ignominious death; and third, because he is an effective intercessor for men. The first two are already accomplished, and the third he is still acting. These constitute him a perfect mediator. The time when intercession shall cease is yet to come, and then he shall deliver up his kingdom with triumph eternally complete.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 12. As the reward of his unmerited sufferings and…
12. As the reward of his unmerited sufferings and his mediatorial work, the Servant shall attain an influence equal to that of the great potentates of the world. To “divide spoil” is a figurative and proverbial expression for victory or success; Pro_16:19 (“It is better to be of lowly spirit with the meek than to divide spoil with the proud”). It is therefore not necessarily implied that the Servant’s future greatness will be political, although that is certainly suggested.
Instead of will I divide, the LXX. reads “he shall inherit” (which is perhaps preferable as avoiding the recurrence of the same verb in two consecutive lines), but it is a mistake of some authorities to follow this version in treating the “many” as direct obj. of the verb; the sense must be either “he shall inherit,” or “I will give him a share” amongst the many.
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The latter part of the verse returns to the great contrast that runs through the passage, between the true meaning of the Servant’s afflictions and the false construction put on them.
because he poured out (omit “hath” with R.V.) his soul] his blood, which is the seat of life; Lev_17:11. For the expression cf. Psa_141:8.
was numbered with the rebels] See Isa_53:9. Cited Mar_15:28; Luk_22:37.
and he bare &c.] whereas he bare, the true view of his death as opposed to the false judgement of men,—a circumstantial clause.
for the transgressors] for the rebellious, the class to which he was himself reckoned.
Although several things in this marvellous description of the innocent suffering for the guilty be obscure, the salient features of the picture stand out with great clearness. Whether the portrait be that of an individual or of a personified community is a question that need not here be discussed (See Appendix, Note I.). If there be personification it is as consistently maintained as it is vividly conceived, and we are hardly entitled to assume that the writer has anywhere allowed the collective reality to peer through the veil of allegory. The figure brought on the scene is that of a man, so marred and deformed by revolting sickness as to be universally shunned and despised and maltreated as one bearing the manifest tokens of the divine displeasure; yet the dignity and patience of his demeanour profoundly impresses his contemporaries, so that after his death their thoughts are irresistibly drawn back to the tragedy of his fate, and they come to the conviction that he was indeed what he professed to be, the Servant of Jehovah, that he was the one innocent person in his generation, and that his sufferings were due not to his personal guilt, but to the guilt of a whole nation, which is by them atoned for and taken away. And finally it is prophesied concerning him that he shall rise again, to the astonishment of the whole world, and that his career shall be crowned with success even more conspicuous than his humiliation had been.—It has already been pointed out that this conception of the Servant has certain affinities with the figure of Job, and it may be partly moulded on the story of that patriarch’s trial. But the religious teaching of this passage moves on a different plane from that of the Book of Job. The problem of individual retribution, of how it can be that the righteous suffer, does not seem to have been present to the mind of the writer, although he no doubt furnishes an important contribution to the solution of that mystery. This is found in the idea of vicarious suffering, which is so emphatically expressed throughout the passage. Now the principle that the individual bears the guilt of the community to which he belongs was perfectly familiar to the ancient world, and many startling applications of it occur in the O.T. (Jos_7:24; 2Sa_21:6 &c.). It is true that it had begun to excite protest towards the time of the Exile (Deu_24:16; 2Ki_14:6; Jer_31:29; Eze_18:20); but this prophet accepts the principle and discerns in it a moral significance by which it is deprived of the appearance of arbitrariness or injustice. The essence of the Servant’s sacrifice lies in the fact that whilst himself innocent he acquiesces in the divine judgement on sin, and willingly endures it for the sake of his people. And it is the perception of this truth on the part of the people that brings home to them the sense of their own guilt, and removes the obstacle which their impenitence had interposed to Jehovah’s purpose of salvation. The suffering of the innocent on behalf of the guilty is thus seen to be a moral necessity, since it was only through such sufferings as the sinless Servant of the Lord was alone capable of, that punishment could reach its end in the taking away of sin and the bringing in of everlasting righteousness.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (12) Therefore will I divide . . .—The “great”…
(12) Therefore will I divide . . .—The “great” and the “powerful” are words which describe the kings and rulers of mankind. The Servant, once despised and forsaken, takes his place with them, though not in the same manner, or by the same means. We may have echoes of the words in our Lord’s language as to the “spoiling of the strong man” (Mat_12:29) as to the contrast between the greatness of His Kingdom and that of the rulers and great ones of the world (Mat_20:25; Mar_10:42; Luk_22:25). The LXX., Vulg., Luther, and some modern scholars render, I will give him the multitude as a prey, the spoil “of the mighty ones.”
Because he hath poured out . . .—The absolutely voluntary character of the sacrifice is again emphasised. The next clause is better taken as he let himself be numbered. So it was that he bore (and took away) the sin of many, and gained the power for availing intercession, both in the hour of death (Luk_23:34) and in the eternal triumph (Heb_7:25). The ideal Servant, contemned, condemned, failing, is seen, at last, to be identical with the ideal King.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Therefore (see the comment on ver. 11, sub init.…
Therefore (see the comment on ver. 11, sub init. ). Will I divide him a portion with the great; i.e. "I will place him among the great conquering ones of the earth an accommodation to human modes of thought analogous to the frequent comparison of Christ"s kingdom with the kingdoms of the earth. (Dan_2:44 Dan_7:9-14. etc.) The apostle goes deeper into the true nature of things when he says, "Therefore also hath God highly exalted him, and given him a Name which is above every. (Php_2:9) He shall divide the spoil with the strong. A repetition of the thought in the preceding clause. (comp. Pro_16:19) Because he hath poured out his soul unto death. Christ not only died for man, but, as it were, "poured out his soul" with his own hand to the last drop. The expression emphasizes the duration and the voluntariness of Messiah"s sufferings. And he was numbered with the transgressors; rather, and he was reckoned with transgressors. (see Luk_22:37, Meta anomwn elogisyh where our Lord applies the words to himself) Christ was condemned as a blasphemer", (Mat_26:65) crucified with malefactors, (Luk_23:32) called "that deceiver", (Mat_27:63) and regarded generally by the Jews as accursed. (Deu_21:23) And he bare the sin of many; rather, and himself bare the sin of many. (compare the last clauses of vers. 6 and 11; and see also Heb_9:27) And made intercession for the transgressors. The future is used, with van conversive, instead of the preterite, to mark that the act, though begun in the past, is inchoate only, and not completed. The "intercession for transgressors" was begun upon the cross with the compassionate words, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do". (Luk_23:34) But it has continued ever since, and will continue until the last day. (Rom_8:34 Heb_7:25)
The false accusation.
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"He was numbered with the transgressors." The fact that he who was the Author of all law and the Judge of all moral agents was himself classed with transgressors is most suggestive; it calls our attention to the truth
I THAT A RIGHTEOUS MAN, though he is righteous, MAY BE CHARGED WITH WRONG. If Jesus Christ, the Righteous One, was accused of sin, how much more may we, who are only comparatively and imperfectly righteous, be so charged!
II THAT A RIGHTEOUS MAN MAY, in virtue of his righteousness, BE ACCUSED OF WRONG. Jesus Christ was charged with blasphemy because he said what he said and acted as he did in pursuance of his great and beneficent mission; he was accused of fellowship with sin because he was bent on carrying his gospel of grace to the very worst of mankind. (Luk_15:2) In the same way, a good man may lay himself open to the charge of transgression in virtue of his very excellency; a devout man, because of his devotion, to the charge of pietism or hypocrisy; a zealous man, because of his ardour, to the charge of fanaticism; a courageous man, to the charge of rashness; a trustful man, to the accusation of presumption, etc.
III THAT THE FALSELY ACCUSED HAVE THREE GREAT CONSOLATIONS.
1. The approval of their own conscience.
2. The knowledge that they take rank with their great Leader, who was himself numbered with the transgressors, and with all the best of the good in every age and land. (Mat_5:11, Mat_5:12)
3. The assurance that they have the commendation and the sympathy of their Divine Lord. Enemies may accuse us; brethren may fail us; notwithstanding, "the Lord stands with us, and strengthens us". C. (2Ti_4:16, 2Ti_4:17)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Therefore will I divide Him a portion with the…
Isa_53:12
Therefore will I divide Him a portion with the great
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Christs conflict and conquest
I.
CHRISTS CONFLICT.
II. CHRISTS CONQUEST. The conflict is last in the order of the words, but first in order of nature and time. (T. Manton, D.D.)
The greatness of the Sin-bearer
It is the voice of God Himself; and it is befitting that, as He introduced His Servant in the opening verses of this marvellous portraiture, so, in these closing words, He should pronounce His verdict on His career. Two things are clearly predicated of the Sin-bearer.
1. That He should be great.
2. That He should attain His commanding position, not as the founder of a new school of thought, nor as the leader of a social reformation, nor as possessed of exceptional saintliness--but as a Sufferer.
I. THE GREATNESS GIVEN BY THE FATHER AS THE REWARD FOR CHRISTS OBEDIENCE TO DEATH. It was meet that such a reward should be bestowed, for the sake of those who should afterwards follow in the footsteps of their Divine Master. None could ever deserve more or better than Christ; and if He were without recognition or reward, might it not be thought that Heaven had no prize to give for faithful service? Surely He must have a reward, or the very order of the universe might be deemed at fault? But what reward should He have? What could compensate Him for having laid aside the exercise of His Divine prerogative; for having assumed our nature; for having passed through the ordeal of temptation, sorrow, and pain; for having become obedient to death, even the death of the Cross? All worlds were His by native right; all holy beings owned His sway as Creator and God; all provinces of thought, emotion, power, and might, sent Him their choicest tribute. What reward could He claim, or have? The answer may be suggested by recalling our own pleasure in conferring pleasure, our joy in giving joy. Let the limitations imposed by our mortality or circumstances be removed; let us be able to realize to the full the yearnings and promptings of our noblest hours; lot the wish to help be accompanied by a sympathy that cannot hurt the most sensitive, a wisdom that cannot mistake, a power that cannot be daunted or thwarted; and probably we should at once drink deep draughts of blessedness like Gods. This is the blessedness of Christ, and this is the reward which the Father has given Him. God Himself could not give, nor the Saviour ask for, a greater reward than this. And, in its magnificence, it appeals to all who would tread in His steps. This is Heavens supreme reward: that all who pour out their souls to death shall obtain enlarged opportunities and possibilities of service.
II. THE GREATNESS THAT CHRISTS DEATH HAS SECURED HIM AMONG MEN. He is worthy to take the mysterious scroll of destiny, and break its seals, because of the light Its has cast on the great mysteries by which our lot is shadowed.
1. Pain. When it enwraps us in its fiery baptism, we are apt to accuse ourselves or to doubt God. But Jesus has taught us that there is yet a third way of regarding pain. He had not sinned, yet He suffered as none of woman.born ever did. Evidently, then, pain is not always symptomatic of special sin. He was once so submerged in anguish that for a time He lost the sense of His Fathers love; but He never suggested that there was failure or obliquity in the moral government of the world. The death of Jesus has therefore robbed death of these two implications, and has taught us that it is often sent, and must be borne, with the view of benefiting others. What a priceless service was this--to transform pain; to persuade sufferers that by their travail of soul they were enriching the whole world of men.
2. Death. Men dread it. But He, by His dying, has abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light. For this we count Him great, that through death He undid death.
3. Sin When Jesus died on the Cross, He was numbered with transgressors; but He stood over against all transgressors, distinct from them and bearing their sin. This surely constitutes an overmastering claim for us to count Christ great.
III. THE GREATNESS WHICH HIS DEATH WILL WIN FOR CHRIST IN THE ESTIMATION OF OTHER RACES OF BEING. Not to the Mount of Beatitudes, but to the Cross, will distant worlds send their deputations in all coming ages, to learn the manifold lessons which it alone can teach. There they will learn to know the very heart of God, His hatred against sin, His love for the sinner, His fidelity to covenant engagements, His righteousness, His truth. The Cross is the heavenly prism that enables us to distinguish the constituents of the Divine nature. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
He shall divide the spoil with the strong
He shall divide the spoil with the strong:
This is generally interpreted as picturing a conqueror sharing with other fellow-conquerors in the booty of the conquered. But could that figure have any analogy in Christs triumph Who could be His fellow-conquerors? What could be the booty of His conquered ones? Much better is it to consider the strong, or the mighty ones, to represent the powers of darkness, who have made spoil of the human race, and the division of the spell with them by Messiah to be the rescue of souls from their grasp. The many (Isa_53:11) whom He saves will then be the spoil He snatches from the great enemy, and we can read the whole passage: By the knowledge of Him shall My righteous Servant give righteousness to many, and He Himself shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide Him the many as His portion, and he shall divide the spoil with the mighty ones. This allusion to the powers of evil gives completeness to the prophetic description. The humble birth, unattractive position in society, and unfavoured career through life, are given in Isa_53:2,
3. His partnership with distress and His own sufferings are exhibited invers. 4, 5, 6. His meekness is portrayed in Isa_53:7. Then comes the apparent failure of His life, followed by its complete triumph in saving souls. We need a word regarding the enemy triumphed over to make the wonderful prophetic sketch complete. (Howard Crosby, LL.D.)
The Lord Jesus a glorious Conqueror
Dividing of the spoil is the effect of a sure and a great conquest. The eminency of it lieth in these four things--
(1) Either in the power of the adversaries. There is no triumph in prevailing over weak things.
(2) The unlikelihood of the means. A thousand men were slain by the jawbone of an ass by the hands of Samson; and a numerous host discomfited by Gideons pitchers and three hundred lamps. Such things as these make the success memorable.
(3) The manner or nature of the victory. Total defeats are most noted.
(4) A conquest is glorious in the effects or result of it. If it be of great importance and consequence to the good of a people, when fears are removed, and privileges are granted and enlarged, spoilers taken, a kingdom subdued--these things make for the glory of the victory. Let us see if such things be not found in the conquest of Christ.
THE ADVERSARIES. They are always expressed by such notions as do imply great strength and power (Col_2:15; Eph_4:8).
1. There is the devil, who is a powerful adversary. But the prince of this world is judged (Joh_16:11).
2. The law was an enemy, as it condemns us (Col_2:14; Eph_2:16).
3. Death and hell (1Co_15:54; 2Ti_1:10; Rev_1:18).
4. The flesh (Rom_8:3).
5. The world (Joh_16:33).
6. All the adverse powers in the world (Psa_2:10-12).
II. THE MEANS. The weapons of this warfare are not carnal.
1. As to His death.
2. By the Word of the Cross, called the foolishness of preaching.
3. By His Spirit; a great force, but secret and undiscerned.
4. By His prayers and intercessions.
III. THE MANNER OR NATURE OF THE CONQUEST, how it is achieved.
1. The enemies are overcome and terribly broken: there is a total dissipation of all the powers of darkness.
2. Not barely overcome, but spoiled and rifled (Col_2:15).
3. Such a victory as endeth in a solemn triumph; as conquerors in public view carried their spoils and their enemies tied to their chariots, so Christ would expose them to open shame.
IV. WHAT SPECIAL BENEFITS WE HAVE BY THE CONQUEST OF CHRIST.
1. The banishment of distracting fear (Heb_2:15).
2. An encouragement to the spiritual conflict.
3. Joy unspeakable and glorious.
4. Hopes of glory; we shall conquer with Him, and reign with Him.
5. The very exaltation of Christ is a great comfort to us.
6. Christs conquest is a token, earnest and pledge of our victory.
7. What Christ did in this conquest, He did it for our sakes. He will have nothing but we shall share in it.
8. Another benefit is usefulness and serviceableness for all that befalls us. Christ doth so effect it that all things work together for good (Rom_8:28). (T. Manton, D.D.)
He hath poured out His soul unto death
The conflict of Christ explained
I. HIS DEATH. He hath poured out, etc.
II. THE IGNOMINY OF IT. He was numbered with the transgressors.
III. THE CAUSE OF IT. He bare, etc.
IV. THE NOTED CIRCUMSTANCE IN IT. He made intercession for the transgressors. (T. Manton, D.D.)
The love of Christ
He gave Himself.
I. THE GIFT. His soul.
II. THE MANNER OF GIVING. Poured out.
III. THE INTENT. (T. Manton, D.D.)
Christ killed by the inner Cross
It was not the Cross of wood that killed the Saviour, but the inner Cross, which lay heavily on His soul. (C. Clemance, D.D.)
Christs connection with sinners the source of His glory
I. The first source of the Mediators glory is, that He, out of His love to guilty men, has POURED OUT HIS SOUL UNTO DEATH. The penalty of sin is death. The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The Lord Jesus came into such connection with men that He bore the death penalty which guilty men had incurred. Remark the expression: He hath poured out His soul unto death. It is deliberate. It is a libation presented with thought and care; not the mere spilling of His blood, but the resolute, determinate pouring out of His whole life unto its last drop--the pouring it; out unto death. Christs resolve to die for you and me was not that of a brave soldier who rushes up to the cannons mouth in a moment of excitement; but He was practically pouring out His life from the day when His public ministry commenced, if not before. He was always dying by living at such a rate that His zeal consumed Him.
2. It was most real and true. I pray you do not think of Christ as pouring out His soul, as though it made Him spend a sort of ecstatic life in dream-land, and suffer only in thought, intent, and sympathy. My Lord suffered as you suffer, only more keenly; for He had never injured His body or soul by any act of excess, so as to take off the edge from His sensitiveness.
3. See how complete it was. Jesus gave poor sinners everything. His every faculty was laid out for them. Put your trust; m Him, then, without reserve.
II. OUR LORD WAS NUMBERED WITH SINNERS. He was numbered with the transgressors. There is a touch of nearness to the sinner about this which there is not in the first clause. He bears death for the sinner; but you could not suppose, if you had not read it, thus He would be written in the sinner s register. He was not, and could not be, a sinner; but yet it is written, He was numbered with the transgressors. Is there a census taken of sinners? Then, the name of Jesus is written down. How was He numbered with the transgressors? This makes it the more marvellous, because it is so hurtful to a man who is pure, to be numbered with the impure.
Our Lord Jesus was numbered with the transgressors--
1. By the tongue of slander. They called Him a drunken man and a wine-bibber: they even called Him Beelzebub. That was sharp enough for Him to bear, whom all the angels salute as Holy, holy, holy!
2. In the earthly courts of justice. He stood at the bar as a common felon, though He was judge of all. Though they could not find witnesses whose testimony agreed, yet they condemned Him (Mar_15:28).
3. Our Lord Jesus Christ, on earth, was treated, in the providence of God, as transgressors are treated. Transgression sometimes brings on men poverty, sickness, reproach, and desertion; and Jesus Christ had to take His share of all these with sinful men. All things in this world that are so keen and terrible to man, because man has become so guilty, were just as keen and terrible to Him. The nails that pierced Him tore His tender flesh as they would have torn that of the sinful. Fever parched Him till His tongue cleaved to His jaws.
4. The Holy God treated Him as if He were one of us. It pleased the Father to bruise Him; He hath put Him to grief.. God not only turned His back on transgressors, but He turned His back upon His Son, who was numbered with them.
III. The third matter by which the Lord Jesus Christ has won His victories, and earned reward of God, is this: HE BARE THE SIN OF MANY.
IV. The last thing is this: HE MADE INTERCESSION FOR THE TRANSGRESSORS. Who among us will take up the part of the guilty? Who will plead for the guilty? I know, in certain oases, the lawyer will sell his tongue to the most polluted; but if a man were perfectly pure, you would not find him saying a word in defence of the guilty. So far as the man was guilty he could not be defended. But our Lord made intercession for transgressors. When He was here on earth how tender He was with transgressors! He bore on His heart the names of guilty men. He was always pleading their cause, and when He came to die he said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. He took their part. He would exculpate them if He could. I dare say that He has often prayed like that for you. Now He has gone up yonder He is pleading still. Application:
(1) Jesus Christ does not shrink from sinners; ye sinners, do not shrink from Him.
(2) As Jesus does not shrink from sinners, do not yourselves shrink from them. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
He was numbered with the transgressors
The Friend of sinners
I. To the sinner, troubled and alarmed on account of guilt, there will be much comfort in the thought that CHRIST IS ENROLLED AMONG SINNERS. He was numbered with the transgressors.
1. In what sense are we to understand this?
(1) He was numbered with them, in the census of the Roman empire.
(2) Years rolled on, and that child who had been early numbered with transgressors, and had received the seal of transgression in the circumcision, which represents the putting away of the flesh--that child, having come to manhood, goes forth into the world and is numbered with transgressors in the scroll of fame. Ask public rumour What is the character of Jesus of Nazareth? and it cannot find a word in its vocabulary foul enough for Him. This they sometimes said; and our translators have inserted the word fellow because in the original there is an ellipsis, the evangelists, I suppose, hardly liking to write the word which had been cast upon Christ Jesus. They called the Master of the house, Beelzebub!
(3) But to make the matter still more forcible, He was numbered with transgressors in the courts of law. The ecclesiastical court of Judaism, the Sanhedrim, said of Him, Thou blasphemest; and they smote Him on the cheek. Written down among the offenders against the dignity of God and against the security of the Jewish Church, you find the name of Jesus of Nazareth which was crucified. The courts civil also asserted the same.
(4) Then, the whole Jewish people numbered Him with transgressors; nay, they reprobated Him as a more abominable transgressor than a thief and a murderer who had excited sedition.
(5) His name is written in the calendar of crime by the whole universe; for He is despised and rejected of men; of all men is He accounted to be the offscouring of all things, and is put to grief.
2. Why was Christ numbered with transgressors?
(1) Because He could the better become their advocate. I believe, in legal phraseology, in civil cases, the advocate considers himself to be part and partner with the person, for whom he pleads. You hear the counsellor continually using the word we; he is considered by the judge to represent the person for whom he is an advocate.
(2) That He might plead with them. Suppose a number of prisoners confined in one of our old jails, and there is a person desirous to do them good, imagine that he cannot be admitted unless his name is put down in the calendar. Well, out of his abundant love to these prisoners he consents to it, and when he enters to talk with them, they perhaps think that he will come in with cold dignity; but he says, Now, let me say to you first of all that I am one of yourselves. Well, they say, but have you done aught that is wrong? I will not answer you that, saith he; but if you will just refer to the calender you will find my name there; I am written down there among you as a criminal. Oh, how they open their hearts now!
(3) That sinners may feel their hearts drawn to Him.
(4) That we might be written in the red roll of His saints.
II. We are taught in the next sentence, that Christ BARE THE SINS OF MANY.
1. Here it is as clear as noon-day that Christ dealt with sinners.
2. As He did bear their sins, other texts tell us that He did bear them away.
3. There is now no sin abiding upon those for whom Jesus died.
III. Our third sentence tells us that JESUS INTERCEDES FOR SINNERS. And made intercession for the transgressors.
1. He pleads for their forgiveness.
2. He next prays that those for whom He intercedes may be saved, and may have a new life given them. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Christ numbered with the transgressors
He became a sinner, though sinless--
1. By imputation.
2. By reputation. (J. Trapp.)
Made intercession far the transgressors
Christs intercession for transgressors
Christ in this and such like actions is to be considered in a double regard--
1. As a holy, godly man; so He was to fulfil all righteousness.
2. As a mediator and public person, that was to be our High Priest, to satisfy and intercede. (T. Manton D. D.)
Christ s intercession
1. Who prayeth. Christ, one that could destroy them with His glory easily enough.
2. When He prayed. In the very act of His sufferings.
3. For whom He prayed. For them that offered Him all the indignities in the world.
4. How He prayed. He pleadeth for them; Forgive them, etc. (T. Manton, D.D.)
Jesus interceding for transgressors
Our blessed Lord made intercession for transgressors in so many words while He was being crucified, for He was heard to say, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. Our Lord fixed His eye upon that point in the character of His persecutors which was most favourable to them, namely, that they knew not what they did. He could not plead their innocence, and therefore He pleaded their ignorance. Our great Advocate will be sure to plead wisely and efficiently on our behalf; He will urge every argument which can be discovered, for His eye, quickened by love, will suffer nothing to pass which may tell in our favour. The prophet, however, does not, I suppose, intend to confine our thoughts to the one incident which is recorded by the evangelists, for the intercession of Christ was an essential part of His entire life-work. Jesus Himself is the reasoning and logic of prayer, and He Himself is an ever-living prayer unto the Most High. It was part of our Lords official work to make intercession for the transgressors. He is a Priest, and as such He brings His offering, and presents prayer on the behalf of the people.
I. I have to direct your attention to our ever-living Lord making intercession for the transgressors; and I shall pray God that all of us may be roused to ADMIRATION FOR HIS GRACE.
1. If you will consider His intercession for transgressors I think you will be struck with the love, and tenderness, and graciousness of His heart, when you recollect that He offered intercession verbally while He was standing in the midst of their sin. Sin heard of and sin seen are two very different things. Our Lord actually saw human sin, saw it at its worst. He saw it all, and felt the sin as you and I cannot feel it, for His heart was purer, and therefore tenderer than ours: He saw that the tendency of sin was to put Him to death, and all like Him, yea and to slay God Himself if it could achieve its purpose, for man had become a Decide and must needs crucify His God--and yet, though His holy soul saw and loathed all this tendency and atrocity of transgression, He still made intercession for the transgressors.
2. Another point of His graciousness was also clear, namely, that He should thus intercede while in agony.
3. But it is marvellous that He being pure, should plead for transgressors at all: for you and for me amongst them--let the wonder begin there.
4. Further, it is to me a very wonderful fact that in His glory He should still be pleading for sinners.
5. Again, it is gloriously gracious that our Lord should continue to do this. He hath never ceased to make intercession for transgressors.
II. I do earnestly pray that we may be led of the Holy Ghost so to view His intercession for transgressors as to put our CONFIDENCE IN HIMSELF. There is ground for a sinners confidence in Christ, and there is abundant argument for the believers complete reliance in Him, from the fact of His perpetual intercession.
1. Because His intercession succeeds.
2. There is reason for transgressors to come and trust in Jesus Christ, seeing He pleads for them.
3. I am sure, too, that if Jesus Christ pleads for transgressors as transgressors, while as yet they have not begun to pray for themselves, He will be sure to hear them when they are at last led to pray.
4. In order that our confidence may be increased, consider the effect of our Lords intercession for transgressors.
(1) Many of the worst of transgressors have been preserved in life in answer to Christs prayer.
(2) The gift of the Holy Spirit which is needful for the quickening of transgressors was the result of Christs intercession.
(3) It is through Christs intercession that our poor prayers are accepted with God.
(4) It is through the prayers of Christ, too, that we are kept in the hour of temptation. Remember what He said to Peter, I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not, when Satan desired to have him and sift him as wheat. Father, keep them from the evil is a part of our Lords supplication, and His Father hears Him always.
(5) Indeed, it is because He pleads that we are saved at all. He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.
III. I pray that our text may inspire us with the spirit of OBEDIENCE TO HIS EXAMPLE. I take the example of Christ to be an embodied precept as much binding upon us as His written commands.
1. Imitate Him by forgiving all transgressions against yourself.
2. Imitate Christ, in pleading for yourselves. Since you are transgressors, and you see that Jesus intercedes for transgressors, make bold to say, If He pleads for such as I am, I will put in my humble petition, and hope to be heard through Him.
3. If we have been forgiven our transgressions, let us now intercede for transgressors, since Jesus does so.
4. Let us take care, that if we do plead for others we mix with it the doing of good to them, because it is not recorded that He made intercession for transgressors until it is first written, He bare the sin of many
5. If Christ appears in heaven for us, let us be glad to appear on earth for him. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The Monarch becomes an intercessor for His foes
(with Luk_23:34):--Here prophecy and history unite in taking us to the place which is calledCalvary.
I. IN WHAT LIGHT SHOULD WE REGARD THESE WORDS?
II. WHAT IS THE REQUEST? For whom? Forgive them, those who were the instruments and agents in His crucifixion. These were--
1. The people.
2. The chief priests and scribes.
3. The rulers.
4. The soldiers.
5. The Roman governor.
6. The passers-by, who were reviling Him.
7. Those who were crucified with Him, joining in the mockery and jests.
What is the plea by which the petition is urged? They know not what they do. Not one of them knew the full extent of the crime. Not even the disciples could have estimated the guilt of the people (Act_3:16; 1Co_2:6). There was only One, even the Sufferer Himself, who could view that sin in all its manifold complications, and hold evenly and righteously the scales of judgment.
III. WHAT A SPIRIT OF LOVE THESE WORDS BREATHE! Their self-forgetfulness is wonderful. The sin of those thus wronging the Saviour was a far greater cause of distress to Him than all the degradation, ignominy, and pain He was enduring; on these things He could be altogether silent, in order to plead for the forgiveness of others sin. We see here, too, a love which, rising above human repulsiveness and guilt, ever regards itself as sent to save; a love which would carry on a redeeming work, even when stretched in agony on the Cross. Here, too, is not only the love of One, whose saving energy could neither be repulsed nor trammelled, but of One who, though He is most fully acquainted with the greatness of their guilt, pleads before Him, to whom sin is an abominable thing, the mitigation of their crime. Truly, it is a marvel of comfort that He, who judges sin most exactly, deals with the sinner most tenderly! Here, too, is Divine love making intercession for the transgressors; not for the good, but for the bad; not for the penitent, but for the impenitent; that they may be brought to repent; showing us how Christs love goes after men always, under all circumstances, in the lowest depths of guilt. Nevertheless, Divine love so pleads, as to imply that if this sin had been committed with full understanding of its enormity, He dared not have asked for its forgiveness. For they know not what they do. Thus the spirit of this prayer has its terrors as well as its comforts. There is a sin unto death, for which the Redeemer does not intercede, and for which we have no commission or authority to pray. Where that sin lies, what is its precise character, whether this or that man has committed it, we dare not say. We can tell four things about it:--we know the region in which it lies, the sign it has been committed, the sign it has not been committed, and why there is no mercy for it. Where one who has the fullest light indulges in the greatest sin, he is getting very near the unpardonable sin. The sign that it has been committed, would be hard, final, impenitence. True repentance is a sure sign it has not been committed. It is not pardonable, because at such a stage the sinner will not repent.
IV. WHAT ARE THE DOCTRINES THESE WORDS INVOLVE?
1. They teach us that the Father saves us through the Son.
2. That sins of ignorance need forgiveness. Paul sinned ignorantly in unbelief, and yet was the chief of sinners.
3. Whatever palliation of guilt may be allowed, owing to ignorance, full recognition is taken thereof by the great Intercessor.
4. We are taught that the fuller the light the greater the sin (Heb_10:26-27).
5. That forgiveness of sin, by God, is so precious to us, because it is made over to us in perfect knowledge of every aggravation and mitigation.
V. WHAT RESULTS DID THIS INTERCESSION SECURE? We are sure that this prayer was answered. It did not indeed avert the destruction of the doomed city, but--
1. It secured the forgiveness of every penitent who might be, nevertheless, involved in its temporal disasters.
2. The Great Pleaders work soon proved its power in the salvation of the thief on the Cross, and shortly after of thousands more.
3. By means of the intercession of our Lord, begun on earth, and now carried on in heaven, we are not under the law, but under grace. (C. Clemance, D. D.)
Meaning of intercession
The question, What is meant by intercession? being asked in a Sunday school, one of the children replied, Speaking a word to God fur us, sir.
Intercession for the transgressors
I shall never forget, wrote Miss Plumptre to a friend, the day of the sadness and the gladness of my heart, the day when a chafed and disappointed spirit found healing and rest in One whom I had done my utmost to be independent of. The joy of the astronomer over his newly-discovered planet is nothing to the rapture with which I gazed upon the word transgressors in the last sentence of Isa_53:12; He made intercession for the transgressors. I wellremember being so dazzled that for a time I thought it a delusion, a misprint. It was something so altogether new to my proud, hard-working spirit, that I could almost wonder that I did not erase it and put in the penitent or the humble or one of natures proud epithets. Yes, I think that word transgressors was the first that ever glowed on me with all the attraction of free grace..
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain Isa_53:12. Therefore will I divide Him a portion with…
THE WORK AND THE REWARD OF CHRIST
Isa_53:12. Therefore will I divide Him a portion with the great, &c.
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Both the work and the reward of the Saviour were included in the prophecies concerning Him.
I. HIS WORK.
1. Its culminating act. “He hath poured out His soul unto death.” Not His incarnation, poverty, miracles, teaching, obedience. All these necessary. But the grand act was His death.
2. Its humiliating circumstances. “He was numbered with the transgressors.” On the cross as a male-factor with malefactors.
3. Its vicarious character. “And He bore the sin of many.” This conducts our thoughts farther than the outward spectacle, to the reason of it.
4. Its mediatorial power. “He made intercession for the transgressors” (Luk_23:34; Heb_7:25; 1Jn_2:1-2).
II. HIS REWARD.
“Therefore will I divide Him,” &c. The allusion is to the conqueror receiving as his reward a portion of the spoils taken in war. Christ’s triumphal entry into heaven and seat upon the throne. His acquisition of the souls rescued from the power of the enemy. Illustrate by the progress of the Church from small beginnings to the present time. Also its further progress as indicated in prophecy as yet unfulfilled. This includes a multitude which no man can number; and all the intelleot, wealth, holy character, talent, power of usefulness of each.
CONCLUSION.—
1. These glorious results will be secured by human agency.
2. The work is committed to the Church of Christ, every member of which is responsible for his proper portion of it.
3. The strongest motives to engagement in this enterprise exist. They are the united obligations of love and loyalty.—J. Rawlinson.
Be careful not to mistake the pleasure with which you listen to a subject like this for real religion and acceptable devotion. Many weep over Christ’s sufferings who never weep over their sins, &c. The true feeling with which we should contemplate His work.
I. Christ as a sufferer. This chapter forms rather a history of His passion, than a prophecy. It appears to be a part of God’s procedure that the most important blessings should arise out of suffering. Christ has consecrated and ennobled the path of suffering.
1. Christ’s sufferings were penal. Ours are salutary. We have many alleviations under them, and have cheerful hopes of benefit by them, but Christ was unsustained by the prospect of any moral benefit to Himself.
2. Christ’s sufferings were vicarious.
3. Christ’s sufferings were chiefly intellectual.
Some of the advantages arising from the fact that our Saviour was a sufferer.—
(1.) It reconciles us to the endurance of trial.
(2.) It secures to us support and sympathy under the pressure of our various trials.
(3.) It leads us to anticipate a final conquest over trial. Glory preceded by humiliation, &c.
II. Christ as a conqueror (Col_2:15; Php_2:9). Innumerable multitudes shall enjoy the benefits of His death. He is still conquering. The final triumph is certain.
III. Christ as an intercessor.
In Christ we have a complete and all-sufficient Saviour.—Samuel. Thodey.
LESSONS AT THE CROSS
(For Good Friday, or Sacramental Service.)
Isa_53:12. He hath poured out His soul unto death.
Of all wonderful deaths, that of the Son of God is the most wonderful. Let us take our stand at the cross, and gather up some of the lessons taught by His death—
I. THE IMMEASURABLE DEPTH OF MAN’S MISERY.
He had sunk so low that he could sink no lower, except he sank into hell. He might justly have been left to perish, and must have perished but for the interposition of the Son of God, who assumed the nature that had sinned, &c., and “poured out His soul unto death” on the accursed tree. He alone could rescue man from Satan’s grasp, &c. (Isa_49:24-26).
II. THE INFINITE ENORMITY OF SIN.
It is evident that to a God of perfect purity sin must be infinitely hateful. Call to mind the destruction of fallen angels, the expulsion from Eden of the parents of our race, &c. The Apostle Paul maintains that sin subjects the sinner to temporal, spiritual, and eternal death, by a law perfectly holy, just, and good, and is consequently set forth in its true colours as “exceeding sinful”—out of measure, beyond all expression or conception sinful (Rom_7:13). But the crowning evidence is seen in the cross of Christ: not so much in the fact that impenitent sinners are damned by it, as that the immaculate Son of God died for it. What must be its enormity when God’s mercy could not consistently pardon it till His own Son had undergone its punishment—a person of infinite purity, dignity, and worth, &c.? Cease to regard sin as a trifle, &c. Put yourself in the line of God’s view of it. A right estimate of sin is a vital point in the process of personal salvation. Repent, and believe on Christ, or you must perish eternally, for “there is no other sacrifice for sin.” If God spared not His own sinless Son, when He bore the sins of the guilty, much less will He spare impenitent sinners when they bear their own sins.
III. THE ALL-SUFFICIENT ATONEMENT FOR SIN, AND THE ONLY FOUNDATION OF HOPE FOR SINNERS.
Christ did not die as a martyr, or as a spotless example of virtue, &c. These were important ends secured by His death, but they were not the direct and supreme purpose of His death, which was, according to the uniform teaching of the sacred word, “for our sins,” &c.—a substitutionary sacrifice, &c. Though God is a being of infinite love, He cannot pardon sin apart from an adequate atonement. All ideas of Divine mercy separate from the great atoning scheme are erroneous, valueless, dangerous. “God was in Christ,” &c. God has always dealt with humanity “in Christ,” whether they have known it or not. The dealings of an absolute God with a sinner—a God out of Christ, what would that be? What is the appropriate retort of offended Omnipotence? Annihilation. The history of mankind is a history of redemption. All the characteristics and conditions of an adequate atonement met in the Christ. That the Father has accepted His atoning work as all-sufficient is evident by His raising Him from the dead, and exalting Him, &c. (Act_5:31, and others). And, that His death is now available as an atonement for sin, is manifest from the fact, that He is set before us in the Gospel, by the supreme authority of the Father, as the only object of faith and ground of acceptance (Rom_3:25-26; Gal_2:21, and others). Have you “received the atonement?” If not, you have not found the ground on which you can venture without fear into the presence of the Holy One, &c.
IV. THE SUPREME REVELATION OF DIVINE LOVE.
All other manifestations are but faint compared with the love exhibited in our redemption. Either Christ must assume our nature, &c., or the race must perish. Will God’s love to a world of sinners induce Him to give His Son? The everlasting interests of humanity were suspended upon that question (Rom_8:32; Joh_3:16, and others). He might have formed a more glorious world, &c., but He could not manifest His love in a higher degree than He has done. What more convincing proof can you want that God loves you? Can you continue to grieve such love? Yield to His love’s all-conquering power.
Let us, then, often visit the cross to learn the depth of our misery, &c.; the one great theme of all true Christian preaching, and the supreme object of Christian glorying (Gal_6:14-15; P. D. 595).—A. Tucker.
THE FRIEND OF SINNERS
Isa_53:12. He was numbered with the transgressors; and He bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
A vague notion is abroad in the world that the benefit of Christ’s passion is intended only for good people. How inconsistent is such a supposition with the whole teaching of Scripture. Consider the plan itself. It was a plan of salvation and of necessity, it was intended to bless sinners. The plan was based in grace, but how “grace,” unless it was meant for persons who deserve nothing? Moreover, think of the work itself. The work of Christ was to bring in a perfect righteousness. For whom? For those who had a righteousness? That were a superfluity. And then look at God’s end in the whole work. It was to glorify Himself; but how could God be glorified by washing spotless souls, and by bringing to everlasting glory by grace those who could have entered heaven by merit?
Our text, in its threefold character, shows the intimate connection which exists between Jesus and sinners, for in none of its sentences is there meaning unless there be a sinner, and unless Christ has come into connection with him. It is this one point I want to work out.
I. CHRIST IS ENROLLED AMONG SINNERS.
In what sense are we to understand this? He was numbered with them—
1. In the census of the Roman Empire. There went out a decree from Cæsar Augustus that all the world should be taxed, and the espoused wife of Joseph, being great with child, must travel to Bethlehem that Christ may be born there, and that He may be numbered with the transgressing people, who, for their sins, were subject to the Roman yoke.
2. In the scroll of fame. Ask public rumour “What is the character of Jesus of Nazareth?” and it cannot find a word in its vocabulary foul enough for Him. “This—” they sometimes said; and our translators have inserted the word “fellow,” because in the original there is an ellipsis, the Evangelists, I suppose, hardly liking to write the word which had been cast upon Christ. Fame, with her lying tongue, said He was a drunken man and a wine-bibber, &c.
3. In the courts of law. The ecclesiastical court of Judaism, the Sanhedrim, said of Him, “Thou blasphemest;” and they smote Him on the cheek. Written down among the offenders against the dignity of God and against the security of the Jewish Church, you find the name of Jesus of Nazareth which was crucified. The civil courts also asserted the same. Pilate may wash his hands in water, and say, “I find no fault in Him,” but still, driven by the infernal clamours of an angry people, he is compelled to write, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews;” and he gives Him up to die as a malefactor who has rebelled against the sovereign law of the land. Herod, too, the Jewish tetrarch, confirms the sentence, and so, with two pens at once, Jesus Christ is written down by the civil leaders among transgressors.
4. By the whole Jewish people. Barabbas is put in competition with Christ, and they say, “Not this man, but Barabbas.” His being numbered with transgressors is no fiction. Lo, He bears the transgressor’s scourging! He bears the felon’s cross. All earth holds up its hands for His death; it is carried unanimously. Of all men is He accounted to be the offscouring of all things, and is put to grief.
5. God, the Eternal Judge, shows that He too considers Him to be in the roll of transgressors, for He veils His face till Jesus shrieks in agony so unutterable, that the words cannot express the meaning of the Redeemer’s soul, “My God,” &c.? The only answer from heaven being, “I must forsake transgressors; thou art numbered with them, and therefore I must forsake thee.” He dies without a protest on the part of earth, or heaven, or hell; He that was numbered with the transgressors, having worn the transgressor’s crown of thorns, lies in the trangressor’s grave.
Pause here a moment, and think this matter over. It is a strange and wonderful thing, and ought not to be passed by in silence. Why, think you, was Christ numbered with transgressors?
(1.) Because He could the better become their advocate. I believe, in legal phraseology, in civil cases, the advocate considers himself to be part and partner with the person for whom he pleads. You hear the counsellor continually using the word “we;” he is considered by the judge to represent the person for whom he is an advocate. Now, Christ, when the sinner is brought to the bar, appears there Himself. What is the accusation? He stands to answer it; He points to His side, His hands, His feet, and challenges Justice to bring anything against the sinners whom He represents; He pleads His blood, and pleads so triumphantly, being numbered with them and having a part with them, that the judge proclaims, “Let them go their way; deliver them from going down into the pit, for He at their head hath found a ransom.”
(2.) That He might plead with them. Suppose a number of prisoners confined in one of our old jails, and there is a person desirous to do them good, imagine that he cannot be admitted unless his name is put down in the calendar. Well, out of his abundant love to these prisoners he consents to it, and when he enters to talk with them, they perhaps think that he will come in with cold dignity; but he says, “Now, let me say to you first of all that I am one of yourselves.” “Well,” they say, “but have you done aught that is wrong?” “I will not answer you that,” saith he; “but if you will just refer to the calendar you will find my name there; I am written down there among you as a criminal.” Oh, how they open their hearts now! They opened their eyes with wonder first, but now they open their hearts, and they say, “Art thou become like one of us? Then we will talk with thee.” And he begins to plead with them. Sinner, dost thou see this? Christ puts Himself as near on a level with thee as He can. He cannot be sinful as thou art, but He so puts His name down in the list that when the roll is called His name is called over with thine. Oh, how near doth He come to thee in thy ruined state!
(3.) That sinners may feel their hearts drawn to Him. There is a tendency in awakened sinners to be afraid of Christ; but who will be afraid of a man that is numbered with us? Surely now we may come boldly to Him, and confess our guilt. He that is numbered with us cannot condemn us.
(4.) That we might be written in the red roll of the saints. He was holy, and written among the holy; we were guilty, and numbered among the guilty; He transfers His name from yonder list to this black indictment, and ours are taken from the indictment, foul and filthy, and written in the roll which is fair and glorious, for there is a transfer made between Christ and His people. All that we have goes to Christ; and all that Christ has comes to us.
II. CHRIST BARE THE SINS OF MANY.
1. Here it is as clear as noon-day, that Christ dealt with sinners. Do not say Christ died for those who have done no wrong. That is not the description given. It is clear to every one that chooses to look, that Christ could not bear the sins of those who had no sins, but could only bear the sins of men who were sinful and guilty. Their sins were really, not in a legal fiction, but really transferred from them to Him. You see, a man cannot bear a thing which is not on his back; it is impossible that he can bear it unless it is actually there. The word “bear” implies weight, and weight is the sure indicator of reality. Christ did bear sin in its fulness, vileness, and condemnation upon His own shoulders. Comprehend this, then, and you have the marrow of the subject.
2. Then notice, that as He did bear them, so other texts tell us that He did bear them away (Joh_1:29). Sin being on His head, the scapegoat took it away. Where? Into the wilderness of forgetfulness. If it be sought for it shall not be found; the Everlasting God seeth it no more, it hath ceased to be, for He hath finished iniquity and made an end of sin; and when there is an end of it what more can be said?
3. There is now no sin abiding upon those for whom Jesus died. “And who are they?” you say. Why all those who trust Him. Are you a sinner? Yes or no. If you say “No,” then I have nothing to say to you; Christ came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. If you are a sinner, to you is the word of this salvation sent. “But I have been a thief!” I suppose a thief is a sinner? “But I have been a drunkard!” &c. &c. You come in under the list of sinners, and I say that such Christ contemplated, and the two sentences we have already considered prove this to a demonstration. He contemplated such as you are when He came to save, for “He was numbered with transgressors,” and He “bare”—not the virtues, not the merits, not the good works of many, but “the sin of many.” So, if you have any sin, here is Christ the sin-bearer; and if you are a sinner, here is Christ numbered with you.
III. JESUS INTERCEDES FOR SINNERS.
He prays for His saints, but remember that by nature they are transgressors, and nothing more.
1. There is a transgressor here this morning. He has been hearing the Gospel for many years, &c. I hear a voice saying—“Lo, these three years I come seeking fruit,” &c. The woodman feels his axe; it is sharp and keen. “Now,” says he, “I will lay to at this barren tree, and cut it down.” But hark! There is One that maketh intercession for transgressors, hear Him, “Spare it yet a little while, till I dig about it and dung it,” &c. Bless God that Christ pleads for you in that way.
2. But that done, He pleads for their forgiveness. “Father, forgive them,” &c. It is this that breaks a man’s heart; to think that Christ should have been loving me, with the whole force of His soul, while I was despising Him, and would have nothing to do with Him.
3. He next prays that those for whom He intercedes may be saved, and may have a new life given them. Every soul that is quickened by the Holy Spirit is so quickened as the result of His intercession for transgressors. His prayer brings down the life, and dead sinners live. When they live He does not cease to pray for them, for by His intercession they are preserved. And more, our coming to glory is the result of the pleading of Christ for transgressors (Joh_17:24).—C. H. Spurgeon: Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 458.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain
Isaiah
THE SUFFERING SERVANT-VI
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Isa 53:12.
The first clause of this verse is somewhat difficult. There are two ways of understanding it. One is that adopted in A. V., according to which the suffering Servant is represented as equal to the greatest conquerors. He is to be as gloriously successful in His victory as they have been in theirs. But there are two very strong objections to this rendering-first, that it takes ‘the many’ in the sense of mighty, thus obscuring the identity of the expression here and in the previous verse and in the end of this verse; and secondly, that it gives a very feeble and frigid ending to the prophecy. It does not seem a worthy close simply to say that the Servant is to be like a Cyrus or a Nebuchadnezzar in His conquests.
The other rendering, though there are some difficulties, is to be preferred. According to it ‘the many’ and ‘the strong’ are themselves the prey or spoil. The words might be read, ‘I will apportion to Him the many, and He shall apportion to Himself the strong ones.’
This retains the same meaning of ‘many’ for the same expression throughout the context, and is a worthy ending to the prophecy. The force of the clause is then to represent the suffering Servant as a conqueror, leading back from His conquests a long train of captives, a rich booty.
Notice some points about this closing metaphor.
Mark its singular contrast to the tone of the rest of the prophecy. Note the lowliness, the suffering, the minor key of it all, and then, all at once, the leap up to rapture and triumph. The special form of the metaphor strikes one as singular. Nothing in the preceding context even remotely suggests it. Even the previous clause about ‘making the many righteous’ does not do much to prepare the way for it. Whatever be our explanation of the words, it must be one that does full justice to this metaphor, and presents some conquering power or person, whose victories are brilliant and real enough to be worthy to stand at the close of such a prophecy. We must keep in mind, too, what has been remarked on the two previous verses, that this victorious campaign and growing conquest is achieved after the Servant is dead. That is a paradox. And note that the strength of language representing His activity can scarcely be reconciled with the idea that it is only the post-mortem influence of His life which is meant.
Note, too, the singular blending of God’s power and the Servant’s own activity in the winning of this extended sovereignty. Side by side the two are put. The same verb is used in order to emphasise the intended parallel. ‘I will divide,’ ‘He shall divide.’ I will give Him-He shall conquer for Himself. Remember the intense vehemence with which the Old Testament guards the absolute supremacy of divine power, and how strongly it always puts the thought that God is everything and man nothing. Look at the contrast of the tone when a human conqueror, whose conquests are the result of God’s providence, is addressed {Isa 45:1 - Isa 45:3}. There is an entire suppression of his personality, not a word about his bravery, his military genius, or anything in him. It is all I, I, I. Remember how, in Isa 10:13, one of the sins for which the Assyrian is to be destroyed is precisely that he thought of his victories as due to his own strength and wisdom. So he is indignantly reminded that he is only ‘a staff in Mine hand,’ the axe with which God hewed the nations, whereas here the voice of God Himself speaks, and gives a strange place beside Himself to the will and power of this Conqueror. This feature of the prophecy should be accounted for in any satisfactory interpretation.
Note, too, the wide sweep of the Servant’s dominion, which carries us back to the beginning of this prophecy in Isa 52:15, where we hear of the Servant as ‘sprinkling’ {or startling’} many nations, and the ‘kings’ is parallel with the ‘strong’ in this verse. No bounds are assigned to the Servant’s conquests, which are, if not declared to be universal, at least indefinitely extended and striding on to world-wide empire.
These points are plainly here. I do not dilate upon them. But I ask whether any of the interpretations of these words, except one, gives adequate force to them? Is there anything in the history of the restored exiles which corresponds to this picture? Even if you admit the violent hypothesis that there was a better part of the nation, so good that the national sorrows had no chastisement for them, and the other violent hypothesis that the devoutest among the exiles suffered most, and the other that the death and burial and resurrection of the Servant only mean the reformation wrought on Israel by captivity. What is there in the history of Israel which can be pointed at as the conquest of the world? Was the nation that bore the yokes of a Ptolemy, an Antiochus, a Herod, a Caesar, the fulfiller of this dream of world-conquest? There is only one thing which can be called the Jew conquering the world. It is that which, as I believe, is meant here, viz. Christ’s conquest. Apart from that, I know of nothing which would not be ludicrously disproportionate if it were alleged as fulfilment of this glowing prophecy.
This prophetic picture is at least four hundred years before Christ, by the admission of those who bring it lowest down, in their eagerness to get rid of prophecy. The life of Christ does correspond to it, in such a way that, clause by clause, it reads as if it were quite as much a history of Jesus as a prophecy of the Servant. This certainly is an extraordinary coincidence if it be not a prophecy. And there is really no argument against the Messianic interpretation, except dogmatic prejudice-’there cannot be prophecy.’
No straining is needed in order to fit this great prophetic picture of the world-Conqueror to Jesus. Even that, at first sight incongruous, picture of a victor leading long lines of captives, such as we see on Assyrian slabs and Egyptian paintings, is historically true of Him who ‘leads captivity captive,’ and is, through the ages, winning ever fresh victories, and leading His enemies, turned into lovers, in His triumphal progress. He, and He only, really owns men. His slaves have made real self-surrenders to Him. Other conquerors may imprison or load with irons or deport to other lands, but they are only lords of bodies. Jesus’ chains are silken, and bind hearts that are proud of their bonds. He carries off His free prisoners ‘from the power of darkness’ into His kingdom of light. His slaves rejoice to say, ‘I am not my own,’ and he only truly possesses himself who has given himself away to the Conquering Christ. For all these centuries He has been conquering hearts, enthralling and thereby liberating wills, making Himself the life of lives. There is nothing else the least like the bond between Jesus and millions who never saw him. Who among all the leaders of thought or religious teachers has been able to impress his personality on others and to dominate them in the fashion that Jesus has done and is doing to-day? How has He done this thing, which no other man has been able in the least to do? What is His charm, the secret of His power? The prophet has no doubt what it is, and unfolds it to us with a significant ‘For.’ We turn, then, to the prophetic explanation of that worldwide empire and note-
II. The foundation of the Servant’s dominion.
That explanation is given in four clauses which fall into two pairs. They remarkably revert to the thought of the Servant’s sufferings, but in how different a tone these are now spoken of, when they are no longer regarded as the results of man’s blind failure to see His beauty, or as inflicted by the mysterious ‘pleasure of Jehovah,’ but as the causes of His triumph! Echoes of both the two first clauses are heard from the lips of Jesus. As He passed beneath the tremulous shadow of the olives of Gethsemane, He appealed for the companionship of the three, by an all but solitary revelation of His weakness and sorrow, ‘My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death; abide ye here and watch with Me.’ And even more distinctly did He lay His hand on this prophecy when He ended all His words in the upper room with ‘This which is written must be fulfilled in Me, And He was reckoned with “transgressors.”‘ May we not claim Jesus as endorsing the Messianic interpretation of this prophecy? He gazed on the portrait painted ages before that night of sorrow, and saw in it His own likeness, and said, That is meant for Me. Some of us feel that, kenosis or no kenosis, He is the best judge of who is the original of the prophet’s portrait.
The two final clauses are separated from the preceding by the emphatic introduction of the pronominal nominative, and cohere closely as gathering up for the last time all the description of the Servant, and as laying broad and firm the basis of His dominion, in the two great facts which sum up His office and between them stretch over the past and the future. ‘He bare the sin of many, and maketh intercession for the transgressors.’ The former of these two clauses brings up the pathetic picture of the scapegoat who ‘bore upon him all their iniquities into a solitary land.’ The Servant conquers hearts because He bears upon Him the grim burden which a mightier hand than Aaron’s has made to meet on His head, and because He bears it away. The ancient ceremony, and the prophet’s transference of the words describing it to his picture of the Servant who was to be King, floated before John the Baptist, when he pointed his brown, thin finger at Jesus and cried: ‘Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.’ The goat had borne the sins of one nation; the prophet had extended the Servant’s ministry indefinitely, so as to include unnumbered ‘many’; John spoke the universal word, ‘the world.’ So the circles widened.
But it is not enough to bear away sins. We need continuous help in the present. Our daily struggles, our ever-felt weakness, all the ills that flesh is heir to, cry aloud for a mightier than we to be at our sides. So on the Servant’s bearing the sins of the many there follows a continuous act of priestly intercession, in which, not merely by prayer, but by meritorious and prevailing intervention, He makes His own the cause of the many whose sins He has borne.
On these two acts His dominion rests. Sacrifice and Intercession are the foundations of His throne.
The empire of men’s hearts falls to Him because of what He has done and is doing for them. He who is to possess us absolutely must give Himself to us utterly. The empire falls to Him who supplies men’s deepest need. He who can take away men’s sins rules. He who can effectually undertake men’s cause will be their King.
If Jesus is or does anything less or else, He will not rule men for ever. If He is but a Teacher and a Guide, oblivion, which shrouds all, will sooner or later wrap Him in its misty folds. That His name should so long have resisted its influence is due altogether to men having believed Him to be something else. He will exercise an everlasting dominion only if He have brought in an everlasting righteousness. He will sit King for ever, if and only if He is a priest for ever. All other rule is transient.
A remarkable characteristic of this entire prophecy is the frequent repetition of expressions conveying the idea of sufferings borne for others. In one form or another that thought occurs, as we reckon, eleven times, and it is especially frequent in the last verses of the chapter. Why this perpetual harking back to that one aspect? It is to be further noticed that throughout there is no hint of any other kind of work which this Servant had to do. He fulfils His service to God and man by being bruised for men’s iniquities. He came not to be ministered unto but to minister, and the chief form of His ministry was that He gave His life a ransom for the many. He came not to preach a gospel, but to die that there might be a gospel to preach. The Cross is the centre of His work, and by it He becomes the Centre of the world.
Look once more at the sorrowful, august figure that rose before the prophet’s eye-with its strange blending of sinlessness and sorrow, God’s approval and God’s chastisement, rejection and rule, death and life, abject humiliation and absolute dominion. Listen to the last echoes of the prophet’s voice as it dies on our ear-’He bore the sins of the many.’ And then hearken how eight hundred years after another voice takes up the echoes-but instead of pointing away down the centuries, points to One at his side, and cries, ‘Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.’ Look at that life, that death, that grave, that resurrection, that growing dominion, that inexhaustible intercession-and say, ‘Of whom speaketh the prophet this?’
May we all be able to answer with clear confidence, ‘These things saith Esaias when he saw His glory and spake of Him.’ May we all take up the ancient confession: ‘Surely He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. . . . He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
General Information:
Yahweh continues describing his servant.
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Therefore will I give him his portion among the multitudes, and he will divide the spoils with the many
These two clauses mean basically the same thing. "Portion" and "spoils" refer to a king after a victorious battle sharing the plunder or rewards with his army. This means God will greatly honor his servant because of his sacrifice. (See: Parallelism and Metaphor)
the multitudes
Many versions interpret this expression as "the many" or "the strong."
because he exposed himself to death
"Exposed" means to be vulnerable or unprotected. The servant of Yahweh put himself in a situation where he would die. AT: "he willingly accepted the possibility of death" (See: Metonymy)
was numbered with the transgressors
This can be stated in active form. AT: "allowed people to treat him as a criminal" (See: Active or Passive)
translationWords
die
transgress
sin
intercede
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 53:12 the honors: See Phil 2:9-11. • He was…
53:12 the honors: See Phil 2:9-11. • He was counted among the rebels: Rebels (Hebrew poshe‘im) is a stronger word than sinners and is a key word in Isaiah. It refers to those who are in willful defiance of a lawful authority, in this case, God. • interceded for rebels: The servant would pray for sinners in the midst of his suffering (see Exod 32:30; Luke 23:34).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.