Isaiah 53:1-3 THE REJECTED PERSON The report (message) with which the second stanza of the “suffering song” begins is the good news of salvation that was given by the prophets to Israel and the nations. That message is linked to the arm of the Lord which is the symbol of great power. When we think of “the arm of the Lord,” it brings to mind the sense of strength and power by which work is accomplished. No one expected “the arm of the Lord” would come into the world in a Servant. The majority of people were expecting a mighty conqueror who would come with armies and a great show of force, and defeat all enemies before him. A quiet, respectful, unassuming Servant who would suffer, did not fit the expectations of the people He came to bless. They wanted a mighty, conquering Messiah. That mindset is in everyone generally speaking. We usually think of greatness in the form of power and popularity.
When we read through the scriptures and consider what they say about the arm of the Lord, we get a better understanding of what it means. It isn’t a strong arm with a clenched fist ready to beat down all opposition. In Deuteronomy 4:34, His arm is stretched out to rescue His people. His everlasting arm is to secure and reassures His people in Deuteronomy 33:27. Psalm 89:10-13 gives a different view as He scatters His foes in retribution. His holy arm is described in Psalm 98:1 as sanctifying in its righteousness. In Isaiah 63:12, His arm is glorious as He shepherds His own people in righteous responsibility toward them. In verse one of this chapter His arm is revealing.
A new shoot coming out of the ground springing forth with new life is marvelous to look at. Everything about it is perfection. It has not been affected by anything around it or anything that happens to it. It is a tender shoot without the pressures of opposition hardening it to endure the pressures of life on earth. Our Lord, in His nature was like that always. Even though He was “found in fashion as a man,” He never lost that beautiful freshness and sensitivity that was so important as He was watched day after day, and year after year, to see if there were any imperfections in Him. He was never tainted by the imperfections that comes on us in our normal course of life, and certainly not by sin. “He knew no sin… He did no sin… in Him was no sin.” The only evidence of sin that will be on our Savior is “Thy wounds, Thy wounds, Lord Jesus, those deep, deep wounds will tell the sacrifice that frees us from self and death and hell! These link Thee once for ever with all who own Thy grace; no hands these bonds can sever, no hands these scars efface.”
When He came, He did not come with the fanfare and pomp that people expect of great people they admire so much. He came to deal with eternal things that had to be faced and dealt with, rather than temporary matters that appeal to the fleshly, worldly interests of most people. To those who have no new nature, our Lord Jesus is considered unimportant even when compared to themselves. Humility and suffering don’t fit in the minds of unregenerate people. Most are indifferent to matters of everlasting importance, and only want to live for the present and “let the future take care of itself.”
Likely our Lord Jesus Christ was a man among men in His physical appearance, but would have been uniquely different in that there would be no evidence of the results of sin on His skin, no wrinkles in His forehead nor anything that would have come upon Him visibly as the results of worry or a bad conscience. The inner character of people is often seen in facial expressions, body language of different kinds that are evident when associating with people. His compassion and grace would have been evident. Truth and respect would have always been evident when He spoke. When He was a youth, He was in “favor with God and man.” He was not despised and rejected of men because of His physical appearance, but because of His “report.”
The Lord knew pain and sorrow experimentally because He chose to “learn obedience by the things that He suffered” as a man, as well as when He was the sacrifice for our sin. He became the “Captain of our salvation” when he stepped out voluntarily to take the first and hardest place of human suffering. His suffering was infinite in body, soul and spirit. There was nothing we will ever be called upon to pass through, apart from sin, that He has not experienced.
He was despised and rejected of men who avoided facing Him and the truth He represented, taught, lived and was personally, as “The Truth.” Truth could not be covered when our Lord was among the people. The people of the past did not want a Person who embodied the truth then, and they do not want anyone like that today. People today want a historical Jesus who is not really too important to them. The majority do not want to think about, or meet the Suffering Servant of Jehovah who paid for our sins by giving His own life for us. Any thinking person who understands that if they believe in Him personally, it would be normal and essential that they live for Him out of gratitude and by faith.
A person who would value and love us enough to die for us cannot be ignored or forgotten. The way most people today, and in the time when Isaiah preached, deal with these facts, is by trying to deny it ever happened. If they can convince themselves that such a real Person ever existed, then they think they can live with a clear conscience or at least get away with sin and have no real serious consequences for doing what they know is wrong.