Holocaust or Holy One?
During recent outreach efforts on the streets of the East Coast, I have been met by a number of Jewish men and women who believe that the suffering servant of Isaiah is the collective Hebrew nation. Partly as an attempt to deny the case for Christ (which, in light of history, should be self-evident in the text), but particularly in the aftermath of vile Nazi Holocaust, its seems to be quite popular to use this view to explain away the Servant and to avoid the Gospel truth.
I've always had an affinity and sympathy for Jewish people: to me it seems the most natural thing in the world, for an evangelical Christian, to have a genuine gravity, and open-hearted warmth, and a sense of personal debt, toward the people-group from which we trace descent of Jesus Christ. While I do confess to being an optimistic amillennialist, I find that the Heavenly Mount of Hebrews 12 makes it impossible to be anything but a deeply-sceptical Zionist - I reject Dispensational readings of Old Covenant prophecy, which I believe have been fulfilled by the Gospel of Jesus.
I can remember growing up, as a child aged 6-8, and spending the evenings of long summer holidays watching the brilliant "World at War" series, on UK Television, narrated by Sir Laurence Olivier. I find it mind-boggling to think that anyone who has ever watched the black-and-white movie reels of the bulldozers of Auschwitz, Dachau and Belsen, shovelling the emaciated, rotting, carcasses of Third Reich undesirables into mass grave, could dare deny that these vicious crimes took place, or not fail to ponder the disgusting potential for wicked depravity that lurks in even the best-educated, fallen, human hearts of any so-called "master race".
Living through my formative years, in the once well-to-do outskirts of North Belfast, the capital city of that great wee plot of turf, that has just hosted British Open golf, that is known as Northern Ireland, it was the most obvious thing in the world to have, as some of my earliest friends, Jewish neighbors and classmates like Jonathan and Jason. I always kind-of-admired how they missed soccer, rugby and cricket games periods, to go off to the synagogue on Somerton Road to learn Hebrew: I also sort-of pitying them for missing out on the part of elementary school (preparatory in my case) that I relished most. Perhaps that help explains why I loved sport in youth and took up semitic languages in later life!
Anyway, all of that it just to say that I have always had a respect, even a love, and in later years, a burden to see Jewish people saved. I feel a heaviness over those with whom I interact in streets, and converse with in our neighborhood in the US. I long that some would come to Christ and enjoy the peace and joy of their fellow messianic Jews, who seem to be growing in numbers by the day. It warms my heart to see the occasional kind, friendly, smile, on faces of Orthodox Jews beside whom I sit on the train into NYC, when the see me study the Torah or Tanakh in their own original tongue. And when I discuss this central messianic, suffering-servant, text, I long that God would open their minds and shine His light into their hearts to help them see the pre-spoken sufferings of their own Christ.
But, I suppose, the purpose of this piece is really to ask, what kind of arguments might be advanced to prove to those who want to see Holocaust that, in fact, the 53 chapter of Yeshiyahu cannot mean what they think, but it must be speaking of Messiah: this is what King Yehshua maintained and His Hebrew Disciples taught to both their fellow Jews and foreign Greeks. There are countless arguments that might be advanced to make the cumulative case open-and-shut: today, in this piece, I simply want to make a start.
First Triple Historical Context
The book itself calls for a solution that is not national but personal. In the last quarter of 8th Century BC, the Syrian-Israeli and Assyrian Crises had taken threat of extinction to the Kingdom of Judah to perilous heights. Defensive alliances which Ahaz sought were not to be trusted - in fact, they only served to delay the inevitable and to make things worse. Added to this was the lasting dynastic promise furnished by the Covenant with David and his house - the solution to the imminent danger was the coming of a personal King with super-human attributes who would be God-in-Flesh. Isaianic hope is focused on faith in Yahweh's power to send His Christ - Kingdom salvation is found in an historical hope for Israel that is critical, royal and personal and resolved by One Individual, named Immanuel (this is the thrust of the bulk of the text in Isaiah Chapters 7-9.
Second Covenant With David
Just like Samuel had revealed to the Son of Jesse that, after a line of successive punished princes, one of His seed would arise to secure his eternal dynastic legacy, so Isaiah specifies that this God-given Anointed Monarch will be a wonder counsellor, reconciling prince, mightily divine, and eternal paternity - His benevolent reign and burdensome government will never terminate. The problem was, of course, that the threat of exile, predicted by the prophet, from a human point-of-view, put Judean regency on-hold. In fact, we must be clear, though the return from Babylon was also envisaged, and its Persian instrument Cyrus called and specified by name in-advance, even to this day no other son of David has ever been raised up (Hasmonean half-breed Herod cannot count), to wear the Judah's crown of gold - yet this is the answer that Isaiah holds out. National salvation of israel does not rest on themselves but One, instead, appointed by God, to suffer on their part.
Third Failure of Israel
Israel failed as a Moral People. Isaiah was not called to speak to Israel alone. Judah was lumped-in with God's People, North and South. It is vital to ask one question, and to keep the answer in our heart as we continue through this whole, unified, account: "What particular issue is Isaiah sent to address?" To raise this matter is not to be perverse or obscure - it is the very first issue that Yahweh, Himself, flags up from the start of the book. The opening chapter begins with the LORD calling His people to account - His rebellious people, who have forsaken their Master, have committed scarlet crimes for which there could only, ever, be, One, Individual, Divine, Answer. The solution is not more worship - their liturgical failure is a problem of the heart, and more sacrifices and services, only heightened their guilt and incited further wrath with "this trampling of my courts." Their plight can only be resolved by superhuman salvation that comes from outside themselves: what the predicament demands is a final, personal, atonement for sin, to which Temple Worship was meant to point.
"14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. 15 When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood. 16 Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, 17 learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause. 18 "Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool." (Isa. 1:14-18)
In case we think that "washing yourself" is an invitation to try to remedy and effect their own redemption by their good works, any prospect of that is excluded by the later statement of the LORD, concerning how His remnant people must be saved - by Yahweh alone, as Isaiah 59:1-20, transparently states:
Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. 3 For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies; your tongue mutters wickedness. 4 No one enters suit justly; no one goes to law honestly; they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies, they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity. 5 They hatch adders' eggs; they weave the spider's web; he who eats their eggs dies, and from one that is crushed a viper is hatched. 6 Their webs will not serve as clothing; men will not cover themselves with what they make. Their works are works of iniquity, and deeds of violence are in their hands. 7 Their feet run to evil, and they are swift to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; desolation and destruction are in their highways. 8 The way of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their paths; they have made their roads crooked; no one who treads on them knows peace. 9 Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us; we hope for light, and behold, darkness, and for brightness, but we walk in gloom. 10 We grope for the wall like the blind; we grope like those who have no eyes; we stumble at noon as in the twilight, among those in full vigor we are like dead men. 11 We all growl like bears; we moan and moan like doves; we hope for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us. 12 For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and we know our iniquities: 13 transgressing, and denying the LORD, and turning back from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart lying words. 14 Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands far away; for truth has stumbled in the public squares, and uprightness cannot enter. 15 Truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. The LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice. 16 He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no one to intercede; then his own arm brought him salvation, and his righteousness upheld him. 17 He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head; he put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and wrapped himself in zeal as a cloak. 18 According to their deeds, so will he repay, wrath to his adversaries, repayment to his enemies; to the coastlands he will render repayment. 19 So they shall fear the name of the LORD from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun; for he will come like a rushing stream, which the wind of the LORD drives. 20 "And a Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn from transgression," declares the LORD. (Isa. 59:1-20 ESV)
Do you see the point? In response to the question "Can God really save us?" Jehovah responds "That in spite of pervasive sin of the vilest species and sort, which has left the nation groping and growling in guilt" the LORD has had to take matters into His own hands - His arm will be laid bare, to redeem His sheep in an even greater Exodus, and He will send a Redeemer to Zion (who is personally-distinct from the Yahweh who speaks)."
The claim of Yahweh to monergistic salvation (a constant theme of Scripture - salvation belongs to the LORD alone) is again stressed, though in a slightly different context, in Isaiah 63:1-5:
"1 Who is this who comes from Edom, in crimsoned garments from Bozrah, he who is splendid in his apparel, marching in the greatness of his strength? "It is I, speaking in righteousness, mighty to save." 2 Why is your apparel red, and your garments like his who treads in the winepress? 3 "I have trodden the winepress alone, and from the peoples no one was with me; I trod them in my anger and trampled them in my wrath; their lifeblood spattered on my garments, and stained all my apparel. 4 For the day of vengeance was in my heart, and my year of redemption had come. 5 I looked, but there was no one to help; I was appalled, but there was no one to uphold; so my own arm brought me salvation, and my wrath upheld me."
In other words, the central problem of the book (sin) and its divine solution (salvation through a personal redeemer-king), is stated in the preface and at the conclusion of the Book - the verse that most Christians seem able to readily recall is not any less definite, in 64:1-9:
"1 Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence– 2 as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil– to make your name known to your adversaries, and that the nations might tremble at your presence! 3 When you did awesome things that we did not look for, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence. 4 From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for him. 5 You meet him who joyfully works righteousness, those who remember you in your ways. Behold, you were angry, and we sinned; in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved? 6 We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. 7 There is no one who calls upon your name, who rouses himself to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities. 8 But now, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. 9 Be not so terribly angry, O LORD, and remember not iniquity forever. Behold, please look, we are all your people."
As many have noted, and some not so discreetly, all attempts and best attempts of human effort by members of the church, cannot saves themselves, but are vile, foul, defiled and polluted at best. The only way that we can hope to launder away the lawlessness of our souls is by divine celestial intervention from above - how thankful we are, that (if a little beside the point), at the Baptism of Christ, when He committed to sin-bearing of the Cross, that the great schism of the Gospel occurred as skies were rent, and the sacred anointing of the Soon-to-Suffer Servant-Son was affirmed by the heavenly voice, and the descent of the Holy Vicar from above.
I hope you get the point: spiritually-speaking, there is even less hope of a post-messianic nation repaying the debt of guilt by suffering holocaust - merely human works, active or passive, can never hope to be redemptive. Human beings can never earn anything from God who is the giver of all good things. All the ink in Israel's bank account is written in the red ink of spiritual debt. There is no doubt, individual, corporate, Israel was a moral failure then, and the Jewish Diaspora has been a catastrophic moral failure since - just like all the rest of us - hard though it might be to admit. But, not only was this failure moral - it was also missional.
Israel Failed as a Missional People. The ethic tribes that descended by promise from Abraham, as they still confess today, were called to bring blessing to the world. They were called to be light and bear light to the rest of the Gentiles who, until the Kingdom Age, were largely left to go their own way. Moses stressed this point when urging them to uphold the laws by which other nations would judge them wise, in Deuteronomy 4:5-8:
"5 See, I have taught you statutes and rules, as the LORD my God commanded me, that you should do them in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. 6 Keep them and do them, for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, 'Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.' 7 For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the LORD our God is to us, whenever we call upon him? 8 And what great nation is there, that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today?"
The glow of any success (in certain respects only), began to fade rapidly after the reigns of David and breathtaking Solomon (1 Kings 5:7; 10:1-9):
"1Now when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the LORD, she came to test him with hard questions. 2 She came to Jerusalem with a very great retinue, with camels bearing spices and very much gold and precious stones. And when she came to Solomon, she told him all that was on her mind. 3 And Solomon answered all her questions; there was nothing hidden from the king that he could not explain to her. 4 And when the queen of Sheba had seen all the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built, 5 the food of his table, the seating of his officials, and the attendance of his servants, their clothing, his cupbearers, and his burnt offerings that he offered at the house of the LORD, there was no more breath in her. 6 And she said to the king, "The report was true that I heard in my own land of your words and of your wisdom, 7 but I did not believe the reports until I came and my own eyes had seen it. And behold, the half was not told me. Your wisdom and prosperity surpass the report that I heard. 8 Happy are your men! Happy are your servants, who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom! 9 Blessed be the LORD your God, who has delighted in you and set you on the throne of Israel! Because the LORD loved Israel forever, he has made you king, that you may execute justice and righteousness."
By any fair estimate, when the nation went downhill, and finally plunged over the cliff into the abyss of exile, the nation of hot-and-cold Judah, along with apostate Israel, had been a missional failure. the light that Israel failed be in the past, but would now become in the future, would have to arise, be restored, and instilled in them through the ministry of Messiah who would become a light-source for His new redeemed people - until Him, and without Him, Israel was only dark, blind and groping in deadly night (Isa. 2:5; 9:2; 10:17; 42:6; 49:6; 51:4; 59:9; 60:1, 3, 19, 20). A few of these texts make the matter plain.
The failure is explicit in words already noted above, in Isaiah 59:8-10:
"9 Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us; we hope for light, and behold, darkness, and for brightness, but we walk in gloom. 10 We grope for the wall like the blind; we grope like those who have no eyes; we stumble at noon as in the twilight, among those in full vigor we are like dead men."
But the former gloom would be dispelled, and the future would be bright, according to Isaiah 60:1-3, 19-20:
"1 Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. 2 For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the LORD will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you. 3 And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising ...19 Violence shall no more be heard in your land, devastation or destruction within your borders; you shall call your walls Salvation, and your gates Praise. 19 The sun shall be no more your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give you light; but the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory. 20 Your sun shall no more go down, nor your moon withdraw itself; for the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your days of mourning shall be ended.
All this, of course, will be turned around by the Sufferings of the Individual Servant in Chapter 53, who is called to banish the darkness of godless guilt and shine the holy light of evangelical truth, as Isaiah 42:6 and 49:6 announces:
"I am the LORD; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations."
"It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth."
This missional light, therefore, comes not through the horrific cost of a national holocaust, but at the infinitely-greater, far-more-harrowing ransom price of the accursed, sin-bearing, wounding of the Royal Servant, raised up for the task, upon whom the guilt of a believing remnant is placed, in Isaiah 9:1-7, for this is God's great task:
"1 But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. 2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone. 3 You have multiplied the nation; you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil. 4 For the yoke of his burden, and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian. 5 For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire. 6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this."
It has to be admitted that, when we read a huge scroll like the Book of Isaiah is, it is easy to get lost, and wonder who it is who is either speaking or addressed in the text: there are, in general terms, 3 Israels and 3 main spoken-of-by-the-prophet servants: fallen Israel (the nation prior to Christ); atoning Israel (the suffering, silent, Lamb, upon whom guilt is laid); and missionary Israel (the servants who later go out, after the servant is killed, equipped to blaze out truth).
Besides Isaiah the prophet, and Eliakim the priest, it is these specific three servants who are contrasted in the second section of his work (Isa. 41:8; 42:1, 19; 43:10; 44:1, 21; 49:5, 6; 52:13; 53:11):
National Israel fails in 42:18-22:
"18 Hear, you deaf, and look, you blind, that you may see! 19 Who is blind but my servant, or deaf as my messenger whom I send? Who is blind as my dedicated one, or blind as the servant of the LORD? 20 He sees many things, but does not observe them; his ears are open, but he does not hear. 21 The LORD was pleased, for his righteousness' sake, to magnify his law and make it glorious. 22 But this is a people plundered and looted; they are all of them trapped in holes and hidden in prisons; they have become plunder with none to rescue, spoil with none to say, "Restore!""
The following verse calls Israel to acknowledge this catastrophic blindness and failure! 41:8-14 affirms that, despite the harrowing experience of conflict, schism, exile, diaspora and holocaust, for a believing remnant of Jews, better things lie ahead:
"8 But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friend; 9 you whom I took from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest corners, saying to you, "You are my servant, I have chosen you and not cast you off"; 10 fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. 11 Behold, all who are incensed against you shall be put to shame and confounded; those who strive against you shall be as nothing and shall perish. 12 You shall seek those who contend with you, but you shall not find them; those who war against you shall be as nothing at all. 13 For I, the LORD your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, "Fear not, I am the one who helps you." 14 Fear not, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel! I am the one who helps you, declares the LORD; your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel."
Messianic Israel wins in 42:1-3 - but this will not come about by their own power or effort or merit or devotion; it will be wrought by foretold, foreordained, sovereign power of the mercy and grace of God, who through the suffering of His King will act to save - the Son of David, the Servant King, who dies in their place, in Isaiah 42:1-3:
"1 Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. 2 He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; 3 a bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice."
All hope hinges on this Individual who acts for the new International Israel, in Isaiah 49:5-6:
"5 And now the LORD says, he who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him; and that Israel might be gathered to him– for I am honored in the eyes of the LORD, and my God has become my strength– 6 he says: "It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth."
It is the single, individual, suffering, of the wisely-acting Servant, in chapter 53, that will lead to the glorious exaltation of His flesh, to the original place that He was occupying when his servant Isaiah was called (Isaiah 6:1-6), as outlined in the prologue to his pain in 52:13-15:
"13 Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted. 14 As many were astonished at you– his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind– 15 so shall he sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths because of him, for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand."
The point is confirmed again in Isaiah 53:11-12 - success if specifically tied to his personal, individual, vicarious, guilt-atoning work, as interposing mediator-monarch of the Flock of God:
"11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors."
Evangelical Israel marches forward in 43:10-10, filled with joy in light of the work of The Individual, Personal, Messianic, Suffering Servant:
"10 You are my witnesses," declares the LORD, "and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me. 11 I, I am the LORD, and besides me there is no savior. 12 I declared and saved and proclaimed, when there was no strange god among you; and you are my witnesses," declares the LORD, "and I am God.""
This glorious missionary task is emphasized again in Isaiah 49:5-6:
"5 And now the LORD says, he who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him; and that Israel might be gathered to him– for I am honored in the eyes of the LORD, and my God has become my strength– 6 he says: "It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth."
Fourth, Rejection by Jews
The seeming tragedy, of course, of all of this is that when the Royal Servant and Davidic Son would come, no-one would believe: most of His own nation would reject Him! And yet, in this suffering that was inflicted, and the stripes and wounds He bore, sin was fully atoned. In other words, God used the hands of evil men, to put the Servant to death, that those who believed might be spared. It was a providential evil but eternal good that resulted from this Messiah-denying act which was much-worse than holocaust. The unbelief, is to the prophet, who experienced much opposition as he embodied the message he taught, stunning and inexplicable - yet, it was the sub-human disfigurement, and distinct absence of any military pomp, that defied messianic expectation, that helped Isaiah account, from a human standpoint, for the rejection of their own Christ, in Isaiah 53:1-4:
"1 Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? 2 For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. 3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted."
In other words, if you are still able to follow my point, this cannot refer to any supposed national servant Israel - for it was Israel itself that rejected the suffering of this servant. Worldwide today, as holocaust museums seem to attest, the Jewish people, quite rightly, embrace, accept, and hail those innocents who were so brutally and violently cut off. This was not true, however, of the Servant about whom isaiah speaks.
Fifth, Ratios Are Reversed
In Isaiah, numerically-speaking, the tables are turned and Gentile believers outnumber Jewish saints in the believing remnant, 10-to-1 (a literal sense and a precise ratio is not intended).
"1 The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. 2 It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, 3 and many peoples shall come, and say: "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths." For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. 4 He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. 5 O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the LORD." (Isaiah 2:1-5).
"11 In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples– of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious. 11 In that day the Lord will extend his hand yet a second time to recover the remnant that remains of his people, from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the coastlands of the sea. 12 He will raise a signal for the nations and will assemble the banished of Israel, and gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. (Isaiah 11:10-12)
"6 On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. 7 And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. 8 He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken. 9 It will be said on that day, "Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the LORD; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation." (Isaiah 25:6-9)
It is just what post-exilic prophet Zechariah maintained, in 8:22-23:
"22 Many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of the LORD. 23 Thus says the LORD of hosts: In those days ten men from the nations of every tongue shall take hold of the robe of a Jew, saying, 'Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.'" (Zechariah 8:22-23)
In other words, the historical fact that Christians today far outnumber Messianic Jews, as the fruit of the suffering of the Servant of the LORD, is a strong indicator, to a fair-minded person, that the prophecy of Isaiah was fulfilled by Jesus of Nazareth, and not the nation as a whole, at any point. The Church above has a multitude of Jewish saints which no man can count, drawn from the periods of the Patriarchs, Prophets and Apostles; but today on earth, what began as a Jewish evangelistic movement, is now a hoard in which believers drawn from all the nations of the world outnumber messianic Jews (and if current population statistics are anything to go by, it is hard to say how, even given national conversion from now to the end of the world, that trend could ever be reversed). Fair minds must conclude, the Servant is the Savior preached by semites Peter and Paul.
There are many other arguments that could be added to this:
Sixth, Stripes of Messiah.
These are sores and bruises inflicted by men that heal the wounds of sin that at the start of the book cover the whole nation (1:5-6): the holocaust hurt many, but healed none - it is the wounds of Christ that bring the salvation bound up in the name of the prophet (Isaiah = Yahweh saves).
"5 Why will you still be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. 6 From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but bruises and sores and raw wounds; they are not pressed out or bound up or softened with oil."
Again, in 53:5, the Individual Servant heals everybody, but the National Servant heals nobody:
"But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed." (Isaiah 53:5)
Seventh, Exaltation to Glory
In these texts it is the Individual Servant who is raised to glorious heights, but it would be entirely misguided and false to call the Holocaust a success - it was anything but: it was callous, brutal, humiliating, excruciating, but there is no triumph or celestial light in what was a day of darkness for a depraved human race.
"1 Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. 2 For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the LORD will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you. 3 And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. (Isaiah 60:1-3)
"13 Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted. 14 As many were astonished at you– his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind– 15 so shall he sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths because of him, for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand. (Isaiah 52:13-15)
It was a face-to-face encounter with this heavenly radiance and majesty and the effulgence of God that struck the Pharisee of pharisees blind on the Road to Damascus - it was the glory of Messiah Jesus that triumphed over Saul of Tarsus, and enlisted Him at the chief of a rejoicing, missionary, band to take the Gospel to the world. That man from Cilicia, who loved the biblical texts, knew, from blinding light, exactly who Isaiah intended and what the Spirit of Prophecy meant.
Eighth, Silencing of Lamb
When those poor souls of the Holocaust were herded into rail-trucks, and filed into the gas-chambers of Auschwitz, they did not go willingly or happily but reluctantly and silently. It is true they were led like lambs to slaughter (many no doubt silently, solemnly, and resigned to their fate), but, when they could speak, it was in protest at Nazi guilt, and some were silent because they had no idea what lay at the end of the tracks. Rightly, naturally, they resisted this callous scheme, and sought to escape death. it was not like that with Christ - there was no resistance or resentment, but a holy submission, a refusal to revile, and not a single word was offered in defence or to escape a way out.
"He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. (Isaiah 53:7)
The opposite was the case - it was because of God's must, that he did not open His mouth. He resolutely and sovereignly gave up His life for us, as the atoning Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world.
Ninth, New Covenant Made
It was not the Old Covenant people who were predicted to suffer (though they have done throughout history at many points - that is a shocking, undeniable, reality). I have been fascinated to hear the reports of converted Jews - it really is an insight into the Jewish mind - that because they have been mistreated, slandered, slaughtered and butchered throughout the history of the world, most Jewish people live with a background fear of continual threat, and are naturally suspicious of gentiles round about (how much more this must be true at the present time - we gentiles need to learn to be appreciative and sensitive to that, if we are ever to win their trust).
But, even with all that said, it is the Suffering Servant who was sent by the LORD to be a New Covenant for the people - this is what the whole world of sinners needs (pardoned of our sin, the Spirit in our heart, the inclination to obey written on our minds): it did not come by persecution of Jews, but by the suffering of Christ the individual Servant of the LORD. I don't have time or space to quote every text but the point should be plain (Isa. 24:5; 42:6; 49:8; 54:10; 55:3; 56:4, 6; 59:21; 61:8):
Christ is the Covenant spoken of by Isaiah - this bond is made in His blood: it comes in One Person and not through the Old Covenant People.
"I am the LORD; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, (Isaiah 42:6)
" Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. (Isaiah 55:3)
"And as for me, this is my covenant with them," says the LORD: "My Spirit that is upon you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouth of your offspring, or out of the mouth of your children's offspring," says the LORD, "from this time forth and forevermore." (Isaiah 59:21)
It only remains to state that the most important thing, in light of the work of the Servant of the LORD, Messiah Jesus of Nazareth, nothing matters more that we believe this truth, and put all our faith and hope, in the saving provisions of this gracious Covenant. It is not the oath sworn to Noah, Abraham, David or Moses, but the fulfilment of all these - the New Covenant sealed with the blood of the Cross - that is able to make One People from believing Jews and Greeks.
Conclusion
We have barely touched on the central passage itself - and the substitutionary atonement, the One for the All, that is taught, with respect to the Church. That will be material for a second later post. But, here are some arguments that conclusively prove, that it was not the sinful NATION but its suffering KING, who made atonement for sin, and is intended by the prophets, whom the apostles freely quote.
And, if Jews are first, we as Gentiles are glad to be grafted in as last, and we owe them a great debt, for bringing us their Christ.
