The Gospel According to Isaiah, Part 8, A Righteous Intercessor

The Gospel According to Isaiah

Part 8: A Righteous Intercessor

Isaiah 53:11 – 12 

Matthew 16:21

Luke 18:31 – 34 

John 12:27

Mark 14:32 – 35 

Mark 14:36

Matthew 26:62 – 66 

Matthew 7:13 – 14 

Hebrews 7:25

Please go to www.redriverministries.org for more information on what we have going on in the ministry.

Click here to check out our books.

Click here to support Red River Ministries.

Check out our Official Red River Ministries Store!

For other ways to support Red River Ministries, click here.

Remember to subscribe to this podcast so you never miss an episode.

Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Music: Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing by Robert Robinson and John Wyeth (Public Domain.) Arranged and performed by Ginger Manning. Recorded and mastered by Gordon Manning. 

Transcript

The Gospel According to Isaiah

Part 8: A Righteous Intercessor

This will be the last of our studies together in Isaiah chapter fifty-three.

I would love to go further with you all in this, but there is no more written to study.

In today’s study we will reach the last verse of this wonderful chapter.

So, if you have your Bible, please turn with me to Isaiah chapter fifty-three.

We will be reading verses eleven and twelve.

Isaiah 53:11 (ESV)  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. 

Isaiah 53:12 (ESV) 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.

Let us pray.

Father God, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for Your Son, Jesus Christ, who came to offer Himself as the perfect sacrifice that we might be saved. We ask that You open our hearts, our eyes, and our ears to Your word and guide us by the Holy Spirit as we go through this study together. We ask this in the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

In today’s study we are going to see some things that we have already talked about through our previous studies, and we are going to see some new things that go along with them.

Most importantly, we are going to learn that Isaiah prophesied the future of Jesus’s ministry hundreds of years before He came to the earth.

Let us get into our study.

“Out of the anguish of His soul He shall see and be satisfied”

In a way we have already covered this part of verse eleven, but in a way we have not. 

The first part of this phrase is familiar to us.

It is one of the overall themes of the day of the crucifixion; Jesus being in anguish not only in His body, but also in His soul.

After all, it was the pain and anguish that Jesus suffered that made Him a “man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.”

It was through the pain and anguish of Jesus that our salvation was purchased on that cross.

Not only was His physical body suffering, but this verse also says that His soul suffered.

Look at it again, “Out of the anguish of His soul.”

Jesus suffered on a spiritual level that day. 

How could He not have suffered spiritually?

He took on the sin of all those who would believe in Him!

This was the first and only time that Jesus ever came into direct contact with sin nature.

Jesus never sinned.

He was around people who sinned, but He never sinned.

When He was on that cross, taking on the sin of all those who would believe, He came into contact with sin for the first and only time.

For one Person of the triune Godhead to come into such a close proximity to sin as to literally take it on Himself must have been excruciatingly painful.

It would be like taking a person who has never seen the sun and putting them in the middle of the Sahara Desert with no shade.

Out of all the pain that Jesus endured that day, I think the most painful ordeal He went through was the anguish of His soul by taking on all of that sin.

However, that pain was not for nothing.

Look at the whole phrase, “Out of the anguish of His soul He shall see and be satisfied.”

What will He see and how will He be satisfied?

He will see the fruits of His labor.

He will see the reward of His toil.

He will see the reason for His suffering.

He will see those who will believe in Him, come to Him and be saved from the wrath that is to come.

He will see His bride come together.

He will be satisfied because the pain and the anguish was worth it.

He will be satisfied because the plan is successful.

Our triune God laid this plan out before the foundation of the world, and it came to fruition during the span of time between the crucifixion and the resurrection.

Verse eleven goes on to say this, “By His knowledge shall the righteous One, My servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and He shall bear their iniquities.”

Jesus, as the righteous One, as the Suffering Servant, knew exactly what He was doing when He went to that cross.

He knew exactly what was going to happen to Him when He went to Jerusalem.

We read the following in Matthew chapter sixteen verse twenty-one:

Matthew 16:21 (ESV)  From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. 

Again, we read in Luke chapter eighteen verses thirty-one through thirty-four:

Luke 18:31 – 34 (ESV)  And taking the twelve, he said to them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. 

32 For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. 

33 And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.” 

34 But they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.

Many times, throughout the Gospels, Jesus tells His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, be turned over to Roman authorities, suffer, die, and be resurrected.

And He knew why He would do those things.

He knew that when He died for others that He would be making the final sacrifice for sin.

He knew that His sacrifice would see the salvation of those who would believe in Him.

He went to Jerusalem willingly, completely surrendered to the will of the Father and to the plan that was laid out.

However, it wasn’t an easy thing for Him to do.

It wasn’t easy for Him to lay down His life, even though He knew that was what He was going to do.

Look at these verses.

John 12:27 (ESV)  “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose, I have come to this hour. 

Mark 14:32 – 35 (ESV)  And they went to a place called Gethsemane. And he said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” 

33  And he took with him Peter and James and John and began to be greatly distressed and troubled. 

34  And he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch.” 

35  And going a little farther, he fell on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him.

He was so distressed that Luke tells us His sweat became great drops of blood. 

I’m not sure about anyone else listening to this, but I have been in stressful situations before, but not so stressful I have bled from my sweat glands. 

What Jesus faced on that cross, was so difficult, so distressing that Jesus began to sweat drops of blood as He pleaded with the Father to allow the hour pass from Him.

However, we know that He was still completely obedient because of what is in the next verse.

Mark 14:36  And he said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” 

Jesus submitted Himself to the plan that He, the Father, and the Holy Spirit came up with before the foundation of the earth. 

Because of that submission, He now sees the satisfaction of those who are to be saved coming into a right relationship with Him.

He is satisfied with the salvation of every soul that the Father gives Him.

Now, let us look at verse twelve together.

Isaiah 53:12 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.

This verse is the culmination of the entire study we have been doing. 

How do we know this verse is the culmination of our study?

Take a look at the first word of the verse: “therefore.”

“Therefore” is used as a conjunction in Scripture; it ties two thoughts or phrases together.

When we see the word “therefore” in Scripture, we must ask the question, “What is that word there for?”

In order to answer that question for verse twelve, we have to look at the beginning of the phrase before the word.

In this case the beginning of the phrase goes all the way back to the beginning of our study in chapter fifty-two verse thirteen and goes through chapter fifty-three verse eleven.

When all of those things are fulfilled, which they already have been because Jesus has already gone to the cross, suffered, died, and been resurrected, then verse twelve will be fulfilled.

The question we ask is this, “Is there any part of verse twelve that has not been fulfilled?”

To answer that question, let us break the verse down, briefly, and see where we stand with its fulfillment.

I will divide him a portion with the many.

A small side note about this phrase: sometimes the final word in the phrase is translated differently.

Sometimes, in certain translations, it will read “Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great,” this coming from the King James Version.

This really does make a difference.

“Many,” as the ESV reads is simply many in number.

“Great,” as the KJV reads means the rulers of the world.

The question becomes, “Which translation is correct?”

When we look at the Hebrew, the word that ends the phrase here is the word Rab which means “abundant (in quantity, size, age, number, rank, quality)”

In reality, both translations can be correct because the word means abundant in quantity (which would be many) and abundant in rank (which would be great or rulers.)

I just wanted everyone to be aware that the Bible translation you are reading may have a different word there than what I am reading.

For an explanation, I will let Scottish minister and theologian, Alexander McClaren speak here.

He writes:

“The first clause of this verse is somewhat difficult. 

There are two ways of understanding it. 

One is that adopted in A. V. (Authorized Version or KJV), 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.” (From Expositions of Holy Scripture by Alexander McClaren)

Now we ask the question, “Has this been fulfilled?”

I think it has, and it has not.

We have already seen in our studies that Christ has been exalted and given a name which is above every name.

But we have also seen that He will be granted a kingdom here on the earth.

A kingdom in which He will operate in perfect wisdom.

That kingdom is yet to be recognized and seen, so this phrase is partially fulfilled.

“And He shall divide the spoil with the strong.”

This second phrase goes along with the first phrase so I will not expound on it too much.

It is all part of the same thought, even in the Hebrew.

In that case we will say the same thing on the fulfilment aspect of this phrase also, yes and no.

“Because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors.”

Jesus did this on the cross. 

He gave Himself to die and allowed Himself to be considered a sinner even though He never sinned.

We know that Jesus was tempted to sin, but He never did.

We can look in Matthew chapter four and Hebrews chapter four to find that Jesus never sinned, but He was tempted and knows what it means to be tempted, just as we do.

That’s how Isaiah can say that he was “numbered with the transgressors.”

He was counted as a sinner because He dared to claim to be the Son of God.

Matthew 26:62 – 66 (ESV)  And the high priest stood up and said, “Have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you?” 

63  But Jesus remained silent. And the high priest said to him, “I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.” 

64  Jesus said to him, “You have said so. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.” 

65  Then the high priest tore his robes and said, “He has uttered blasphemy. What further witnesses do we need? You have now heard his blasphemy. 

66  What is your judgment?” They answered, “He deserves death.” 

Yes, this phrase has been fulfilled.

“Yet he bore the sin of many.”

Jesus bore the sin of those who would come to believe in Him and repent and be saved.

Notice that it says “many” and not “all” here.

This is one of the primary reasons that I cannot say that universal salvation is true.

If Jesus had died for the sins of all people and not just those who would come to believe, then Isaiah would say, “yet he bore the sin of all.”

But Isaiah does not say “all” he says “many.”

Some people may get upset at that, but even Jesus taught that not all would see salvation.

Matthew 7:13 – 14 (ESV)  “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 

14  For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

It is obvious from this passage that there are not a lot of people who come to salvation and salvation is definitely not a universal gift for everyone to receive in the end times or after they die like so many people teach.

Yes, this phrase has also been fulfilled.

“And makes intercession for the transgressors.”

This is the work that Jesus is doing now in Heaven.

He is seated at the right hand of the Father, making intercession for us.

Yes, we are transgressors.

We sin all the time.

Anyone who tells you that they do not sin has just sinned by lying to you.

Everyone sins.

Read Romans chapter seven where Paul explains this in great detail and then come tell me that Christians today do not sin.

If Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, the man who wrote two-thirds of the New Testament, still had trouble with sin in his natural life, so does everyone else.

The writer of Hebrews has this to say about Jesus’s ongoing ministry.

Hebrews 7:25  Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. 

Right now, in Heaven, Jesus is making intercession for those people who are to be saved and those who are already saved.

Which means that this phrase is still being fulfilled.

This is the ongoing work of Jesus.

Right now, I want you to ask yourself a question.

Do you know Jesus, or, even better, does Jesus know you?

If you are not in a right relationship with Jesus, you can be today.

You can repent of your sin, turn from your sinful ways, and become a child of the Most-High God.

Jesus is interceding on your behalf today and He is waiting for you to turn to Him.

You do not have to repeat any kind of special, secret prayer.

You do not have to go to church and shake a pastor’s hand or fill out a card.

You do not have to go and confess your sins to another man who is just as sinful as you.

All it takes, according to Romans chapter ten verse nine, is to confess Jesus is Lord with your mouth and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead.

Verse thirteen of that same chapter says that “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” 

That is all it takes: believe in your heart, confess who Jesus is, and call upon His name.

I urge you to take that step today if you have not already done so.

Let us pray.

Father God, we thank You for another wonderful study in Your word. We thank You for the time we have spent together digging out the richness of Your word. I thank You for each and every person listening to this Bible study. I ask that You bless them, watch over them, and lead them through their lives. If there are any who have listened to this study who do not know who You are, please draw them to You today. Do not let them continue down the wide path that leads to destruction. Bring them through that narrow gate so they might be part of Your kingdom. We ask these things in name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen.

Before you go, I wanted to remind you to check the show notes for important links concerning ways to support the ministry as well as ways to help us reach out to others. If this podcast is a blessing to you, please share it with others on whatever podcasting app you use.

Thank you and may God bless you.