Most Read Bible Verses---#23---Isaiah 53:1-6

Isaiah 53:1-6 (NLT)

Who has believed our message?  To whom has the Lord revealed His powerful arm?  My servant grew up in the Lord’s presence like a tender green shoot, like a root in dry ground. There was nothing beautiful or majestic about His appearance, nothing to attract us to Him.  He was despised and rejected—a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief.   We turned our backs on Him and looked the other way.  He was despised, and we did not care.  Yet it was our weaknesses He carried; it was our sorrows that weighed Him down.  And we thought His troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for His own sins!  But He was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins.  He was beaten so we could be whole.  He was whipped so we could be healed.  All of us, like sheep, have strayed away.  We have left God’s paths to follow our own.  Yet the Lord laid on Him the sins of us all.  

Isaiah 53 is known as the Suffering Servant chapter of the Bible.  The Suffering Servant passage actually starts in 52:13 and continues through 53:12.  These words were written over 700 years before Christ was born.  How can Jewish people not believe that this passage refers to Jesus Christ?  They might believe that these words refer to the Messiah or some believe that they refer to the nation Israel, but they do not believe that this is a prophecy concerning Jesus Christ. 

So much of what Isaiah wrote here is referenced in the New Testament--

·  Who has believed our message?  John 12:38

·  He was despised and rejected.  Luke 18:31-33

·  He was despised and we did not care.  John 1:10-11

·  It was our weaknesses He carried.  Matthew 8:17

·  We thought His troubles were a punishment from God.  John 19:7

·  He was pierced for our rebellion.  Hebrews 9:28

·  He was crushed for our sins.  Romans 4:25 and I Corinthians 15:3

·  He was beaten so we could be whole.  Hebrews 5:8

·  He was whipped so we could be healed.  I Peter 2:24-25

There may not be another Old Testament chapter whose verses are more quoted or referred to than Isaiah 53.  Therefore, it is one of the best-loved and most often quoted chapters of the Bible.  For example, the famous example of Philip witnessing to the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8---what was the eunuch reading that caused him to ask Philip questions?  Isaiah 53 (see Acts 8:27-33). 

This is the only passage of Scripture where Jesus Christ is described physically.  He was not beautiful or majestic or attractive.  He did not look like artists’ portraits or the actors (e.g. Jeffrey Hunter, Max Von Sydow, Jim Caviezel, etc.) who have played Him in movies. 

Isaiah 53:6 is a well-known memory verse.  All human beings are like sheep who have strayed away.  All human beings, because of original sin, naturally will abandon God to follow our own pride-filled ways.  It was God the Father Himself who chose to have all our sins to be cast upon His Son, Jesus Christ.  He became the sacrificial lamb for us.  Isaiah prophesied this hundreds of years before all this took place.  Amazing.

Reflect on all that God through Jesus Christ has done for you if you are a believer.  Think carefully about how much God loves you to allow His Son to be beaten, scourged, cut, nailed, and pierced so that you can be saved from your sins and be re-connected to God and be part of His kingdom forever.  And, if you are not a believer, a passage like this either will impress upon you the need to be saved or further turn you off from the gospel.  Where do you stand?  Your life forever depends on your decision.