5.26.26 – Isaiah 53, Part 2: What We Considered Him

Continuing from yesterday: 

"You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about what is happening in this state—to preserve many people alive."
(Genesis 50:20)

Did Joseph suffer? Yes—in the pit, slavery, false accusations, prison. His brothers were truly against him. Their evil was not theatrical; it was not just a show. And God used that suffering. The same suffering that came from human evil became the doorway through which God preserved life. But notice what is not in that story: God did not author the brothers' evil. He did not need their violence. He was not waiting for an innocent person to be punished before He could bless His people. The brothers meant harm; God overcame it and made that harm serve life.

PSA (Penal Substitutionary Atonement) says the violence satisfies God. The Joseph pattern says God overcomes violence and turns it toward good. That is the pattern: people do bad things; God means it for life. Remember what we said about Joseph in the very first study—the word "merit" or "favor." Joseph is a recognized type pointing to the Messiah in all Jewish tradition. Carry all this with you. We are about to read Isaiah 53 again; just keep Joseph in active memory.

Building on the three points from yesterday, the fourth is random, but I need to tell you about it. Who has ever heard of the ransom theory? Ransom is its own atonement theory, older than penal substitution. The early church worked on this for centuries before anyone fully understood it. The basic claim is that Yeshua's death paid a ransom to set us free from bondage to sin and death. And guess what? The New Testament actually uses that language—Mark 10, 1 Timothy, Peter. It is biblical. But the question we ask is: to whom was the ransom paid?

Origen and Gregory of Nyssa argued that Jesus paid off the devil (early church theology). Others argued He paid off the Father. Both readings require that a payment be made to someone. But that is not how ransom works in Israel's history. We read in Exodus 6:6:

"I will redeem you with an outstretched arm. I will ransom you from slavery in Egypt."
(Ex. 6:6)

How much gets paid? Nothing. No payment changes hands. There is no transaction. Ransom is the language of liberation from bondage, not some kind of deal or currency exchange, not a life-for-life blood exchange. So when the New Testament reaches for that, it is reaching once again to the Exodus pattern, where God showed up and redeemed an entire people. We spent a lot of time looking at that pattern. You must always hold onto it (1 Cor. 10:6, 11).

Our categories in hand: vicarious, the word for, Joseph, ransom. Let us go to Isaiah 53:4:

"Surely He has borne our griefs, yet we considered Him stricken by God and afflicted."

That is where it begins. We are not in a courtroom. We are not talking about legal penalties. We are beginning here with sickness, grief, pain, affliction, sorrow. And it begins with a confession: "We considered Him stricken." That is important. The speakers are confessing how they read the suffering. They saw the wounds and concluded that the servant must be under the hand of God, divine judgment, affliction. But the chapter completely turns that around. That is not the correct reading. They thought He was suffering under His own guilt, under God's judgment, but then it is revealed that it is tied to theirs. They were falsely assuming some things.

Isaiah 53 is structured from the beginning about this perception being overturned. When you see that, I think we should also consider whether we need to overturn some perceptions. But this is what the cross looks like. Rome saw an executed criminal. The leaders saw a failed messianic pretender. The disciples saw the total collapse of their hope. Onlookers saw another cursed man on a tree. But God was vindicating the righteous one and making His suffering the very place where death loses its grip. That is the actual happening. It appears God is punishing a sinner; in actuality, He is sending the righteous through suffering to save. Joseph's brothers misread it. The crowd misread the servant's suffering. The world reads the cross as judgment. The reality is redemption.

Now there are two Hebrew words—we will not get into them too much: nasa and sabal—"to bear," "to carry," "to lift," "to take up." In the case of nasa, very often "to carry away." The text says, "He has borne (nasa) our griefs and carried (sabal) our sorrows"—nasa and sabal. Listen to what is being borne: sickness, pain, sorrow, grief. These are the dying conditions we have spent time talking about that oppress the human body and spirit. You should remember that language when we talked about Yeshua encountering the forces of death walking through the Galilee—the metzora (leper), the woman with the flow of blood, Jairus's daughter, Lazarus. In every encounter, impurity does not spread to Him; purity goes out. Holiness spreads. Life moves outward. Isaiah 53 is a prophetic statement of what the Gospels will show you in action: the servant bears the sickness and carries it away. Matthew quotes Isaiah 53:4 directly, but he does not put it around the cross or crucifixion. He puts it right around Yeshua healing a bunch of different people. That is where he says the Messiah is bearing and carrying away: "He Himself took our infirmities and bore our diseases." Matthew says the servant is not absorbing wrath. He is entering the realm of death, taking hold of what has enslaved us, and carrying it away—and it does not stick to Him because His life is stronger.

Remember, He did not do this instead of us but ahead of us, so that we should walk in His steps (1 Pet. 2:21):

"For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps."
(1 Pet. 2:21) 

Shalom,
Alan