5.27.26 – Isaiah 53, Part 3: So Much More!

"He was pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities." That is the traditional phrasing. "The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed."

The Hebrew word for "chastisement" here is musar. Does anyone know what Musar is? It is a study of Jewish ethics, but also teaching and discipline. Notice the little word "for"—pierced for, crushed for. Let us apply our first tool: each can mean "on account of." But look at this: "The musar of our peace was upon Him." Most English Bibles render this as "chastisement" or "punishment," which sounds courtroom-like. Yet musar is a broader word rooted in father-son formation. Proverbs 3 says, "My son, do not despise the musar of the Lord." Yes, it can include painful correction, but musar is not a retributive penalty.

The Greek translators of the Septuagint chose paideia—training, formation, discipline—just as Hebrews 12 uses it: "The Lord disciplines those He loves" (Heb. 12:5–6). The Targum Jonathan paraphrases Isaiah 53: "By instruction, peace shall be increased upon us"—by His instruction, not His execution. I am not saying musar means only instruction and discipline, but that is compelling. The suffering is real: He is pierced, crushed, and His stripes bring healing. None of that goes away. But the controlling word for what the servant carries is discipline that brings peace, formation that brings shalom, instruction that teaches the many how to walk. (Remember: He went ahead of us, not instead of us :-). Hebrews 5:8 says of Yeshua Himself, "He learned obedience by what He suffered"—the same word, the same logic. His suffering is not a penalty; it is the discipline of the faithful Son. It forms and proves Him. That formed faithfulness saves us—we are saved by the faithfulness of Yeshua. He becomes the path we walk; the One we are to imitate (Eph. 5:1–2); ahead of, not instead of :-).

Isaiah 53:6: "All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to their own way. The Lord has laid (paga) on Him the iniquity of us all." That sure sounds like punishment transfer, right? But the Hebrew word paga does not literally mean "transfer punishment." Its basic sense is to contact, meet, encounter, reach. So verse 6 says the Lord caused the iniquity of us all to meet Him, to converge upon Him—a different image than "transfer." The iniquity comes to where He is and encounters Him. We will return to paga at the end of the chapter (53:12), so hold that thought.

I will move through verses 7–9 because they are not really weaponized for penal substitution. He was oppressed, afflicted, yet silent. He is cut off from the land of the living. His grave was assigned with the wicked. The servant really dies. Nothing I have said minimizes the death; this is not symbolism. The cross is costly and genuine.

Now, verse 10—this is technical, so stay with me. The King James says, "It pleased the Lord to crush Him; He put Him to grief. When You shall make His soul an offering for sin." The TLV reads, "It pleased the Lord to crush Him by disease. When You make His soul an offering/asham." Asham is a guilt offering. The King James gives you something useful here—it is totally wrong, which makes it useful for demonstrating boldness mid-week. People hear "offering for sin" and think of blood carrying sins away. That is the wrong category. Asham is the guilt offering (Leviticus 5 and 7), but it cannot import a penal substitutionary framework. That is not how the offering works in the Torah. It is a reparation offering: when someone wrongs another, the Torah requires restoring what was taken plus a fifth, then bringing the ram. The whole structure of the asham is about making the wronged party whole through repair and restoration. There is no penalty—the wrong gets repaired. So Isaiah 53 uses sacrificial language, but not penal substitutionary language.

But it says, "It pleased the Lord to crush him." What do we do with that? The New RSV notes that the Hebrew is uncertain and difficult to translate. The Targum (Aramaic translation of the Tanakh) reads very differently: "I wish to purify him from the plague." That is different, is it not?

Then it says, "When You make His soul an asham, He shall see His offspring; He shall prolong His days; the will of the Lord shall prosper through Him." This is not God's wrath being satisfied; it is God's purpose fulfilled through the servant's faithful suffering, which takes us back to Joseph: "What you meant for bad, God meant for good" (Genesis 50:20). The servant's death does not satisfy something in God; it becomes the doorway through which God's will prospers for the cosmos.

Does this make you want to go back and read Isaiah 53? It does not minimize the work on the cross of our Messiah, but it keeps the whole of Scripture aligned, glorifying God even more for His "beyond our imagination" covenant plans.

Shalom,
Alan

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