Where’s The Blood? Isaiah’s Suffering Servant

 

In this section (https://answeringislamblog.wordpress.com/2019/09/29/wheres-the-blood-responding-to-another-muslim-ruse-pt-2/), I am going to simply quote the clearest Old Testament prophecy that foretells the vicarious, sacrificial death of the Messiah for the sins of the world, and his subsequent resurrection to immortal life and exaltation to glory.

The following is taken from Isaiah 52:13-15 and 53:1-12, where the prophet Isaiah was given a revelation from the Holy Spirit in the eighth century BC, nearly eight hundred years before the birth of our Lord Jesus, in which he foresaw in quite specific detail the substitutionary death of God’s Messianic Servant.  A copy of this prophecy was found in 1947, among the Dead Sea Scrolls, which was written roughly 125 years before the birth of Christ. So this is clearly a prediction made before the birth of Jesus, which only the Lord Jesus perfectly fulfilled.

I will be quoting from the New International Version (NIV) of the Holy Bible, which can be read online by clicking on the following link: (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=isaiah+52%3A13-53%3A12&version=NIV). All capital and/or underline emphasis will be mine.

The Suffering and Glory of the Servant

¹³ See, my servant will act wisely^[a];
    he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted.
¹⁴ Just as there were many who were appalled at him^[b]—
    his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being
    and his form marred beyond human likeness—
¹⁵ so he will sprinkle many nations,^[c]
    and kings will shut their mouths because of him.
For what they were not told, they will see,
    and what they have not heard, they will understand.

53 Who has believed our message
    and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
² He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
    and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
    nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
³ He was despised and rejected by mankind,
    a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
    he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

⁴ Surely he took up our pain
    and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
    stricken by him, and afflicted.
⁵ But he was pierced FOR OUR TRANSGRESSIONS,
    he was crushed FOR OUR INIQUITIES;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
    and BY HIS WOUNDS we are healed.
⁶ We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
    each of us has turned to our own way;
AND THE LORD HAS LAID ON HIM 
    THE INIQUITY  OF US ALL.

⁷ He was oppressed and afflicted,
    yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
    and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
    so he did not open his mouth.
⁸ By oppression^[d] and judgment he was taken away.
    Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
    FOR THE TRANSGRESSION OF MY PEOPLE HE WAS PUNISHED.^[e]
9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
    and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
    nor was any deceit in his mouth.

¹⁰ Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
    and though the LORD makes^[f] his life AN OFFERING FOR SIN,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
    and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.
¹¹ After he has suffered,
    he will see the light of life^[g] and be satisfied^[h];
by his knowledge^[i] my righteous servant will justify many,
    AND HE WILL BEAR THEIR INIQUITIES.
¹² Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,^[j]
    and he will divide the spoils with the strong,^[k]
because he poured out his life unto death,
    and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
    and made intercession for the transgressors.

Footnotes:

1.       Isaiah 52:13 Or will prosper

2.       Isaiah 52:14 Hebrew you

3.       Isaiah 52:15 Or so will many nations be amazed at him (see also Septuagint)

4.       Isaiah 53:8 Or From arrest

5.       Isaiah 53:8 Or generation considered / that he was cut off from the land of the living, / that he was punished for the transgression of my people?

6.       Isaiah 53:10 Hebrew though you make

7.       Isaiah 53:11 Dead Sea Scrolls (see also Septuagint); Masoretic Text does not have the light of life.

8.       Isaiah 53:11 Or (with Masoretic Text) ¹¹ He will see the fruit of his suffering / and will be satisfied

9.       Isaiah 53:11 Or by knowledge of him

10.   Isaiah 53:12 Or many

11.   Isaiah 53:12 Or numerous

 Source: https://answeringislamblog.wordpress.com/2019/09/29/wheres-the-blood-isaiahs-suffering-servant/

IHS