The Suffering Servant

This is an excerpt from a Biblical Theology paper submitted at the Sovereign Grace Pastors College entitled A Biblical-Theological Analysis of Isaiah 52:13-53:12. The scope of the selected section is limited to only the Old Testament. The New Testament authors clearly understood the “Servant of the Lord” to be Jesus Christ, the Son of God incarnate (cf. Acts 8:26–35; 1 Pet 2:21–25).

Introduction and Definition

There are many themes running through Isaiah 52:13-53:12, but it is in this passage that the theme of atonement finds its chorus. Ideas and passages throughout the OT and NT find reference and development, both exegetically and theologically, in this 4th Servant Song. 

Atonement is clearly a doctrine that is developed throughout the entire Bible. What is necessary is to define what is meant by the word atonement, to identify its development in the OT, and to describe how it functions in Isaiah 52:13-53:12.

The need for atonement arises in the pages of Scriptures due to a holy God interacting with a sinful people. Throughout the OT, the idea of atonement takes on various definitions. It can relate to forgiveness, cleansing, ransom, and averting God’s wrath (1). We could sum up these various definitions as “penal substitutionary atonement”: the propitiation of God’s wrath through the offering of a substitutionary sacrifice, which cleanses people from their sins. At the heart of the atonement is the need for it; namely, how can a holy God exist near a sinful people? This is one of the central themes and concerns of the entire Bible. We will now turn our attention to the OT to see where we find this theme most explicit, as well as how it develops throughout the OT, culminating in Isaiah 52:13-53:12.

Genesis 3:21

In the opening chapters of the Bible, we see in seed form that which will blossom throughout the rest of redemptive history. We see a good God creating a good world and a people made in his image that will guard and keep this world and dwell in his good presence. Of course, this does not last long as the man and woman doubt God’s goodness, accuse him of lying, and ultimately disobey his direct and good command not to eat the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. This sin decimated the relationship between man and God, and thus Adam and his wife were cursed and sent away from the presence of God.

In this picture, we see in seed form the right understanding of sin and the holiness of God. God created a good world because he is good. But because of man’s sin, God must remove them from his presence, and they can do nothing to bring themselves back. Thus the need for atonement. “The problem of our sin runs so deep that we cannot and will not save ourselves. Sin is decreational, and only the Creator can recreate his world. Yet he must do this in a manner that upholds the goodness and truth of his word.” (2)

This scene clearly depicts the need for atonement, but do we actually see any hints of what is to come? While it is speculative, I would argue that we do. After cursing the serpent and making the great “proto-evanglium” in Genesis 3:15, and after finishing cursing the man and the woman, Moses makes this strange passing comment in Genesis 3:21: “And the Lord God made for Adam and his wife garments of skins and clothed them.” Early in the story, when Adam and Eve had sinned and heard God walking toward them, they attempted to cover their shame with leaves. This was clearly insufficient. But by the implied shedding of the blood of a substitute, God himself clothes these sinners.

Recognizing the speculative nature of this claim, I do argue this is a glimpse of what is to come, especially later on in the Pentateuch. While we might not be able to say conclusively this is an explicit and intentional picture of atonement, we may be able to say this is a “proto-atonement” (3). It is the type and shadow of what is to come, and how God will make a way for his people to return his presence.

Exodus 12

At the heart of OT theology is the epic story of God saving his people from the Egyptians at the exodus. But embedded in this narrative, we see the theme of atonement really begin to take shape in the first Passover described in Exodus 12. What was just hinted at in types and shadows is now made explicit through Moses’ instructions to the Israelites. Taking place right before the tenth and final plague against the Egyptians, this tenth plague was the first that was going to strike all, both Israel and Egypt. This tenth plague, the death of the firstborn, is what finally broke the bondage of Pharaoh and thus allowed Israel to leave. But there are two acts of salvation taking place here: one of Israel’s salvation from the tyrannical Egyptians, but also Israel’s salvation from the judgment of God (4).

The salvation that took place was conditional. The Israelites were not automatically spared from this coming judgment, but were required to exercise faith and obey the instructions given to Moses from God: they had to slaughter lamb without blemish, and apply its blood to the door frame of the house. Only when the Lord saw the blood would he pass over the house (Exod 12:13). It’s clear in the text that if they did not do this, the Lord would deliver his justice and wrath on the house and the firstborn would have been killed. Clearly, the lamb functioned as a substitute for the firstborn son, and died in his place (5).

There was also a corporate nature of this ritual. Even though the life of the firstborn was at stake, the whole family was instructed to partake of the meal. The atoning work of the sacrificial lamb was applied to the entire household, and not just to the firstborn son. 

Finally, given that it is clear this plague functioned as a divine judgment on sinful humanity (6), the substitution that took place was clearly penal in nature. That is, God’s justice was not swept under the rug, but was maintained. The lamb functioned as a substitute that doesn’t just die in the place of the firstborn, but actually carried the judgment of God that was meant for the firstborn. As he did before and as he always had, God graciously provided the substitute needed to bear the penalty of sinful man (7).

This is an emphatic and paradigmatic event in the life of the people of God. It is a turning point in salvation history. We know this not just by the epic narrative described, but that God demanded this day be a memorial, a day of remembrance (Exod 12:14). The generations following from this event were to look back on it and remember the God whom they worshiped was a just and holy God, but also gracious in his provision to spare them while maintaining his justice and holiness.

Leviticus 16

What we witness in story form in the Exodus and institution of the Passover is a dramatic story of redemption and salvation. However, we leave the book of Exodus with an important operating question: “How can a holy God maintain an ongoing relationship with a sinful people?” It was clear the Passover was the paradigm of God’s salvific work and how he could win a people, but what was necessary to maintain that relationship? The answer to these questions was codified in Leviticus in the sacrificial system, culminating in the Day of Atonement.

After Genesis 3, it is impossible and dangerous for sinful man to be in close proximity to the holiness of God. In Leviticus, we see the relationship between the holy God and sinful man was maintained through sacrifice (8). This sacrifice, performed in precisely the way God institutes, was the very thing that allowed the people to dwell with God.

Given its name, the Day of Atonement was when the sins of the people were forgiven, they were cleansed of their guilt, they were ransomed from the slavery of sin, and God’s wrath was averted. All of the various definitions of atonement were expressed on that day and were received by the people if they performed the sacrifices correctly. Leviticus 10:1-2 highlights the danger that awaited if the sacrifices were not performed as God institutes, once again highlighting the holy nature of God.

The substitutionary nature of the atonement was crystal clear in the ritual itself. Aaron, the high priest, had to sacrifice a goat for himself to “make atonement for himself and for his house” (Lev 16:6) even before he could do anything for the people. He then had to make atonement for the tent of meeting, for the Holy Place, and for the altar of the Lord. Here the cleansing nature of the atonement was in view as it washed the Tabernacle and the high priest of all sins so that he was able to make atonement for the people.

Finally, the culmination of the entire ritual was found in the high priest confessing the sins of the people, and laying them on the head of the scapegoat. The high priest was the representative of all the Israelites, and by laying hands on the head of the goat and confessing the sins, he identified with the goat and symbolically transferred the people’s sins to it. This goat, the substitutionary sin bearer, was sent off into the wilderness to be cut off from the land where he was to die (9). Thus, God’s wrath was satisfied, and the covenant relationship between God and his people maintained.

Isaiah 52:13-53:12

The first Passover and the following institution of the Levitical system and the Day of Atonement was situated at the beginning of the history of the nation of Israel. However, as we have seen, the nation of Israel did not maintain the covenant God made with those Israelites in Exodus and Leviticus. Throughout the histories we see king after king lead the people further and further away from God. In the Psalms and in the Prophets, we find a call to return to God and to his ways. But Israel and Judah abused the gracious sacrificial system God had given them to atone for their sins. They were presumptive of its atoning work, thus not needing to be morally pure. And they were guilty of syncretism: combining the worship prescribed by the Lord with elements of paganism (10). Clearly, something needed to change if God was going to keep the promises he made to Abraham.

It is in Isaiah 52:13-53:12, which we have looked at in detail above, that the theme of atonement reaches its climax in the OT. It reaches it by unambiguously promising the full and actual atonement of the people of God through the suffering servant. This Servant of the Lord is punished in the place of God’s people as their substitute, to make atonement for the guilt separating them and God. 

The servant in Isaiah is identified with us, in that he acted on our behalf. Through emphatic usage of the personal pronouns in Isaiah 53:4-6, we see that he suffered for us in our place. He received what we have and we receive what he has. Just like the scapegoat in Leviticus 16, this servant bears the sins of the people. He is cut off from the land of the living and is killed in the place of the people (Isa 53:8-9). In fact, substitution seems to be the centerpiece principle of the work of the servant (11). 

Isaiah also makes clear the servant is a lamb without blemish (Isa 53:9). Even though the servant is marred physically, he is without moral defect. What separates this servant from a spotless lamb, however, is that he is not just sinless and innocent, but is in fact “righteous” (Isa 53:11). This highlights that this servant is ushering in something new. The people of God will not only have their sins atoned for, but will in fact receive the righteousness of the suffering servant. This is the gracious promise that is made to the people of God: that through the suffering and death of this servant, many will be accounted righteous (Isa 53:11).

And behind it all is the sovereign hand of God. The servant is smitten by God, it is the Lord who lays on the iniquities of the people on the servant (Isa 53:4; 6), and it is the will of the Lord to crush the servant and put him to grief (Isa 53:10). One might be tempted to think God is punishing this innocent sufferer against his will, but Isaiah makes clear the servant suffers willingly (Isa 53:7). The consent of the sufferer and the sovereign God doing the afflicting go hand in hand. God is the one making the way for his people.

OT Redemptive-Historical Conclusion

Because of the nature of sin and the holiness of God, the main operating question throughout the OT is “how will God keep his promises and dwell with his people again?” We see the answer to this question develop over the history of Israel and Judah. God, through history and through the sacrificial system, is shown to be a God who keeps his promise. Through penal substitution, God upholds his truthfulness and justice. It is the means by which he saves people for a relationship with himself without going back on his word that sin has to be punished. Penal substitution shows God is not a liar, and that only he can make atonement for the sins of his people (12).

footnotes:

1 – Steve Jeffery, Michael Ovey, and Andrew Sach. Pierced for Our Transgressions: Rediscovering the Glory of Penal Substitution. (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2007), 46.

2 – Jeffery, Ovey, and Sach, Pierced for Our Transgressions, 117.

3 – A similar case may be made for the story in Gen 22 of the sacrifice of Isaac at Mount Moriah. While atonement is clearly not the main point of that passage (the faith of Abraham is), it is a progression of the substitutionary nature of the atonement that will be developed at Passover and in the Levitical system.

4 – Jeffery, Ovey, and Sach, Pierced for Our Transgressions, 35-36.

5 – Jeffery, Ovey, and Sach, Pierced for Our Transgressions, 37.

6 – All of the plagues are clearly actions of divine judgment, but this tenth plague is emphatic.

7 – Jeffery, Ovey, and Sach, Pierced for Our Transgressions, 38.

8 – Jeffery, Ovey, and Sach, Pierced for Our Transgressions, 43.

9 – Jeffery, Ovey, and Sach, Pierced for Our Transgressions, 49.

10 – Jeffery, Ovey, and Sach, Pierced for Our Transgressions, 51.

11 –  David Gibson and Jonathan Gibson. From Heaven He Came and Sought Her: Definite Atonement in Historical, Biblical, Theological, and Pastoral Perspective. (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2013), 253.

12 – Jeffery, Ovey, and Sach, Pierced for Our Transgressions, 137.