Isaiah 53: 2 - 4 > Prophecy about the Messiah
| Prophecy about the Messiah |
| Isaiah 53: 2 - 4 ( King James Version ) |
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| For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. |
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| verse 3 > He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. |
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| verse 4 > Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. |
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| Isaiah 53: 2 - 4 ( New International Version ) |
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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. |
| v. 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. |
| v. 4 > Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. |
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| Text Quoted in Spirit of Prophecy |
| When God's written word was given through the Hebrew prophets, Satan studied with diligence the messages concerning the Messiah. Carefully he traced the words that outlined with unmistakable clearness Christ's work among men as a suffering sacrifice and as a conquering king. In the parchment rolls of the Old Testament Scriptures he read that the One who was to appear was to be "brought as a lamb to the slaughter," "His visage . . . so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men." Isaiah 53:7; 52:14. The promised Saviour of humanity was to be "despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; . . . smitten of God, and afflicted;" yet He was also to exercise His mighty power in order to "judge the poor of the people." He was to "save the children of the needy," and "break in pieces the oppressor." Isaiah 53:3, 4; Psalm 72:4. These prophecies caused Satan to fear and tremble; yet he relinquished not his purpose to thwart, if possible, the merciful provisions of Jehovah for the redemption of the lost race. He determined to blind the eyes of the people, so far as might be possible, to the real significance of the Messianic prophecies, in order to prepare the way for the rejection of Christ at His coming. {PK 686.1} |
| For more than a thousand years the Jewish people had waited the coming of the promised Saviour. Their brightest hopes had rested upon this event. For a thousand years, in song and prophecy, in temple rite and household prayer, His name had been enshrined; and yet when He came, they did not recognize Him as the Messiah for whom they had so long waited. "He came unto His own, and His own received Him not." John 1:11. To their world-loving hearts the Beloved of heaven was "as a root out of a dry ground." In their eyes He had "no form nor comeliness;" they discerned in Him no beauty that they should desire Him. Isaiah 53:2. {PK 710.1} |
| How unmistakably plain were Isaiah's prophecies of Christ's sufferings and death! "Who hath believed our report? "the prophet inquires, "and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. Isaiah 53:2 {AA 225.2} |
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| Only like can appreciate like. Unless you accept in your own life the principle of self-sacrificing love, which is the principle of His character, you cannot know God. The heart that is deceived by Satan, looks upon God as a tyrannical, relentless being; the selfish characteristics of humanity, even of Satan himself, are attributed to the loving Creator. "Thou thoughtest," He says, "that I was altogether such an one as thyself." Psalm 50:21. His providences are interpreted as the expression of an arbitrary, vindictive nature. So with the Bible, the treasure house of the riches of His grace. The glory of its truths, that are as high as heaven and compass eternity, is undiscerned. To the great mass of mankind, Christ Himself is "as a root out of a dry ground," and they see in Him "no beauty that" they "should desire Him." Isaiah 53:2. When Jesus was among men, the revelation of God in humanity, the scribes and Pharisees declared to Him, "Thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil." John 8:48. Even His disciples were so blinded by the selfishness of their hearts that they were slow to understand Him who had come to manifest to them the Father's love. This was why Jesus walked in solitude in the midst of men. He was understood fully in heaven alone. {MB 25.2} |
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| Thus it was that when Christ came as prophecy had declared He should come at His first advent, as clearly delineated in Isaiah 53, the people were looking for a Messiah of an altogether different type. Those who received the words of their teachers instead of the words of God, were misled, and deluded in their expectations, and when Christ came they would not receive Him. Although the disciples themselves had been taught by the divine teacher, they were unprepared to receive the words which they interpreted as meaning defeat, and disappointment of their expectations of a temporal victory over their enemies. {7MR 200.3} |
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| When the attention of the man who is honest in heart is drawn to the truth of the Bible, he reads, marks, learns, and inwardly digests its teachings. He comes to God in prayer. He sees the wonderful sacrifice made in His behalf in the words of the prophet: "He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief: . . . He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. . . . He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed. . . The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:3, 5, 6). Conviction comes to His heart, and he is troubled, for he sees that he is under condemnation. He feels the power of the truth in His soul. Then the light which the Spirit of God sheds upon the convicted mind comes to him, and he sees the meaning of the Word as he never saw it before. As the blood propelled from the heart circulates through the body, carrying life and vigor to the extremities, so the truth received into the heart diffuses itself through the inner man, bringing the thoughts and affections and powers into obedience to Christ. If the heart is submitted to the will of Christ, the great Master Builder will in due time perfect the whole being. {10MR 149.1} |