Redeeming Love
Isaiah 53:4-12
Tony’s Overview Video
How to Use
Preparing to teach
- Read the Bible Lesson by Tony Cartledge in this month’s issue of the Nurturing Faith Journal
- Watch Tony’s Video for this session
- Select either the Adult or Youth teaching guide and follow the directions
Click to read the Bible Lesson by Tony Cartledge
Key Verse: Isaiah 53:4 –
“Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted.”
To liven up today’s lesson, let’s invite Isaiah of the Exile to tell us about his life and the events leading to one of his most famous prophecies, while leaving some of our more traditional commentary for the online resources. This prophet who preached in Isaiah’s name lived in the latter stages of the exile, and may have joined others in returning home. [DD]
We can’t know exactly what was in Isaiah’s mind, but we can imagine that if the old prophet could stand in one our pulpits and speak today, it might sound something like this …
Trouble, past and present
Isaiah’s my name, and preaching’s my game, and sometimes I prophesy, too. I am not the first preacher who became a prophet, nor am I the first to be called Isaiah, and I do not expect to be the last of either. I am what I am, what God called me to be.
The first contributor to the book you know as “Isaiah” lived back in the old days, preaching in Jerusalem during the eighth century, when Israel was strong and free, made great by God and the envy of other nations.
But then too many people turned too strongly to their own ways. The rich oppressed the poor to make themselves even richer, and people of every stripe began to follow the idolatrous ways of our pagan neighbors.
Isaiah of Jerusalem was called by God to tell the truth, and the truth was trouble: the people had lost their fear of God, had lost their focus for living, had lost their future in the land.
He charged that their faithfulness had turned to harlotry and justice to murder, and the only way to purify the nation was through more trouble, like silver or gold going through a fire to be refined (Isaiah 1:21-26).
Isaiah the first predicted that Assyria would become the instrument of God’s judgment on Israel, and he was right. In the year you call 722 BCE, the northern kingdom was conquered, and the people were scattered.
The Babylonians overpowered the Assyrians some years later, and then decimated Judah in 597, sending thousands into exile to flounder around between the Tigris and the Euphrates, wondering what was next. We were pitiful: when I came of age we had been in bondage for over a generation. [DD]
The future looked dark when the LORD gave me a message to proclaim, a vision for the future. God called me to comfort the exiles, to announce that their sentence was up and their penalty paid. I was to declare that a way would be made through the wilderness and Yahweh’s glory would be revealed. Humans might be as fickle and fading as grass, I was told, but God’s promises endure forever (Isa. 40:1-8).
It was hard to imagine, and harder to believe. God had not forgotten us! I was hesitant, but when God gives you a message, it comes with a tickle on your tongue that nothing will scratch other than proclaiming the word.
As I began to preach God’s message of comfort and hope, a strange thing occurred to me. King Cyrus of Persia was threatening Babylon. Could Cyrus be the instrument of God’s deliverance? If God had used a pagan king to judge Israel – couldn’t a pagan king deliver God’s people, as well?
I began to proclaim that Cyrus was God’s anointed deliverer (cf. Isa. 45:1; 48:14-15, 28). People laughed at me, but not for long. Cyrus did indeed conquer Babylon in 539, and one of his first acts was to make a decree that we could return to Jerusalem. He even offered us a military escort and money to help rebuild the temple. Can you believe it?
I thought God was probably through with me as a prophet then, but I continued to listen. I often walked out beyond the barley fields to the edge of the desert to ponder the old wind-bitten trees out there – they reminded me that the present age of suffering was about to pass, and that a new age was coming.
A root from dry ground (vv. 1-3)
It was wrong about my prophetic days being over, for God spoke to me again. I was walking in the desert’s edge one day, leaving a small cloud of dust with every step, when I tripped over a root sticking out of the ground. It hurt, too, and it was bleeding – sandals don’t provide much protection for a busted toe.
I sat on a stump to nurse my toe and to curse the root when this thought occurred to me – “a root out of dry ground.” That was all, at first – a phrase that stuck in my head and wouldn’t go away. “A root out of dry ground.” And then I noticed that a new shoot had sprung up and was well on its way to becoming a tree. It was ugly and misshapen and there was nothing to commend it except that it had grown from old roots in dry ground and had survived despite the hot desert winds. I hated that the brave tree would probably be cut down to serve the needs of men.
And there it was. A thought that had to be from God. There was more that people needed to hear. God’s plan was bigger than Cyrus and bigger than a simple return to the promised land. There is a bondage that goes deeper than handcuffs or shackles. There is a prison of the soul, and our problem through the years had been our inability to overcome the sinful nature that had imprisoned us.
I saw a root out of dry ground, a twisted tree standing strong in the wind. A tree cut down for the sake of the people. A faithful servant of God who would overcome adversity and sacrifice himself to redeem God’s people from their sins. [DD]
As quickly as the message came to me I realized that few would believe it. But God would not let me keep it in, and so I began to proclaim to all who would listen that God would send forth a servant who would appear marred and disfigured, and yet he would be raised up and highly exalted. “Kings will shut their mouths because of him,” I said, when they come to understand what has happened (Isa. 52:13-15).
What could silence a politician? Nothing but a vision of power that has its roots in suffering and not in glory, and that’s hard to believe.
So I went on to ask “Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity; and as one from whom others hide their faces he was despised, and we held him of no account” (vv. 1-3).
A servant who suffers (vv. 4-12)
Now, here is the amazing part, and I assure you it’s nothing I would have ever made up: the LORD told me to say: “Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted.
“But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed.
“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (vv. 4-6).
Can you imagine such a thing? That a faithful servant would arise to suffer our pain and take our punishment? To turn our perversity into peace?
God gave me even more to say: I spoke of the servant as being oppressed and afflicted, like an uncomplaining lamb led to the slaughter, an undeserved death for the transgressions of others (vv. 7-9).
Could such a thing be God’s plan? And yet it was (v. 11). A righteous man would die for the unrighteous but not be lost, and his death would lead to victory. This is what God told me:
“Out of his anguish he shall see light; he shall find satisfaction through his knowledge.
The righteous one, my servant, shall make many righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. “Therefore I will allot him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he poured out himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors” (vv. 11-12).
Did you catch this new thing? There is something greater than justice: there is love. There is grace. And it brings peace.
I admit this was not a popular message when I began to proclaim it. It was only later, after the servant actually came, after he suffered, died, and won the victory – only then did they put my words together with his life: “But God proves his love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
Now, I do not know what keeps you in bondage. I do not know what sins so easily beset you. But I do know that the servant has come. Like a root out of dry ground he grew up. Like a bent tree in the desert wind he suffered. Like a tree which is needed for a greater purpose he was cut down. And he did that for you.
And just as that stump quickly sprouted and broke out into new life, just so he can give you a new life. He has lived and died to take away your iniquities, to cleanse your transgressions, to forgive your sins and bring hope to your life, to send you out with a determination to love others even as he loves, even when it hurts.
Who has believed our report? I hope you have!
Adult Teaching Resources
Download the PDF of teaching resources for this lesson.
This PDF contains the Teaching Guide, Digging Deeper, and Hardest Question pages.
Read Scripture online: Isaiah 53:4-12
Youth Teaching Resources
Parent Prep
If it came down to it, I know we would all sacrifice ourselves for our children, but we shouldn’t sacrifice ourselves throughout the course of our lives. There are many parents that give up who they are so they can devote all of who they are to their students. Parents are also given gifts and talents; blessed by God. These shouldn’t be given up on because someone has children. This isn’t to say you don’t make sacrifices for your children, but don’t sacrifice who you are either. Don’t get so wrapped up in your kids that you lose your own identity.
Additional Links/Resources
Read Scripture online: Isaiah 53:4-12
Download the PDF for youth teaching resources using the button below. This PDF contains the Teaching Guide for this lesson:
Video
Encourage youth to check out this video ahead of the lesson.
“Steve Trevor’s Sacrifice Scene” from Wonder Woman
Via www.youtube.com
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