Isaiah’s audience, Israel, had been waiting for the Messiah — which means “the anointed one,” and is a way to identify Him as the king.
They had been promised greatness. They had been promised prosperity as a nation from the beginning, because the father of that nation was Abraham. And God made a covenant with Abraham and repeated it to his sons, the patriarchs, and then repeated it again through the history of Israel, that God would one day save that nation — both temporally and spiritually — and bring glory to them, and through them to the world. God would bless that little nation, Israel, and make them a blessing. They counted on that promise being fulfilled.
The promise was made to David that the one who would come and bring all this about would be in the line of David — a royal son who would be the Messiah and bring about all the promises of glory and blessing to and through Israel.
The people of Israel were waiting for their king. He would deliver them from their enemies, from their bad circumstances, and from all of their suffering. He would fulfill all the Old Testament covenant promises of blessing, prosperity, influence, peace, and righteousness.
The Jews were looking for the coming king in every generation. They were looking for a king like the king they chose originally, Saul — somebody great and powerful. They were looking for someone with military might, someone who was a dominating ruler, someone who is triumphant, someone who would deliver them from all the things they hated and lead them to glory.
And they knew what to look for, because the prophets said the Messiah would be a man, the seed of a woman. He will be a man and yet He will be God. And He will be born of a virgin. He will be a son of Abraham, in the royal line of David. He will be born in the town of Bethlehem.
They had some details by which to identify the Messiah. So for centuries, they had been looking. And then Jesus Christ arrived, born of a virgin in the line of Abraham, in the line of David, in the town of Bethlehem, and evidenced His deity by words and works the likes of which the world had never and has since never seen.
Shouldn’t they have just signed up? This is the Messiah! All the qualifications were met and more. But the question they had was, “Where was the pomp and circumstance? Where was the fanfare and the military power?”
He was born humbly in a feed trough, and He was attended in His birth by the lowest people on the social ladder, shepherds. He lived humbly in a very average family in a less than average, out of the way town called Nazareth. He collected around Him some very humble nobodies and made them His messengers. He sought no office, He sought no position, He sought no education. He made no friends with the elite. He gathered no army. He presented no strategy to set up His rule.
But He had power that was unmistakable and undeniable and highly visible. He had power over disease, demons, death, and nature. Even with all the disappointment about what He wasn’t doing, there was still the reality that He had this amazing, divine power.
And so, one day, their hopes that Jesus might be the Messiah got fired up, and there was this massive collective anticipation — and that was the day that He came into Jerusalem for the last Passover.
They threw their garments at His feet. They threw palm branches under Him. They said, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” which was the messianic title. They praised Him, saying, “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.” They hailed Him as their king and their Messiah based on His miracles.
There were hundreds of thousands of people there in Jerusalem, because it was the Passover. And maybe they thought, “If we just put the pressure on now, He can collect us as an instant army, and we can get this thing going.” And so they hailed Him, wishfully, as their Messiah.
The next day He came back to town after the triumphal entry, and He went on the attack. But He didn’t attack the Romans. He attacked the Jews; He attacked the temple. He made a whip and started throwing people out. He assaulted Judaism at its highest point, and He never touched the Romans.
They were already doubtful about Him because He didn’t act like a king. They were already tired of being disappointed by Him. So they turned on Jesus. For the rest of the week He went on attacking the false and apostate theology of Judaism in the temple and teaching the people the truth. But the people had turned. Eventually, by Friday, they were screaming for His blood, saying, “Crucify Him, crucify Him.” They turned Him over to the Romans, and that’s exactly what the Romans did.
They were hoping that He would be the one to redeem Israel. But He wasn’t the king they wanted.
The bottom line is that they didn’t feel they needed a savior. Even when John the Baptist said, “Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world,” they didn’t get it. And so they turned on Jesus.
Now the truth is this: Jesus is the king. He arrived as the king. But He could not bring His kingdom in its fullness with all its promises until He had provided salvation for His people. His kingdom is a kingdom of salvation. People in His kingdom are people who have been saved from their sins. There can’t be a kingdom for Israel or anybody else until sin has been paid for.
Until then, they couldn’t be delivered from their enemies. They couldn’t be delivered from their circumstances. They couldn’t be delivered from their suffering until they had been delivered from their sin. That was why He had to die and rise again. That’s the gospel.
And that’s the message He preached, and that’s the message the apostles preached, and that’s the message the New Testament writers gave us, and that’s the message that the true church has preached ever since, up until this very day.
You can find more insights into Isaiah 53 in Dr. MacArthur’s book “The Gospel According to God: Rediscovering the Most Remarkable Chapter in the Old Testament.” For a limited time, the book is available for 25% off from The Master’s University’s bookstore, here.
This post is based on a sermon Dr. MacArthur preached in 2012, titled “The Startling Servant of Jehovah.” In addition to serving as the pastor of Grace Community Church and the voice of Grace to You, Dr. MacArthur is the chancellor of The Master’s University in Santa Clarita, Calif. You can learn more about TMU at masters.edu.
