He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He did not open His mouth;
Like a lamb that is led to slaughter,
And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers,
So He did not open His mouth. (Isaiah 53:7)

This imagery was inescapable for the Israelites who heard this prophecy. They lived in an agrarian society, a society made up of crops — grain in the flat places and vineyards on the hillsides. They were very familiar with animal husbandry, and particularly with sheep.

Sheep were a staple part of their life. For the sake of wool and food, they were vital. They were sheared and they were slaughtered. That was a very familiar part of life in ancient times, in the land of Israel.

Here, Israel is introduced to its Messiah as a lamb who is to be slaughtered. The slaughter part is reality; the lamb is analogy. And He will be silent when He is being slaughtered, the way a sheep is silent when it is being slaughtered or sheared.

All through history the Jews were very familiar with sacrificial animals. They were instructed in the book of Leviticus that God wanted them to offer blood sacrifice. They had been instructed that sin causes death, and that there must be a penalty paid for sin. Someone must die. And the demonstration of that is in every sacrificial animal that was ever slaughtered throughout the history of Israel.

It wasn’t that salvation came by the death of the animal; it was that the animal symbolized the fact that sin required death, and that God was willing to provide an innocent substitute who would die the death for the penitent sinner.

No forgiveness of sin would be granted by God apart from an acceptable, substitutionary sacrifice of an innocent victim. They had known from Genesis 22 that God would provide a sacrifice. Even as early as Abraham, they could look forward to who that sacrifice would finally be.

The animals were never the satisfactory sacrifice. They were slain by the tens of thousands at every Passover from Exodus 12 on, until the destruction of the temple in 70 A.D. by the Romans. There were animals sacrificed in the temple and in the tabernacle every single day, in the morning sacrifice and the evening sacrifice. And then there were personal sacrifices, according to Leviticus 5. People had to bring their own sacrifices.

They were slaughtering lambs at all times all through the history of Israel. Priests were ankle deep in blood day after day, as God was presenting to them that sin requires death.

For the faithful Jews with true hearts who were repentant, they would understand that. They would offer their sacrifice, and by that sacrifice they were saying, “I know my sin requires death. I know I am not righteous. I repent and I ask You to forgive me on the basis of this obedience in offering a sacrifice.”

They were not saved by the ritual. They were not saved by the sacrifice. They were saved by repentance and trust in God to be merciful to them through a sacrifice that would come and satisfy Him, which was pointed to by those animals.

They knew there was no forgiveness in the animal. How did they know that? Because after they had offered one sacrifice, they had to come back and offer another one before long. It never ended.

Israelites who knew and worshiped God in a true way understood that they were unrighteous and deserved death. And they came in penitence and obedience, doing what God told them to do, asking God for mercy and grace, and waiting for God to provide the sacrifice.

Never would they have expected that the final and acceptable sacrifice would be none other than the Messiah.

Now they find out that before He is installed as a king, He’s going to be slaughtered like a lamb.

None of the sacrifices prior to the death of the Messiah satisfied God. But once Jesus was slaughtered, the veil in the temple was ripped from top to bottom, and all sacrifices after that were canceled. And God destroyed the temple using the Romans soon after.

The whole system ended because the sacrifice that God chose had been offered.

Thus, when John the Baptist — the forerunner of the Messiah — declared His arrival, he said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29)

That is right out of Isaiah 53. There was enough in Isaiah 53 to understand that the Messiah will come as a lamb and a sacrifice for sin, one to be slaughtered and to be silent in the slaughter. Israel would have its living, exalted king, but only after He was a dying, rejected lamb.

We’re all sheep gone astray. So the Servant becomes one of us, a lamb, in order to become the sacrificial lamb to save the sheep.

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 Silent Servant, Part 1.” 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.