For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot,
And like a root out of parched ground;
He has no stately form or majesty
That we should look upon Him,
Nor appearance that we should desire Him.
He was despised and forsaken of men,
A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
And like one from whom men hide their face
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. (Isaiah 53:2-3)
That’s the explanation of why the Jews, for generations, have rejected Jesus Christ. Three reasons are given here.
He grew up “before Him,” meaning before God. He was in full view of God, who was fully pleased with Him. But from our viewpoint He was like a root out of parched ground. This is simply a way to say He was a nobody from nowhere.
We looked at Jesus, and what did we see? An insignificant family from an insignificant town. He was born in an insignificant place, placed in a feed trough, and attended in His birth by shepherds, who were the lowest people on the social ladder. No royal birth, no social status, no family nobility, no formal education. He spent 30 years as a carpenter in Nazareth. He had no connections with the elite.
The Jewish people were big into appearance; that’s why they picked Saul to be their first king, right? He was more handsome than everybody else, and taller. But there was nothing royal, regal, or elevated about Jesus.
Though He displayed divine power, wisdom, truth, grace, and holiness, they saw nothing of royal beauty in Him — nothing attractive about Him.
Here comes this one who claims to be the Messiah, and instead of His career ending in glory and majesty and triumph and victory and elevation and exaltation, He’s despised, forsaken of men. It all ends in sorrow and grief.
They could have looked at the death of Jesus, with all its horrors, and said, “This is the sacrifice we’ve been waiting for. This is the sacrifice that is pictured when Abraham finds a ram in the thicket to substitute for his son, pulls the knife back from killing Isaac, and kills the ram instead. This is the fulfillment of killing the Passover lamb and putting the blood on the doorpost and the lintel and escaping the wrath of God. This is the final sacrifice, the only true saving sacrifice, pictured in the millions of sacrifices made day after day after day.”
They could have done that, but they didn’t see themselves as sinful and needing an atonement. So when they saw their self-proclaimed Messiah being a man of sorrows and grief, His life ending the way it ended, it was despicable.
They rejected Him then, so they reject Him now. They treated Him with disdain, and they still do.
So, when the Jews look back from a future time, they’re going to say, “We looked at the beginning of His life, the middle of His life, and the end of His life, and there was nothing about it that made Him attractive. It didn’t fit our picture. He is rejected, despised, and nobody important takes His side.”
At the end of verse 3 it says, “We did not esteem Him.” It means, “We considered Him nothing. We considered Him nonexistent.” That’s the ultimate scorn: “He is a nobody to us.” That’s the historic view of Jesus from Jewish people.
I thank the Lord that many Jewish people, one by one, are coming to Christ throughout the church age and seeing Him for who He really is. And isn’t it good news that someday the nation will turn and see Him and make this confession?
And it’s important to note that the words in verses 2 and 3 are not a Gentile assessment of Jewish unbelief; this is a Jewish assessment. This is repentance. These are words which the nation will speak in their brokenhearted confession of the worst sin imaginable: rejecting Christ.
And these are words that you need to speak if you have been rejecting Jesus Christ. You need to say these same words now, Jew or Gentile, so that a fountain of cleansing can be opened to you.
Until the time that they believe in the future, we want to say with Romans 1:16, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”
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 Scorned Servant of Jehovah, Part 2.” 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.
