Isaiah 53 1-12 Questions for Palm Sunday
Jesus was Pierced for our Transgressions
Isaiah 53:1-12 (Read also Isaiah 52:13-15)
Key Verse: 53:5:
“But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.”
1. Review Isaiah’s words about “the arm of the LORD” (Is. 51:5,9; Is. 52:10; Is. 53:1). How does this expression point to the servant’s work? What questions are asked and why (Is. 53:1)?
2. What did the servant’s human condition look like (Is. 53:2)? What did he experience (Is. 53:3)? Why did men despise and reject him? Why did God make him “a man of sorrows” (Is. 53:4a)?
3. How did people misunderstand (Is. 53:4b)? What did they do to him (Is. 53:5a)? What do “transgressions” and “iniquities” mean? What was the purpose of his suffering (Is. 53:5b–6)?
4. What else is said about the servant (Is. 53:7)? What does it tell us about him? What did his death mean, and how did people respond (Is. 53:8)? What last detail is given (Is. 53:9)?
5. What was God doing (Is. 53:10)? What else is said about the servant (Is. 53:11)? What would God do for him, and why (Is. 53:12a)? How does his ministry continue (Is. 53:12b)?
6. How were these prophecies fulfilled through the death of Jesus (John 1:29; 1 Pet. 2:24; 2 Cor.5:21)? What can we learn through this servant song about ourselves and about God? How can we “behold” God’s Servant, Jesus practically?
Isaiah 52:13-53:12
13 Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted.14 As many were astonished at you—his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind—15 so shall he sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths because of him, for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand.
1Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? 2 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. 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. 4 Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. 6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. 8 By oppression[a] and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished.[b] 9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. 10 Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes[c] his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.
11 After he has suffered, he will see the light of life[d] and be satisfied[e]; by his knowledge[f] my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,[g] and he will divide the spoils with the strong,[h] because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Footnotes
a. Isaiah 53:8 Or From arrest
b. Isaiah 53:8 Or generation considered / that he was cut off from the land of the living, / that he was punished for the transgression of my people?
c. Isaiah 53:10 Hebrew though you make
d. Isaiah 53:11 Dead Sea Scrolls (see also Septuagint); Masoretic Text does not have the light of life.
e. Isaiah 53:11 Or (with Masoretic Text) 11 He will see the fruit of his suffering / and will be satisfied
f. Isaiah 53:11 Or by knowledge of him
g. Isaiah 53:12 Or many
h. Isaiah 53:12 Or numerous
