By Joel Stevao
The prophecy in Isaiah (52:13 – 53:12) talks about God’s Servant that will bring worldwide salvation. The Servant will succeed in his mission, He would be extolled, exalted, and be very high. He will sprinkle his blood for the Salvation of the Nations and the kings of the world will recognize Jesus as Savior. We can confirm the prophecy was fulfilled in Jesus by looking at the evidences. There are two lines of evidences, one external and one internal.
The external evidences are the witness of the Apostles. The apostolic community of the Apostles unanimously interpreted Jesus the Nazareth as the Servant mentioned in Isaiah 52:13. We find this oracle mentioned in the New Testament more than in the Old Testament. An example is found in Acts 8:26-40 when an Ethiopian that was reading this passage in Isaiah 53:7. Philip led by God to meet and overtake the chariot, questioned the Eunuch if he was understanding what he was reading. The Ethiopian asked of whom the prophet was speaking about him or someone else, then Philip preached Jesus him, he believed and was baptized.
The internal line of evidences are the predictions made about the Servant and only one person satisfied these predicts, Jesus. We find in Isaiah 53:13 that the Servant “succeeded” in the work God told him to do. We read “My Servant shall deal prudently”, the word prudently or wise in Hebrew “sakal” also has the meaning of being successful. God’s servant didn’t fail but was successful. The proof is that He shall be exalted, extolled, and be very high. The “and” here in Hebrew uses a waw-consecutives indicating chronological sequence indicating that the passage should be read “He shall be exalted and then extolled and then He shall very high.
The word in Hebrew rum means “to raise”, then he will nasa which means “to lift up” then he will gabah meaning “to be very high”. The first word speaks of the commencement, (resurrection) the second word speaks of the continuation (ascension) and the third word speaks of the climax, He shall be very high (exaltation). The proof that the servant was successful in his mission is his resurrection. In verse 14 the Hebrew word saman means handed speechless by a horrible sight, he no longer looked human due to the work he did.
In verse 15 we see the aim of his work. The text says “He shall sprinkle many nations”. The word “sprinkle” in Hebrew is Naza which is the same word used many times in the Old Testament when the sacrifice was made and the blood was “sprinkle” for the atonement of sin. This Servant would die, resurrect, suffer and sprinkle his blood for the cleansing of the nations, bringing salvation to the entire world, and finally, the Kings of the world will shut their mouths and will adore the King when they understand what the servant had achieved. Jesus Christ is the one who fulfilled this prophecy.
Joel Stevao