CHAPTER 53 Jun. 28 
Who has believed our message? To whom has the arm of Yahweh been revealed? 2For he grew up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no good looks or majesty; when we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. 3He was despised, and rejected by men; a man of suffering, and acquainted with disease. He was despised as one from whom men hide their face; and we didn’t respect him. 4Surely he has borne our sickness, and carried our suffering; yet we considered him plagued, struck by God, and afflicted. 5But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought our peace was on him; and by his wounds we are healed. 6All we like sheep have gone astray; each one has turned to his own way; and Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 7He was oppressed, yet when he was afflicted he didn’t open his mouth. As a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that before its shearers is mute, so he didn’t open his mouth. 8He was taken away by oppression and judgement; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living and stricken for the disobedience of My people? 9They made his grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in his death; although he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. 10Yet it was Yahweh’s will to bruise him; He has caused him to suffer. When You make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days, and the will of Yahweh shall prosper in his hand. 11After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light and be satisfied. My righteous servant will justify many by the knowledge of himself; and he will bear their iniquities. 12Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he poured out his soul to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

Commentary

53:1 Who has believed our message? was fulfilled both in the final, friendless rejection of the crucifixion, and also in the failure of Israel to really believe as a result of the Lord’s miracles done during His life (Jn. 12:38). “He has borne our sickness, and carried our suffering” is how :4 described the cross; but these words are quoted in Mt. 8:16,17 about the Lord’s healing of people. The miracles therefore were performed in the spirit of the cross- personally identifying with the sick and healing them through that identification. His whole life was a being acquainted with disease (Heb. “grief”) (:3); and yet we read in this same context that He was put to grief in His death (:10). The grief of His death was an extension of the grief of His life. “He bore the sin of many" (:12) is applied by Jn. 1:29 to how during His ministry, Jesus bore the sin of the world. All this shows that the cross wasn’t an unusual, one time act of supreme devotion; the spirit of it was lived out in the Lord’s daily life. We who are to carry His cross must see it the same way.
53:2 As a root out of dry ground- There was nothing around Jesus in His environment which encouraged spirituality. He grew as we do, as a tender green plant in a desert.
53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray- We tend to sin as a result of group mentality; and yet this influences us individually to each turn to our own personal, unique way of sinning.
53:7 As a sheep that before its shearers is mute- A sheep is dumb in this situation from total fear. Jesus was human and in His time of dying went through all the usual human emotions in the face of death.
53:9 A detailed prophecy of how Jesus died with the wicked but was buried in the tomb of the rich Joseph of Arimathea.
53:10 He shall see his seed- Did Jesus have a vision of us the ones He would redeem, which inspired Him at the end, at the very time He was making an offering for sin?