KJV Isaiah 53:1 Who hath believed our report and to whom is the Arm of the Lord revealed?
NASB Isaiah 53:1 Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
Isaiah 53 is unique. It is, in effect, the national anthem for a nation that was written millennia before it will ever be sung. It embodies the confession of a nation that will be “born in a day” when they look on the One they have pierced, owning Him as their Messiah, King, and Saviour.
It begins with a confession being made by the remnant that has come out of the tribulation. Notice how Isaiah 52 ends: with a report that was given and a message that will be understood. As the nation reflects on its past, they will ask themselves these two questions, questions that embody the truth of divine sovereignty (a revelation) and human responsibility (belief).
Isaiah 52:13-15 is a summary of all that Isaiah 53 contains. So, at the outset, we are reminded of a report the nation did not accept at His first advent, and of a revelation given to them without engendering belief. The expression “the Arm of the Lord” is another description of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here was God’s power and grace in all of its fullness. Here was God manifest in flesh; here was God revealing Himself to the nation, but to no avail.
Now, the repentant and redeemed remnant look back, perhaps with amazement, at their blindness and deafness – a deafness that did not heed to report, and a blindness that refused to see the revelation.
In the ensuing verses, they will pour out before God all of their misconceptions and misunderstandings, all of their failures and false ideas. The “report” was of His Perfect Servant. The “Arm of the Lord” moved among them, displaying His credentials with accuracy and authority. “How could we have been so blind?” will be the response of a bewildered people. “We esteemed Him … But He was …” (vv 4, 5) will be their realization.
As we consider these admissions on the part of the nation, it should cause our hearts to well up in worship and adoration. This Servant came to the nation possessing all the authority of His Master and yet moved amidst His own nation unknown, unappreciated and unwanted. How patient He was, how free of bitterness or anger born of frustration. Here was the Truth, the Word, the Light – yet repudiated and rejected. “Yet He opened not His mouth.”
Here was the Arm of the Lord, possessed of all power, yet so powerful as to control that power and to never employ it outside the will of His Master. He moved content with His Master’s will and timing. In fact, He was more than content. Amidst the unbelief of the nation, we hear the only time it is recorded that He rejoiced (Luke 19:21). And if we examine the subject of His thanksgiving and joy, it was that the Father, in His wisdom, had so ordered the fruit of His ministry. What a Servant!
Consider Him living day by day with every Word scrutinized for an effect, every miracle subject to an alternative explanation; every act of kindness demeaned or ascribed to Beelzebub. Each credential presented to the nation was tortured and twisted to fit the “theology” of His detractors. Yet no murmuring word, no complaint escaped His gracious lips. As men came to find some flaw in Him, they were seen departing, amazed at His answers as with artless simplicity He muzzled every skeptic.
We stand amazed, as well, and can only sing, “Hallelujah, what a Saviour.”