Isaiah Chapter 53 - The Suffering Servant

This is a very familiar chapter in the Bible. It is often read during Easter. I have always assumed (as do most Christians I am sure) that this is a prophetic passage about Jesus Christ. But there are considerable debates, especially among some Jewish scholars, that the servant in Is 53 refers to the Jewish nation itself. It is interesting (and I just learned for the first time) that Is 53 is also called the Fourth Servant Song. And this is the list of the "Servant Songs":

• The First Song (Is 42:1-4): speaks of the Servant bringing justice to earth.
• The Second Song (Is 49:1-6): The Servant is predestined (even prenatally) to lead both Israel and the nations.
• The Third Song (Is 50:4-9): The Servant will suffer but the Lord will sustain him.
• The Fourth Song (Is 53): The Servant will bear the sufferings for the sins of the world. He will ultimately be raised and placed in God's honoured position.

Of the several references I read, John Piper (one of my favourite preachers) speaks on this servant with most clarity. He has a sermon series called "Jesus Christ in Isaiah 53". He explains:

• The Servant can be the people of Israel as in Is 41:8,10: "But you Israel, my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen . . . fear not for I am with you."
• The Servant can also be Isaiah himself as in Is 49:5: "And now says the Lord, who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring back Jacob to him . . . " 
• But in Isaiah 53 the servant can't be the prophet or the people because the servant is pictured as substituting himself for both the prophet and the people. Verse 4: "Surely he [the Servant] has born our griefs and our sorrows he carried." Verse 5: "He was pierced through for our transgression, he was crushed for our iniquities." "Our" means "me, Isaiah" and the people of Israel who will believe on this servant of the Lord. So the servant is not the people and not Isaiah, because he is the substitute for Isaiah and the people. He is their servant.
• From the New Testament, we also know that this servant is Jesus as interpreted by many of the New Testament writers. Peter says in 1 Peter 1:11, "The prophets sought to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow." He then quoted Is 53:5 in 1 Peter 2:24. In Acts 8 the Ethiopian eunuch was reading Isaiah 53 when Philip joined him in his chariot. The eunuch asked, "Of whom does the prophet speak, of himself, or of someone else?" And Luke tells us that "Philip opened his mouth and beginning from this scripture he preached Jesus to him" (Acts 8:35). 

Wow, with this new insight, my reading of Is 53 takes me closer to who Jesus is and what he has done for me. Thank you Jesus!