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How Isaiah Prophesied That Jesus Would Submit and Suffer
Allusion-Seeking and Thread-Pulling in Isaiah 50:4–9
The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught. The Lord GOD has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward. I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting. But the Lord GOD helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame. He who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me. Behold, the Lord GOD helps me; who will declare me guilty? Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment; the moth will eat them up. —Isaiah 50:4–9
“A messianic panorama on a grand scale”—what a spectacular description of the Old Testament book of Isaiah.1 Over and over again, Isaiah lifts our eyes to the prophetic horizon against which we see a shadow of the Christ. We can be certain that Jesus is in view because the New Testament explicitly states this. Outside of Psalms, Isaiah is the most frequently quoted book in the New Testament, often drawing a direct connection between Isaiah’s prophecy and its fulfillment in Christ. Jesus is obvious in those cases.
Jesus is less obvious when there is no New Testament quotation explicitly linking him to Isaiah’s prophecy. The third so-called Servant Song in Isaiah is one such passage. You will search your cross-references in vain for a New Testament citation from Isaiah 50:4–9. Even so, how could we fail to see that Isaiah has in view the one we know as Jesus?
Does the Old Testament Really Point to Jesus?
David M. King
In this addition to the Church Questions series, David King guides curious readers on a journey to discover Jesus in Old Testament stories, law, wisdom, and prophecy.
It Sounds Like Jesus
Certain passages of Scripture just sound like Jesus. Our gospel antennae pick up a signal that reminds us of him. We must be careful in those moments not to read Jesus into the passage if the Spirit hasn’t put him there. Bible interpretation shouldn’t be built on free association or wishful thinking. Rather, we should more carefully examine the text to determine what is was that tripped the messianic alarm. In the case of Isaiah 50:4–9, two cues are definitive.
Identifying Allusions
The first cue is what has been called allusion. Not to be confused with illusion, allusion is when later Scripture refers to earlier Scripture without directly quoting it. Despite the absence of a quotation, the reader notices a similarity of words and ideas that evoke a connection between the two passages. In seeking to understand how an Old Testament passage is fulfilled in Jesus, we will be most concerned with identifying New Testament allusions, although allusions are present within the Old Testament too. Here is how the thought process unfolds as you are reading your Bible.
You read in Isaiah 50:6 that the person speaking gave his back to those who strike, his cheeks to those who pull out the beard, and his face to disgrace and spitting. You think to yourself, That sounds like Jesus. Those things happened to him. However, when you scan the cross-references in your Bible, you are surprised to discover that there is no New Testament citation in which the verse is quoted. There are, though, numerous references to the Gospel accounts of Jesus’s crucifixion. For example, Matthew tells us that some members of the Jewish ruling council “spit in his face and struck him” (Matt. 26:67); also that Jesus was scourged, which would have required the exposure of his back (Matt. 27:26). Mark combines the ideas of being spat upon and disgraced, recounting how the Roman soldiers were “spitting on him and kneeling down in homage to him” (Mark 15:19). Luke records that the men holding Jesus in custody “were mocking him as they beat him” (Luke 22:63). John reveals that Jesus was struck, presumably across the cheek, by an officer of the council (John 18:22–23); also that Jesus was flogged and mocked (John 19:1-5). None of the Gospels report that Jesus’s beard was pulled out, but all the other elements of Isaiah’s prophecy are present in the crucifixion accounts. In short, the allusions to Isaiah 50:6 seem clear. Which means you are right to conclude that Isaiah has Jesus in view.2
Pulling the Thread
A second cue that Isaiah 50:4–9 is messianic comes by pulling the thread that ties it to other Scriptures which are clearly about Jesus. For example, we know from context that the person speaking in these verses is the servant of the Lord (Isa. 50:10). The Lord’s servant is mentioned multiple times in Isaiah. Though initially identified with Israel, the servant is eventually shown to be an individual representing Israel, whose suffering and vindication bring salvation both to Israel and to the nations.3
The most famous servant passage in Isaiah is found in Isaiah 52:13–53:12, the aptly named Suffering Servant prophecy. We know that the Suffering Servant is none other than Jesus. When the Ethiopian eunuch asked Philip who the prophet was talking about in Isaiah 53:7–8, “Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus” (Acts 8:35). I believe we would have known that the Suffering Servant is Jesus even without a New Testament quotation, but the quotation makes his identity unquestionable.
It stands to reason, then, that if the Suffering Servant is Jesus, then the servant whose voice we hear in Isaiah 50:4–9 is also Jesus. Both are called servants, both are individuals who are part of Israel yet distinct from Israel, and both experience suffering and vindication. You’ve heard of guilt by association; this is a case of fulfillment by association. We haven’t invented the association between these prophecies, one of which is undeniably messianic—we’re just pulling on a biblical thread that’s already there.4
All praise to the Submissive Servant! Jesus’s submission is our salvation.
What It Teaches
Isaiah 50:4–9 sounded like Jesus because it is Jesus. Confident that Jesus is the fulfillment of this prophecy, we are right to read it with him in mind. And we are right to marvel! For starters, isn’t it incredible that we get to hear the servant speak in first-person? Jesus could have read these verses out loud as his own words. They were meant to come out of his mouth. If there were a red-letter edition of the Old Testament, these verses would be in red.
Our wonder only deepens as we hear what the servant has to say, namely, that he is a man fully yielded to God. If Jesus is the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53, he is the Submissive Servant of Isaiah 50. He testifies that his ability to sustain weary souls with his teaching comes from having first been taught by the Lord God (Isa. 53:4). That he didn’t rebel when he heard the word of the Lord God (Isa. 53:5). That he willingly suffered because of his righteousness, giving his back to those who strike and his cheeks to those who pull out the beard (Isa. 53:6). That his face was set like a flint despite the violence done to him, knowing that the Lord God would vindicate him (Isa. 53:7–9). Submission is the theme of this song. Jesus would succeed as the servant by living in total surrender to God.
All praise to the Submissive Servant! Jesus’s submission is our salvation. Through him we are taught and sustained, indicted and redeemed. In response, let us submit ourselves wholly unto him. May we be the answer to Isaiah’s question, “Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant?” (Isa. 53:10).
Notes:
- Alec Motyer, Isaiah, Tyndale Old Testament Commentary (Downer’s Grove: IVP, 1999), 28.
- The Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament argues that Jesus himself, in Mark 10:33-34, alludes to Isaiah 50:6 as he prepares his disciples for his suffering. See G. K. Beale and D. A. Carson, eds., Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2007), 201-02.
- The progressive revelation of the Servant’s identity is seen most clearly in Isaiah’s four Servant Songs (42:1-4; 49:1-6; 50:4-9; 52:13-53:12).
- The thread runs backward as well as forward. The first Servant Song is also clearly messianic: Jesus is in view in Isaiah 42:1-4 (see Matthew 12:17-21). The second Servant Song is not to be left out either, with its unique tie to Jesus via the apostolic mission in his name (see the quotation of Isaiah 49:6 in Acts 13:47).
David M. King is the author of Does the Old Testament Really Point to Jesus?.
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