My Corner Online
Isaiah 53:10-12
See index to the 2023 Lenten study
March 30 - April 1, 2023
53:10 I see the word "soul" repeated in these verses. Some people say there are three parts to man, that being the body, soul, and spirit, but I believe that there are two parts because the soul and the spirit are the same thing. Why did Jesus have to die? It was God's Will. It was God's plan. It was all God's doing. With knowledge of the Father and the Son as part of the Trinity, it is difficult to read these verses as to who is being referenced, who "he" and "his" reference, or if God as a whole is being referenced. LORD in all caps represents the Hebrew word yhwh (Jehovah or Yahweh meaning "God" or "I am") and Lord in standard form (meaning "my Lord") is the Hebrew word for Adonai. God's Will is that all be saved and the one and only way to accomplish that Will required Jesus to be crushed. It was not only God the Father's Will, but also God the Son's Will. Luke 22:42 “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” Jesus as man did not want to go through suffering, but Jesus as God had the same Will as the Father. To crush is to break or to damage with force and this makes me think of the nails through Jesus's hand, but the meaning here is more so that His spirit was crushed. Jesus went through so much that His feelings of emotional pain, grief, downness, sadness, helplessness could take no more. A crushed spirit has no ability to be happy. A guilt offering is a sacrifice made to compensate for sins. Here we read that this offering of a sacrifice must come from His soul. I read this as the offering had to come from Jesus' "heart and soul." He did not just die because the crowd had him put on a cross. He died for us because of His love for us in His heart. He did this for us. The physical death was allowed but the death of His soul was a purposeful gift. Jesus will see His offspring in that we are adopted as children of God. Jesus shall prolong his days when he is resurrected on the third day and walks again on this earth. The Will of the LORD prospered (was successful, grew, flourished) in His hand. The Apostles Creed, "“He ascended into haven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.” The hand of God holds the oceans and all of creation. God's hand is powerful and it is only at God's hand that His Will is successful. The right hand saves as in Psalm 98:1 and it accomplishes the work of reconciling the world to Himself.
53:11 Out of anguish of His soul, Jesus did see the Will of God be satisfied. The word "anguish" feels dramatic as we do not use the word often. Jesus's soul felt excruciating suffering and pain. He felt that for His creation, for His children, that is, Jesus felt that for me. Jesus is the only righteous One, and as the Suffering Servant who bore the sins of all, many are accounted righteous. By His knowledge (in knowing Him), my sins are forgiven. Jesus bore, that is carried the weight of, the iniquities of the world. Whew! It's heavy enough enduring the weight of my own sins so much that I could not even stand on my own without support, but Jesus carried the weight of the guilt of all. Now that's a heavy load!
53:12 After a battle, the victorious goes about taking as their own the spoils. The spoils of war are anything of value that can be found and taken as a prize for winning. It is a legal "finders keepers, losers weepers" childhood phrase. Anyone and everyone can take a portion of whatever they can find. The spoils of the victory of Jesus's death are the forgiveness of sins and the prize is divided with many (the strong). Many is not descriptive enough thinking on how many throughout all time get to share in the prize of forgiveness. This was not teamwork of an army winning, but the actions of One who won the prize for all, like a saving hero. I did nothing to win the prize and yet Jesus shares it with me! The reason I am able to share in the prize is because Jesus poured out his soul to death as He was counted a sinner like me, even though He never sinned. I love the imagery of God's love overflowing like liquid filling a cup to the brim and then spilling out all over. Psalm 23 says "my cup runneth over." God does not "just satisfy," but keeps pouring out his love. Every time I sin, He continues to love and forgive me poured out from His soul. Jesus makes intercession for transgressors. What a friend I have in Jesus to intervene and plead for me! Only Jesus could have that kind of influence on God the Father.
Lord's Supper: Matthew 26:28 - for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
Jesus descended into hell. Did His soul actually die or did He just go there to declare victory. There are two kinds of death, the physical and the spiritual, and one needs to discern which kind of death is referenced in each verse. Most often I find it to reference spiritual death which is "eternal separation from God." Since Jesus is God as the Trinity, He cannot be separated. Therefore, to pour out His soul to death would be until his body physically died.
Matthew 27:50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.
Ephesians 4:9-10 In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.)
Luke 23:46 Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last.
1 Peter 3:18–19 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which He went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison
Psalm 16:10 with reference to Him: “For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol. . . .