Therefore I will give him a share with the many,
And with the strong he shall divide the spoil;
Inasmuch as he poured out his life-blood to death,
And let himself be numbered with the transgressors;
Yet it was the sin of the many he bore,
And for the transgressors he interposed.
In this marvellous poem we have four successive vignettes of the Servant. There first rises in the prophet’s mind a vision of the awe-struck wonder with which the nations and their kings shall gaze on the Servant of Jehovah, when after unequalled humiliation he shall be uplifted in surpassing glory. The next picture takes us back to his life of humiliation: he grows up with nothing in him to strike the eye or attract the attention of men; nay, rather all turn their back on him as worthless, contemptible, smitten with divine punishment. But along with this sorrowful portrait there comes the passionate confession of the men of Israel, that the Servant in all his sufferings had been bearing their sins. The third picture shows us the suffering Servant in uncomplaining meekness enduring a criminal’s death with all its shameful associations; yet this death is explained as occurring in accordance with God’s will, and as being a guilt-offering. The series ends in triumph: the righteous Servant by bearing iniquity will make many righteous and will achieve the glory and the reward of the conqueror.
In this prophecy the remarkable thing is that the sufferings and death of the Servant are construed throughout, not as a martyrdom, but as much more. In his death he lays down his life as a guilt-offering; and all his sufferings, inclusive of his death, are, from Jehovah’s point of view, chastisement laid on him on account of the sins of others, from the Servant’s point of view, a voluntary bearing of their iniquities. His willingness to endure and his meekness under oppression are very vividly put before us; but God’s purpose to crush him is insisted on with equal emphasis. The awful tragedy happens within Israel; but after it is consummated, the Servant, once so despised, neglected and oppressed, startles the nations, and kings in amazement shut their mouths in his presence. The purpose of the dread sacrifice is TO BRING MEN TO RIGHTEOUSNESS; and that end, we are told, will be widely accomplished.
Whence did the prophet draw the ideas of his prophecy? If any piece of literature bears signs of inspiration, this does; but the experience which enabled him to become the vehicle of inspiration in this particular case may also be conjectured. The sufferings, which many of the prophets, and especially Jeremiah, had endured at the hands of their fellow-countrymen, had made a profound impression upon the best minds in Israel; and the affliction of the exiles in Babylon was manifestly not merely penal, but also purificatory.