Post by cgpb on Oct 2, 2014 12:24:32 GMT -8
The following thread can also be viewed at the following link:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jOMyJprr_k&feature=youtu.be
Another objection Jews raise to the Isaiah 53 passage is that Isaiah 53 contains the words of the repentant kings of the nations rather than the words of the Jewish people.
The passage of the Suffering servant begins in Isaiah 52:13 and goes to 53:12.
Traditional Jewish interpreters understand Isaiah 53 as referring to the gentile kings who are astonished at the servant of the Lord. Simply said the way they would interpret it is:
“Oh no we didn’t realize that Israel was the servant of the Lord, the righteous one. We didn’t realize that all along while we were smiting and beating Israel, thinking that they were guilty, they were in fact righteous and godly and that they were suffering for our sins."
This Jewish interpretation cannot work for the following reasons.
1. Israel sinned - therefore was not right righteous.
God’s 
Covenant to Israel as laid out in Deut. 28 and Leviticus 26 clearly states that If Israel was righteous and godly, she would not suffer at the hands of other nations.
Throughout OT history, we see that Israel was not righteous which is why she was judged, whereas the Servant of the Lord in Isaiah 53 is righteous. “By his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many”.(verse 11)
The idea that Israel as a nation throughout history has been suffering vicariously for the sins of the rest of the world is contrary to the Covenant and contrary to the testimony of the entire Hebrew Bible. Israel suffered because of its own sins and one example is found in:
The book of Lamentations:
“The crown has fallen from our head.
Woe to us, for we have sinned!” (5:7-16)
Nowhere in the prophets does it say that Israel suffered innocently.
So there is no way that the kings of the nations could be saying “We thought Israel was guilty but actually they were righteous and suffering for our sins"
Jewish objections in attempt to refute this argument include the following:
i. Isaiah 52:2 says :
“Shake off your dust;
rise up, sit enthroned, Jerusalem.
Free yourself from the chains on your neck,
Daughter Zion, now a captive.
3 For this is what the LORD says:
“You were sold for nothing,
and without money you will be redeemed.”
4 For this is what the Sovereign LORD says:
“At first my people went down to Egypt to live;
lately, Assyria has oppressed them.
5 “And now what do I have here?” declares the LORD.
“For my people have been taken away for nothing,
and those who rule them mock,”
declares the LORD.
“And all day long
my name is constantly blasphemed.
They interpret “My people were sold for nothing” as meaning they suffered for nothing or they didn’t do anything and yet they were suffering for it.
However what God is saying here is that when He sent them into exile He didn’t get any payback for it, in other words He didn’t get any money or anything for it.
Unlike Joseph in Gen 37:28 whose brothers sold him for 20 shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites.
The right interpretation here is that the enemy paid the Lord nothing for acquiring Jerusalem and this is supported by Isaiah 45:13 and Isaiah 50:1
I will raise up Cyrus in my righteousness:
I will make all his ways straight.
He will rebuild my city
and set my exiles free,
but not for a price or reward,
says the LORD Almighty.” (Isaiah 45:13)
"Or to which of my creditors
did I sell you?
Because of your sins you were sold;" (Isaiah 50:1)
ii -Psalm 44:9-22
Another objection they raise is Psalm 44. They say “Doesn’t Psalm 44 indicate that Israel as a nation was suffering terrible destruction at the hands of their adversaries even though they had done nothing wrong”
No. Psalm 44 is clearly the cry of the righteous remnant within the nation who suffer along with the nation because they themselves have been true to the covenant. Just like Daniel a righteous man who made intercessory plea on behalf of the nation in chapter 9 of the book of Daniel. Otherwise it would be contrary to OT scriptures like 2 kings 17 and Jeremiah 15 where God explains why they were judged.
2. Israel's sufferings did not bring healing to the nations.
The second problem with interpreting Isaiah 53 as containing the words of Gentile kings is that history shows that Israel’s sufferings didn’t bring healing to the nations
Isaiah 53:5 says that “and by his wounds we are healed”, but historically the nations were not healed when they smote Israel or when they smote the righteous remnant. Nations like Assyria and Babylon don’t exist anymore and Spain and Germany weren’t healed when they smote Israel.
This is also a violation of the covenant promise that whoever curses Israel will be cursed as God promised judgment on the nations that smite Israel.
“I will bless those who bless you and whoever curses you I will curse”. (Gen 12:3)
Even in situations where God uses the nations to judge Israel because of their sins, He promises judgment on them if they overdo the punishment. So when these nations hurt Israel even when Israel was guilty of sin, God hurt them. We see examples of this in:
Zechariah 1:15 - “I am very angry with the nations that feel secure. I was only a little angry, but they added to the calamity” in other words they overdid the punishment and further along in verses 18-21, God promises that the powerful nations that had devastated Israel, would in turn be destroyed. The vision clearly states that all Judah’s enemies would be defeated.
In Isaiah 10 the Lord is basically saying “I wanted you to do this Assyria but you went too far and in Jeremiah chapters 30 and 31, - God promises to judge, even wipe out the nations that smite Israel, but promises to restore Israel and Judah despite having come under God’s judgment because of their sins.
Therefore Israel’s sufferings at the hands of other nations did not bring healing to those nations. It didn’t bring redemption, forgiveness or mercy.
However the Servant who suffers and dies in Isaiah 53 brings healing. Many around the world today testify to the fact that by Yeshua’s wounds they are healed – healed from various sins, addictions, apostasy, physical ailments and psychological discomforts.
3. A third problem with this view is that in Isaiah 53 verse 8, God specifically says that the Servant is stricken for the transgression of “My People”. “ My People” in Isaiah is either God speaking or the prophet speaking and “My people” is Israel. How could the servant be smitten for the transgression of “My People” if the servant himself is Israel?
4. Furthermore, Isaiah 53 shows that the people are astonished. To astonish means to surprise or amaze greatly. A person can only be astonished when the answer has been right there in front of them all along but they failed to perceive it. Isn’t that how mystery films work, - you believe in your understanding that all the evidence points to a certain person but in the end you are astonished to find out it was in fact the person you didn’t expect and then you realize how it all worked out.
Gentiles have no reason to be astonished for Yeshua was not one of them and His message to them was a foreign and foolish concept. So the Gentiles having no reason to be astonished leaves only one other option – the Jews who are astonished since they failed to perceive His message all along even though the answer was right there in front of them
However because prophecy works on dimensional levels, there is also the truth that Yeshua will be recognized as the perfect righteous personification of Israel and the Gentiles who rejected Israel and the Messiah will all see it in the same context as the unbelieving Jews , as Messiah brings redemption to the world as a glorified Jew.
5. Isaiah 53 is one of the deepest spiritual and theological passages of the Bible and therefore not fitting to have it on the lips of Gentile kings who don’t even know YHWH.
6. Another Jewish objection raised in favor of a Gentile kings interpretation is that the Gentile kings are astonished because:
“who would have believed that Israel could survive the centuries, and who would have believed that Israel would be re-established as a state in 1948. Who would have thought that the land of Israel could ever produce again and the idea that the people of Israel could be re-gathered to form a state was unimaginable."
This objection is flawed because in the OT which has been around for thousands of years, God promised:
• an everlasting Covenant with Israel
• Restoration to Israel despite their sin and judgment
• the Re-establishment of Israel as a state
Isaiah 66:7-8, spoke of Israel being reborn in one day and this accurately describes what happened on May 14, 1948 - when the Jews declared independence for Israel as a united and sovereign nation for the first time in 2900 years.
In Amos 9:14-15, the prophet said that there would come a time when the exiles of Israel would again have Israel as their own land and that they would never be uprooted again.
There are also other prophecies found in the book of Ezekiel 4, 34, 37
So if God promised all these to Israel, who could prevent it? And Why would it surprise anyone?
Throughout history Gentiles of influential positions surely would have been aware of these scriptures, so these promises regarding the re-establishment of Israel shouldn’t have surprised them.
Therefore the fact that no-one would have believed that Israel could survive the centuries is a contradiction to the promises of God given to Israel.
An additional problem with this interpretation is that the Servant in Isaiah 53 dies whereas the Jewish people, though judged throughout history, have never “died” or ceased to exist.
In light of all the above, we see that the words of Isaiah 53 simply cannot work on the lips of Gentile kings.
