Yeshua is the Suffering Servant

The concept of a God-man savior preceded the pagan counterfeits, when God revealed the woman (no mention of a man, since God is His Father) would give birth to One who would suffer and die but would be resurrected and crush the snake and defeat his purpose against mankind (Gen. 3:15).

The suffering servant of Isaiah 53 is the Jewish nation.

Many Jewish people are self-righteous enough to consider themselves worthy of atoning for mankind, but only One from the Jewish nation - Yeshua - qualifies, having died and been resurrected, atoning for many, seeing his spiritual descendants, since He is alive. How else could someone who died - as the The Suffering Servant did (Israel is still alive - remember Am Israel Chai? The Nation/People of Israel lives), see the travail of His soul was well worth the sacrifice?

Isaiah 53:

1 "Who has believed our report? (most of Judah and Israel - professing Christianity - haven't believed the Report and either reject Yeshua or accept a Gentilized version)
And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
2 For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant,
And as a root out of dry ground.
He has no form or comeliness;
And when we see Him,
There is no beauty that we should desire Him.
3 He is despised and rejected by men,
A Man (not a nation, a man) of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we (collective Israel, especially Judah) hid, as it were, our faces from Him;
He (one man) was despised, and we (Israel/Judah) did not esteem Him.
4 Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we (collective Israel/Judah) esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted (and curse His holy Name).
5 But He was wounded for our (Israel/Judah) transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we (Israel/Judah) are healed.
6 All we (Israel/Judah) like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He opened not His mouth;
He was led as a lamb to the slaughter,
And as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
So He opened not His mouth.
8 He was taken from prison and from judgment,
And who will declare His generation?
For He was cut off from the land of the living (just as Daniel foresaw He went "missing");
For the transgressions of My people (the sins of Israel and Judah - they can't be their own savior) He was stricken.
9 And they made His grave with the wicked (Am Yisrael Chai - Israel has never died or God's Word would have been broken to the Fathers)—
But with the rich at His death,
Because He had done no violence,
Nor was any deceit in His mouth.
10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him;
He has put Him to grief.
When You make His soul an offering for sin (something Judaism denies possible but God's Word and Yeshua prove true),
He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days (having been resurrected to see and enjoy his spiritual seed),
And the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand.
11 He shall see the labor of His soul,and be satisfied.
By His knowledge My righteous Servant (One Savior) shall justify many,
For He shall bear their iniquities (which Judaism denies but the Bible teaches).
12 Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great,
And He shall divide the spoil with the strong,
Because He poured out His soul unto death (Israel and Judah never died),
And He was numbered with the transgressors,
And He bore the sin of many (which Judaism denies but the Bible teaches),
And made intercession for the transgressors (as our resurrected High Priest in Heaven, at the right hand of the Ancient of Days)."

Remember Moses lifted up the snake on the pole in the wilderness and all who looked to it were saved? "...the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all...". Yeshua knew it foreshadowed His death.

John 3:14

"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up...".

Yeshua took all the sins of Israel and Judah and the world upon Himself on the stake as THE Suffering Servant, crucified for all mankind - ONE whose life meant more than all, died that the nation might live, as the High Priest prophesied in His day:

John 11:50

"... it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish."


The entire nation wasn't crucified, wasn't upon the pole, but Yeshua is the One who we're to look up to and perceive that He is the Pierced One who is our Lord and Savior, our Priest and King, the One who has died in our stead:

Genesis 22:13

"Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son."

Joseph's brethren were also blind to his identity his first appearance before them. The second time their eyes were opened to recognize His revealed identity. Zechariah foresees Judah and Jerusalem will learn to look up and recognize the ram Yeshua as the Firstborn Son of God and Savior-King of Judah and mourn their former rejection of Him and prepare for His imminent arrival to liberate Jerusalem and save klal Yisrael, as encouraged by the Two Witnesses (in the spirit of Elijah) who announce the coming of our King (Zech. 12:8, Matt. 23:39).

Zechariah 12:10

10 "And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn."

Come Lord Yeshua! Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the LORD!

David Ben-Ariel is a Christian-Zionist writer and author of Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall. With a focus on the Middle East and Jerusalem, his analytical articles help others improve their understanding of that troubled region. Check out the Beyond Babylon blog.