Isaiah 53, 700 B.C: Historical Evidence of the Divine Omniscience.

[Nishant Xavier]

I already gave some reasons why the Servant/Messiah is not Israel; the Servant is sinless and righteous, like the Sacrificial Lamb had to be without blemish, whereas Isaiah clearly says Israel was a sinful nation right from the beginning of his Book. This one point alone refutes that opinion. Second, the passage in Isaiah 49 clearly distinguishes the Servant from Israel, saying that the Servant's purpose is not to gather in only Israel (thus showing the Servant and Israel are distinct also), but also to bring God's Salvation to all the Gentiles, i.e. to the farthest ends of the Earth, as Jesus Christ has done. There were false messiahs in Jesus Christ's time, but none of them knew this hidden fact, that the Messiah must suffer and die for our sins. None of them also gathered any of the Gentiles to God, as Jesus Christ, the True Messiah alone did. It should be noted that the Messiah is sometimes called David to indicate He is a Son of David. In the same way, He can be called Israel to signify that He is a Son of Israel. He is a Son of Israel who alone will gather in all the Gentiles who believe in God also, so that Salvation may reach all.

It remains to show various Rabbis and Jewish Scholars, even post-Christian ones, who have themselves acknowledged Isaiah 53 is about King Messiah. The Messiah must be a Suffering Servant, suffer, Sacrifice and die for the sins of His People before He returns in Glory as Conquering King. We know the 2nd will come to pass because the first came to pass. Here are some testimonies from Rabbis/Jewish Scholars on Isaiah 53:

One of them gets it so astonishingly write he is almost Christian, he said: whoever will not admit the Messiah suffers for our sins must suffer for his own sins.

Readers following this issue can peruse this link for more sources: https://jewsforjesus.org/learn/whos-the-...-isaiah-53

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1st Century Rabbi Shimon Ben Yochai: “The meaning of the words ‘bruised for our iniquities’ [Isaiah 53:5] is, that since the Messiah bears our iniquities, which produce the effect of his being bruised, it follows that whoso will not admit that the Messiah thus suffers for our iniquities, must endure and suffer them for them himself.“ 

The Babylonian Talmud: 
What is his [the Messiah’s] name? The Rabbis said: His name is “the leper scholar,” as it is written, “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him a leper, smitten of God, and afflicted.” (Sanhedrin 98b)

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