A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 55: The Report of the Gospel

A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 55: The Report of the Gospel

In our last presentation, Behold, it is I!, we focused on statements found in Isaiah chapter 51, where the Word of Yahweh had said “I, even I, am he that comforteth you” (51:12) and here in Isaiah chapter 52 where He said: “Therefore my people shall know my name: therefore they shall know in that day that I am he that doth speak: behold, it is I” (52:6). These passages we sought to cross-reference to many similar statements which are found elsewhere here in Isaiah, and in the words of Christ in the accounts of the Gospel, which together serve to establish the fact that Yahshua Christ is indeed Yahweh God incarnate. In support of these assertions, in 1 Timothy chapter 3 we read:

14 These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly: 15 But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. 16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the [Nations], believed on in the world, received up into glory.

While the older manuscripts have a pronoun there in verse 16, who, rather than the Greek word for God, the pronoun nevertheless refers back to the God of Paul’s statement in the verse which precedes. The mystery of godliness to which Paul had referred there is no longer a mystery, because Paul had explained it there. While today there are many articles written by men from various denominational churches on the “mystery of the trinity”, to us the trinity should only be a mystery because it is not found in Scripture. However not all men are even intended to understand the mystery which Paul had explained, that “God was manifest in the flesh”, which is in the person of Yahshua Christ. As we have seen rather explicitly here in Isaiah, Yahweh keeps men blind, so that His Will may be fulfilled. 

So now, commencing with Isaiah chapter 52, where the Word of Yahweh had said here in verse 6 that “they shall know in that day that I am he that doth speak: behold, it is I”, it is fitting to understand that where He said “in that day” that He was certainly referring to the future time of the ministry of Christ, because in the very next verse here in Isaiah, we see a prophecy related to the ministry of Christ, the reports of which had brought the good news, or gospel of salvation to the children of Israel who had been cast off in punishment on account of their sins:

7 How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth! 

This is an explicit prophecy of the later accounts of the ministry of Christ which were made by His apostles, which had recorded the many proclamations that He had made, and which had been called the εὐαγγέλιον, which is the good message, good tidings, or gospel, by both Christ and His apostles. The Hebrew word בשׂר or basar (# 1319) is defined as a message of good news or joyful tidings, and in the Septuagint it had been translated with the same word, εὐαγγέλιον, which is often rendered as gospel in the English versions of the New Testament. 

Here we are informed that those who bring these good tidings would “saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth”. As it is recorded in Matthew chapter 24, Christ had proclaimed that “14 … this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world…”, among other places where His apostles described His proclamations as the “gospel of the Kingdom”, so in that manner also, this prophecy makes an explicit connection to the Gospel of Christ. Furthermore, the gospel of Christ was also the announcement of salvation to the punished children of Israel, as Paul had written in Romans chapter 1:

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Judaean first, and also to the Greek.

Then again, Paul wrote in Ephesians chapter 1 and said, referring to Christ:

11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: 12 That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. 13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, 14 Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

Of course, words such as all, every and everyone always require a context in order to be properly understood, but nobody obtains an inheritance by chance. The transmission of inheritances is done through planning, through testaments, especially on the part of the giver, even if the heir may be unaware of what he would receive. We have already asserted that the Romans, Corinthians and Galatians were all of the scattered children of Israel, as Paul of Tarsus had recorded in his epistles. These assertions can also be extended to other recipients of Paul’s letters, or to people in all of the places to which he had travelled or had planned to travel in order to preach the Gospel, since we cannot righteously interpret his actions in a manner which is contrary to his own statements professing the motivations for those actions. If Paul said that he served God for the hope of the promises made to the twelve tribes, as he had expressed in Acts chapters 26 (26:6-7) and 28 (28:20), then we should believe that his epistles had been written to the very people of those same twelve tribes, as John had called them, “the children of God scattered abroad” (John 11:52) and James had also written to “the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad” (James 1:1). His epistles themselves contain much internal evidence of the consistency of his actions with the professions of his motives. Paul certainly knew that he was taking the Gospel to scattered Israelites. 

Continuing with this Messianic prophecy of Isaiah:

8 Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the LORD shall bring again Zion. 

In the Dead Sea Scrolls Bible, from the scroll identified as 1QIsaiah^a, the words “with compassion” are found at the end of verse 8, which supports the Septuagint reading of the clause, for which Brenton has the end of the verse to read: “… when the Lord shall have mercy upon Sion.” The use of Zion in this passage in verses 7 and 8 reveals that the term is also used as an allegory for the children of Israel even in the places to which they had been scattered. 

The word for watchmen is often simply describing an observer, which is evident in Genesis chapter 31 where Laban had made an oath and said to Jacob, in part, “The LORD watch between me and thee, when we are absent one from another.” Evidently, the first observers in relation to the prophecy here inn this verse are found in the Gospel records, where the magi had come to Judaea to see the Christ child, and we read in part, in the account of Matthew chapter 2:

9 When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was. 10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.

This seems to be the first fulfillment of the observers who would lift up their voice and sing together celebrating the Messiah of Israel, After the magi, Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, had announced to him that “ We have found the Messias”, as it is recorded in John chapter 1 (1:41). Later, in John chapter 4, the Samaritan woman at the well declared that “ I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ” (4:25). In Luke chapter 1, Zacharaias, the father of the then-future John the Baptist, was shown the significance of the birth of his son and he declared:

68 Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people, 69 And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David; 70 As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began…. 

Even later, in John chapter 11, Martha professed that Yahshua is the Christ where He spoke to her and we read:

26 And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? 27 She saith unto him, Yea, Lord: I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world.

So here are at four notable examples of such observers as are mentioned here in Isaiah, people who had understood the prophecies and who had been watching for the advent of the Messiah of Israel, and who also knew and professed what His advent had meant for the children of Israel. 

Like the ministry of Paul, we cannot imagine that the Gospel of Christ had been published with any motivation other than what had been stated in the prophets, since the prophets uttered the Word of God, and Yahshua Christ is that Word made Flesh, as the Gospel of John had also declared. These words of Isaiah insist on that same thing, that the salvation of God is “As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets”, and performed on those same terms that are found in the prophets. 

Where we read that “they shall see eye to eye”, while it is sometimes strangely interpreted in a different manner, the clause seems to indicate that they will be in agreement, not only with one another, but more significantly, with God, where in reference to the reasons for the punishment of Israel He presented a rhetorical question in Amos chapter 3 which asks “3 Can two walk together, except they be agreed?”

So the promises of this chapter, where Yahweh had said that He would comfort Israel, and here where they would see eye to eye, or perhaps, be in agreement with Him at the announcement of His Gospel, also seem to be the inspiration for the words of Paul of Tarsus in Romans chapter 15, where he wrote: 

4 For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. 5 Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus: 6 That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Being of one mind, the children of Israel would not have to agree with one another, but they would not disagree with one another in any significantly critical manner, if they all agreed with Christ. So Peter wrote in chapter 3 of his first epistle exhorting his readers and saying:

8 Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous: 9 Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing.

Now Isaiah continues this promise of hope:

9 Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem: for the LORD hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem. 

We neglected to address the reference to “waste places” in relation to The Comfort of Zion in Isaiah chapter 51, where we read in part: “3 For the LORD shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places…” Since in earlier chapters of Isaiah the words of the prophet had indicated, in chapter 49 of his prophecy, that the children of Israel in the time of their captivity would move to A Place of Their Own, some place other than the land of Canaan, these waste places are not necessarily in Palestine, and they are not necessarily places which became waste as Israel had dwelt in them. Rather, in Isaiah chapter 58 we read that:

8 Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy rereward.

And then a little further on in that chapter:

12 And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.

Then in Isaiah chapter 66, where the subject is still the children of Israel in captivity, we read:

19 And I will set a sign among them, and I will send those that escape of them unto the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, that draw the bow, to Tubal, and Javan, to the isles afar off, that have not heard my fame, neither have seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory among the [Nations].

So Isaiah did not intend to suggest that the children of Israel would return to rebuild Palestine, although they would return to Yahweh their God. Rather, the “waste places” must be the places which the children of Israel would come to possess in some time future to this time in Isaiah, and in Isaiah chapter 54 there is another promise, that they would “inherit the nations”, something upon which we shall not elaborate until we reach that point in our commentary.

Likewise, and especially in the context of a Messianic prophecy, Jerusalem need not be a reference to the old city in Palestine, but as it is also described in the Revelation, it is the seat of the government of God represented by the city which decends from heaven. So as Zion represents the children of Israel, Jerusalem is sometimes used as an allegory which represents the seats of government of the children of Israel, wherever they are scattered. Thus we read in Micah chapter 4:

8 And thou, O tower of the flock, the strong hold of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem.

This must have been a prophecy which Christ had in mind where it is recorded in Matthew chapter 21 that He told His adversaries that “43 … The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.”

In that manner, understanding that Jerusalem had been used as such an allegory, the words of the prophet remain consistent throughout this Book of Isaiah, and the “waste places of Jerusalem” are the places which the children of Israel would come to possess in a time future from when Isaiah had written these words.

Now it is explained that all would know of the salvation which Yahweh would bring to Israel:

10 The LORD hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God. 

This evokes the words in the declaration of Mary, the mother of the Christ child, when the angel of Yahweh had given her the news regarding her impending conception, and she said in part, as it is recorded in Luke chapter 1:

51 He hath shewed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. 52 He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree. 53 He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away. 54 He hath holpen his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy; 55 As he spake to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed for ever.

The salvation of God is promised only to the seed of Abraham through Jacob, so only they have any expectation of such a salvation. Here where we read “all nations” the Biblical context confines the interpretation of the phrase to mean either all of the Adamic Genesis 10 nations, which are ostensibly the nations that Israel would inherit, in Isaiah chapter 54 where we read a promise that “thy seed shall inherit the [Nations]”, or in an even narrower sense, of the prophesied nations which would come of the children of Israel themselves, found in the promises made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. In that later sense, Paul of Tarsus had written in Romans chapter 4 that:

13 … the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.

It is also in this manner that Paul had interpreted the promises made to Abraham in Genesis chapter 12, where he had written in Galatians chapter 3 that:

8 … the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the [Nations] through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. 9 So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.

As we had just seen in Romans chapter 4, Paul explained that the faith of Abraham is the belief which Abraham had when Yahweh God had promised him that his seed, or offspring, would inherit the world. So we cannot honestly imagine that Paul spoke of some different faith of Abraham here in Galatians. Paul himself had refuted that notion, where further on in Romans chapter 4 he wrote of Abraham and said “17 As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations, before him whom he believed…” So Abraham’s seed would become many nations according to the promise of God “as it is written”, and not by any quacky scheme like the replacement theology which has been taught by the organized churches and certain early Christian writers. Abraham was not told that many nations would become his seed, rather, he was promised by God that his seed would become many nations.

Likewise, where we read earth here, the reference is not to the planet, but only to the land, and the same Hebrew word, ארץ or erets (# 776), was translated as land in the King James Version over twice as often as it had been translated as earth (1,543 vs 712 times, and in other ways 249 times, according to data from an assessment of Strong’s Concordance). Not long after the time of Isaiah, the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal declared himself to be “I, Assurbanipal, the great king, the mighty king, king of the universe, king of Assyria, king of the four quarters (of the world)”, or something similar, in many places in his inscriptions. [1] There it is clear that phrases such as “four quarters of the world” and words such as “universe” were only intended to describe the “ends of the earth” or boundaries of the Assyrian empire. The Assyrians certainly knew that there were other lands beyond their own boundaries. However those lasnds were not part of their world, a they did not rule over them.

Yet by the time of Paul of Tarsus, in several different ways the apostle had proclaimed that this prophecy found here in this chapter of Isaiah (52:10) that the arm of God would be bared “in the eyes of all the nations” and that “all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God” had already been fulfilled. First, it is evident that the epistle to the Romans was written in the Troad some time around 57 AD, just shortly before Paul had been arrested in Jerusalem. This was not more than 25 years after the Resurrection of Christ. So in Romans chapter 1 Paul had informed his readers that:

8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.

So what Paul must have considered to have been “the whole world” must have had opportunities to have heard the Gospel of Christ by that time. Then, in Romans chapter 10 he wrote:

18 But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.

That was a citation from another Messianic prophecy which is found in the Septuagint in Psalm 19:4 exactly as Paul had cited it in the Greek of his epistle. However the Greek word for world there is οἰκουμένη, which Liddell & Scott define as “the inhabited world, a term used to designate the Greek world, as opposed to barbarian lands … so in Roman times, the Roman world”, where they cited ancient Greek sources for the first part of the definition, and the New Testament for the later part. [2] So for Paul, the meaning of the phrase “the whole world” meant much the same thing as it had for Ashurbanipal, but in a somewhat different historical context. It certainly was not a reference to the entire planet and everyone who may have been inhabiting it.

The epistle to the Colossians was one of Paul’s last epistles, written from Rome after Timothy had come to him there, as he had asked him when he wrote the epistle which we know as 2 Timothy. While Ephesians and 2 Timothy were written before Timothy joined Paul in Rome, the epistles to the Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon, who was a Colossian, were all written after Timothy joined Paul in Rome, and close to the time of his execution by Nero, perhaps in 62 or even in 63 AD. There also seems to have been a now-lost epistle written to the Laodiceans at this time, which Paul indicated at the end of his epistle to the Colossians (4:16). In Colossians chapter 1 Paul wrote:

5 For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel; 6 Which is come unto you, as it is in all the world; and bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth.

The world of the Gospel was the Roman world, and by Paul’s time it had already spread throughout that world. That world also consisted of many of the same nations which Abraham and the children of Israel would come to inherit, as they were promised.

Now there is a prophetic call for the children of Israel to come out of the places of their captivity, which is relative to the near vision of Isaiah, but also to a far vision fulfillment which we still await in our own future:

11 Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the LORD. 12 For ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight: for the LORD will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your rereward. 

In all of the popular translations of this passage, the word for unclean is imagined to be a reference to things, where the King James and other versions add the word thing to the text, and some more modern versions elaborate on that addition, without indicating the addition with italics as it is represented in the King James Version. The word for unclean, טמא or tama (# 2931), is an adjective in a masculine form, and it can also refer to people, and not mere to things. This is how Paul of Tarsus interpreted this word unclean where he cited this passage in 2 Corinthians chapter 6 and wrote, as it is found in the Christogenea New Testament:

14 Do not become yoked together with untrustworthy aliens; for what participation has justice and lawlessness? And what fellowship has light towards darkness? 15 And what accord has Christ with Beliar? Or what share the faithful with the faithless? 16 And what agreement has a temple of Yahweh with idols? For you are a temple of the living Yahweh; just as Yahweh has said, “I will dwell among them, and I will walk about; and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” 17 On which account “Come out from the midst of them and be separated,” says the Prince, and “do not be joined to the impure, and I will admit you”.

There, in verse 16 of that chapter, Paul had cited verses such as we read in Ezekiel 37, where it speaks of the children of Israel and says:

27 My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 28 And the [Nations] shall know that I the LORD do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore.

Then in verse 17, Paul had cited this passage here in Isaiah chapter 52, and his paraphrase reveals his interpretation of the unclean as people, since people must be the subjects where he wrote “come out from among them, and be ye separate”, them being the the untrustworthy aliens, the lawless, the faithless and the idolaters of his statements in the verses which had preceded. Ostensibly, it is for that same reason that Paul must have made these citations together, because the stated purpose of a new covenant and God walking among His people is that “… the [Nations] shall know that I the LORD do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore.” Since only the children of Israel are sanctified by Yahweh, all other peoples are to be considered unclean, and from them are the children of Israel to be separated. Writing that epistle, Paul did not associate these sayings of the prophets by chance.

This admonishment, in the near term, should be interpreted as a call by Yahweh God for the children of Israel to leave the lands where their captors had settled them, and to migrate to the promised Place of Their Own. But in the context of the report of the Gospel, it is also a call to come out of the world, in a Christian sense, as Christ had told His disciples, in John chapter 15:

19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.

For this same reason, the apostle James in chapter 4 of his epistle had said:

4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

Finally, this exhortation here in Isaiah foreshadows the final call for the children of Israel to come out of the Mystery Babylon of Revelation chapter 18, where we read:

1 And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. 2 And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. 3 For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. 4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. 5 For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

Departing from the world of sin, Yahweh God has promised to be the rearward of the children of Israel, meaning that He would “have their backs” and protect them from any pursuing enemies. Where it says that they shall not go out with haste, or by flight, it means that they will not suddenly flea in fear, and that also stands in contrast to the Passover event of the Exodus, where the children of Israel were commanded to eat their last meal in a state of preparation to flea the Egyptians, for which we read in Exodus chapter 12:

11 And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the LORD'S passover.

Then at the end of that chapter we read:

51 And it came to pass the selfsame day, that the LORD did bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their armies.

As we have often opined, chapter breaks are unfortunate, and even more unfortunately, they are frequently found in rather inappropriate places, where the text of this chapter from verse 13 belongs with the Messianic prophecy of the suffering servant of Isaiah chapter 53.

13 Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high. 

In Isaiah chapter 41, Jacob is described as the servant of Yahweh, in a manner in which he is evidently used to represent all of his descendants, the children of Israel. But in the opening verses of Isaiah chapter 42, a servant is described which could in some ways be a reference to Jacob, but which also must, oin other ways, be a reference to another individual, and later in history it was revealed that the prophecy concerning that individual was fulfilled in Yahshua Christ, where in Matthew chapter 12 the apostle recorded where Christ Himself had cited verses 1 through 4 of Isaiah chapter 42 in reference to Himself. So essentially, this prophecy describes a suffering servant who would be exalted in spite of his having been despised and rejected and in spite of his suffering, he would nevertheless also a savior to the children of Israel.

14 As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men: 

His form was marred beyond that of any of the sons of men. The elements of the suffering of Christ are clearly portrayed in all four of the Gospel accounts. But for this reason, many of the Judaeans had rejected Christ as the Messiah, because they had only expected the victorious, conquering Messiah of other prophecies. They did not realize that in His first incarnation, the Messiah would be this suffering servant.

However many aspects of this suffering Messiah which had been fulfilled in the life and ministry of Christ are indeed found in the Psalms of David as well as the other prophets. In Zechariah chapter 11 we read:

12 And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver. 13 And the LORD said unto me, Cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prised at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the LORD.

For this, we read in Matthew chapter 27 that Judas had been given thirty pieces of silver as reward for having betrayed Christ, and the apostle wrote:

9 Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was valued, whom they of the children of Israel did value; 10 And gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord appointed me.

Then in Zechariah chapter 12, where there is a prophecy which is not yet fulfilled, but which is also given in Revelation chapters 19 and 20, we read:

8 In that day shall the LORD defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the LORD before them. 9 And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. 10 And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.

So Yahweh Himself is the suffering Messiah, whom the people had pierced, since the Israelites in Judaea were just as guilty of His crucifixion as the Edomite rulers who forced Pilate to execute the crime. That is how the apostle Peter is recorded as having described the event in Acts chapter 2, where we read in part:

22 Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: 23 Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:

Among other places, many aspects of the suffering of Christ were described in the 22nd Psalm, which is explicitly cited or alluded to in reference to Christ in places such as Matthew chapter 27, in verses 39 through 46, in Mark chapter 15, verses 29 through 34, and in John chapter 19, where Psalm 22:18 is cited where we read:

24 They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be: that the scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, They parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture they did cast lots. These things therefore the soldiers did.

The passage in Zechariah chapter 12 where the Word of Yahweh said that “they shall look upon me whom they have pierced” is also an allusion to Psalm 22:16 where we read “… the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.”

With this it is also evident that the hands and feet of Christ are the hands and feet of God Himself, where Zechariah chapter 12 describes Yahweh as having exclaimed “they shall look upon me whom they have pierced”, but where David is a prophetic type for the Messiah where he wrote “they pierced my hands and my feet.”

Yet even the apostles themselves were confused, over this issue of the suffering and the victorious Messiah which is evident in their exchange with Christ in Acts chapter 1 where we read, in part:

6 When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? 7 And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.

However subsequent to that passage, there was also a promise of His return, and evidently, that is when He shall fulfill the prophesied role of the victorious, conquering Messiah which is also described in many prophecies related to His Day of Wrath, and especially in His Revelation.

Now in spite of His suffering, and in addition to it, or as a result of it, Isaiah continues:

15 So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider. 

The kings “shall shut their mouths at Him”, meaning that they would accept the account without any criticism or backtalk. In Romans chapter 15, Paul had cited this passage in relation to the conduct of his own ministry, where he wrote:

20 Yea, so have I strived to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build upon another man's foundation: 21 But as it is written, To whom he was not spoken of, they shall see: and they that have not heard shall understand.

His having cited this passage from Isaiah chapter 52 in that chapter of Romans also supports our earlier assertion that passages of his epistle in earlier verses of Romans chapter 15 had been inspired by this same chapter of Isaiah. 

We would assert that all of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox and Protestant denominational translators of Scripture, because they have accepted the gaslighting, the lies of the Jews from at least the time of Justin Martyr and the Alexandrian so-called “Church Fathers” of the 2nd and 3rd centuries, have for that reason taught the lie of so-called replacement theology, a belief that a nondescript church of mere “believers” somehow became Israel in place of the seed of Abraham through Jacob. But as Paul of Tarsus as well as the words of the ancient historians and prophets explain, the twelve tribes of Israel at the time of Christ are found scattered throughout Europe, Anatolia and Mesoptamia, whereas the Jews, or Judaeans, are a group which is distinguished from those twelve tribes. 

Because of their errant belief in replacement theology, they are half blind, and many passages of New Testament Scripture are poorly translated or even purposely mistranslated to uphold the replacement theology lie. So in the course of our commentaries on the New Testament, we have spent significant time defending and explaining the reasons for some of our translations, and one of those places which stands out, in my opinion, is Acts 9:15, where Christ Himself had addressed Hananias, who was enlisted to help Paul recover from his experience on the road to Damascus, and we read, in part:

15 But the Prince said to him “Go! For he is a vessel chosen by Me who is to bear My Name before both the Nations and kings of the sons of Israel. 

We would assert that these are the intended nations and kings of this passage in Isaiah, the nations which had developed or were still developing from the children of Israel in the time of their captivity, were the nations of both these prophecies of Isaiah and the ministry of Paul and the other apostles. The same sprinkling we see here is also a subject of prophecy in Ezekiel chapter 36, where the children of Israel had been scattered among the nations and we read:

22 Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy name's sake, which ye have profaned among the [nations], whither ye went. 23 And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the [nations], which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the [nations] shall know that I am the LORD, saith the Lord GOD, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. 24 For I will take you from among the [nations], and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. 25 Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. 26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

For this reaon, to fulfill this prophesy, Christ had told His disciples, as it is recorded in John chapter 14 and several other places: “15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.” While Paul of Tarsus had eschewed the works of the law, which are the rituals and ceremonial laws, [3] he upheld the commandments of God in many other ways, such as where he had written in 1 Corinthians chapter 6, again, from the Christogenea New Testament:

9 Or do you not know that the unjust will not inherit the kingdom of Yahweh? Do not be led astray: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminates, nor homosexuals, 10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor railers, nor rapacious shall inherit the kingdom of Yahweh.

These things certainly are all found in the laws recorded by Moses, but they are not all found in the first ten commandments. So it certainly is evident that they are among the commandments of the law which Christ had expected His disciples to keep, in fulfillment of that prophecy in Ezekiel.

Where we read here in Isaiah that what they “had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider”, Christ had told the doubting Thomas, as it is recorded in John chapter 20, “29 … Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.” The report of the Gospel was indeed believed, but for many years it was persecuted by the Judaeans, and the Judaeans had instigated Greeks and Romans to persecute it as well, which is evident in many of the events recorded in the Book of Acts, and also in certain early Christian writers. So it is evidently for that reason, that much of the world of that time would reject the Gospel, that we see a rhetorical question in the opening verse of Isaiah chapter 53:

1 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? 

The fulfillment of this had begun even while Christ was still alive in His earthly ministry, as He is recorded as having cited this verse in John chapter 12, where we read:

35 Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. 36 While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light. These things spake Jesus, and departed, and did hide himself from them. 37 But though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him: 38 That the saying of Esaias the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report? and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed? 39 Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said again, 40 He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them. 41 These things said Esaias, when he saw his glory, and spake of him.

There Christ had also cited the prophecy of blindness found in Isaiah chapter 6, where it is evident that Yahweh God blinds the eyes of those whom He wishes, so that His Word can be fulfilled. At that time, it was His will that He was to die the horrible death which he had suffered, so that Israel could be cleansed of their sins. So later on, in chapter 10 of his epistle to the Romans, Paul cited both Isaiah 52:7 and the opening verse here in Isaiah chapter 53, in reference to the report of the Gospel and he wrote:

12 For there is no difference between the [Judaean] and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. 13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. 14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? 15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! 16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? 17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Speaking of the Judaeans, Paul had already distinguished the true Israelites, his “kinsmen according to the flesh”, in Romans chapter 9, where he went on to compare Jacob and Esau because many of the Judaeans were actually of Esau, which is historically verifiable in several other ancient witnesses. For that Paul had also said that “they are not all Israel, which are of Israel”, and here in Romans chapter 10 he is still speaking only of the true Israelites in Judaea, those for whom he had prayed, as opposed to the Edomite Jews, whom he had also described as “vessels of wrath fitted to desctruction” in that same chapter.

The Judaean persecution of Paul is readily manifest throughout the events which are recorded in the Book of Acts, but most significantly, where Paul had beeen arrested yet had the opportunity to address the people in Jerusalem in his own defense, in Acts chapter 22, his defense ended rather abruptly where he had alluded to that commission found in Acts chapter 9, and we read:

21 And he said unto me, Depart: for I will send thee far hence unto the [Nations]. 22 And they gave him audience unto this word, and then lifted up their voices, and said, Away with such a fellow from the earth: for it is not fit that he should live.

So the Judaeans wanted nothing to do with Paul, and wanted even to kill him, because they did not want him taking the report of the Gospel to distant nations, for which they had considered him worthy of death. 

It is against incredible odds that a small sect of Christians in Judaea would convert the entire Roman world to Christianity in a few hundred years. This is especially evident where Christianity had been persecuted for nearly three centuries, and where it was unlawful for Romans to even consider becoming Christians, as we read in Acts chapter 16 where certain men had spoken of Paul and Silas and said that they “21 … teach customs, which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans.” 

Then aside from that, Christianity would compete with many other sectarian philosophies by which the ancient Greeks, Romans and others had lived their lives, such as the classical Greek and Roman paganism in cults such as Jupiter, Zeus and Artemis, or Diana, for example, and the more recent philosophies such as Stoicism, Epicureanism, Skepticism, Platonism in its several forms, Pythagoreanism in several forms and even Gnosticism, along with many more and smaller sects, and other competing religions from the neighboring nations, such as Zoroastrianism, Mithraism, Manichaeism, and even Buddhism, in addition to the other pagan beliefs of the various nations of Europe and the children of Israel who had been spread abroad in captivity. 

But the prescience of Yahweh God is fully demonstrated in the prophecies of the spread of the report of the Gospel, both here in Isaiah as well as in the words of Christ in the Gospel itself. Therefore, we read in Matthew chapter 24, even before Christ is crucified: 

14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.

Then again, before He was crucified, Christ had spoken of the woman who cleansed His feet with her hair, and anointed His head at dinner, and said:

13 Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her.

In John chapter 8 there is something even more significant, where we read:

12 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

In John chapter 17 Christ referred to the commission of the apostles to announce the report of his Gospel, where He said:

18 As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. 19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. 20 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; 21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

As for “them also which shall believe on me through their word”, it is they who are prophesied here in Isaiah where at the very end of chapter 52 we read: 

15 So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider. 

That is why Christ had told Thomas that “blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed”, speaking of the then-future spread of the repirt of the Gospel. 

As we have described in earlier chapters of our commentary of Isaiah, in relation to Lucifer, Son of the Morning and Isaiah chapter 14, ancient kings imagined themselves to be the light of the world, or even the embodiment of the Sun on earth, for which Yahweh had mocked the king of Babylon with the title of Lucifer, or Lightbearer, in that chapter. Imagining for themselves to have been the lightbearers of their respective societies, the ancient kings were using those titles and terms to describe their roles as shepherds and lawgivers of their people. In a similar manner, the later Roman emperors associated themselves with Sol Invictus, the Unconquered Sun, which was evidently a revival of an ancient Latin worship of Sol Indiges, the Native Sun, along with eastern influences. 

This aspect of the assertion of Christ, that He is the Light of the World, is also explained indirectly in the words of Christ to Pilate which are recorded in John chapter 18:

37 Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.

So where Christ declared the He is the Light of the World, He is asserting himself as the rightful King and Lawgiver of society. Within a few centuries, Christianity came to dominate Europe, and Europeans began to use Christian laws as the basis for their law, the very commandments which Christ had told His disciples to keep. So this is not a direct prophecy of the report of the Gospel, but the report of the Gospel had to be successful in order for His statement that He is the Light of the World to become manifested as truth. If it failed, Christ would have been forgotten, and any texts that survived time would have been mere curiosities. But if it succeeded, then that alone would be sufficient proof that He is God, and that the God of our Scriptures is the One True God as He Himself asserts. 

Finally, where Christ had said that “Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice”, the truth is in accordance with the Creation of God, as He Himself had demonstrated in the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares, in Matthew chapter 13. So for that reason, He told His enemies, as it is recorded in John chapter 10:

26 But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you.

But then, speaking of those who were His sheep, he said:

27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: 28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.

When the “lost sheep of the house of Israel”, the children of Israel in captivity who had been scattered abroad, and for whom Christ Himself professed as having come (Matthew 15:24), but who had also become many nations in Europe in the process, when they had accepted the Gospel of Christ, then it became manifest that they were Israel, because it is they who had heard and accepted His report, the report of the Gospel of Christ.

This concludes our commentary on the prophet Isaiah through this opening verse of chapter 53. Yahweh willing, we shall return to this commentary in the very near future. 
 

Footnotes

1 Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia, Volume II: From Sargon to the End, Daniel David Luckenbill, Ph.D., University of Chicago Press, 1926, pp. 321, 323, 356, 369, 370 et al.

2 Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon Founded Upon the Seventh Edition of Liddell & Scott’s Greek-English Lexicon, Oxford University Press, Clarendon, 1889, 1999, p. 546.

3 The Epistles of Paul - Galatians Part 2: The Works of the Law, Christogenea.org, accessed January 9th, 2026.