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Now in this article we will continue to deal with common misconceptions and misinterpretations of Isaiah 53 which erroneously have been applied to Jesus which rightfully apply to the nation. We will discover that it was not Jesus who suffered as a result of the iniquity of the world, but that the nation of Israel suffered as the result of the sins of the Gentile nations. We will also examine if it was Jesus who interceded for the world or if it was the nation of Israel. Lastly we will examine if Jesus was the sacrifice Isaiah 53 was speaking about, or if the remnant of Israel was the one massacred like sheep for the slaughter.
To make sure we don't lose focus of who is speaking in Isaiah 53 let me ask again this simple question which was already asked.
Answer for yourself: Let us ask once again...who is speaking? The Gentile political and spiritual leaders of the world
4 Indeed, he [corporate nation of Israel] bore our illnesses, and our pains - he [corporate nation of Israel] carried them, yet we accounted him [the corporate nation of Israel] as plagued, smitten by God and oppressed.
5. But he [corporate nation of Israel] was pained because of our transgressions, crushed because of our iniquities; the chastisement of our welfare was upon him [the corporate nation of Israel], and with his [the corporate nation of Israel] wounds we were healed.
Answer for yourself: Most likely your whole life you have been told that Isaiah 53, when it said “he bore our illnesses” and “was smitten by God and oppressed,” was referring to Jesus. Now what do you think since reading the past three articles?
Answer for yourself: When Isaiah [as shown repeatedly before in the first three articles when he repeatedly uses singular pronouns to refer to the corporation nation of Israel], refers to God’s Suffering Servant as the singular nation of Israel, whose identity are we now to think of [Jesus or Israel] when we see the prophet saying “he was wounded because of our transgressions, crushed because of our iniquities; the chastisement of our welfare was upon him, and with his wounds we were healed”?
In order to stress the ongoing and ever-current atonement of Jesus, Christian Bibles incorrectly translate “with his wounds we are healed,” in the present tense. Actually, the nations are speaking here of Israel’s past suffering, therefore the verse correctly reads “we were healed.”
6 Therefore, prophesy about the land of Israel and say to the mountains and to the hills, to the streams and to the valleys: Thus says my Lord, God: Behold! In My jealousy and in My anger I have spoken, because the shame of the nations you have borne. 7 Therefore, thus says my Lord, God: I have lifted My hand in an oath. Surely the nations which surround you - they will bear their shame. 8 But you, O mountains of Israel - you shall shoot forth your branches and bear your fruit for My people Israel, when they are about to come. 9 For behold! I am for you, and I shall turn to you; then you shall be tilled and sown.
15 And I shall no longer cause the ridicule of nations to be heard about you, and the shame of the nations you shall no longer bear, of your nations you shall never again be bereaved - the word of my Lord, God.
Answer for yourself: Did you notice that there is a time limit for Israel carrying the iniquity of the nations?
Answer for yourself: Did you notice that there is a time limit where Israel will no longer atone for the sins of the world?
8 And it shall be on that day, says the Lord of hosts, (that) I will break his yoke off your neck, and I will break your thongs, and strangers shall no longer enslave them [the nation of Israel].9 And they shall serve the Lord their God and David their king, whom I will set up for them. 10 And you [servant nation], fear not, My servant Jacob, says the Lord, and do not be dismayed, O Israel, for behold I save you from afar and your seed from the land of their captivity, and Jacob shall again be silent and at ease, and no one will frighten them. 11 For I am with you, says the Lord, to save you, for I will make an end of all the nations where I dispersed you, but of you I will not make an end, but I will chasten you in measure, and I will not completely destroy you. 12 For so said the Lord: Your bruise [the nation's bruse] is painful, your wound [nations's wound] grievous. 13 No one deems your wound [nation's wound] to be healed, you have no healing medicines.
As you can readily see the evil manner in which the Gentile nations, as well as Christianity over the centuries, have treated the Jewish people have contributed to the sufferings of Israel. Such sufferings at the hands of Gentiles and Gentile nations is described in Isaiah 53:4-5 ....(my paraphrase)...”Israel bore the pains inflicted upon them by the Gentile nations who misunderstood them, and such suffering was incorrectly interpreted by the oppressors as if Israel had been forsaken by God. Because of the Gentiles’ sins against Israel the peoples of God were crushed, and the Gentiles thought they were doing God a favor by persecuting and killing the Jewish people.”
Remembering what we have already learned...that singular pronouns in the Servant Songs of Isaiah refer to the nation of Israel and not to only one person like Jesus, we find the following verses even the more astonishing.
6 We all went astray like sheep, we have turned, each one on his own way, and the Lord accepted his [the corporate nation of Israel] prayers for the iniquity of all of us.
7 And seek the peace of the city where I have exiled you [nation of Israel] and pray for it to the Lord, for in its peace you shall have peace.
Now let us never again under estimate the importance of the prayer service in the Jewish synagogues of the world for by it atonement came for Gentile sins.
Answer for yourself: Are we not led to believe, according to Christianity that Jesus as Messiah was rejected by the people of Israel and ultimately killed by them? Sure are.
Although the Bible explicitly and repeatedly describes the Jewish people [Suffering Servant as corporate Israel] as afflicted and despised by the Gentile nations, there is not even one clear reference to the Messiah as afflicted or despised anywhere in all of the Jewish Scriptures.
In light of what we have discovered about singular pronouns referring to corporate Israel, it is easy to see that is was the nation of Israel again which was afflicted. Just a brief overview of anti-Semitism from the annals of Church history is enough to make you sick. Notice the references below which describe the Jewish nation as afflicted by the Gentile nations.
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he would not open his mouth; like a lamb to the slaughter he would be brought, and like a sheep that is mute before her shearers, and he would not open his mouth.
29 For you will save the afflicted nation; and you will bring down haughty looks.
Psalm 44 describes the plight of the righteous remnant of Israel. Notice how the language used here to describe the condition of the Jewish people parallels that of Isaiah 53.
12 You have delivered us like sheep for the slaughter, and among the gentiles you have scattered us.
14 You made us a disgrace to our neighbors, the mockery and scorn of those around us. 15 You made us a byword among the nations [Gentile nations] to shake their heads.
22 Because for Your sake we are killed all day long, we are considered as sheep for the slaughter.
15 I will tend My sheep, and lay them down-the words of my Lord, God. 16 The lost, I will seek out; and the banished, I will retrieve; the wounded, I will heal, and the frail, I will strengthen. But the fat one and the strong one, I will destroy. I will shepherd them with justice.
4 So Said the Lord, my God: Tend the flock of the slaughter, 5 whose buyers shall lay them and not be guilty; and whose sellers shall say, “Blessed be the Lord, for I have become wealthy”; and whose shepherds shall not have pity on them.
7 And I tended the flock of slaughter, indeed, the poor of the flock.
8From imprisonment and from judgment he is taken, and his generation who shall tell? For he was cut off from the land of the living; because of the transgression of my people, a plague befell them.
Answer for yourself: Who is again speaking in Isaiah 53? The rulers and kings of the Gentile nations.
Answer for yourself: Whose trangressions? The Gentile nations toward the Jewish people!
Answer for yourself: Can you see for yourself that one day the Gentiles will face up to what they have done to the Jewish people and how they have sinned against them and altered their Jewish Scriptures?
Answer for yourself: To whom did a plague fall? The Jewish people. The nation of Israel who happens to be the subject of the Servant Songs of Isaiah.
The prophet’s use of the word (lamo) “them” as a pronoun for the Suffering Servant presents a monumental problem for Christian Bible translators committed to making Jesus fit the Servant of Isaiah 53. Poetically, the prophets often speak of the Jewish nation in the singular to accentuate the nation’s distinctive corporate destiny. The prophets, however, never speak of an individual in the plural. Therefore, the use of the Hebrew word (lamo) “them”, for the Servant of Isaiah 53, reveals that the Servant is NOT a single individual.
The KJV, and NIV and other Christian Bibles solve this problem by mistranslating the word “them” as “him” in the singular.
Since discovering that the Hebrew Scriptures correctly render “lamo” as “them,” then let us look at how the Christian Bible does great injustice to the text by purposely mistranslating the verse to fit their erroneously theology. They change "them" to "him"!
In each of the examples following the Jewish Scriptures tanslate the word as "them" but our Christian translations have "him instead....why?
Isaiah53:8b KJV
for the transgressions of my people was he stricken
Isaiah 53:8b Modern Readers Bible
for the transgression of my people was he stricken
Isaiah 53:8b NIV
for the transgression of my people he was stricken
Isaiah 53:8b Living Bible
it was their sins that he was dying for - that he was suffering their punishment
Nowhere in these above examples was the pronoun intended to be rendered in the singular as “he,” rather, the correct interpretation is the plural as “them.” Who changed the Jewish Scriptures and why?
If we fail to realize who is speaking in Isaiah 53, then it is easy to see why Christians try to make this death spoken of in Isaiah 53 atone for the sins of the Jewish people, when in reality it is the death of the righteous remnant of Israel [corporate nation] which was due to the result of the sins of the Gentile nations.
But you see, if somehow you make Isaiah 53 to refer to Jesus [by failing to undestand who is doing the speaking in Isaiah 53 and who is making a confession of "guilt" toward the Jewish people as well as changing the pronouns "them" to "him"] which I repeatedly have shown you occured...then and only then can you make a case for Jesus being the "subject" of Isaiah 53.
Dear ones...tampering with the Holy Word of God to make our "theology" fit is a sin and brings God's anger because of us changing His Word [your shall not add or take away...remember?]!
Well the answer is simple....it did not serve their "theological" purpose to not do so!
Deuteronomy 32:35 (King James)
32...for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.
Deuteronomy 33:2 (King James)
2 ...He shined forth from Mount Paran, and he came with ten thousands of saints: From His right hand went a fiery law for them
Job 6:19 (King James)
19 The troops of Tema looked, the companies of Sheba waited for them
Job 14:21 (King James)
2 His sons come to honor, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them
Job 24:17 (King James)
17 For the morning is to them even as the shadow of death: if one know them...
Psalms 2:4 (King James)
4 He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.
Psalms 44:4 (King James, 44:3)
4 For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them
Psalms 119:165 (King James)
165 Great peace have they which love Thy law: and nothing shall offend them
Isaiah 16:4 (King James)
4 Let Mine outcasts dwell with thee, Moab, be thou a covert to them from the face of the spoiler: for the extortioner is at an end, the spoiler ceaseth, the oppressors are consumed out of the land.
Isaiah 23:1 (King James)
1 The burden of Tyre. Howl, ye ships of Tarshish, for it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in: from the land of Chinim it is revealed to them
Isaiah 44:7 (King James)
7 And who, as 1, shall call, and shall declare it, and set it in order for Me, since I appointed the ancient people? And the things that are coming, and shall come, let them show unto them
Isaiah 48:21 (King James)
21 And they thirsted not when he led them through the deserts: He caused waters to flow out of the rock for them: He calve the rock also, and the waters gushed out.
Lamentations 1:19 (King James)
19 1 called for my lovers, but they deceived me: my priests and mine elders gave up the ghost in the city, while they sought their meat to relieve their souls.
Habakkuk 2:7 (King James)
7 Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite thee, and awake that shall vex thee, and thou shalt be for booties unto them?
I find it amazing that the same Bible translators who changed the meaning of the Hebrew pronoun for “them” to “he” in Isaiah 53 in order to read into the text the identity of Jesus [individual instead of a corporate nation] instead of the correct meaning of the nation of Israel which the prophet intended, did not follow their own laws of interpretation elsewhere when confronted with the same word. For in the examples given above, they saw no need whatsoever to change the plural “them” to “he” as they did in Isaiah.
Answer for yourself: How reliable are our Christian Bibles when those we trust to accurately translate the Scriptures are changing the very tense of the words to match their pre-formed theologies? Could our beliefs concering Jesus as connected with Isa. 53 be wrong as Christians?
Answer for yourself: If the Christian Gentile Bible translators had not wished to read into Isaiah 53 the identity of Jesus, do you think they would have felt the need to change the tense of the pronoun from “them” to “he” in Isaiah 53?
The bottom line for all Christians to understand is that we have heard way too much preached about Jesus and far too little studied from the texts of the Jewish Bible which tell us exactly and accurately what he believed as well as his original mission. If we had studied the original sources available to us, we would not be so mixed up theologically in Christianity today which boasts over 2000 different denominations all maintaining they have the truth about Jesus while at the same time being the most violent and crime ridden nation in the world. May God forgive our laziness to let others tell us what to believe instead of us studying to show ourselves approved unto God.
We continue.