Isaiah 52:13. Behold, ⁷ My Servant shall prosper, He shall be exalted and lifted up. We have understood this chapter to show the manner in which that king would set us free. Behold, My Servant shall prosper. Here we begin chapter 53. Until now you have heard Christ’s kingdom depicted in the cross and that it is carried forward by faith and the Word alone. Yet that leading of faith, the Word, and the cross is not without deliverance and protection. In this chapter the prophet speaks primarily of the Head of the Kingdom as he treats of the person of the King and the manner of His deliverance. This is the foremost passage on the suffering and resurrection of Christ, and there is hardly another like it. Therefore we must memorize this passage, for it certainly drives out the stubbornness of the Jews. The Jews cannot deny that this passage speaks of Christ. They indeed grant the glories of Christ in this chapter, but they are unwilling to grant His cross and sufferings. Yet this is what the text says: This King will be glorious, but after His death. This indicates that this King is different from an ordinary one, since He will begin His reign after death. Behold, My Servant shall prosper. He calls Him Servant as He did above (42:1 f.): “He will not cry or lift up His voice, or make it heard in the street.” There He is not just called Servant, as the monastics think, but He is a servant, that is, a minister of the Word, an apostle and an ambassador. What will this Servant do? He shall prosper. The Hebrew word יַשְׂכִּיל⁸ means to act wisely, to be able to deal circumspectly with a matter. They are said to act wisely who carry an important and extremely dangerous matter through to its conclusion in such a way that they nowhere do violence to it. The political ruler needs this wisdom to take note of all dangers, beware of all snares, and bring everything to a successful conclusion. So Matt. 10:16 reads: “Be wise as serpents.” Now, the serpent is a shrewd animal, involving itself in violence and craftiness. Summary: It is incumbent upon the wise man not to rule by violence, not to ram his head through, but in the midst of an even desperate situation to see it through gently and bring everything to an orderly conclusion. Thus Christ will find an exceedingly involved situation. This affair will be imposed on Him in a way to make His task seem entirely impossible, and yet He will handle the matter so successfully that He will dispose of it without force and without danger. He has accomplished it wisely and without noise. This is the meaning of My Servant shall prosper. Before this no such person was found, although David is called a שֵׂכֶל, that is, a man wise in the Scriptures (1 Chron. 22:12). Summary: “My Servant will not be turbulent, as you hitherto acted under the Law with violence, but His ministry is supremely pleasant and joyful, and He handles everything in the gentlest manner, offending and hurting no one. Such sagacity is the very opposite of every kind of force and tyranny on the part of authorities. Then, when His first office and ministry have been accomplished, He will be in glory. He will bring it about that even in this life He will arrive at glory after many people have been gathered to Him.” But I understand it simply in this way: Here, in the time of his earthly life, He will be Servant. After death He will be Lord. In His life He will be the most prudent Servant”  (Luther’s Works, v. 17, p. 215-216).

“Isaiah 63:9. In His love He carried them. Here belong all the stories of Exodus, the Judges, etc., where because of His mercy God carried them and consoled them in every difficulty.

10. They, however, provoked Him to wrath. The most ungrateful men have always embittered Him in response to His great blessings. Thus they murmured at the Red Sea, they murmured that they did not have food and water, they were always ungrateful to God. Thus the flesh does nothing good unless it is compelled. Therefore evil conditions of slavery are necessary in the world, and for that reason He always harassed them through the Amorites, etc. Yet always He remembered the days of old, the days of Abraham, Moses, and David, to whom He had given the promise that they should not perish but have peace and a perpetual kingdom. Thence He is moved not so much by our cries as by our reminders of His covenant and His promises. Therefore what He demanded of us is in place, “Call upon Me in the day of trouble” (Ps. 50:15). Hence Scripture always says “for My sake,” in order to exclude boasting. He comes to our aid because of His promise in order to crush our pride.

Since, however, He has heard so many times before, however much they were sinners and embittered Him, yet He always pardons and hears, if only they will acknowledge themselves sinners against their conscience. Then He consoles us that He will come also to our rescue in afflictions, and when we are oppressed, we must cry. But this calls for Christians who must continue to pray for God’s help beyond their sins by which they have angered God. Therefore He urges and places His person in the midst of the Babylonian captivity, where because of their distress people may cry to the Lord for help. But sin contradicts and tries to stop the mouth. However, one must break through beyond the consciousness of sin to implore God for His help, though the Holy Spirit is not with us or, if He is, He is present in secret. So much skill it takes to approach the Lord”  (Luther’s Works, v. 17, p. 358).

Isaiah 50:7. I have set My face like a flint. A Christian might be thus influenced that he has a very hard face, since he will have to hear insults and even see openly that everything, however good, right, and true it may be, is given the worst possible interpretation. Let not then Christians despair when they hear such great blasphemies from the fanatics as even human nature cannot bear, unless the Word and the Spirit of God harden our face against the despisers of the Word.

8. Who will contend with Me? Let us stand up together. “No one will dare to go into judgment with Me,” says Christ, for “God is for us, who is against us?” (Rom. 8:31). He brings it about that we consider it of no consequence, even though the whole world contends against us. The rule of the church is not located in pomp and appearance but in the Word, even in the spoken Word, on which we may stand firm against all insults. For “if God is for us, who is against us?”

Come, let us be judged. There is nothing evil in the whole world which they themselves commit and do not shove off on us, so as to have a cause against us because of the Gospel. Nevertheless, we can innocently say with Samuel (1 Sam. 12:3): “Whose ox have I taken? Or whose ass have I taken?” Yet they persecute us for the sake of their own tyrants. But we shall persevere.

9. Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment, that is, they will perish little by little through constant use rather than all of a sudden, but room will be given them for repentance. In another place we read³: “My face is indeed weakened like a garment chewed up by worms.” Thus also our enemies will perish but “the word of our God will stand forever” (Is. 40:8)” (Luther’s Works, v. 17, p. 195).