1 Who has believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?
Who will choose to believe the prophets of God?
2 For he shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: He has no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him.
People did not flock to Jesus because of His good looks. In fact, it appears He was very average (He managed to disappear in crowds, and the Jewish leadership needed Judas to show them which one was Jesus in order to arrest Him).
3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.
Crucifixion was the cruelest form of execution ever invented by man. By the time the ordeal was done the person did not even look much like a person.
Evidently Jesus suffered loss in His walk on earth. Since Joseph is not mentioned again after Jesus’ birth story, we can assume that at some time He went through the loss of a dear parent-figure. We don’t know what else.
4 Surely He has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
Jesus took the punishment for each one of our sins. He carried our griefs and pains to the Cross. Can you imagine the weight of it all?
5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed.
The entire purpose of the Cross, in fact, of Jesus’ whole life, was to pay the price for our sins. That is why He was whipped with 39 stripes. That is why He had a crown of thorns mashed into His scalp. That is why He suffered the humiliation of the walk to Calvary. That is why He had nails driven into His hands and feet. That is why He had a spear driven through His side…
To pay the price for my sin.
All this punishment is what I deserved for my disobedience to God. But Jesus took my punishment for me.
And in taking that punishment, I was healed from my transgressions and iniquities.
6 All we 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.
There is no human that has not rebelled against God. Every single one of us deserves the death that Jesus suffered.
But God placed all that punishment on His shoulders and took it for us.
7 He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not his mouth: He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth.
Jesus Himself said He could call an army of angels to rescue Him from the ordeal of the Cross. In fact He could have blinked an eye and everyone around Him would have fallen down dead.
But He chose to go to the Cross willingly for our benefit.
He did not want to die, to go through all that. In the Garden of Gethsemane He begged for a way out. But He submitted Himself to that ordeal because it was the only way to provide for our payment, the only way to get us to Heaven.
8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare His generation? For He was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of My people was He stricken.
Remember, Isaiah is writing this a good 500 years before it happens.
9 And He made His grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death; because He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth.
Jesus was executed alongside common thieves and then buried in the grave of a rich man (Joseph of Armethia).
10 Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief: when thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.
Even though Jesus died, He will live forever.
11 He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied: by His knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for He shall bear their iniquities.
This payment of Jesus was sufficient. That price for sin has been paid for all who will accept that payment.
12 Therefore will I divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong; because He has poured out His soul unto death: and He was numbered with the transgressors; and He bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Because of Jesus’ choice to obey, to fulfill His calling in life, He is the greatest man in all of history. Of course, He is also God Himself.