Isaiah 53 Part 1

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When we were together Last week. I began the evening's lecture by telling you something that was true. I began by telling you that the weeks that had passed and the weeks that would follow, we would discuss many different issues that were important. However, the issue of sin and atonement theologically is without question most significant. Now that statement is true. However, there is more to the story.

Because when we talk about polemical verses that the church has used historically to prove the Messiahship of the Nazarene There is without question no series of verses, no chapter in the Bible that is used more often. With greater confidence than the chapter of Isaiah fifty three. Fundamentalist Christians are so confident That if only you would read Isaiah 53, you would become a believer, that there is without question no chapter in the Bible that has launched.

more t shirts and bumper stickers than Isaiah fifty three. The Messianic Jewish Alliance of America has in their catalogue of T shirts and all kinds of nice things you can buy. As in your ministry to evangelize the Jewish people T shirts. And what's on the t shirt? Isaiah fifty-three. There are many ministries. They simply read the chapter of Isaiah fifty-three because they're so confident.

that if anyone would read that chapter, they would be convinced that Isaiah could have been speaking of no other one than Jesus himself. I say it when I'm driving. up and down the Garden State Parkway to come and see you guys every week. You know, when you throw the thirty five cents in. Isaiah fifty three right there stuck on there next to Don't Kill Animals and Isaiah fifty three. Isaiah fifty three, therefore

is a chapter that the church has always been very, very confident in. They actually have little tracks. Jews for Jesus has them and many other groups have them. Tracks. You simply are given Fifteen verses to read. Here, read it and then make a decision. Now, why do I say fifteen verses? Those of you who have even a perfunctory knowledge of the book of Isaiah know that the fifty-third chapter has only twelve verses. Well, there's a reason for that.

When we use the term generically, Isaiah fifty three, we don't really only mean the fifty third chapter, we really mean beginning in Isaiah fifty two, verse thirteen. 14 and 15, and that's where the 52nd chapter ends. And then the twelve verses that are found in Isaiah fifty three, making a total of fifteen verses. when I use the term and when you hear the term use, Isaiah fifty three, what we all mean is those fifteen verses from Isaiah fifty two, verse thirteen.

through Isaiah fifty three, verse twelve.

I think there should be an important statement made about chapter breaks. They're not Jewish. The breaks that we have in the chapters in our Bibles today predominantly come from the church. They did it, and not that long ago. They made the chapter breaks and we went along with many of them. No reason to argue over them. Many of them make a lot of sense. This one does

There is no reason why fifty-two fifteen should be broken with fifty-three verse one. It one immediately goes into the other. It's all one magnificent concept. What we will see is it's a beautiful poetic song. It's actually the fourth of four servant songs and we're going to be examining it very, very

carefully. Do any of you speak with a British accent? I always felt that if you want to sound more like God you speak with an English accent, no? No? You don't would someone like to read this for all of us? Sorry, I'd like you to stand up. And I'd like you to face the audience. I'm sorry. He said, What are you doing to me? I came here, I should have sat in the back, I knew it. Read it for us. Behold, my servant shall prosper. He shall be exalted and lifted up and shall be very high.

Has many wondered about you. how Bart's appearance is from that of a man, and his speeches from that of people. So shall he cast down many nations, kings shall shut their mouth because of him. For what has not been told to them they shall see, and that which they had not heard, they shall consider. Who hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? And he came up like a saplet before it, and like a root from dry ground. He had neither form nor comeliness.

We saw him, that he had no appearance that we should have desired him, despised and forsaken by men, a man of pains and accustomed to illness. As one who hides his face from us, despised, and we esteemed him not. Indeed he bore our illnesses and our pains. He carried them, yet we encountered him as plague, smitten by God and oppressed. But he was pained from our transgressions. Apart from our iniquities, the chastisement of our welfare We all went astray like sheep.

So each one on his own way, and the Lord accepted his prayers for the iniquity of all of us. 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 his shearers, he would not open his mouth. From 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 to fell them. And he gave his grave to the wicked and to the wealthy with his kind of death, because he committed no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth. And the Lord wished to crush him, he made him ill. If a soul makes Its self restitution he shall cease, he shall prolong his days, and God's purpose shall prosper in his hand, from the toil of his soul.

He would see, he would be satisfied. With his judgment my servant would vindicate the just for many, and the iniquities he would bear. Therefore I will allot him a portion in public. With the strong he shall plunder because he poured out the water. sold to death. And with transgressors he was counted, and he bore the sin of many and interceded for the transgressors. Any time you examine a text in the Bible

And this is particularly true of this chapter of Isaiah 53. We always want to ask one question first. And if you don't ask this question, you're really wasting your time. The question you must ask first is Who is speaking? If you don't ask that question, there's really no point in going on. You can't even begin to understand scriptural text. You always ask the question, who is speaking?

And therefore, I want to turn to all of you and ask you that question, especially those of you who have never been a part of this seminar. I'd like to ask you the question. You've just heard this chapter read before you? Who is speaking here? Someone want to give it a shot? You know, it's interesting, there are many people who've read Isaiah fifty three for years and they've never stopped to ask this question.

Who do you think is speaking? Isaiah. Isaiah? It's not Isaiah, even though the book was written by Isaiah, this is a narrative. Isaiah is writing a narrative of those who are speaking. Who is speaking? Anyone? God. By the way, before we started this evening's program, I'm not a magician. But what I did was I simply wrote those two things down for you. In that order. Isaiah and God. I knew that's what you were gonna say. Those are the two those are are not a copper field.

But I knew that you were going to say that. Because those are the two automatic responses. It couldn't be Isaiah because there are many people speaking. Isaiah is writing the narrative of them speaking. It certainly could not be God because God did not commit any iniquities and he certainly didn't feel that anyone bore his sins. Could not possibly be God.

Again, whenever we look at a text and what I'm really referring to here is Isaiah fifty three one through Isaiah fifty three ten. Who are speaking here? Someone else want to give it a shot? Yes. Israel. No, not Israel. Someone? Yes? The king. How many kings? One?

Many kings. The Gentile kings of nations are speaking here. So I'm gonna say that again. The Gentile kings of nations are the ones who are speaking here in Isaiah 53. They're not just speaking, but they are speaking with shocked astonishment. They cannot believe what they are witnessing because these leaders of nations from all over the world in the Messianic age, and of course all of this end part of Isaiah is messianic. All of them are standing in the Messianic Age. It just happened.

Sure some of us think about some of us who do wait for the coming of the Messiah, think about, boy, what will it be like? Maybe I'll be watching T V or something and I'll hear trumpets blowing. Flizz, you wonder what will happen. I hope it'll happen while I'm alive, right? Imagine when that happens, Isaiah tells us that the kings of nations are going to be shot.

out of their skulls. Why? Because there's going to be something enormously incongruent here. They're going to finally see something when the mesmesionic age finally unfolds that will be so surprising to them that will be like nothing they had ever heard. These leaders of nations will witness something that they would have never considered.

And they're going to ask the question, oh my God, who would have ever considered what I'm seeing right now? Who would have considered this? Who would have thought of such a thing? Now, yeah. This notion, this idea, when the prophets foretold of how shock then leaders of nations will be at the end of days is an idea we find all over the place. Now I said something to you last week, I said it the week before, I'm gonna say it again.

When you're dealing with an evangelical Christian, when you're dealing with a a Bible believing Jew. You always want to certainly begin with the Bible and end with the Bible. You want to show everything clearly from Scripture. And as I said, many people say to me, hey, Rabbi, you can't prove anything from the Bible. It's ambiguous. It's nebulous. It's not true. There is Poetry in the Bible, especially in the Jewish scriptures, there's very little of it, if any, in the Christian Bible.

But there are much of Jewish scriptures very understandable what the intent of the author was. And when you say something you had better back it up. It better be clear.

We would want to see where Scripture tells us that indeed the nations, the kings of nations, are so shocked because there's a difference between the information they had what they had heard, what they had considered all their lives, and now suddenly they're witnessing, they're having a visual experience that contradicts the auditory experience they had throughout their lives.

What they are seeing is like nothing they heard. What they're witnessing is like nothing they had considered. And they're asking the question, oh my gosh, who would have ever believed this? Well, how do you know that?

It says it inside. This is Isaiah fifty two verse fifteen and fifty-three one. Remember they're connected. One goes right into the other. So shall he cast down many nations. The kings shall shut their mouths because of him. for that which had not been told to them they shall see, and that which they had not heard They shall consider and here comes the question.

Who would have believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? Sometimes, you know, when we're studying scripture We also want to see these ideas not only in this area of Scripture, but we want to see this idea somehow threaded throughout the Bible when we look through Scripture specifically at Messianic verses. We find over and over again how the nations of the world say, Oh boy, we blew it. We made a terrible mistake.

It's used the moving portrait of someone who goes, they will put their hands over the mounts. In total shock. I would have never believed this. Oh my gosh. Take a look at Micah seven verse fifteen through sixteen. According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt will I show unto them marvelous things. the nation shall see and be confounded at all their might.

They shall lay their hands upon their mouth, their ears shall be as deaf. Isaiah forty one, which is part of is the first of the four servant songs. describes, behold, all those who were incensed against you shall be ashamed and confounded. Those who quarrelled with you shall be as naught and be lost. And of course

Jeremiah describes how the nations will all come, the Gentiles will come to you, the Jewish people and will say, Sorry guys, I we I guess we made a little mistake here. How could we have believed in such things He says there, the Gentile shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no benefit.

Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods? This is what the Gentiles are going to be saying to the Jewish people. By the way, one of the clear things we find in Scripture is that God begs the Jewish people don't follow the ways of the nations of the world. At the end of the day they're going to be coming back to you. Why blow it and go over to them? We're never told that Learn from the nations of the world.

to follow their religions and indeed there's good reason for it. God doesn't want us to be let down. He doesn't want us to come with our ticket that we paid hundreds of dollars for and get to the front where the concert is and then be told by the ticket holder you're holding a counterfeit.

Don't want that. What's going on here? What are they so shocked at? What's happening over here? What's happening in this chapter? I want to ask you a question and I want you to think about this for a moment. If I asked a Christian today, you know It's very obvious the Jewish people are a nation that have become the emblem of persecution.

Am I right? I'm sure it would never make it to Jeopardy because it would be too easy. The wandering people, you know it's too simple. Maybe they would have that teen jeopardy, right? The persecuted nation? No. Israel has become a byword for persecution. You open up an Encyclopedia Judaica, look up any European city there. What do you say when the Jews were slaughtered there? The Jewish people. If I asked a Christian and he was being honest with me

Tell me something. Why are the Jews so persecuted so consistently for all these thousands of years? What would a Christian honestly say? What is the reason why God is is judging them so harshly? What is the reason? They don't have Jesus or can we take it one step further? They rejected Jesus. Christian would say to you Honestly, let's forget about all the nice things and the smiles and the L O V E Love you, love you, you know. Let's just put all of that aside for a moment.

And you should know all the Christian church fathers and all the reformers with one voice said that the Jewish people indeed endured their persecution and were destined to endure persecution throughout the ages, throughout the nations of the world. as a witness to the world of what happens to the nation that rejects the Lord. As a matter of fact, I'll tell you something. Most of Christendom believes in something called covenant theology.

Covenant theology. It's also known in the pedestrian terms as replacement theology. I want to explain to you what that means. They believe that God has only one covenant with the world and that's the covenant of grace. And that indeed the church, the body of believers, has replaced Israel in inheriting all the promises and prophecies and blessings that were originally attributed to the Jews in the Old Testament are now belong to the church, to the body of believers.

Now, not all Christians believe this. By the way, covenant theology means a lot more than that, but for the purpose of this evening's lecture, we're only dealing with this element. Of course the Church is the new Israel. If you want to read more about this, you can look it up in a in an evangelical dictionary, an Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. Just look up the New Israel. The Church is the new Israel. They have replaced Israel.

By the way, Messianic Jews don't believe this because they believe what is called dispensationalism, which means also a lot of things that God had many different covenants. It's actually an argument how many covenants God had with the world at different times, at different periods. But the point that we're interested in is dispensationalists believe and they are a minority of a minority believe that God has a two track plan.

with his people. He has one plan that he has with the body of believers, the church, and another plan that God has with the physical seat of Israel, and God has not put away Israel from being a nation before him. And the reason why we have Confusion. Why we have this problem is very simple. People who believe in covenant theology simply are following the New Testament, particularly Galatians.

Remember, Paul has become a minister to the Gentiles. Very simple. He doesn't want Gentiles to feel like if they're gonna come into it, they're gonna be second gr you know, they're gonna be, you know, you know, s second rate citizens there. Oh no.

And that's why in Galatians the Magna Carta of the New Testament, in chapter three, verse twenty eight, Paul says, In the body of Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile, man nor woman. What does that mean? Many people say, Ah, but it says man or woman, there's a difference. That's the point. Just like the difference between a man and a woman is only physical. It's not spiritual. God loves his daughters as well as he loves his sons.

So the difference is only a physical difference, not a spiritual difference. In the same way the difference between the Jew and the Gentile now is no longer there. We are all one, together, in the body of Christ. That's why Ephesians chapter two, verse fourteen, describes how that veil of partition between the Holy of Holies and the rest of the temple has been torn down.

And that's the picture, the metaphor we find in Matthew, when Jesus dying on the cross, Matthew tells the story as the veil of partition tear coming down. Forget about it, it's not historical, it's not relevant. He's trying to tell the story that now the separation is no longer there.

And that's why we have in Matthew chapter ten, Jesus is telling the apostles, only go to the Jews, not to the Gentiles. Yet in Matthew twenty eight, after the cross, we have the Great Commission, twenty eight verse nineteen, where he says, Now go to all nations.

Most of Christendom believes in replacement theology, that indeed the church is the new Israel, and God has done away with Israel from being a nation before him. Now I'll tell you there are many liberal Christians that don't believe that. And there are also many Christian scholars that don't believe it who are conservative.

Because they have read Jeremiah thirty three, they have read Genesis twelve, they have read Genesis twenty six, they have read Genesis fifteen, they have read the promises that God will never, ever set aside his nation Israel from being before him. Even in the harshest areas of the Jewish scriptures, and we talk about L Leviticus twenty six and Deuteronomy twenty eight, it's often called the Tokh. Which is the very sad, sad chapters where God says terrible things will happen to the Jews

if they'll turn away from me and it's sometimes very hard to read. In the synagogue when it's being read from the Torah at the Beam at the pulpit, the reader reads it quietly and s it's very difficult to read. But at the end s God says, no matter what their sins are I will never completely destroy them. So when you really have this argument between Christians about dispensationalism and covet, what you have is people who are willing to toss away the

what they call the Old Testament and those who are not willing to do it. Now, the Catholic Church naturally they believe God has one covenant, that's what the body of believers, the Catholic Church has absorbed that, and most of Christendom believes that. The Church is the New Israel. As a matter of fact in the third and fourth century the church had a very, very big theological problem

What was their theological problem? Here they were with this theology. Israel is no longer part of the covenant of God, right? So they had a very serious problem. You know what the problem was? Why is Israel still here? They're still here. Why did God keep them? Why would God continue to preserve a people through enormous oppression? Second century, unbelievable that Bar Kokh. I mean, God was preserving the Jewish people and they saw it.

Why would God preserve a nation if they no longer have the covenant? What possible usefulness could this have? And that's when they came up with the with a theology called the Pope's Jews. Have anybody heard of the Pope's Jews? You've heard of that. They realized that God had a still a special plan for Israel. Israel was not to be a part of the covenant nation any longer, but

Israel had a purpose, and that was they were to be the witness people. Because the Jewish people witnessed Jesus when he came to this earth, when he ministered on this earth and died. And they saw him and they rejected him and they gave him over to the cross to be crucified in spite of Pilate's you know protest. Therefore, the Jewish people are destined for all eternity until the end of day.

to live in diaspora, never to return back to the land of Israel, never to have autonomy in the land of Israel. but to live throughout all the four corners of the world in a low, degradated state. And they are a witness to the world of this is what happens to the nation that rejects the Lord. And then what would happen is the theology kept moving that well

At the end of days, when Jesus makes his second coming, what would happen then is then the Jews would recognize him and say, Okay guys, you know, I'm sorry, didn't really you know and they would then accept Jesus. And then there was this great argument in the church between what happens to them then?

There are many held that at that point they would be saved, and others, some of our really good friends said no, when they accept him, then they're gonna all go to hell. They're gonna burn the eternal lake of fire that's described in Second Thessalonians chapter one verse eight.

There's now another very practical problem they had. Well, now the Jews play a very important role. They're not the covenant, but they're the witness people. Well the witness people, this is a very important function. Look at the Jew, look how he lives. What happens, they asked, if we as Christians become so zealous for the Lord that accidentally we didn't realize it, we just wiped them all out by accident. You know, we become so zealous, we become so, you know, frum, so committed

That what we do is we simply just s wipe out the Jews. We kill them all out. Then we don't have the witness people anymore. We have to find a a reserve for them. Like they have places where, you know, animals are becoming extinct. They put them there, you can't touch We have to find a place for the Jews, a section, just a group of Jews, to keep them somewhere where they are protected, where no one can touch them. And those are the Pope's Jews. And they're still there in Rome.

From that time till today they're still here with us. They live in Rome, they've ranged in size, and they had special privileges. They didn't have to pay taxes. No one dared molested them or the Pope would require it of you. They had a enormous amount of freedom. They were the Pope's Jews and it was passed on. It's a wonderful thing for the Jews who live there, right? When the Gestapo came in to

to Rome, Pope Pius the Twelfth what an oxymoron. Pope Pius the Twelfth, who didn't lift a finger to save a Jew, did nothing to close the ovens of of Europe. The only time he ever opened his mouth to protect Jews was when they came to take away the Pope's Jews. He said, Those Jews you can't touch. That's by the way the reason why the church could

never recognize Israel. When I say church I mean the Catholic Church. I mean they would give you every reason in the world we don't recognize Israel because the reason is is because what the church fathers had said. How could we recognize Israel When all the church fathers, Augustine, Origen, Tertullian, spoke with one voice, the Jews would never return to the land.

if we recognize Israel then we'll recognize that that they have returned to the land. That's the real reason. What's happened now today is of course the Catholic Church has really become more liberal and Of course there's a lot at stake for the Catholic Church. They anticipate that Israel will sure they hope will just trul be training parts of Jerusalem for a piece of paper.

And they have a lot of real estate holdings in Jerusalem. They want to make sure that their nose is in it when it happens. They want to be a part of those negotiations. They don't want anything happening when they're not there. You ask a Christian, tell me, why have the Jews endured so much persecution over the centuries? Because they rejected the Lord. I want to ask you all a question for a moment. When the Messiah comes and it's not Jesus.

When the Messiah comes and it's not Jesus, what theological question What burning question will Christians have at that moment? what will be the tremendous theological problem they will be confronted with when the Messiah comes and it's not Jesus and the Jews were right all along. What will be their very serious problem? Sorry? I'm sorry? The question will be something enormous will be towering.

If the Jews were right all along about the Messiah, and the one thing they didn't blow it on was Jesus. then now we are returning to our original problem. Then why then has God persecuted them so much? For two thousand years we always thought that the reason why God had persecuted the Jewish people consistently was because of their own iniquity, the great iniquity of deicide. Of rejecting the Lord. Messiah comes, the Meshiach comes. And his name is in Yeshua. Whoa, we have a big problem, my God.

Then why then has the Jews been enduring this persecution? All along that was never a question. We believed that Jesus was the Messiah, but now we're surprised at what we're seeing. It's not like what we heard. Well if that's the case, we're back to our original problem. Why then has the Jews endured so much persecution? If I ask a Christian, any Christian today, almost any Christian, excluding David Duke, if I ask them, Tell me something If I ask him, tell me something.

When Christians persecuted Jews in the name of Jesus, were they sinning? The answer I would get is What? No, they would say yes to sin. No, they would say that. If you asked a good Christian today, those people who persecuted Jews in the name of Jesus during the Crusades and so on, these people were sinning greatly. They wouldn't say no. They wouldn't say no.

What will they say at the end of days? At the end of days they will realize That the reason why the Jews have endured the suffering and persecution and pain and unwanted death is not Because of their iniquity, of rejecting Jesus, of killing God, but it's gonna be because as a result of the sins of the world. When the Gentile kings sinned, what did they do?

They punished, they persecuted the Jews. Am I right? That was their sin. Who suffered as a result of that sin? The Jewish people. And that is going to be their recognition at the end of the day. Oh my God. Now we realize that the Jewish people were suffering as a result of our sin. None of their sins of killing Jesus. None of their sins of rejecting his son. They didn't do that.

It's obvious to us now that the Jewish people have suffered and when they did, they were suffering as a result of our iniquities. When we sinned, what did we do? We persecuted the Jews. Who suffered as a result of that persecution? The Jewish people. You know, Isaiah fifty three, of course,

It's an ambiguous chapter. It's it's a song. It's very, very poetic. It's the fourth, the first serv four servant songs. Let me ask you a question. Obviously we're up to the sixty-four thousand dollar question. We know who's speaking. Question is who is it speaking about?

Now there's a little problem here, and that problem is It doesn't say. Nowhere in these fifteen verses does it anywhere say who it's speaking about. Just not state. Isaiah tells us one piece of information that's essential. One thing he tells us, that's the clue, that tells us who it's speaking about. He calls whoever it's speaking about, both in Isaiah fifty two verse thirteen and Isaiah fifty three eleven, my servant. Whoever it is, it's God's service. Wow.

Does that really help us? Maybe. How could we know who the servant is? Nowhere in this servant song is the servant identified. Could any of us think of a way that we can figure out who that servant is with certainty? What can we do? Can anyone think of a technique that we can use to figure out who that servant is? What would we do? What you just said was we'd look where the servant is meant somewhat anywhere else in Genesis?

Where would we want to concentrate on? The whole book of Isaiah or maybe something in close proximity? I was staying at someone's house, a lot of people there, family, friends, and there was a little problem there when it was time to go to sleep. Especially for the night people who are in the house, I am one of them. means we went to sleep less and that was there were more people than bed

And I'm a real night person and so as you can imagine I was stuck with the futon. You ever do one of those futons, right? They're schlepping it up from the basement. You're like inhaling this stuff, you know, you don't know you know, you unfold it right, you know what that's that feels like? You ever do that? It's

And I got I got stuck in someone's room there. I was on the floor actually and it was so fakroken there, it was so stow jammed in that room, so many people there that my head was under the desk. That's how I was And I'm try you know, you're trying to figure out what was the intention of the designer, was my head supposed to go here, which side right then I still don't know how you do it, which side, you're not sure if it's the linen side or the other side supposed to go.

And I'm laying there I can't sleep for my life. I'm laying there like a yuckle looking at the ceiling. I'm looking all over. Help me get me out of this mouth. How did I get in here? I'm getting out of here. I don't care if it's three in the morning. As I'm looking around, because th there's no I can feel no, you know, exhaustion at all.

I I I suddenly look under the desk, which my head was already there, it made it very easy, and I noticed in the corner, which obviously it fell behind the desk, there was a there was a paperback book. Hmm. So I reached with my hand under the desk, I grabbed it. It was a book I think was called The Eleventh Commandment. It's like a mystery.

Uh here I am. There was a little reading lamp there. I pulled it down from the desk and I put it on the floor. You know what? I'm gonna read now in my in the office. I have probably around three thousand books. There are no novels there, you know. A lot there but there are no novels. I really never get the chance to read novels. I never get the chance you know uh I don't have time for it. I I just don't have time to read it. So this was for me a real luxury. Ha ha. So I open it up.

And I start to read it, let me tell you, it's like the author stri you know, put his hand out of the book, he shut my nose into the book. It was so exciting. I was reading there, oh the story and uh the mystery and I was oh boy

And I'm reading away turning and I'm turning over each side, you know,'cause I can right and I'm reading and I'm reading and this is like un unbelievable story. And after I don't know w it must have been like four in the morning, all of a sudden the yawn start to really kick in. You know? And I look at the clock and it's already three thirty in the morning. Oh boy, I'm only off to page seventy-three. I'm plotting. So what am I gonna do? I'm plotting to read this book.

I know I'm not coming back here for a while. I'm not gonna be I'm not gonna have time to read it again. What do you do? No problem. Page seventy three? Let's go to page two hundred and seventy three. Let's see what happens, right? Well, I open up page two hundred turn two hundred and seventy three and I start reading and what happens? What the heck is going on here? And Sally went into the cafeteria and there was Dan just that she had seen him yesterday.

I have a very big problem. I don't know who Dan is, I don't know who Sally is. These are two names. I have no idea who they are. Well what do I do now? What do I do? I go back to seventy three? No way. I want to finish this book tonight. What do you do when you have this new character, what do you do? You have to back up a little bit, you have to backpedal how much as little as possible. Want to find out when Dan and Sally are introduced into the story. When you find a character in the book.

And you're beginning in the middle of the book, what you want to do is obviously not just look at the book as you said, but we want to backpedal as little as possible and also we want to make sure the same Dan, same Sally, right? So therefore what I did was I just kept turning page up it's not here until I finally get to where Dan and Sally come in the book and then I can finally understand the story. That's exactly what we want to do here. We have the fourth of four servant songs. Well

If that's the case, there are three before it. And in all likelihood, if Isaiah is going to identify who the servant is, he's most likely going to be identifying the servant more often in the early part, because that's more first finding out who it is than it is in the last part of it. Well, let's see what the Bible says. That's very important. Dealing with the Christian, you always want to say to them

I know the church, I know your pastor has their opinion. God only knows the Jews have their opinion. Don't you think God has an opinion? You've got to ask that question. What does God say? What is Isaiah's opinion about who that servant is? We want to look not just at all the book of Isaiah, we want specifically to look at the chapters that literally engulf this incredible chapter.

So let's go to section number two and let's backpedal. Let's move right through the servant songs and see what Isaiah tells us. But thou, Israel, art my servant. Jacob, whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham, my friend. Whom I grasped from the ends of the earth and from it nobles I called you. And I said to you, You are my servant. I chose you, and I did not despise you. Forty four verse one and two. Watch what we're doing. We're moving towards Isaiah fifty three.

Forty four, verse one and two. Yet hear now, O Jacob, my servant and Israel, whom I have chosen, so said the Lord your maker, and he who formed you from the womb shall aid you. Fear not my servant Jacob and Yeshuran, or Jeshurin, By the way, Jeshuin or Yeshurin is another name for Israel. It comes from not just all Israel but the righteous of Israel. Yeshurun comes from the word Yashar, which means straight.

and Yeshuran, whom I have chosen. Well, let's move a little closer to Isaiah fifty three. Remember these, O Jacob and Israel, for thou art my servant. I have formed thee. Thou art my servant, O Israel. Thou shalt not be forgotten of me. Well, a little closer. Isaiah forty five, verse four. For the sake of my servant Israel Jacob and Israel, my chosen one, and I call to you by your name. Isaiah forty eight, verse twenty. Leave Babylon

Flee from the Chaledeans with a voice of singing declare, Tell this, publicize it to the end of the earth. Say, The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob. Isaiah forty nine verse three and said to me, Thou art my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified. As a matter of fact, when we look through the servant songs, There is no one else. Take the book of Isaiah. The only one who is identified as the servant

is Israel, no one else. What we're going to be examining tonight is a number of things. When we look to the fifty third chapter, we are very interested In the surrounding chapters, we want to know the context, because oh boy, you're going to see something. You're going to see how tragically our children look at Isaiah 53 and they read nothing else.

I always tell people, sure, if you have Isaiah fifty three out of the King James and you read nothing else, I understand why you think it's talking about Jesus. 'Cause you're starting on page two hundred and seventy three. You have no idea of what's going on before. And very often I ask Christians, I say, Tell me, you knew Isaiah fifty three by heart. Could you tell me anything about Isaiah forty eight?

Isaiah forty seven, Isaiah forty six, it is so rare to even get one verse from these chapters. But they know the fifty third chapter so well. Is it that one chapter is holier than another? Or is it just one chapter seems to be giving the message that's most desirable? If only people would read the surrounding chapters and what we're interested in the sab the chapters that literally caress the chapter of fifty three. We're gonna prove another thing in the next two nights.

Even if I only had Isaiah 53 and nothing else. I can prove to you that it couldn't possibly be speaking about Jesus. Now, one of the questions that Christians ask over and over again, they say, Hey rabbi, You know, I don't understand. I've heard this before that you believe it's talking about Israel. You know, that doesn't fly with me and it never did. I don't understand. You know why it bothers me? Israel is a whole nation, is it not?

Isaiah 53 is talking about one person, singular. If you count them actually, there are sixty-seven singular references in that fifty-third chapter. Rabbi! How could it be speaking about an entire nation when isn't it clear it's speaking about one individual, a singular individual? How could you say it's speaking about a whole nation? I want you to take a look at section number three.

Imagine if you would be an English teacher and your student has handed in an essay to you and the first sentence of the you're marking the paper goes like this. You are my witnesses. says the Lord and my servant whom I have chosen, what would you do with your red pen? What would you do? We said, Mark, that's an incorrection. Why? You are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant. Well, Isaiah can get away with it. It's good to be the prophet, as Mel Brooks said, you know.

It's a song, and Isaiah does it constantly. You and me tonight. We're gonna see it, we're gonna see it next week. How Isaiah throughout servants is he constantly moves from the singular to the plural. It's not just here, it's throughout scripture. Israel is so often referred to in the singular. It's predominantly in the singular.

Those who have even a perfunctory knowledge of Hebrew grammar and you open up the Ten Commandments that God is writing them to a nation as if God is writing them to a singular individual. Why is that? Because Israel, corporate Israel, has a singular destiny. We even saw it a few weeks ago in Hosea chapter eleven, verse one. When Israel was a child then I loved him and I called my son out of Egypt.

And what we'll do is we're going to find it over and over again, especially when it comes to Messianic chapters. Is Israel referred to in the singular why? Because when it comes to the Messianic Age, there's that singular destiny of corporate Israel. Now what we also want to show is this is so important. That not just is forty three verse ten and eleven singular plural. Watch with me this. You're gonna see how Isaiah fifty three is the great illusion of the church.

What do I mean by that? Let's take a look. At the chapter before it and the chapter after it. And guess what? Isaiah fifty two, which really isn't the chapter before it. It's the same chapter, but the beginning of that same chapter.

Who does it speak of there? And how does it speak of it? Guess what? Isaiah 52 speaks of Israel in the singular, and Isaiah 54 speaks of Israel in the singular. And by the way, all Christians agree that what I'm telling you is true. Obviously, the church would disagree with this. then this will become irrelevant information. Let's take a look at Isaiah fifty two.

Remember how holy, how sacred we have to take our shoes off before reading this, because this is the actual beginning of the chapter of our Isaiah fifty three,'cause remember Isaiah fifty three really begins in Isaiah fifty two, verse thirteen. Awaken, awaken, put on your strength, O Zion, put on the garments of your beauty, Jerusalem, the holy city, for no longer shall the uncircumcised or the unclean continue to enter you.

Our sages tell us that the uncircumcised are the Christians and the unclean are the Moslems. Verse 2, shake yourselves from the dust, arise, sit down, O Jerusalem, free yourself from the bands of your neck, O captive daughter of Zion. All talking about Israel, all talking about Israel in the singular, and it's talking about of course how Israel will be saved at the end of days. It is Israel.

Captive. God is going to release that. That's not enough. Let's go to the very next chapter after Isaiah fifty three. Not going to Isaiah chapter two. Let's go to Isaiah fifty four. Now, Isaiah 54 speaks of Israel as God's wife. as this woman who was barren who was not born. And we find by the way in the Jewish scriptures Two different relationships of God and Israel. One relationship is God our Father. God is our Father. We're his children. We're his son.

The other relationship is lovers, that we are God's wife or we are God's lover. And of course, the the place in the Bible we find that more than any other place is the book of Song of Songs, Shir Hashirim. Why is then? Well, because there are really two different relationships that a Jew can have with his creator. Many Jews are born into it. Many Jews are born into a family that loves God, that it lives a a a Torah life.

They don't make a decision to be a religious Jew, it's been made for them. They're just born into it. God's their father. For many of us, we grew up and we didn't know God. For many of us we grew up with as God was a stranger to us. We had no idea what it meant. Then suddenly as an adult we fall in love.

Just as those of you who have found a mate, those of you who have fallen in love, what does that mean? Your spouse was someone that when you were children you did not know each other. You were strangers. You may have lived in the same zip code, but you did not know each other. But one day you met and you fell in love. And that's the other relationship. Our sages tell us that second relationship is very, very, very holy.

Very holy. And that's why we have those two descriptions of our relationship with God. Isaiah fifty four describes Israel, seems like the woman who couldn't have children in the singular. Take a look with me. Sing you barren woman who was not born burst out into song and jubilate, you who have not experienced birth pangs, for the children of the desolate one are more than the children of the married woman, says the Lord.

Section four. Verse fourteen. As many wondered about you, how marred is his appearance from that of a man and his features from that of the people. I was trying to figure out how to most demonstrate this to you. One of the great atrocities of racism

One of the great sins, the iniquity of persecuting others, is that the victim actually begins to believe what is said about him. I want you to know that those of you who who say things about those who are our fellow Americans that are African Americans. The great tragedy of what you're doing, the great sin of racism

is that the victim of racism, the victim of persecution, begins to believe what is said about him. It's a very great tragedy. Indeed blacks begin to believe that perhaps they are intellectually inferior to the white man.

They begin to believe that maybe it's true, we are prone to violence. We are prone to crime. That's the great, great tragedy. When I was at the School of Social Work at Adelphi University I became friends with the the professor who taught a class which has a requirement called ethnicity. He was an African American and found out later through our coffees together that he was also Jewish. His great grandmother maternally is was Jewish.

And he told me a an incredible story that happened to him. He was on a flight, a Delta flight from New York to Los Angeles. Said it was a packed flight. I mean, it was like it wasn't a seat, you know.

He was on the flight and everyone had buckled in, they had closed the door, but the airplane just wasn't backing up. And you know how when the airplane's not backing up there's a lot of people there, it can get a little warm and the and everybody's wondering and people are getting a little edgy there in the airplane. The captain suddenly makes an announcement, he says we're having some mechanical difficulty, which is now being addressed. We should be ready to taxi in about twenty five minutes.

Well, when we hear that we go, hmm, right? Uh oh. So everyone's sitting there and I'll sort of lock the plane closed so like no one and he said as he just sitting there on the plane, he looks out the window and he sees something. He sees this person who's glue you mechanic

standing on a ladder that's hanging onto the wing and he's working under one of the flaps of the wing. He's like I don't know, with screwdrivers he's working away over there. And he told me that as he starts to look at him, but this man's the mechanic's face was facing away from him. And he told me that he just kept looking at him and looking at him and looking at him and finally he saw his ear and he breathed a sigh of relief. It was a white ear.

He realized that thank God the person who has my life in his hands is a white man. He just that was his his knee jerk reaction, thank God he's white. And then he caught himself and he said, Oh my God, look what racism's done to me. I've begun to believe it. The Jewish people are the same. Our self esteem is not really where it should. Go tell a Jewish person, don't look Jewish. Did anyone get offended by the oh no. Oh really, you think so? Thank you.

Tell someone you look Jewish, they'll say, Oh, that's a very big compliment. Isn't that a tragedy? The Jewish people are a beautiful people. What's with our self-esteem? Because we have been told for years and centuries and thousands of years that we're an ugly people and we have b begun to believe that. What a great tragedy. The nations have told us that we are our features are distinct from the world. And we began to see our own ugliness.

We're people that don't have the self esteem we should have. That's why what's going on in the Middle East right now, that's why it's happening. We can't take the fact that people don't recognize our right to exist. Please recognize us. We're crawling on our knees to the Vatican. Please have diplomatic community Why? What for? Who needs their recognition? I'm not saying it's not a good thing, but it bothers

Maybe it's true. Maybe there's something wrong with us and that's why sometimes we make decisions in the Middle East that maybe aren't the wise or maybe not thinking it all through because we're so hungry for people to recognize it because we think that perhaps They don't recognise that maybe there is something wrong with us and then finally, finally, you know, when China recognises

Phew, you know, I feel good now they accept us. That's a tragedy. We have begun to accept what has been said about us, but indeed the nations have said we are marred more than another people, different from others. And it's a people, plural, that we're different than. And I wanted to show you something that I thought would bring this out more than anything else and I said, Well, let's go for rarefied evil. So, we got two articles from

Der Schrömer. Well you won't find it in your local store. It's not around anymore, but it was it was a Nazi publication. Was done by Streicher, one of the eleven people hanged at Nuremberg. And let's take the first article on the top. This is a typical strummer feature. In the issue of December 29th, 1942, the text reads... In the secret Jewish law book, the Talmud, it is written, only a Jew is a human being.

By the way, if you look at the German there and you look at the tongue where it says it's Boba Mitsia, those you can see the German. Now it's page 141B, there is no such thing as one forty one B, it doesn't go that high. It continues here in saying about human beings, this can only mean Jews. The scholar Darwin said in eighteen fifty nine that man is descended from the ape. Whether this is correct or not, we do not wish to decide.

Perhaps the reader will take the trouble to compare the features of the ape from the New York Zoo left and the face of the Jewish old clothes dealer from the New York ghetto above and draw his own conclusions. As many wondered about you how marked is his appearance from that of a man and his features from that of people. Take the bottom. Another article, The Captain Jew, you see the two pictures and the Aryan woman. The Captain Jew and the German peasant woman.

The text under these two pictures in the strummer reads The racial mixing of Germans of Nordic style. with Asiatic oriental Negroid Jews, which is preached and blessed by liberal circles and religious denominations, is the greatest cultural disgrace in this world. As many wondered about you, how marred is his appearance from that of a man and his features from that of a people? Section number five begins with, as we said earlier,

Who hath believed our report and to whom is the armor of the Lord revealed? This is the question of the kings of nations. Now listen carefully. Whenever the Bible says, Refers to the arm of the Lord, it always means one thing. Ladies and gentlemen, what does that mean? It always is referring to what. What power? What power? What strength? It's always referring to God's strength in that the salvation of Israel from the nations and in the eyes of the nations of the world.

Whenever the Bible talks about God's arm or his outstretched arm, it's anthropomorphism. It is always talking about God's outstretched arm, God's arm, where he saves the Jewish people from the clutches of the Gentile nations. That's why on your Seder plate, a few weeks from now, You're gonna have the shankbone and that symbolizes God's roanatuya's outstretched arm.

Rabbi, where does it say then? Well it says in a lot of places. But we're interested in one very special place. You're not going to believe how close this place is to Isaiah fifty three. What would happen if we went to Isaiah fifty three? What do we do? Take three steps back? That's what we're going to do. All we're going to do here is look at the four verses that are immediately before our famous Isaiah fifty three.

And guess what we're going to find? Let's take a look at Isaiah 52, verse 9 through 12. Break forth into joy, sing together ye waste places of Jerusalem, for the Lord hath comforted his people. He hath redeemed Jerusalem. This is the same people that was of course just singular in the beginning of the chapter. 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.

Turn away, turn away, get out of there, touch no unclean one, get out of its midst, purify yourselves, you who bear the Lord's vessels, for not with haste shall you go forth. And not in a flurry of flight shall you go, for the Lord goes before you, and your rear God is the God of Israel. Do you know what the next word after that word Israel is?

Behold, my servant shall prosper. It's an amazing But that was fifty two. Right before our fifty three. Well, let's take a look at what the next chapter says, because it continues to speak about the salvation of Israel From the nations fifty four, verse seven through ten.

Sometimes we wonder, you know, sometimes we see God, He turns his face away from us, we say, Are you gonna come back? You know, I things are not good now. You please you are gonna come back to us, aren't you? For a small moment have I forsaken you with great mercy, will I gather? With a little wrath did I hide my continence for a moment from you, and with everlasting kindness will I have compassion on you, said your Redeemer the Lord. For this is to me as the waters of Noah.

As I swore that the waters of Noah shall never again pass over the earth So have I sworn neither to be wroth with you, nor to rebuke you, for the mountain shall be part and the hills tattered. But my kindness shall not depart from you, neither shall the covenant of my peace totter, says the Lord who has compassion on you. You ever see a mountain depart, do you ever see hills tatter?

Well if you haven't seen that then don't worry because God will not take away his everlasting mercy from Israel. Sometimes we feel that God's face is hidden, but it's only for a small moment there'll be God will gather us for all eternity. Isn't that amazing? Just stop for a second and think about this. We're told to believe that, oh yes, Isaiah fifty two is speaking about Israel in the singular who is oppressed and God is going to save them at the end of day.

God is going to give us outstretched arms, he's going to save them at the end of days in the eyes of nations of the world. No problem.

Let's go to Isaiah fifty four. Isaiah fifty four is speaking about Israel in the singular. Oh yes, we all agree that Israel has suffered as a barren woman, but God is not going to forsake them forever, and God is going to come back to them in the singular and God is going to bring salvation to the Jews, but I'm supposed to believe that Isaiah fifty three is speaking about Jesus.

You see how important it is to know your Bible, to know your scripture? You see how absurd it is becoming? Section number six. And it came up Like a sapling before it, and like a root from dry ground, he had neither form nor calmness, and we saw him that he had no appearance that we should have desired him. What is a sapling? Does anyone know? A sapling is a small tree, and not just small but a young tree. A young plant is a sapling.

What would happen if you came into my house and I'll tell you you'll find it there, my house is like a a burial ground for plants. It's like you know it's like you know you wanna see a sapling in Try Ground, come come over sometime. It's like a funeral home for fauna. When we see a young plant That's tender, and we see that it's sitting in the ground and the ground is cracked because it's so parched. What do we think about that plant? What's gonna happen to it?

It's gonna die'cause a young plant is tender. It's extremely fragile. It's not robust yet. It can't deal with these incredible changes in the moisture. When we see a young plant in dry ground, it looks like it's gonna die. That's what Israel was throughout its history. You know. We think about the Jews, we're very small number. Actually the Jews have almost never been as large in number as we are right now. Probably around twelve or thirteen million.

The only time we were more numerous than we are today is immediately before the Holocaust. We were about seventeen or eighteen million. Well, by the time the Holocaust was over, we were down to twelve million. And of course because we have one point nine children really haven't done too much with those numbers. Really hasn't changed much over the years. For the majority of her history, we weren't twelve million, we weren't eighteen million.

We're four million, three million. There were times we were only one and a half million people. It's like if you would just look at the graph of the Jews for the thousands of years, you just see it bouncing along the bottom. At any point it looks like it can be just gone. It can just disappear right off the map. Didn't have the things that keep a nation together. We weren't racially distinct. We didn't have these things to keep a people together.

Always look like we're gonna die, but the promise of the scriptures is that i that Israel at the end of days will be strong like the lily he'll be like branches in in Lebanon, of course, and Israel will not suffer the way it is now, and Israel will not be vulnerable like it is now. If we take a look, for instance, in in Hosea chapter fourteen, verse six and eight.

And watch how it works with Israel in the singular. I will be as dew unto Israel. Now this is messianic. This is what's gonna happen at the end of days. He There we are. I will be as due unto Israel, he shall grow as the lily and cast forth its roots as Lebanon. his branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon. Section number seven. Despised and forsaken by men, a man of pains and accustomed to illness. And as one who hides his face from us,

despised and we esteemed him not. It is not difficult at all to find scripture throughout the Bible that shows us continually Israel is despised by the nations of the world. But at the end of the days the nations will come and they will prostrate themselves before us.

Those the sons of them that afflicted the Jewish people will come bowing down to the Jews. What does that mean? They're gonna say, Yeah, we love you, we're gonna do everything. No. They're gonna wanna be a part of it. They're gonna say, Come take us with you for we have heard that God is with you. It's not gonna make them into slaves, that's not gonna happen at all. By the way, do you know of any verse anywhere in the Jewish scriptures which it clearly says of the Messiah is to suffer anywhere?

There is not one. We can find throughout the Jewish scriptures Israel suffering in the singular. We won't find one clear example where it with the Messiah is to suffer. Why do you think that is? But again, we're really most interested in the chapters that surround it. Now we're going to go to the chapter that was brought up a moment ago. Isaiah forty nine. I want to introduce that chapter to you. It's magnificent. Isaiah forty nine is a conversation.

It's a conversation between two characters. One character is God and the other character is the servant of God, the righteous Israel. And God is speaking to righteous Israel. And it identifies it. Of course, if we look in Isaiah forty nine, verse three, it identifies who that servant is. Thou art my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified. This Israel, the righteous servant, is to bring back deaf and the blind, as described in Isaiah forty three, verse seven and eight.

You know what I do sometimes with Christians? I I'm not trying to trick anyone. I I want someone to understand what what problems you have when you read a verse out of context. I sometimes say, Let's read Isaiah forty nine, verse seven. Tell me who do you think it's talking about? For so said the Lord the Redeemer of Israel, his holy one, about him who is despised of men. about him whom the nation of words the exact same language as Isaiah fifty three.

By the way, what we will see in this sermon song that actually it's a parallel chapter of Isaiah fifty three, but it's less ambiguous. It's clear, it's gonna be more clear than Isaiah fifty three who this is talking about. And you're gonna see how Isaiah, as he did in forty three ten, where he moves from the singular to the plural, he's gonna constantly be doing this throughout the chapter. About him who the nation abhors about a slave of rulers.

Kings shall see and rise, princes, and they shall prostrate themselves for the sake of the Lord who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel. And he chose you. Have any questions now who Isaiah 49 is speaking about? It tells us the servant in forty nine verse three is Israel. You still not sure? Let's look at verse eight. It continues.

So said the Lord, in a time of favor I answered you, and on a day of salvation I helped you, and I will watch you and I will make you for a people of a covenant. Does anyone still have questions? For a people of a covenant to establish a land to cause to inherit the desolate heritages. Sing, O heavens, and rejoice, O earth, and mountains burst out into songs.

For the Lord has consoled his people, and he shall have mercy on his afflicted. Ladies and gentlemen, these are exactly the same words as Isaiah 53. The afflicted and forgotten and forsaken. Now what happened? The servant turks back to God. And he says, I don't understand. Does he do it in the singular? Kind of. You know how the servant is referred to now? Zion. But Zion said, I mean Zion turns back and goes, What do you mean by this?

What do you mean by these promises? The Lord has forsaken me, and the Lord has forgotten me. We seem so abandoned sometimes by God. We feel that way. We feel that God has turned his face away from us. Then the Almighty God makes a promise and I will tell you that sometimes people say to me, I want to love God, I'm not sure how.

I always tell them to read these chapters of Isaiah. The most one of the most beautiful verses in the Bible comes here. Zion says, You forgot me. I I don't feel loved by you. Sometimes we say that to our parents. God responds with an answer that he uses the moving portrait of a woman nursing her infant. Could you imagine? a portrait that has a greater statement of love and bonding than that picture of a mother nursing her newborn baby?

And God asks the question to Zion. He says, Zion, let me ask you a question. With that woman who's nursing her baby, would she ever abandon the baby of her womb, the child that she's suckling? God says something unbelievable. Says maybe. Sometimes it happens. A parent sometimes can abandon the child, but I will never forget you. Oh, what a promise.

Let's take a look at it inside. Shall a woman forget her suckling child from having mercy on the child of her womb? These two shall forget, but I will not forget you. In your own lives I hope you'll realize that sometimes we feel alone. Cry outshem, say, I feel I I don't feel you're here. Hashem will come into your life. It's a promise.

And God's love for us is even greater than our parents. Greatest love because it's completely altruistic. God has no need, so therefore his love must be eternal. Not only does it speak about the servant Israel before Isaiah fifty three in the singular and then in the plural and back in the singular and back in the plural and despised, rejected, forgotten of God.

Let's go to right after Isaiah 53. By the time I'm finished with you, we will have completed Isaiah 54. Let's take a look at Isaiah 54. Let's go to the verses we haven't looked at yet. Fear nothing. For you shall not be ashamed and not embarrassed. For you shall not be put to shame, for the shame of your youth you shall forget, and for the humiliation of your widowhood you shall no longer be remembered.

For your maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is his name, and your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, shall be called the God of all the earth. For like a wife who is forsaken and afflicted, in spirit has Lord called you, and a wife of one's youth who was rejected, says your God. For a small moment I have I forsaken you, and with great mercy will I gather you. Look how God in verse eleven addresses this this woman, Israel. Look how he talks to her. What is her surname now?

Oh thou afflicted. You got me? Oh thou afflicted. Who is not consoled, behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours, and lay thy foundations with sapphires. With righteousness shall you be established, for you will be far from oppression. For you will not fear and from ruin for it will not come near you. Now watch carefully. You remember how we talked about how Isaiah through these songs m talks about Israel in the singular and in the plural?

Hold on to your chair. This is Isaiah 54, the very last verse, verse 17. No weapon that is formed against you will prosper, and any tongue that rises against you in judgment you shall not condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is from me, says the Lord. Isn't that amazing? You see what we're doing here? All we're doing is we're taking the fifty-third chapter and we're saying, okay, let's look at the verses that are before it.

Let's look at the verses that are after it and what do we find? Israel, the same, afflicted, despised, forsaken. Fifty two, fifty twenty nine. It's identified more clearly there.

fifty four, afflicted. Oh thou afflicted, despised, forsaken. I won't forget you. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord. I mean I don't know, if you're not moved by this boy, nothing's gonna move you. This is you know, forget it, you know, just go to Jamaica and Isaiah sixty, verse fourteen and fifty, The sons of them that afflicted you shall come bending unto you, and all they that despise you shall bow themselves down at the soles of your feet.

And they shall call you the city of the Lord Zion. Of the Holy One of Israel. Whereas you have been forsaken and despised with no passer by, I will make you an everlasting pride, the joy of every generation. So many Christians would object to what I just said. They say, Hey Rabbi Singer, hold on right there.

What are you trying to tell me now? You're trying to tell me that that Israel suffered throughout its exile as a result of the sins of the nations of the world. But isn't it true that Israel suffered for her own sins? Don't tell me that Israel suffered as a result of the sins of the world. I know better. Israel suffered in its exile as a result of this of its own sins. It's very interesting that God tells us something a little different than that. Right here, just something so amazing.

As a matter of fact, right in the beginning of Isaiah forty, right in the beginning of forty has the beginning Nach Muami, a verse that has launched more singles weekends than any other Nachmu, Nach, comfort ye, comfort ye my people, Isaiah forty verse one. Says the Lord. The end of days Israel can be comforted. Everything is gonna be okay.

God is going to save Israel. If I ask a question of the Christian, I say, Christian, tell me. At the end of days Israel's going to be saved? I say yes, they will. Tell me by what means? How will they be saved? What will the Christian say? Through what? Through the blood of Jesus.

If I ask a Jew, tell me something, Israel is going to be saved at the end of days, at the end of its exile. As a result of what? What am I going to be told? Because she has taken from the Lord, she has paid for iniquity twice. She has received far more than she ever deserved, and God is very angry with the nations.

For they had done much more harm to the nation of Israel than they ever deserved. Israel got twice what she deserved, double for her iniquity, and that's why her iniquity has been set aside. Take a look at me at the very Isaiah forty verse two. We're just skipping for a moment. Speak to the heart of Jerusalem and call to her, for she has become full from her host, for her iniquity has been appeased. Appeased why? The blood of Jesus now!

For she has taken from the hand of the Lord double full of sins. Why doesn't it say here? Because of the blood of Jesus on Calvary. It's not only what it says, it's what it doesn't say. Indeed the prophet said over and over that Israel was punished for nothing by the nations. She was sold for nothing, without cause. They have no business. One and a half million children. What reason could there be for that? Without cause

She was sold. And the church didn't like that at all. What do you mean? What are you talking about, Rowie Singer? Let's take it Isaiah fifty two. Isaiah fifty two. This is the very same chapter. We're not even in chapter four. This is the same chapter with the beginning of that chapter. Take a look with me. Let's go back to where we were before.

For so said the Lord God, my people first went down to Egypt to sojourn there, but Assyria oppressed them without cause. And now what have I here, says the Lord, that my people have been taken for nothing? His rulers both says the Lord, and constantly all day my name is blasphemed. Do you think the NIV likes that? Oh no!

You can't have Israel, Isaiah 52, said that Syria sold them for nothing. You know what the NIV does? It takes it out. It doesn't belong there. So in the NIV it reads, Lately Assyria oppressed them. But there's a word missing N I V, and I know why you took out that word. You don't like it. Because it says V Ashurb FS Asakos that Ashurb Which is a picture of the enemies of the world against Israel and Egypt. B'Fes. What is BFS? For nothing.

The NIV wouldn't dare leave that word in there, and it suddenly ripped it out of the verse. How dare you touch the word of God? How do you remove a word from the scriptures? And if you are, what does that tell me about your faith? I'm going to leave skid marks when I see things like that.

How do you take that out? And if you are taking it out, why? One of the things we always want to look at is when New Testament writers, when when Christian translators alter our texts, we don't want to just say they were they were having too many beers that night. They were.

It was a great thought that went into these alterations of our holy texts. How do you change the word of God? How do you play with it? And Isaiah 62, and the Gentiles shall see your righteousness and all kings your glory, and it should be called the new name which is the mouth of God.

And you shall be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a kingly crown on the land of your God no longer shall forsaken be said of you, and desolate shall no longer be said of your land, and you shall be called my desire is in her. and your land inhabited, for the Lord desires you and your land shall be inhabited. And it ends off by saying that we should be called Sought, a city not forsaken. Let's go to Section eight. Two verses.

Indeed he bore our illnesses and our pains. He carried them. Yet we accounted him as plate smitten by God in a press. But he was pained because of our transgressions, crushed because of our iniquities. The chastisement of our welfare was upon him, and with his wounds we were healed. We were healed. The chastisement of our welfare was upon him, and with his wounds we were healed. Why do I keep repeating that?

Because the Christian Bibles, almost all of them change it. You see there's a problem. Christians believe that Jesus' salvation, that Jesus' blood on the cross is continuously healing. forgiving. It's not something that happened in the past as a part of history. It's an ongoing atonement for the world. I don't have it here in this book for you, but if you go into a King James, you go into an NIV, it translates to Vahavrosai Nirpalanu As with his wounds we are healed. It changes it.

from the past tense, meaning it's an event that happened in the past but it it's not happening anymore to it's an ongoing event. First John one seven. You wanna see something interesting? Whenever you want to sometimes get a more honest Christian translation, Christians do have what they call interlinear Bible.

And interlinear Bibles are generally more honest and more accurate than the Bibles that they're translating. What is an interlinear Bible? Say you have a Hebrew interlinear Bible, you can also have a Greek interlinear Bible. The Hebrew one is w we're interested in tonight. If you had a Hebrew interlinear bible, so what you would have is you'd have the Hebrew word

And you have the English right below it. It's a word for word translation and what you'll find is that these Christians usually use by scholars or people who want to be scholars, who want to know more about the Bible. Those of course who don't have a working knowledge of of the language they're studying. That's what an interlinear bible is. The NIV interlinear bible, which is one of the

It's done by Kohlenberg, one of the most well known interlinear Bibles. What's always cute is that you could always see how they change it. Now I want to show you what you're looking at over here. This is done by Christians, this is not done by Lababichidim, and I think that's important to point out. The sidebar of the page is the NIV, the actual New International Version translation. What you see in the middle of the page there is actually this Christian interlinear translation.

Let's look at the NIV for just one moment. You see it there, verse five, on the upper right hand side, right below page one hundred nine. See there, verse five, it begins with. But he was pierced for our transgressions. That's the NIV, right? The end of that verse says, And by his wounds we are healed. Let's go now to the actual interlinear part. You see it there? Uvachavraso Nirpalanu, it's three lines down. And by the wound of him he was healed.

You see the difference? The interlinear is far more honest, and therefore it tells us it's really in the past. It's an event of history. In the past, Israel or in the past the servant indeed suffered as a result. of the iniquities of the nation. The nations are the ones who should have deserved what they had done.

And indeed Israel have absorbed it. They were the ones who carried it. You know what the promise of God is? The Messianic promises at the end of days, Israel will no longer bear the iniquities of the world. We will no longer bear their shame. What's gonna happen at the end of days is that indeed the nations they will bear their own shame. We will no longer bear the shame of the nations. That's the promise.

You find that throughout Scripture. One of the most important places, of course, is Ezekiel 36. Therefore prophecy 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 my anger I have spoken, because the shame of the nations you have borne. Therefore, thus says the my Lord God, I have lifted my hand in an oath.

Surely the nations which surround you they will bear their shame. 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, for behold, I am for you and I shall turn to you. Then You shall be tilled and sown. And I shall no longer cause the ridicule of the 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. By the way, this notion that Israel carries this yoke of the world and they have to bear with the yoke. Jeremiah talks about it. God says that he will break the yoke off your neck. And of course Zachariah in chapter one verse fifteen, the very last verse of this section, says there that indeed I'm very angry with the nations. Why? Because they're at ease, and I was wroth a little, but they helped to do harm. They did far more than Israel ever deserved.

What does this tell you? Know your Bible. You wanna fall in love with God? You really do? You know Isaiah is so delicious. It's not just beautiful. I mean it happens to be if you go to college and you study biblical literature, I mean Isaiah is it. I mean it's just written uh you could just cry and it's like honey, you know.

Really? You want to love Hashem, you want to know about your creator. You know how much he loves you. Read Isaiah. Read Isaiah especially the the chapters from forty through sixty six. That ends tonight's lecture. Thank you. I um This concludes this Torah teaching. We hope that you have enjoyed it as much as we have enjoyed bringing it to you.

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