We now move to the second half of our theme text, and to the fact that the suffering servant of Israel will “startle many nations” (Isaiah 52:15b). When this startling of the nations is considered, one cannot help but think about the statement in the book of Acts, in reference to the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus the Christ by Paul and Silas, about the “people who have stirred up trouble throughout the world” (17:6a). That stirring up of trouble is often rendered as “turning the world upside down.” Rome itself was startled by this world-transforming message. A great preacher once made the point that it was the uniqueness of the claims of those labeled as “Christians,” which was that Jesus---the One Who had been crucified at their hands---was the resurrected and presently living Lord of all things, that caused Rome, which was a culture and society open to any and all gods as long as they were content to stand alongside the divine Caesar, to persecute those who believed in Jesus and confessed Him as King, to “gird herself to fight Him (Jesus) to the death.”
Isaiah goes on to write that “Kings will be shocked by his exaltation” (52:15c). This naturally follows from his statement that the servant “will succeed! He will be elevated, lifted high, and greatly exalted” (52:13). When we consider Jesus’ exaltation, we think of Paul’s statement in Romans that Jesus “was appointed the Son-of-God-in-power… by the Resurrection from the dead” (1:4) As if it was not startling and shocking enough that a man was claimed to have been raised from the dead, with lives completely transformed and re-oriented around what were referred to as “many convincing proofs,” as Jesus was recorded to have “presented Himself alive” (Acts 1:3), but as it relates to the shock of kings, the declaration of Jesus as “the Son-of-God-in-power,” in the face of the Caesar’s claim to be the Son of God, was earth-shattering. With this talk of kings being shocked at the servant’s exaltation, Isaiah might very well be alluding to a popular Psalm, in which the Lord “strikes down kings in the day He unleashes His anger” (Psalm 110:5b).
Jesus’ exaltation as King of kings could very easily be understood as a striking down of kings. This would not necessarily mean that they were struck down to death, but that they were struck down from their self-determined loftiness and divine self-understanding. Not only would such self-determinations have been true of the Caesar in the days of Jesus, but it would have been true in Isaiah’s day as well, as powerful kings afforded themselves god-like status, expecting and receiving worship from those that they ruled. In consideration of the unleashing of the Lord’s anger, as spoken of in the previously quoted Psalm, we can look into the effect of Jesus’ death and Resurrection, and determine that the enemy against whom the Lord’s anger was truly released, especially when viewed in the light of the great Resurrection passage of the fifteenth chapter of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, was death. Because death was the weapon of kings and rulers, and because they held the power of death over the heads of their subjects, would they not be summarily stunned (shocked) at the defeat of death that was achieved at the exaltation of the servant that seemed to have been defeated by death itself?
Continuing on, Isaiah writes that the shock of these kings will come about because “they will witness something unannounced to them, and they will understand something they had not heard about” (52:15d). How will they witness something unannounced and understand something that they had not heard? This will occur through the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus. The shock will come when they hear that they are now subservient to One that had been crucified. The fact of their subjection to this King, Jesus (the servant), was not something that had been announced to them beforehand. Nevertheless, the fact was inescapable. In addition to that, no one had ever heard of one rising physically from the dead in the way that Jesus was said to have risen from the dead. As a matter of fact, the very idea was ludicrous, as men did not come back from the dead---not in their physical bodies. Ghosts and spirits? Yes, this was understood and even expected. A man coming back from the grave and being exalted as the Lord of all people, nations, and things---who would ever have spoken of such a thing? It is for precisely this reason that Isaiah continues putting pen to paper and writes “Who would have believed what we just heard?” (53:1a)
Isaiah knew that what he was writing was completely incredulous. How could this servant, disfigured so that he no longer looked like a man, and marred so that he no longer looked human, startle nations, shock kings, and be lifted high, elevated, and greatly exalted? This question could not only be asked of the suffering servant of Isaiah, but of God’s servant Israel, and God’s first servant, man. The answer lies in the Resurrection and its power that is transmitted and infused into this world through the preaching of the Gospel. The servant would be resurrected. Israel would be resurrected. Man would be resurrected. The previously marred would be restored, according to the power and promise of God. We put forth the Resurrection, but is that when this would happen? Isaiah asks the same question. He writes, “When was the Lord’s power revealed through Him?” (53:1b) We have already heard the answer, but we return to it now, declaring again that God’s power to do all that He planned to do, for His covenant people throughout all of time, was made manifest when Jesus “was appointed the Son-of-God-in-power according to the Holy Spirit by the Resurrection from the dead,” which made Him “Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 1:4).
As we exalt our Lord Jesus, elevate Him, and lift Him high through our proclamation of His Lordship (in word and in deed), nations are still startled and kings are still shocked. As we do so, the Lord’s power is continually revealed through us, and our powerful and faithful God continues to re-shape, re-make, re-new, and re-store us, reversing the marring of our fall, and making us into those that truly bear His image.
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