Written by Paul J Bucknell on March, 22, 2022

The Godly Leader Accepts God’s Design for His Life: Isaiah 52:13-15

The Godly Leader Accepts God’s Design for His Life

Isaiah 52:13-15

“¹³ Behold, my Servant will act wisely; He will rise up, be lifted up, he will be exalted on high. 14 Just as many were astonished at you,– so his appearance was disfigured so to lose resemblance with man, so his form was marred beyond recognition as a man. 15 Just so he will sprinkle many nations; and kings will shut their mouths because of him; for that which they were not told, they will see; and that which they have not heard, they will understand” (Isaiah 52:13-15).

Isaiah 52:13-15 describes God’s overall process of training His people for difficult times. The U-pattern, later explained, will illustrate this overview. This grand overview of our spiritual lives and ministries prevents being locked into a sinful, burdensome mindset. It widens our faith to envision God’s purposes for our lives, enabling us to live above life’s difficulties.

A. The Overview of Christ’s Ministry (Isaiah 52:13-15)

Confusion and despair often arise in ministry because we misunderstand God’s work in our lives. The Lord sets forth commonly repeated patterns of life and ministry experiences by offering many examples in the Scriptures. This list includes great men like Joseph, Job, Daniel, Noah (Ez 14:20), and our Lord Jesus. If we were more attentive to this whole cycle, we would not so often fall into the ‘pot holes’ of ministry. Instead, we would recognize these as special training times that give us opportunities to display our constant love for God by making the right decisions in difficult times.

Let me give you an example of how those in ministry can be confused. When young, motivated, and dedicated, many young people give up their ordinary course of life because of the great things that the Lord has done for them. They are burdened for the Lord’s work and position their lives to serve Him full-time. But what happens along the way?

After working hard to start a church or develop a ministry, they face one or more discouraging problems. Perhaps, because they are tenacious, they plug on. Their dedication convinces them to overcome the difficulties, but they often become discouraged, and their faith wavers. They wonder, “Why is the Lord not giving success? Has He not called me?”

Now, of course, if we are being lazy or immoral, we should know the answer to this question. We should repent from such behavior, but the silent struggles of the faithful go unseen. They wonder deep in their hearts if they rightly understood God and His Word. They question whether they are doing God’s will. They search long and hard to find out if they are missing some extraordinary truth or spiritual experience. This spiritual dilemma is not just our problem!

The overview of God’s dealings with his people in Isaiah 52:13-15 provides a framework to help us interpret and answer our inner struggles. This is how we further imitate Christ Jesus, the Pioneer of our faith (Heb 12:1-2). This understanding helps guard us against temptation and to positively embrace the life lessons God provides. Let’s look carefully at the life of Jesus Christ to understand this overview. Isaiah outlines this pattern in the first of five stanzas of the fourth Servant Song, Isaiah 52:13-15, and only later, in Isaiah 53, fully develops the design of success.

1. The Success of the Servant (Isaiah 52:13)

“Behold, my Servant will act wisely; He will rise up, be lifted up, he will be exalted on high” (Isa 52:13 NASB).

The first word, “Behold” draws attention to “My Servant.” Isaiah commonly uses “behold” to bring attention to a surprising idea (Isaiah 7:14; 42:1; 43:19). The unified passage should have started with verse 12, so we need not be concerned about artificial chapter divisions.

Isaiah earlier reveals the success of His people, Zion (Is 52:1-12) is due to the success of His Servant. “The LORD has bared His holy arm in the sight of all the nations, that all the ends of the earth may see the salvation of our God” (Is 52:10).

He details the basis for her success in chapter 53, the Fourth Servant Song. The church’s success depends on her relationship to Yahweh’s servant. “Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Phil 1:6).

Isaiah 52:13 points to the success of “My Servant” (also Is 53:11). Those God has called into ministry can consider themselves God’s servants (see Rom 1:1; 1 Cor 3:5, etc.). When changing our career path and devotion into such service, we can quickly identify with the hope of success spoken of here—to our dreams, hopes, and joys.

He plants within us a seed of hope for how He might work through our lives, inspiring us to leave our promising studies or occupations to take on the more rugged, often less-paying, and thankless job. We further devote ourselves as His servants. I left my fully-paid engineering studies to seek ministry training. What remarkable work did God do in my life or others to envision the much more significant work obtained by serving Him? Hope plays an integral part in this change of vision.

Success wonderfully describes the promising results that come from the dedication of our lives to our Lord. This is what happened with the Servant. Isaiah 52:13 expresses this success. Isaiah uses three active synonymous verbs to describe the three steps of exaltation for His Servant: rise up, lifted up, and exalted on high: “He will be raised and lifted and highly exalted” (NIV). Although a simple look at these three verbs will see them merely as three synonyms, emphasizing the surety of the Servant’s exalted life. A better interpretation traces His three upward successive stages of exaltation from the depths.

The reason for successive stages derives from the upwards steps of the Lord Jesus after he had first descended, as highlighted in the New Testament (Philippians 2:7-9; Acts 2:33; 5:31). Unfortunately, the Septuagint and Old Latin translations strip away this emphasis by only translating two of the three Hebrew verbs.

The word “to act wisely” powerfully combines the two ideas of wise action and success (Jeremiah 23:5). As God’s available Servant, he chose to do His Father’s will like a faithful son. Isaiah 53 prefers “My Servant” over directly using the term Christ (Messiah), but the Messianic sense is definitely involved as confirmed in the New Testament. Philip quotes Isaiah 53:7-8 to answer the Ethiopian eunuch’s question.

“³⁴ The eunuch answered Philip and said, “Please tell me, of whom does the prophet say this? Of himself or of someone else?” ³⁵ Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture he preached Jesus to him” (Act 8:34-35).

In the end, God greatly rewarded “My Servant.”

We like to hear of such steps to honor and dream of how this one verse summarizes our whole lives. God begets this great hope at the beginning when launching us into His ministry. What good is sacrifice and ministry if there are no success? The problem is that ministry hardly ever works itself out in a straightforward way. There are several reasons for this, but the chief reason is the training and proving of our hearts. If success came as quickly as suggested in verse 13, pride and self-confidence would fill us. The Lord cannot yet trust His full anointing upon our lives because we have not yet been proven.

In many cases, we mistakenly attach our value to fulfilling our goals rather than our faithful service. Let me explain. One of the reasons we so desperately look for success is that success has become our chief goal in life. True, the goal entices us to take steps forward. Like in Isaiah 52:13 the idealistic hope allures His servants forward but does not accurately portray the steps to reach the goal, even in His Servant’s case. Isaiah does not cover up His difficult steps to success; we will aptly describe them as we proceed. However, he uses these three powerful verbs to instill that bright, long-lasting hope to keep the goal and reward before His servants.

True success: “Behold, my Servant will act wisely; He will rise up, be lifted up, he will be exalted on high” (Isa 52:13 NASB).

Let us think a little more about the word “act wisely.”

As said above, the word means both wise and successful. People today are willing to separate these two meanings. They are pretty happy to pursue a successful life and consider success apart from wisdom. However, the beginning of foolishness, if not forsaken, always ends in compromise and horrible endings. Satan strategizes to derail God’s servants, offering shortcuts (i.e., temptations). Jesus, thankfully, refused to listen to Satan’s easier path, which offered instant success—for Him to rule the world instead of setting His heart on His Father’s will (Matthew 4:8-10). Jesus, however, set His mind on the cross and refused to bypass the tragic hill named Golgotha. If His goal were a mere title or known success, He would have succumbed to the temptation, but His overall goal was to make Himself available to the Father; He acted wisely.

If our goal is success, we will face derailment.

However, if we make obedience our goal, we will find rich success from wise decisions.

When His Father asked His Son to die on the cross, we know it caused tormented grief. Jesus anguished in prayer at Gethsemane. But do you remember what He said in the end? “Not my will but Thine be done.” He not only said that He was available but made Himself so, showing His earnestness to God. Hebrews 4:15 says, “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.” We, too, have these daily challenges before us and, no doubt, mindlessly plow through most of them. Some challenges, however, cause us to wrestle with obedience. God uses such trials to train us to live holy lives.

A godly leader chooses to complete God’s will rather than gain immediate success. He will find success but not be distracted from his chief goal of observing God’s will. Notice how Peter and the other disciples affirmed their commitments but failed in the end.

“Then Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away because of Me this night, for it is written, ‘I WILL STRIKE DOWN THE SHEPHERD, AND THE SHEEP OF THE FLOCK SHALL BE SCATTERED.’” But Peter answered and said to Him, “Even though all may fall away because of You, I will never fall away.” Jesus said to him, “Truly I say to you that this very night, before a cock crows, you shall deny Me three times.” Peter said to Him, “Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You.” All the disciples said the same thing too” (Matthew 26:31, 33-35).

Peter was so conscious of his thoughts of success that he couldn’t take in the warning. When it came to the real test, he fell. Why? He didn’t apply the spiritual disciplines he needed—praying as Jesus did. His self-confidence did him in; when facing the pain and thought of losing all, he denied Jesus.

Insights to Learn

“Act wisely” gives us a clue as to how to pursue life’s success; wise action is always associated with the idea of success. It’s best to observe the two parts of success: (1) Success, as seen in Isaiah 52:13, as a final goal, and (2) success, as seen in Isaiah 53, as our proving period, an ongoing series of challenges to reach that final goal.

Let’s now look at the next verse where we see an unexpected turn of events, which Isaiah expounds on in Isaiah 53.

2. The Suffering of the Servant (Isaiah 52:14)

“Just as many were astonished at you,– so his appearance was disfigured so to lose resemblance with man, so his form was marred beyond recognition as a man” (Isaiah 52:13 NASB).

Suffering rudely awakens us from our dreams. We love gazing at our upcoming successes and joy; they are easily identifiable when things are going well. Very few, though, speak about the difficulties we face in ministry. We might hear of the success of a brother, but we often will not hear about the labor and difficulty that went into it. Let’s take a look at the contrast between verses 13 and 14. People only want to listen to the good side of things (v.13), but those who are weathering difficulties certainly appreciate hearing how others, through perseverance, made it through the hard times.

While verse 13 speaks about increasing success, verse 14 takes us on a completely different path. The astonished onlookers saw the treatment of “My Servant,” the righteous one. The shock is disturbing because it’s completely unexpected, given the previous setting. Why would one be lifted up and praised (13) and then be so horribly described (14)?

The Servant was severely disfigured. “His appearance was disfigured so as to lose resemblance with man.” He didn’t even look human, leaving every onlooker in total shock. Like a magnificent resort hotel that held such beauty one moment but suddenly became a tragic sight, perhaps due to a fire or bombing. No one wants to visit the area anymore. Distortion, deterioration, death, and disdain caused people to no longer want to see or hear about the tragedy.

Do we remember how Christ suffered? He was brutally beaten. They pressed a thorn of crowns into His skull until blood ran down His face. Like an orange placed into a grating machine, they turned Jesus Christ into an unrecognizable pulp. He no longer looked like a man when He hung upon that cross. The stress on His body was so great that His heart broke.’ His legs did not need to be broken because Jesus’ body couldn’t tolerate the abuse any longer; He finally died.

Suffering can enter our lives at any point; God does not promise to warn us or ask our permission. All appeared well when Job’s situation radically changed for the worse. The shock element throws our minds off-kilter, making it hard to discern our situation. If we are not ultra-careful, we can make radically wrong decisions at this point. We will not be asked to suffer to the degree of Christ—which I believe is impossible, but sudden horrible changes can undoubtedly cause us to revaluate our circumstances.

Jesus didn’t deserve to suffer, but we do; He didn’t deserve one ounce of suffering. We are the ones who rebelled against God, yet He was the faithful and true One. To make matters much worse, His disciples abandoned their faithfulness and loyalty. This verse repeats His disfiguring to ensure that we get a good look at the one we would otherwise avoid. The contrast between verses 13 and 14 cause us to wonder why such a faithful One, whom God promised to exalt, suffered. It induces us to wonder who it is and why He suffered. Isaiah prepares our minds by increasing our curiosity.

By presenting the contrast between verses 13 and 14, the prophet brings before us the two extremes of life. We can see some who are wonderfully successful in life and others who are unsuccessful—but we need to be careful not to judge. This description is even more remarkable because the faithful and good servant, who alone deserves exaltation, singularly tastes the bitter sufferings of death.

3. The Purpose of the Servant’s Suffering (Isaiah 52:15)

“Just so he will sprinkle many nations; and kings will shut their mouths because of him; for that which they were not told, they will see; and that which they have not heard, they will understand” (Isaiah 52:15 NASB).

“So shall he startle many nations, kings shall shut their mouths because of him; for that which had not been told them shall they see, and that which they had not heard shall they perceive” (Isaiah 52:15 JPS).

Isaiah 52:13 teaches us that God plants hope in us to create vibrant, ongoing ministries. We might have given up hope because of discouragement. Still, because of God’s design to work through the difficulties we face, we should anticipate extraordinary results from persistent wise decisions. However, we must not demand when or how these blessings might come; they will come but in God’s time. God’s purpose is greater than ours; we simply sow in hope.

Even though God might be very pleased with our faithfulness, sometimes, we will suffer great difficulty in our ministries. Although this is typical, we should not compare ourselves with what He does for others or what others need to endure. Peter asked about what would happen to John. “Jesus said to him, “If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me!”” (John 21:22) God maintains His design for each of our lives.

We all face suffering of one sort or another. Suffering is lodged in this sin-infected world. But it’s here in the redemptive work of Christ, shown in verse 15, that joins verses 13 and 14 together.

There is purpose in suffering. If God was not absolutely sovereign, then He could not use suffering for His greater purposes. Suffering is not a wild card that accidentally pops up among the saints but is always carefully monitored by the absolutely wise, good, and loving God.

“In Him there is no darkness whatsoever (1 John 1:5).”

He can use the worst circumstances to accomplish His greatest purposes—as seen in sending His own Son to earth to die for sinners.

Translation Issues on Isaiah 52:15

We must slow down as we discuss Isaiah 52:15 due to varied translations. Most Bible versions have this translated right. The word preferred here in 52:15 is ‘sprinkle’ rather than ‘marvel.’

There are not many times the original Bible languages (Hebrew for Old Testament and Greek for New Testament), are needed to understand a word, but this is one of the exceptions. Good word studies can solve these problems. The Hebrew word regularly means ‘to sprinkle,’ often connected to a cleansing ceremony.

“And thus you shall do to them, for their cleansing: sprinkle purifying water on them,... and they shall be clean” (Numbers 8:7).

Although this preferred reading, “Just so he will sprinkle many nations” is not always used, it is very consistent with its meaning. Some translate this as “marveling over” rather than “sprinkling the nations” because of the quandary over its meaning. “How can something so defiled and abused bring cleansing or healing to others?”

In India, people typically eat with their hands, so it’s important to clean hands before eating. Usually, some water is poured over the right hand to wash it before eating. But how would you like it if you saw someone willing to help you take the pitcher, dip it into dirty drain water and then pour it over your hand? Would you then eat with that dirty hand? Certainly not!

This picture helps us better understand the idea of “sprinkling,” and its usage with ceremonial cleansing. The successful yet despicable One, described in 52:13-14, will cleanse the nations.

The word “Thus” of verse 15 illustrates the result of His humiliation mentioned in verse 14. The word “sprinkle” alludes to His atoning work. This idea of “sprinkling of many nations” is mirrored in 1 Peter 1:1-2, “… that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in fullest measure” (1 Peter 1:2)

We have the holy, pure, and blameless sacrifice purifying others. It seems that “My Servant” is unholy because of the horrific condition of His body, but the puzzle is resolved because we now know that Christ was wholly righteous. They brutally treated His body while bearing our sins—this will be explained in the following verses. When we assemble verses 14 and 15 together, we see how 52:14 “just as” is completed by 52:15 “so.” We see the line of thought as:

“Just as many were astonished (or shocked) at you… (14)
so he will sprinkle (or purify) the many nations. (15)”

The steps to exaltation required the Servant to first go through extreme humiliation so that He might bring true aid to the many. Christ died for the world—“the nations”—and not just for the Jews. His death brought about a supremely better good. This has not been well understood or appreciated (e.g., Judaizers during Paul’s time).

The Ethiopian eunuch, upon leaving Jerusalem, sought to understand who Isaiah 53 was referring. Philip eagerly told him that this passage describes what had just happened in Jerusalem when Jesus the Messiah died on the cross. This indeed is our ministry too. We tell others of the Servant’s wonderful work. Who would think that we would preach the horrible crucifixion of “My Servant” in the mountains of India or on the high plateaus of China? But it is happening—the nations hear the Good News! We will look more into this later.

A Worthy Goal

We need to mention one more aspect of this verse before going on. The last part of 52:15 forms Paul’s goal in life, “That which they have not heard, they will understand.” He planted churches in places where there were none. He shares this in Romans 15:21.

“And thus I aspired to preach the gospel, not where Christ was already named, that I might not build upon another man’s foundation; but as it is written, “THEY WHO HAD NO NEWS OF HIM SHALL SEE, AND THEY WHO HAVE NOT HEARD SHALL UNDERSTAND”” (Romans 15:20-21).

Paul based his apostleship on the work of Christ. Paul’s success is the fruit of Christ’s work. For this reason, Paul spoke much on his sufferings for Christ and what we will later describe as the U-pattern. “For I will show him how much he must suffer for My name’s sake” (Acts 9:16).

He considered suffering as part of his course. Notice how the apostle summarized the whole process in Romans 8:17. “If children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him” (Romans 8:17). The glory that we share with Christ is gained from our suffering with Him. The fruit of our ministries results from Christ’s work, and we, like Him, find success like our Master.

4. The Pattern of Successful Ministry (Isa 52:13-15)

Having briefly discussed the three verses (52:13-15), we are now ready to discuss the overview it provides for Isaiah 53. Draw a capital ‘U’ and put three X’s on the ‘U,’ two at the top arms and one at the lower bend. Number them from the left. Each number connects with a verse.

Click here for the U-shaped diagram.

Isaiah 52:13 is the hope of success that God instills in us. The second number, at the bottom, stands for the sufferings of Christ, the trial in 52:14. At the top right, 52:15, points to the vast blessings resulting from His Servant’s faithful service. Christ, starting in heaven, came to earth to go through this valley, and then in His resurrection found a name above all names, bringing great blessings to His people.

This ‘U’ pattern summarizes this study. First, from 52:13 God brought promise to our lives. He places a seed of hope in each of His servant’s hearts. This hope is often closely associated with a call into ministry. Some people have overly focused on a person’s dreams, but hope is somehow instilled within a ‘called’ person. It is this ‘dream’ that orients our lives so that we can take concrete steps of action. He desires our success and fits us for it. It is our race, so to speak (cf. Hebrews 12:1-2). But we now need to return to our overview and application

An Application to Temptation

The first temptation (Isa 52:13) tests our idea of success. Many fall into sin, wrongly concluding the goal is their objective when it is not. If they are successful, they become prideful over their accomplishments and gloat over how they are doing compared to others. They live for success. In these cases, significance is often confused with productivity. This group wrongly loves to discuss what they have done or will do, “For everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, but he who humbles himself shall be exalted” (Luke 18:14).

The only way to avoid such temptation is to humbly make your chief objective in life like the faithful Servant, fully available to God (John 5:19). The promises planted in our heart should guide us, create hope, passion, and extend our vision.

The second temptation (52:14), tests our hope when everything has been taken from us. Joseph and his dreams are a well-known example. All the circumstantial evidence that built up Joseph’s hope was stripped from him. How would he trust the Lord with the catastrophic events that occurred? Like Joseph, we must trust the Lord’s ability and commitment to work out His love through His sovereign hand over all earthly events. The temptation here is to wallow in self-pity, unbelief, and finally give up. We get so discouraged that we allow our hope to be taken away. Discouragement leads to depression, if not caught in time.

People tend to want full control of their circumstances, falsely concluding that this is the way to fulfill their dreams. This method eventually fails because God’s plan can only be accomplished with His help. When trials come, and we are faced with unfavorable circumstances—such as being left without a ministry or resources—we become weak and helpless. This person has not yet learned how to dream with God, and so at this critical stage, he gets discouraged thinking he will never fulfill his dream.

God’s people, including those in ministry, often become bitter and upset during these ‘depressed’ times. The bottom of the U (see illustration) can happen at any point in our lives, even during old age. The promise, however, is a means by which we can fortify our faith when everything around us makes our hope look ridiculous.

The Biblical terminology for this period is called ‘waiting upon the Lord.’ Jesus overcame doubt by setting, “His heart to go up to Jerusalem” (Luke 18:31-34). He stepped into a no-win and lose-all situation—from man’s and ministry’s viewpoints. However, He trusted Himself into His Father’s hand, leading to great success after conquering death.

The third temptation tests our self-confidence. After victory, we often dismiss or forget God’s part in securing that success. Pride makes us self-confident, leading us to start making decisions based on self-confidence rather than from our confidence in the Lord.

After the battle of Jericho, Joshua did not seek the Lord’s wisdom for the battle of Ai and lost soldier’s lives because of it. The Book of Judges also emphasizes the dangers of Israel’s self-confidence. The downward cycle repeats when they (we) forget the Lord’s grace. The solution comes from remembering God’s place in making us successful. Wealth and high positions have ruined many because of self-confidence in their abilities (e.g., Nebuchadnezzar). True success, however, is built on our confidence in Christ’s work, including His work through His Spirit. Paul’s persistent identification with Christ’s suffering and work helped him remember it was Christ’s work.

Summary of the U-Pattern

It would be nice to have our lives mapped out before it came about. We could just follow where the map leads, but this is not how the Lord guides us. Instead, we find God’s mysterious work through the humble example of the Servant Jesus Christ. The cross, serving as a signpost, reveals the curve of the dangerous road ahead.

Christ’s faithful life encourages us by His faithful example. Once we see this pattern, we do not need to doubt God’s intentions. We can put off our pursuits of this world and wholeheartedly seek the Lord and His will. Our Lord Jesus sets the pattern for our lives. We are not like John to ask, “Lord, and what about this man?” We are too busy seeking the Author and Perfecter of our faith. Our service pleases our Father and brings the greatest blessings to those around us, glorifying our Father in heaven.

When I was young, my father would take my brother and me hiking, often around the New Hampshire’s White Mountains. We would sometimes walk through the low valleys between the high neighboring mountains. Down low, we aspired to climb up out of the woods and reach a vantage point high on the mountain. But getting there, a place with a decent view, was hard! Dad would point out where we were going; it didn’t look that far. We only had to descend and cross the valley before ascending. And though, first excited about conquering that next mountain, we didn’t travel long before finding discouragement. It was hot and humid; the black flies swarmed all around us, getting in our face. We could agree on one thing. It was refreshing to reach the upward trail and climb that mountain finally. No one likes going or being down low, but sometimes, it’s the only way to reach our destination!