Advent Reading for December 5, 2023 | “An Old Testament Portrait of Christ” from Isaiah 53:1-6

¹ Who has believed what he has heard from us?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
² For He grew up before Him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground;
He had no form or majesty that we should look at Him,
and no beauty that we should desire Him.
³ He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.

⁴ Surely He has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed Him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
⁵ But He was pierced for our transgressions;
He was crushed for our iniquities;
upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with His wounds we are healed.
⁶ All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned – every one – to His own way;
and the Lord has laid on Him
the iniquity of us all.

Isaiah 53:1-6

“An Old Testament Portrait of Christ”
by Robert Morman

I remember going to various churches when I was in my teens, and it was always there. That one framed picture of Jesus. You know the one. I have jokingly called it the Swedish-Pageant-Sash Jesus. He is there with blue eyes and flowing hair. His robes are white, and he wears either a red or blue sash that goes from his shoulder across his chest and around his side. He looks like he is either in a pageant or in a commercial for some hair product. He looks amazing – almost heavenly. There is usually one other picture in most churches – Jesus on the cross. It is a sanitized picture of the crucifixion. It is usually Jesus nailed to the cross looking to Heaven. For the most part, he looks normal and in good physical condition, but when we read the words of Isaiah 53, we see a completely different Jesus described.

           Verse 2 says, “He [Jesus] had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.” Appearance wise, there was nothing that stood out about Jesus. In His time, He would look exactly like most normal working class or even poor people in that area of the world. He wouldn’t have stood out in the marketplace. Isaiah 53 doesn’t stop there with Jesus. This is a prophecy about what would occur to the Messiah. He is called “a man of sorrows” and one “acquainted with grief”, so well acquainted with grief that it is recorded that He sweat drops of blood in the garden because of what He knew was going to occur to Him. He carried our sins. Verse 4 says it best, “he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.” Every sin was on Him. A sinless Savior feeling the weight of an eternity of sin. That is tremendous grief and sorrow. 

          Verse 5 foretells what would occur to him. “He was pierced for our transgressions.” From the flogging to the crown of thorns, to the nails, to the spear in his side, every piercing was caused by us. “He was crushed for our iniquities.” Jesus most likely would have fallen as he carried the crossbeam he would soon be nailed to. This piece of the device of torment and death would have fallen on him. Depending on the source, the beam would have weighed 75-125 lbs. Imagine falling multiple times with that weight on you, then getting up and doing it again. All of this combined with the beating Jesus would have received and his lack of sleep, food, and water would have made Him look almost inhuman in appearance. But why? Why would this occur? Verse 6,” The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Christ was sent to die because of what we have done. Every sin, big and small, was laid on Him by the Father. Jesus was mangled and marred for us at the will of the Father. This should drive us to adore Jesus more and more.

To close, let’s read the lyrics of the hymn “O Sacred Head, Sore Wounded”[i]:

“In thy most bitter passion
My heart to share doth cry.
With thee for my salvation
Upon the cross to die.
Ah, keep my heart thus moved
To stand thy cross beneath,
To mourn thee, well-beloved,
Yet thank thee for thy death.”

Reflection Questions:

1. How do vv. 2-6 describe Jesus different than the pictures you are used to seeing of Him?
2. How does reading through these verses in Isaiah 53 help us understand why Jesus came to earth and why He died for our sins on the cross?

"Before the Throne of God Above" from Revelation 4 (The KING is Coming) – Refresh & Restore | A JustKeithHarris.com Podcast

📖 Revelation 4:1–11In this episode of The King is Coming, Keith Harris and Jamie Harrison move beyond Jesus’s letters to the churches and into the next part of John’s vision. In Revelation 4, John is invited through an open door into heaven—and what he sees is the throne room of God.At the center of everything is a throne, and seated on it is the Lord in all His glory. From this point forward in Revelation, the throne becomes the focal point of the entire book.John describes the scene the best way he can: the brilliance of precious stones, a rainbow surrounding the throne, flashes of lightning and thunder, and a crystal-like sea before it. Surrounding the throne are twenty-four elders and four living creatures who never cease to worship the Lord.Together, Keith and Jamie discuss:✔️ Why Revelation 4 marks a shift from the letters to the churches to John’s heavenly vision✔️ What the throne room reveals about God’s authority and security over all things✔️ Why John uses comparisons (“like” and “as”) to describe the glory he sees✔️ The mystery of the twenty-four elders and what we can—and cannot—know✔️ The constant worship of the living creatures crying “Holy, holy, holy”✔️ Why heaven’s worship centers on God simply because He is worthyIn the throne room, everything points to one truth: God alone is worthy of worship.“Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.” (Revelation 4:11)🔗 If you would like to see a written version of this podcast, complete with footnotes and cross-references, you can find it here.

1. "Before the Throne of God Above" from Revelation 4 (The KING is Coming) 34:36
2. " Lukewarm Yet Not Without Hope: Jesus’s Letter to the Church at Laodicea" (The KING is Coming) 35:45
3. "Kept Through the Trial: Jesus's Letter to the Church at Philadelphia" (The KING is Coming) 35:40
4. Christ Has Come: The Promised King & His Gift of Love" (Advent 2025) 22:22
5. Christ Has Come: The Promised King & His Gift of Peace (Advent 2025) 26:00

[i]            F. L. Cross and Elizabeth A. Livingstone, eds., The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 670.