6. The Servant

SHARING LIFE

How have you experienced God this week?
Do you need any help from God in your life?

▶ Pray together: Thank God for experiences, ask for God‘s help.

REVIEW

What did we discuss last time?
Tell each other as honestly as possible in what areas you have had to choose between God and the snake and where you need to be forgiven.

▶ Pray together, that you may get to know new aspects of God and that your friendship with God would be strengthened and become deeper.

BIBLE STUDY

Read the text quietly
Read the text out loud
Retell the text (from memory – closed Bibles)
Contributions from the group to complement

Isaiah 52:13-53:12

¹³See, my servant will act wisely;
    he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted.
¹⁴Just as there were many who were appalled at him—
    his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being
    and his form marred beyond human likeness—
¹⁵so he will sprinkle many nations,
    and kings will shut their mouths because of him.
For what they were not told, they will see,
    and what they have not heard, they will understand

^53:1Who has believed our message
    and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
²He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
    and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
    nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
³He was despised and rejected by mankind,
    a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
    he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

⁴Surely he took up our pain
    and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
    stricken by him, and afflicted.
⁵But he was pierced for our transgressions,
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
    and by his wounds we are healed.
⁶We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
    each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.

⁷He was oppressed and afflicted,
    yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
    and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
    so he did not open his mouth.
⁸By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
    Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
    for the transgression of my people he was punished.
⁹He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
    and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
    nor was any deceit in his mouth.

¹⁰Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
    and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
    and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.
¹¹After he has suffered,
    he will see the light of life and be satisfied;
by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,
    and he will bear their iniquities.
¹²Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,
    and he will divide the spoils with the strong,
because he poured out his life unto death,
    and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
    and made intercession for the transgressors.

John 1:29-34

²⁹The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!³⁰This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’³¹I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.”

³²Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him.³³And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’³⁴I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.”

Is there anything that struck you in this text?
- What do you like about it?
- Is there anything in it that bothers you?
What does it say about God?
What does it say about people?

Specific questions

Who is the person these texts are talking about?
What has he done for us (Isaiah 53:4-5)?
Why did he do it (Isaiah 53:11)?

Applying the text

If what we‘ve read is true, how will it change:
- my image of God?
- my behavior towards people, animals, nature?
- my way of life?

CHALLENGES

Take some time to think about the fact that someone took the responsibility for your wrongs und took the punishment for them. How does that make you feel? Write your thoughts down.
Do you know someone who is in difficulty but it is their own fault? Who? And how can/will you help that person?
Where do I have an opportunity in the next week to share my experiences with God with someone and invite them to start a friendship with God?

COMMENTARY ON THE TEXT:

Isaiah 52:13-53:12

Last time we read about God announcing a new age. Today we will learn about how this is to come about (a practical plan). God will send “his servant”. That means a man who will live exactly as God wants us to. Despite committing no sin or wrong, this man will die like a criminal. For the mission of God‘s servant will be to take humankind‘s sickness, pain and sin upon himself. This will not be a pretty sight, quite the opposite.

The people around him will despise and turn away from him. They will think that he is a criminal who is being punished by God for his awful deeds. But really he will not be punished for what he himself did, but for what all humans under the influence of evil have done. This servant of God will take the responsibility for our wrong doing. He will be executed instead of us sinful people so we can have peace again; peace with God and peace with others.

John 1:29-34

John (the Baptist) was a prophet who was sent by God to prepare Israel for the coming of his servant (read Isaiah 52-53). In this passage he identifies Jesus as the Lamb of God, who takes the sins of the world upon himself. In other words, John is saying that Jesus is the long awaited Savior who will free humanity from the power of evil. To do that he will take humanity‘s sins upon himself and take the punishment for them.

6.

The Servant

General questions:

Specific questions

Applying the text