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This is the fourth and final servant song. Note that as chs. 40-55 have developed, the intensity of the servant’s ministry of redemptive suffering has increased.
It should be obvious that in this passage the identity of the servant is unclear. On the one hand, much of the description would apply to the exilic community, which has been disfigured and disgraced and reckoned as dead (vv.8-9) but which is now exalted and restored. This exiled community had in some measure the role of redemptive suffering. Yet the opening verses of this section (40:1ff.), and indeed the majority of the book of Isaiah, suggest that the people’s suffering was deserved. It was due to their own iniquities, not someone else’s.
On the other hand, the singular pronouns must be reckoned with. They allude to a particular individual whose identity is shrouded in ambiguity. Was it the prophet himself, another contemporary, or an idealized individual in the future whose reality was to be fulfilled by Jesus of Nazareth?
The “arm of the Lord” (53:1) is a phrase from 51:9 and 52:10. In both instances they implied an act of salvation. The allusion here is intentional. The servant’s suffering is an act of salvation.
The message (v.1) centers first on the servant’s appearance. He was so disfigured that people would turn away from him. His physical suffering led to the social suffering of being an outcast. Like Job’s “friends,” the chorus of speakers reasoned that the suffering was the deserved punishment inflicted by God. But in v.5 they realize that the servant was taking their iniquities on himself. Their peace and healing was because of his suffering.
The mention of straying sheep in v.6 leads to the notion of a sacrificial lamb in v.7. The servant dies (vv.8-9). Vv.10-12 shift the tone and tell of the servant’s exaltation.
Regardless of the numerous ambiguities, the point of the poem is eloquently clear: The community of God experiences healing and forgiveness because God has transferred their deserved punishment onto a sinless servant.