Brought As A Lamb To The Slaughter

Minister:
Date: PM
Text: Isaiah 53:7
Psalters: 265, 247, 300, 34
  1. The suffering.
    1. Jesus’ suffering is described as “oppressed” and “afflicted.”
      1. The focus is on His suffering at the hands of men, but He saw it as coming from God.
      2. As sheep are driven down an aisle to the slaughtering pen, so Jesus was driven, being humiliated.
    2. The cause for this suffering: Jehovah “laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (6b).
      1. God, as it were, makes our iniquity attach His righteous Servant in vicious assault.
      2. A straying sheep exposes itself to death, but God put His Son in the way to bear the death instead.
  2. Our text emphasizes Jesus silence – He deliberately did not open His mouth.
    1. Jesus did not speak when there was every reason to expect Him to do so.
      1. First, silence is unusual for one created to speak, and especially for Him Who is the “Word.”
      2. Second, Jesus did not verbally resist, protest, complain, contradict, or try to escape.
      3. It is touching and pathetic to watch a sheep to go innocently, passively and silently to its death.
    2. His silence shouts of His submitting Himself willingly and patiently.
      1. Jesus’ silence speaks of His awareness of sin and guilt (ours on Him before God).
      2. Consciously standing in our place Jesus admitted the rightness of the oppression and affliction.
      3. Further, Jesus knew that a willing sacrifice and willing suffering were required of Him.
      4. So Jesus’ silence was the silence of loving obedience to the will of His heaven Father.
  3. The fruit of Jesus’ sheeplike silence.
    1. His silence does condemn those who sinfully condemned Him, revealing the extent of their hatred.
    2. His silent and obedient going to the cross assures us that He did satisfy God’s justice for us.
      1. The iniquity laid on Him is gone and never will be laid on us.
      2. Believe as the Ethiopian eunuch did, and be saved.
    3. His silence teaches us to look beyond our persecutors to Him Who controls all things for our good.