Isaiah 53: Isaiah’s Lamb

The New Testament interprets verse 7 – “led like a lamb to the slaughter” as speaking of Jesus who was crucified. The New Testament makes references to the, ‘lamb’ in other places too:

• When the man from Ethiopia was reading this chapter as he rode home in his chariot, he was puzzled as to whom this “lamb” might be. He asked Philip the evangelist to explain it to him, and Philip “preached Jesus to him”. (Acts 8:26-39).
• John the Baptizer heralded Jesus as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29).
• In the vision John had of Heaven, he saw “a Lamb standing as if slain”and this Lamb was honoured and worshipped as God (Revelation 5:6,12-14).

In contrast to the New Testament, the Hebrew Bible views these verses in chapter 53 differently:

He was a king who did not look like a king.

Therefore true believers in him are few (Isaiah 53:1-2).

He was taken from life “even though he had committed no violence, nor was any deceit found in his mouth” (Isaiah 53:9).

Verse 10 speaks of God being “pleased to crush him” and says that “the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in his hand”. (Isaiah 53:10-12)