Submission is the theme of this song [Isaiah 53]. Jesus would succeed as the servant by living in total surrender to God. All praise to the Submissive Servant! Jesus’s submission is our salvation. Through him we are taught and sustained, indicted and redeemed.

Allusion-Seeking and Thread-Pulling in Isaiah 50:4–9

The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught. The Lord GOD has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward. I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting. But the Lord GOD helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame. He who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me. Behold, the Lord GOD helps me; who will declare me guilty? Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment; the moth will eat them up.
Isaiah 50:4–9

“A messianic panorama on a grand scale”—what a spectacular description of the Old Testament book of Isaiah.¹ Over and over again, Isaiah lifts our eyes to the prophetic horizon against which we see a shadow of the Christ. We can be certain that Jesus is in view because the New Testament explicitly states this. Outside of Psalms, Isaiah is the most frequently quoted book in the New Testament, often drawing a direct connection between Isaiah’s prophecy and its fulfillment in Christ. Jesus is obvious in those cases.

Jesus is less obvious when there is no New Testament quotation explicitly linking him to Isaiah’s prophecy. The third so-called Servant Song in Isaiah is one such passage. You will search your cross-references in vain for a New Testament citation from Isaiah 50:4–9. Even so, how could we fail to see that Isaiah has in view the one we know as Jesus?

It Sounds Like Jesus

Certain passages of Scripture just sound like Jesus. Our gospel antennae pick up a signal that reminds us of him. We must be careful in those moments not to read Jesus into the passage if the Spirit hasn’t put him there. Bible interpretation shouldn’t be built on free association or wishful thinking. Rather, we should more carefully examine the text to determine what is was that tripped the messianic alarm. In the case of Isaiah 50:4–9, two cues are definitive.

Identifying Allusions

The first cue is what has been called allusion. Not to be confused with illusion, allusion is when later Scripture refers to earlier Scripture without directly quoting it. Despite the absence of a quotation, the reader notices a similarity of words and ideas that evoke a connection between the two passages. In seeking to understand how an Old Testament passage is fulfilled in Jesus, we will be most concerned with identifying New Testament allusions, although allusions are present within the Old Testament too. Here is how the thought process unfolds as you are reading your Bible.

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