Isaiah 53:3
He 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. (NIV)
Today’s Reading: Isaiah 53:1-3
I find it interesting when we come across a Scripture that uses such a unique word that only shows up one time in the entire Old Testament. Consider that more than 600,000 words are used to construct the Old Testament, almost every word would have to be used multiple times. But there are a handful of words that only occur one time. They seem to call our attention to them because how could this one instance be the only application for it in all of the Scriptures?
Nevertheless, the Hebrew word today is mastēr that is translated as “hide.” Given that there’s only one occurrence, we don’t have any other context to give it color. So let’s look at the Septuagint today. The Septuagint is simply the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament. It was translated in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC and was the “version” most often quoted by Jesus and the New Testament writers. We can often use the Septuagint to understand the meaning of Hebrew words by looking at how they were translated into Greek.
Thus the Septuagint translates “hide their faces” with apostrephō (hide) and prosōpon (face). The verb apostrephō is used in the perfect tense which means they hid their faces then and are still hiding their faces now. Most people today hide their faces from Jesus. That’s what people do when they are living sinful lives. Instead of running to him for forgiveness and salvation, we hide.
The phrase “he was despised” is repeated here again using the same Hebrew words as earlier in this verse. The Jews also “held him in low esteem” or “did not esteem him.” The Hebrew word for “esteem” is ḥāšab which means to think about something. It is the same word translated in verse 4 as “considered.” This word is often used as an accounting term giving a reckoning of value – an appraisal.
If we pull in what we learned from verse 2, the Jews saw an ordinary man that the world would consider a drain on society. They appraised what they saw in Jesus and it added up to nothing. He was a zero. So they chose not only to not follow him but they despised him and turned away from him. This is Israel’s lament in the last days looking back on the Messiah whom they rejected.
“He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:10-12).
Jesus stands at the door and knocks (Rev 3:20). He doesn’t force his way into your heart. He came into the world to save the world. The world rejected him and it broke his heart. So much so that it would define him as a man of sorrows. But he accomplished his mission anyway. He took on the punishment that we deserved for our sin so that we could be saved. So there is now only one choice to make – do you hide from Jesus or run to him?
Christ in the Old Testament 
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