Christ in the Old Testament

Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
    and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
    and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. (NIV)

Isaiah 53:10

Today’s Reading: Isaiah 53:10-12

In the last three stanzas of verse 10, we see the crushing of the Servant is a sin offering to God and in turn the Servant will see his offspring, prolong his days and achieve his mission to accomplish the will of the Lord. There are hidden gems inside these words for us to discover today.

The second stanza is translated a variety of ways:

• “If He would render Himself as a guilt offering” (NASB1995).
• “When You make His soul an offering for sin” (NKJV).
• “Yet when his life is made an offering for sin” (NLT).
• “Once restitution is made” (NET).

The Hebrew word being translated as “guilt offering”, “offering for sin” or “restitution” is ‘āšām which combines two ideas into the one word – both the guilt of sin and the sacrifice required to remove the guilt. Ašām communicates God’s demand that wrongs be made right and the provision that He made available for the guilty man to accomplish that as given in the law:

“The Lord said to Moses: ‘When anyone is unfaithful to the Lord by sinning unintentionally in regard to any of the Lord’s holy things, they are to bring to the Lord as a penalty (‘āšām) a ram from the flock, one without defect and of the proper value in silver, according to the sanctuary shekel. It is a guilt offering (‘āšām). They must make restitution for what they have failed to do in regard to the holy things, pay an additional penalty of a fifth of its value and give it all to the priest. The priest will make atonement for them with the ram as a guilt offering (‘āšām), and they will be forgiven’” (Lev 5:14-16).

Paul says:

“For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor 15:3).

Paul is referencing among other places Isaiah 53:10 when he says, “according to the Scriptures.” Jesus was our guilt offering – the final guilt offering. He would make restitution for all of us and atone for the guilt of our sins so that we would be forgiven.

It is the word ‘āšām that is used in Isaiah 53:10 and Leviticus 5:14-16 that specifically speaks of the guilt offering as opposed to the sin offering. The guilt offering is the last of the offerings prescribed by God in Leviticus. The sin offering and the guilt offering were offered every day both in the morning and evening. In essence, the guilt offering completes the sin offering.

The sin offering taught that sin demands death and communicated the concept of a substitute offering for the payment of sin. The sin offering focused on the sinful state of the sinner and the sacrifice that was made to cancel the sin. However, the guilt offering focuses on the guilt or debt of the sinner and the sacrifice that discharges the debt and sets the sinner free. The sin offering set forth propitiation – appeasing God’s anger and turning away His just wrath against sin. The guilt offering set forth divine satisfaction of the debt due to God because of the sin.

The sin offering turned away God’s anger and cancels the sin, but the sinner still owes a debt to God that is satisfied in the guilt offering. If you accidentally break your neighbor’s lawnmower that you borrowed, your neighbor might not hold that against you and continue to be friendly with you. However, you still have to pay your neighbor back with a replacement that’s as good or better than the lawnmower you broke. God will not hold the sin against the sinner once the sin offering was made, but the sinner still owes God a debt that is paid by the guilt offering.

Jesus was both the sin offering and the guilt offering but we see in Isaiah that the guilt offering is the focus. I believe that is because it is the more complete offering. Yes Jesus pays for the sin and extinguishes God’s anger against us. However, Jesus also pays the debt that we owe and now we can stand before God as eternally forgiven. God is completely satisfied through the sacrifice of Jesus and God is now pleased because of it.

“He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2).

Today’s Prayer: Thank you Jesus for paying for my sin and even the debt of my sin. Help me to live today knowing that I am eternally forgiven. All glory and praise belong to you!