Rabbis debated who Isaiah’s fourth “servant song” was about. The first Christians had no doubt—they quoted this song more than any other verses to describe Jesus’ redemptive suffering. The New Dictionary of Biblical Theology said, “Isaiah articulates a new and powerful vision of redemption in which violence is absorbed and transformed. In Isaiah 52–53 the heralding of Israel’s divine warrior returning to bring Zion’s deliverance (52:7–12), suddenly gives way to a description of a suffering servant of Yahweh (52:13–53:12).” Isaiah’s vision was that God does not increase the level of violence to win. And in Jesus, the early Christians saw, God took violence onto himself and changed it into a redemptive force.

• Once again Jesus set the stage for the way New Testament writers applied Isaiah 53 by saying that the passage was about him (cf. Luke 22:37). It all came true in Jesus’ saving death and resurrection, they said. What does Jesus’ way of defeating evil as the Suffering Servant tell you about the kind of God we serve? What kinds of evil have you faced? How does Jesus’ example guide you toward the path of true victory at those times?