Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Isaiah 53:1-3
1 Who hath believed our report? ~
It is reported openly and publicly, not whispered in a corner, or confined to the schools, but proclaimed to all and it is so faithful a saying, and so well worthy of all acceptation, that one would think it should be universally received and believed. Yet most people (that live in utter darkness) lay their hands upon their eyes and refuse to seek the Marvelous light. (John 12:38, Rom 10:16)
2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: ~
He grew up as a tender plant, silently and insensibly, and without any noise, as the corn, that tender plant, grows up, we know not how. (Mark 4:27). Christ rose as a tender plant, which, one would have thought, might easily be crushed, or might be nipped in one frosty night. The gospel of Christ, in its beginning, was as a grain of mustard-seed, so inconsiderable did it seem. (Matthew 13:31,32.)
It was thought no good thing could come out of it. (John 1:46)
he hath no form nor comeliness and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him ~
It was expected that he should have some uncommon beauty in his face and person, which should charm the eye, attract the heart, and raise the expectations of all that saw him. But there was nothing of this kind in him not that he was in the least deformed or misshapen, but he had no form nor comeliness, nothing extraordinary, which one might have thought to meet with in the countenance of an incarnate deity. Those who saw him could not see that there was any beauty in him that they should desire him, nothing in him more than in another beloved, Song of Song of Solomon 5:9. Joseph loved by his father more than anybody. Moses when he was born was exceedingly fair. (Acts 7:20; Hebrews 11:23) David when he was anointed was of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look to, 1 Samuel 16:12. But our Lord Jesus had nothing of that to recommend him.
3 He is despised and rejected of men a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
We never read that he laughed, but often that he wept. Lentulus, in his epistle to the Roman senate concerning Jesus, says, "he was never seen to laugh " and so worn and macerated was he with continual grief that when he was but a little above thirty years of age he was taken to be nearly fifty. (John 8:57.)
"We hid as it were our faces from him, looked another way, and his sufferings were as nothing to us though never sorrow was like unto his sorrow. Nay, we not only behaved as having no concern for him, but as loathing him, and having him in detestation."
Let we be esteem and receive HIM, the Corner Stone for his holiness, whom rejected by men that we might be Saved.
