Daily Devotions

Read Isaiah 52:13–53:12. This passage presents one of the most surprising images in all of Scripture. At the time Isaiah delivered this message, Israel was in a period of deep struggle. They had faced exile, seen their land ravaged, and were waiting for God to act in a way that would restore their nation and identity. They expected a strong, conquering leader—a hero who would reverse their fortunes, defeat their enemies, and make everything right. But what Isaiah revealed was something completely different: a servant who would suffer, be rejected, and die.

This would have been a shock to the people of Israel. The idea that their deliverance would come not through strength, but through suffering, would have been hard to accept. A victorious king makes sense. But a servant who is crushed and despised? That didn’t fit their understanding of how God should work.

Fast forward to the time of Jesus, and we see the same misunderstanding. Many in Israel, under Roman occupation, were still waiting for a Messiah who would overthrow their oppressors and restore Israel to glory. But Jesus is born in a feeding trough to parents of low social status. He spends most of his life as a carpenter. He doesn’t rally armies to lead a rebellion to overthrow Israel’s oppressors. Instead, he takes the path of suffering, bearing the weight of human sin, and sacrificing himself on the cross. Jesus wasn’t the kind of savior people wanted, but he was the Savior humanity needed.

We often find ourselves in a similar position. We want a God who will solve our problems quickly, restore what’s broken in our lives, and make things easier for us. But Jesus comes to address something deeper—our sin, our separation from God, and our need for true healing. This kind of salvation requires sacrifice. Jesus’ path through suffering wasn’t about avoiding pain or taking shortcuts; it was about entering into the brokenness of the world to bring real, lasting change.

In Isaiah’s prophecy, the servant is described as bearing the sins of others, and through his suffering, brings healing. This speaks to the heart of what Jesus came to do. He doesn’t fix things from a distance. He comes close, takes on our pain, and brings life out of death. That’s not what we usually ask for, but it’s what we need.

This challenges how we think about God’s work in our own lives. We often pray for God to remove difficulties or to make things right in the way we want. But Jesus, the suffering servant in Isaiah, comes not just to meet our expectations but to transform us from the inside out. He enters into our pain, our mess, and our sin to bring real redemption.

God’s ways are often not what we expect. But they are always what we need. Isaiah’s servant, fulfilled in Jesus, teaches us that true victory comes through sacrifice and that God’s deepest work often happens in the places we least expect.

Questions for reflection: