We've been thinking this week on things unseen about some passages in the prophecy of Isaiah.

Or more exactly, we've been thinking about someone Isaiah wrote about. And yet if you think about it, if Isaiah's boys had asked who it was he was writing about,

he'd have had to say he didn't really know, certainly didn't know exactly who he was or when

he would come.

Peter reminds us of this in 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 10 to 12.

The prophets wrote about the grace that others would experience in the

future. And God especially enabled Isaiah to write about how the Messiah's savior would suffer

before he entered his glory, even if he didn't know who he would be or exactly when or how he would come.

And today I want to draw attention to the fourth song.

It's the best known one.

I suppose most of us think about it as the Suffering Servant Song of Isaiah 53.

I remember having to memorize the whole chapter in the King James Version of the Bible when

I was about eight or nine in the very ordinary state elementary school I attended, how times

have changed.

But what my school teacher didn't know is that the song doesn't begin at Isaiah 53 verse 1, but at Isaiah 52 verse 13.

It begins with the same words as the first servant song, Behold my servant.

And we should look, because the opening stanza in the song speaks first about the exultation

of the servant.

He shall be high and lifted up.

And then it goes on to speak about his humiliation.

His appearance will be marred beyond human semblance.

And then it goes on to speak about the effect of the servant's work. He will

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