The Pulpit Commentary on Isaiah 53:2

The Pulpit Commentary · Joseph S. Exell and contributors · Public domain

The depraved eye.

"No beauty that we should desire him." In this prophetic picture of the Christ the question arises, "Who hath believed our report?" What wonderful attestation history gives to this!—"He came unto his own, and his own received him not." Whether the words, "he hath no form nor comeliness," apply to the physical features of Christ, we cannot say; for the Jews had no "art." They interpreted the words, "Thou shalt not make to thyself … the likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath," not as an injunction against "idols" alone, but against all statuary and all art. So, though we have the likenesses of the emperors on the Roman coins, and the Greek statues of Socrates and their wise men, we have no likeness of Christ or his apostles. But we do know the meaning of this, "There is no beauty that we should desire him."

I. THE EYE ADMIRES ONLY WHAT THE HEART LOVES. The beauty that eye desired was quite different. It was superficial and carnal, not inward and spiritual.

II. THE WORLD DOES NOT ALTER ITS TASTE. The classic virtues of paganism—pride, self-reliance, honour—are more prized by men of the world than patience, gentleness, pity, forbearance, and charity. Christ is not beautiful to the proud, nor to the selfish, nor to the ambitions and the vain. Only the pure in heart admire and love him!—W.M.S.

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commentaryMatthew Henry on Isaiah 53:1-3No where in all the Old Testament is it so plainly and fully prophesied, that Christ ought to suffer, and then to enter into his glory, as in this chapter. But to this day few discern, or will acknowledge, that Divine p…Matthew Henry commentaryThe Humiliation of the Messiah. (b. c. 706.)THE HUMILIATION OF THE MESSIAH. (B. C. 706.) The prophet, in the close of the former chapter, had foreseen and foretold the kind reception which the gospel of Christ should find among the Gentiles, that nations and thei…Matthew Henry commentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Isaiah 53:1-12EXPOSITION THE PASSIONAL, OR THE GREAT PROPHECY OF THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST, AND OF HIS LATER EXALTATION. Polycarp the Lysian calls this chapter "the golden passional of the Old Testament evangelist." Delitzsch says of…Joseph S. Exell and contributors commentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Isaiah 53:2-11The sufferings of Jesus. It is the great object of Isaiah, in this chapter, to declare to his countrymen I. THE MESSIAH A SUFFERING MESSIAH. Hitherto Isaiah had looked upon the promised Redeemer on the side of his glori…Joseph S. Exell and contributors commentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Isaiah 53:2For he shall grow up; rather, now he grew up. The verbs are, all of them, in the past, or completed tense, until Isaiah 53:7, and are to be regarded as "perfects of prophetic certitude." As Mr. Cheyne remarks, "All has…Joseph S. Exell and contributors commentaryThe Pulpit Commentary on Isaiah 53:2The attractive and the unattractive in Jesus Christ. The whole passage is exceedingly remarkable in that it ascribes to one man qualities and surroundings which are so opposed to one another that they seem to be positiv…Joseph S. Exell and contributors