Visage Marred

"Like as many were astonied at Thee (His visage was so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men), so shall He sprinkle many nations" (Is.52:14,15).

Though the words "His visage was so marred more than any man, and His form than the sons of men" are by some put in brackets, having been regarded as a parenthesis, yet they give the cause why so many were appalled at Him who was Jehovah's suffering Servant. His visage being so marred is undoubtedly the description of the anguish He endured when He was crucified. He had suffered the agony of the garden of Gethsemane, He had suffered indignities at the hands of the Sanhedrin, at the hands of Pilate and ~erod and their soldiers, but the agony of the Cross, who can describe? None but God could understand all He passed through. There are no equivalent words for "more than" in the Hebrew. The RV marginal reading gives, His visage "from that of man, and His form from that of the sons of men". The word "visage" means "appearance", "look", "aspect". It means the sight man saw of the Christ, not simply the Lord's face, though undoubtedly the face is that part of the body in which the soul reveals its joy or sorrow. The wordform means the outline or figure of a body, it is the appearance of the Divine Sufferer as He is described in Psalm 22:14, in such tragic and fearful words: "All My bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of My bowels".

We know that some men's bodies have been mutilated by men beyond description; saints have been burned, sawn asunder, put on the rack and almost torn to pieces; these suffered the most intense agonies, but none of the sufferers suffered as He did. It is not that the Lord's body was more marred or disfigured than the bodies of some men have been, there being, as we have said, no equivalent words for "more than". One translation of the passage is:-

"So marred was His visage unlike that of man,

And His form unlike that of the sons of men".

This Sufferer was quite unlike any others. There were two sufferers on either side of Him, dying as He was the death of crucifixion, but they were unlike Him. Christ is peculiar and without equal as a Sufferer, and will have no equal or peer amongst all God's saintly sufferers in the glory.

J. Miller

Extracted from Needed Truth 1952

unknown | Mar 1993
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