10 Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
    and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
    and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.
11 After he has suffered,
    he will see the light of life and be satisfied;
by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,
    and he will bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,
    and he will divide the spoils with the strong,
because he poured out his life unto death,
    and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
    and made intercession for the transgressors.

This final stanza brings us back to our point of embarkation: the ‘Servant’ triumphant. These last three verses refer to His suffering and death, but they emphatically show Him coming out the other side in glorious victory.

‘This unanticipated and massive reversal of his situation is what causes the consternation of kings and nations with which the song began. None of them would have foreseen that this is how the story would end.’ Derek Tidball: ‘The message of the Cross’, p.113.

”But we…see Jesus…crowned with glory and honour because he suffered death…” Heb.2:9.

Verse 10a sums up the central idea of Is.53, and in everyone of the last three verses the suffering of the Messiah is emphasised. But the predominant outlook is beyond His death towards a magnificent future.

Over the next few days we are going to look at some of the things which will happen in the wake of the death of Jesus.