The Song of the Suffering Servant is a poem in the book of Isaiah comprising the last three verses of chapter 52 and all of 53. The song describes a servant of God who is rejected, wounded, and even killed, all for the benefit of other people. His beneficiaries marvel that this man who had seemed so weak had actually saved them by suffering for their sins. The identity of the servant is not revealed, but Isaiah wonders who will tell the servant’s story: “Who shall declare his generation?” he asks (Isaiah 53:8).
When Noah’s priests asked Abinadi to explain a passage from Isaiah 52 about people publishing peace, Abinadi quoted Isaiah 53 in full as part of his answer. He explained that the servant in the prophecy is “God himself” (Mosiah 15:1), who would come to earth and be mocked, scourged, and crucified, thus gaining power over death and sin (Mosiah 15:5-9). Abinadi combined the question about declaring Christ’s “generation” with another line from the song: “He shall see his seed” (Isaiah 53:10). The Savior’s “generation” represents His ability to generate Christlike people, who become His descendants, “heirs of the kingdom of God” (Mosiah 15:11). Among them are the prophets, the people who publish peace.
One of the priests who heard Abinadi preach was Alma. About 65 years after this sermon, Alma’s son, also named Alma, alluded to this same chapter from Isaiah during a sermon in the city of Gideon. Alma prophesied that the Son of God would come to earth and would “go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people” (Alma 7:11). Alma emphasized that this suffering would have two outcomes:
- The Son of God would “know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities” (Alma 7:12).
- In some way that Alma didn’t fully understand, the Son of God would “take upon him the sins of his people, that he might blot out their transgressions” (Alma 7:13).
So Abinadi and Alma help us see in Isaiah 53 a testimony that Jesus’s suffering empowered Him to save us. It allows Him to erase our sins, making intercession on our behalf, and it allows Him to know how to succor us.
Today I will be grateful for the salvific power Jesus gained through His suffering: power to forgive and power to heal.
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