The suffering servant is silent. Twice it says he did not open his mouth. The servant accepts the will of God and does not petition against it.
Matthew 23
46 About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli,h lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”i
47 When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “He is calling Elijah.” 48One of them quickly ran and brought a sponge. He filled it with sour wine,j put it on a reed, and held it up for Jesus to drink.k
49 But the others said, “Leave Him alone. Let us see if Elijah comes to save Him.”l
50 When Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, He yielded up His spirit.
Isaiah 53 twice says the servant will be silent. Matthew 23 twice says Jesus was not silent.
People generally say that because Jesus did not protest to pilate, that this is good enough. But, at the moment of truth, when he was actually brought to the slaughter, he protested to God. Read Psalm 22, it is a petition, an appeal to God. It is the opposite of accepting God's will. Even if Jesus intended to be the suffering servant, he wasn't able to follow through with it at the end. The example I gave was a person thanking God at the beginning of a meal, but then thanking Artemis at the end. It really doesn't matter that much what happened at the beginning of the meal, if the end of the meal is a fail.
You are right that Jesus did not complain to those who were killing Him, and that is what Isa 53:7 tells us. Isa 53:7.................
He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth.
If there was any complaining to God it would have been in the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus was asking God to take the whole ordeal away if He was willing, but if not, let your will be done. Then an angel from heaven came to strengthen Him (Luke 22:42,43)
On the cross, just before physically dying, there was no angel to strengthen Him and so that Jesus would take the full consequences of sin on Himself, God withdrew any consciousness Jesus would have had of God's presence. That would be no doubt harder for Jesus than the hours of physical torment He had already endured. He still was not complaining to those who were killing Him but was praying to His God, and asking why God had taken away His presence. But it was Jesus who alone had to die. It sounds like a cry of despair, a lack of faith in God, but it was not.
When it says Jesus cried out again, we go to other accounts to find out what He cried and see He that it was "It is finished. Into you hands I commit my spirit".
Yes, agreed. Although, the sacrifices are annual.
The sacrifices were symbolic of what Jesus would do once and without any need for a repeat performance the following year.
And you have that regardless of what it says in Isaiah.
Isa 53, Psalm 22 etc show us prophecies that Jesus fulfilled. It isn't that Jesus came along and just said that He needed to be crucified and rise again without having anything to point back to in the Hebrew Scriptures that tells us the same thing. It is not just made.
"... giving life to children ... " that's a pretty big stretch based on what's written in Isaiah. There's plenty of other verses in the Gospels with the promise eternal life for following Jesus.
The servant in Isaiah died and was buried but lived on to see children. He sacrificed His life so we could get His eternal life. It was not just a matter of Jesus promising eternal life to those who believed, the whole thing is based on the promises in prophecy. Jesus did not come in His own authority.
That is divergent from Isaiah 53:3
He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with sickness; and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Notice, you said "If Jesus had not been rejected..." but Isaiah 53 says "He was despised and rejected..." Again and again, if this is Jesus, then the whole story from beginning to end is necessary. Jesus says it's necessary. And yet, in order for Zecharia to fit the Christian narrative Jewish people are mourning for an event that was necessary and God's will.
Yes Isa 53:3 shows us Jesus suffering and rejection was necessary, as Psalm 89 shows us also, otherwise prophecy would not be fulfilled.
In Zechariah Jewish people are mourning that they, the Jews, killed their own Messiah imo.
God will wipe away our tears and comforts us whatever the reason for our mourning, but that does not mean we do not first mourn for things we have done or not done.
Good. Enjoy that! I'm happy for you! Why am I mourning?
I imagine the emotions would be mixed.
If so, then there are no obvious prophecies from Isaiah.
They aren't obvious to Jews whose eyes and ears have been closed.
If you reject Jesus then the Isaiah prophecies are obviously about other things and cannot be about Jesus.
If you turn to Jesus as the Messiah sent by God, if you believe the Gospel story, then the Isaiah prophecies become obvious to you also.
What Jews generally deny is that prophecy can be split into first and second advents. Also that specific verses and phrases of prophecy can be pulled out of context and read in isolation. And really, they're all like that with maybe 1 exception.
Certainly some prophecies are not in context in the Hebrew Scriptures but the main ones seem to be plain imo. All those about the one who will rule forever, inherit an eternal Kingdom, sit on throne of David forever etc are Messianic and imo Jews should be able to see that. Many would be plainly about Jesus if you believed first the gospel story. (eg Isa 53, Psalm 22) Some are easier to see if it is realised that Israel and David etc are used in prophecy as types of Jesus.
Some prophecies do seem to have double meanings but imo it is only the Messianic one that fulfills them fully.
Many prophecies it seems to me have been interpreted one way to avoid an alternative legitimate interpretation which points squarely to Jesus as necessarily being the Messiah. (The Daniel timing of the coming of the Messiah, Jacob's prophecy of Judah having the sceptre until Shilou comes-the one to whom it belongs etc)
But yes I can see that if someone is brought up as a Jew then the Hebrew scriptures are yours and your teachers know what they are talking about etc.
OK, great, let's look at these. Psalm 2, the inheritor of the nations... that's the other nations not Israel. When this actually happens please let me know. I see the word "son". It's a Christian buzzword. Not much else here. Daniel has the same problem. It clearly hasn't happened yet. Isaiah 9 doesn't say galilee, and the goverment was not and is not on Jesus' shoulders. But I see that "a child was born", and this phrase is exciting for a Christian, but it's not a real actual fulfilled prophecy about Jesus. It's just a phrase. For Psalm 89, I see the word "firstborn", but verses 31-33 are clearly talking about Jewish people. Otherwise every Christian needs to line up for circumcision.
See how that works? There's these little drip-drops, but nothing substantial. On the other hand, if a person goes by the gospel, Jesus says follow me for eternal life, I can raise this temple in 3 days... there's so much there to believe in. Not so much if you go backwards.
The point is that the inheritor of the nations (Psalm 2) is the one who will rule them on the throne of David and is the Son of God. It is a Messianic Psalm and the Kings of Israel are types of the Messiah, just as the prophets and priests are. Those who are anointed.
Daniel 7:13,14 has happened when "one like a son of man" (Jesus) ascended to heaven to be given an everlasting Kingdom to rule. So He is King now and will return as King (Ben David) and not the suffering servant (Ben Joseph).
(The Jews rejected Jesus but God meant the whole thing for good, both for the Jews and for everyone)Gen 50:20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.
The Tanach seems to have the numbering of Isa 8 and 9 different to Christian translations and the Christian translations have "Galilee" in Isa 9:1 as the Jewish Virtual Tanach Translation has also. (Maybe it has something to do with the scriptures used in translation. ) Nevertheless the child is to sit and rule on the throne of David forever. A Messianic passage.
With Psalm 89 if you see the word "firstborn" then you should also see that this "firstborn" calls God "my Father" and that He is a King that is rejected by the Jews and killed in His youth.
In the New Covenant we keep the Law but not as 613 commandments so no verses 31-33 are not specifically about the Jews.
You are right that there is a lot to believe in, in the Gospels, but most, if not all of it can be seen in drips and drops in the Hebrew Scriptures also and sometimes in big slabs.
There are places where we can see the Messiah coming twice. In Psalm 110 the Lord of Psalm 110:1 is not David because David is not in heaven with God putting His enemies under His feet. This Psalm is also Messianic and shows the highest human who sits next to God and will come to judge the nations as in Psalm 2. This will be His second coming to earth as Messiah unless you think your Messiah comes from heaven from the throne next to God. Either way it would need a change of doctrine for Jews I guess. Easier to stick with the Lord of Psalm 110:1 being David even though that does not make sense.