“Therefore will I divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong; because He hath poured out His soul unto death: and He was numbered with the transgressors; and He bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” (Isaiah 53:12)
The prophet Isaiah prophesies of the Messiah. The first two phrases of this Scripture are hard to understand because of the phrasing and the use of the words which were translated from the Hebrew. “Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great...” The word therefore refers to the statement in the previous verse that says He will justify many and carry their iniquities, “therefore.” Because He has done this He will be counted with the great. And that has been fulfilled. Even those who don’t consider Jesus as divine, consider Him a great man. And by us who believe in Him as Lord and Savior, the Son of God incarnate, He is our King and our Master, greater than any earthly king.
The phrase “...He shall divide the spoil with the strong...” means He will receive or take away the spoil of the strong. Jesus referred to the strongman who held souls captive in sin and sickness when He was accused of being satan’s messenger. “And if Satan rise up against himself, and be divided, he cannot stand, but hath an end. No man can enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he will first bind the strong man; and then he will spoil his house.” (Mark 3:26-27) Jesus took the spoil, the souls of man satan had captured and were in bondage. This happened at His death and resurrection. We were held in bondage to sin in the kingdom of sin and death, unable to escape by any human or earthly means. Paul writes about this in chapter 2 of Ephesians. “ And you hath He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)” (Ephesians 2:1-5) We were released from the grasp of sin so that we could live in righteousness. We can choose to not sin. Those who are not saved, who haven’t accepted and believed in Jesus are still in the kingdom of darkness. They cannot do anything but sin. As one pastor preached, “Sinners will sin because they are sinners.” They cannot escape sinning. But as the delivered and redeemed, we are free from the grasp of sin and are free to live in righteousness. “Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.” (1Peter 2:24)
This also speaks to us about those who died before Jesus. Peter clarifies it for us. “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison; Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.” (1Peter 3:18-20) We may ask, what happened to Jesus, to His soul and to His spirit at His death? Scripture tells us what happens to us immediately after we die. Jesus taught that we would pass from death immediately to life. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.” (John 5:24) He taught that at the death of this body one either entered into eternal life or condemnation in other words punishment. (Matthew 25:46) Those that believe in Him to life. Those who don’t believe in Him to eternal punishment. But what about those before Jesus? These are whom Peter is talking about. Those who were disobedient before Jesus. It’s not just to condemn them if they didn’t hear about Jesus. Peter tells us Jesus went and preached the Gospel to them, even those who were disobedient in Noah’s time. So those before Jesus heard the Gospel that they might be saved by the preaching of Jesus, the one and only way of salvation. “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) Peter later clarifies this even further. “For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh but live according to God in the spirit.” (1Peter 4:6)
We may wonder many things about salvation. I’ve heard questions asked about those before Jesus, those people in remote parts of the world who didn’t hear about Jesus and salvation, etc... God has a plan in play and it’s for whosoever and for everyone who lived, lives and will live. God’s got it covered. While we barely scratched the surface of this Scripture, we will study through other Scriptures the Truths contained in it.
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