Through this word-play, that
is, through “shoulders”, Isaiah emphatically links suffering and
authority. “The people who walked in
darkness have seen a great light”, they now “rejoice as with joy at the harvest”,
because “the yoke of their burden and the bar across their shoulders, the rod
of their oppressor” has been broken “as on the day of Midian”. It has been broken because authority, in
spite of all worldly pomp, does not in fact rest with “their oppressor” but
upon the shoulders of “the son given to us”--the Messiah or Christ, the
anointed one of God. “The bar across
their shoulders” has been broken because all authority rests upon the shoulders
of the One who is for them, “for us”.
Yet the close linkage in the
text between suffering and authority does not refer simply to the end
result--the change in state from darkness to light, from suffering to
joy--which the people enjoy. Surely,
Isaiah also has in view the means by which their oppression was broken. Isaiah sees not only that the people now
enjoy freedom; he sees with great clarity the One who purchased their
freedom. The prophet sees that the “child
born for us” broke the “bar across their shoulders” only by bearing the bar
across “his shoulders”. The authority
that rests upon the shoulders of the Messiah is revealed in his suffering for
those oppressed. Only then is he
acclaimed, “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of
Peace.” And only thus “will his
authority grow continually”, even in us--as we share in his suffering for
others so also to be exalted with and by him.
-Joe
