This week, our church began memorizing the final song of the Suffering Servant from Isaiah (Isaiah 52:13-53:12). These words from the Old Testament point us to Jesus who suffered and died for us. Our pastor David Hull encouraged all of us to use this passage and this memorization effort as preparation for Easter.
The ESV Study Bible introduces this section with a statement about what Isaiah is revealing and which words we as readers should pay attention to:
Isaiah finally explains how the Holy One can bless sinful people: all the promises of God will come true for them because the suffering and triumphant servant removes their guilt before God by his sacrifice. To be clear on which parties are described, it helps to observe the pronouns: “I” in this passage is typically the Lord, “he” the servant, and “we” the servant’s disciples, who themselves need the servant to bear their guilt (Isaiah 53:4-6), which is why the servant cannot be Israel or the pious within Israel.
The “memory moleskine” to use in a notebook is located here. It is one mechanism for keeping up with the weekly Scripture memorization. Reading the passage aloud several times a day has been a great help to me. Recently, I have tried visualizing the scene described within the verses. The brain works incredibly well with images. If you can link a verse or a phrase to an image in your mind, then your chances of retaining the verse will be increased.