N. T. Wright's "The Day the Revolution Began" (7)
Ch.7: Suffering, Redemption, and Love Only in Isa.53 do we find a conjoining of suffering as the means and not only the context of Israel’s long-expected deliverance from its sins. In Isa.53 this is a new theme in Isa. 40-55. The surrounding chapters set the stage for this organic development. Trouble happens when we taken this “suffering as means of forgiveness” theme out of its context in Isaiah and plot it in a different story. The danger of reading this theme in a pagan narrative is very real. There is evidence of this happening in 2 and 4 Maccabees in the famous story of the seven brothers. Isaiah is strong on the idea of divine faithful love (lacking in the Maccabean writings). Thus, the idea of atonement involving an angry deity needing to be pacified is ruled out. There is a proper sense of divine anger, of course. Wright says, ". . . the suggestion that 'sin' does not make God angry (a frequent idea in ...