The shearing here links exactly with Gideon’s fleece recorded in Judges 6:36–37. The earlier verses of Isaiah 53 describe One who grew up before Jehovah as a tender sapling—a root out of dry ground. The Lord Jesus is likened to a tree taking moisture not from the earth but from the dew of heaven. Did anything in this world nourish or refresh Him? It caused Him only suffering. But His food was to do the will of His Father. His moisture came from heaven!

Look at this beautiful fleece! Everything around is dry, but the dew is upon Him—and Him alone. Dew symbolizes God’s favor and pleasure (Dt. 33:13; Ps. 133:3). His favor elevates above trying outward circumstances. Could God find His delight in any other man?

But Gideon puts out another fleece, but this time it was dry, “but on all the ground there was dew.” The sheep before her shearers is dumb. He opens not His mouth. Rejected by men, on the cross He is also forsaken by God. What a bitter cry this caused to come from His lips (Ps. 22:1). So that God’s blessing could come upon believers, it had to be withheld from the sacrificial Substitute.

God’s pleasure and purpose are supremely displayed at the exact moment of man’s worst wickedness. His purposes will never fail. His pleasure will not fade. We may enter into the experience of His favor and blessing because of one thing alone: Christ, the Lamb of God, bore our sins, suffered for sins, died for our sins, shed His blood for remission of sins. Above all this, forsaken by God, He was made sin.

He alone, in His perfect life, caused the heavens to break open for the declaration of God’s delight. The same One was completely alone and forsaken on the cross so that God’s blessing could go out in mercy towards the whole human race.