Divide the Spoil With the Strong

At the end Isaiah's famous chapter on the suffering of the Messiah, he wrote this, "He shall bear their iniquities.  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 53:11-12).  I've always found the statement about dividing the portion and the spoil to be out of place with the rest of the context of what Isaiah is saying.  In between telling us about bearing our iniquities, pouring his soul out in death, and making intercession with the transgressors, we have this language that makes us think of ransacking a city after a war.  So what did Isaiah mean?

With the help of my gospel doctrine teacher's perspective, I can see one possible way of interpreting this passage from Isaiah.  In terms of the pronouns used, I believe they refer to the Father and the Son in this way: "Therefore will [the Father] divide [the Son] a portion with the great, and [the Son] shall divide the spoil with the strong."  The Father will give the Son a "portion with the great" in the sense that the Son will receive and be all that the Father has and is.  The Savior essentially said this to His disciples shortly before His death: "All things that the Father hath are mine" (John 16:15).  After the Savior performed the atonement, He was also able to declare to the Nephites, "Therefore I would that ye should be perfect even as I, or your Father who is in heaven is perfect" (3 Nephi 12:48).  He had become perfect or complete like the Father through His atonement and resurrection.  The Father is The Great and He has shared His glory and perfection completely with the Son. 

The second phrase from Isaiah about the spoil then could mean something similar but with the Savior dividing His greatness and triumph with us.  Paul declared that we can become the children of Christ, and "if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ" (Romans 8:17).  The "spoil" that Christ has gained is not an earthly spoil from war but the spoil gained from winning the spiritual war against sin and death.  Through Him we can become "strong" in order to also overcome these impediments to our return to the Father because He divides the "spoil" with us.  Christ told Moroni indeed that He could make us strong through His power: “My grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them” (Ether 12:27).  Our ultimate weakness that He can make us “strong” to overcome is our mortality and separation from the Father.  If we interpret Isaiah’s words this way, then the passage does make sense in its overall context, for it is exactly the fact that He has born our iniquities and made intercession that He can share the victory over death and sin with us.  Perhaps the most important part of this message from Isaiah is that the Father and Son will indeed share everything They have with us if we are willing to receive it.  This is the message the Lord gave us in our day: “He that receiveth me receiveth my Father; And he that receiveth my Father receiveth my Father’s kingdom; therefore all that my Father hath shall be given unto him” (Doctrine and Covenants 84:37-38).