Thursday, February 25
Who is God’s servant in Isaiah 49:1-12?
God calls and names him before he is born, makes his mouth like a sword, and will be glorified in him. God uses the servant to bring the nation of Israel back to Himself, to be a light of salvation to all the world, to be a covenant, and to release prisoners. There is plenty of overlap between this description and that of Isaiah 42, where we identified the servant as the Messiah. The New Testament finds the servant’s attributes in Jesus Christ, in both comings: Matthew 1:21, John 8:12, John 9:5, John 17:1-5, Revelation 1:16, Revelation 2:16, Revelation 19:15.
If this servant is the Messiah, why does God call Him “Israel” here (Isaiah 49:3)?
Earlier we found that in this section of Isaiah, God’s servant “Israel/Jacob” refers to the nation. But here the name “Israel” (without a parallel reference to “Jacob”) clearly applies to the individual servant, who restores the nation to God (Isaiah 49:5). The individual servant has become the ideal embodiment or representative of the nation whose failure has compromised its use of the name “Israel” (Isaiah 48:1).
What new element appears here? Isaiah 49:4, 7.
Here is the first intimation of the difficulty involved in the servant’s task. He laments, “I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought, and in vain” (Isaiah 49:4), an idea echoed in Daniel 9:26: “shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself”. But he clings to faith: “Yet surely my judgment is with the Lord, And my work with my God” (Isaiah 49:4). J. Alec Motyer observes: “Thus, Isaiah foresaw a Servant with a real human nature, tested like we are and proving himself to be the author and perfecter of the way of faith, a real, personal faith that can still say my God when nothing any longer seems worthwhile.” The Prophecy of Isaiah: An Introduction and Commentary (Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 1993), p. 387
Isaiah 49:7 is startling. The servant is “whom man despiseth, to him whom the nation abhorreth, to a servant of rulers,” but the Lord says to him: “Kings shall see and arise, Princes also shall worship, Because of the Lord that is faithful, And the Holy One of Israel, and he shall choose thee”.
Look back at Christ’s ministry. Right up until the end, didn’t He have reasons for discouragement? Yet, He stayed faithful, despite outward appearances. What is the lesson for us to do the same—despite outward appearances?
