Isaiah 49:1-7--The Servant of the LORD

Isaiah 49:1-7
English Standard Version

The Servant of the LORD
49 Listen to me, O coastlands,
    and give attention, you peoples from afar.
The LORD called me from the womb,
    from the body of my mother he named my name.
2 He made my mouth like a sharp sword;
    in the shadow of his hand he hid me;
he made me a polished arrow;
    in his quiver he hid me away.
3 And he said to me, “You are my servant,
    Israel, in whom I will be glorified.”
4 But I said, “I have labored in vain;
    I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity;
yet surely my right is with the LORD,
    and my recompense with my God.”

5 And now the LORD says,
    he who formed me from the womb to be his servant,
to bring Jacob back to him;
    and that Israel might be gathered to him--
for I am honored in the eyes of the LORD,
    and my God has become my strength--
6 he says:
“It is too light a thing that you should be my servant
    to raise up the tribes of Jacob
    and to bring back the preserved of Israel;
I will make you as a light for the nations,
    that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

7 Thus says the LORD,
    the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One,
to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nation,
    the servant of rulers:
“Kings shall see and arise;
    princes, and they shall prostrate themselves;
because of the LORD, who is faithful,
    the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”

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Last time the LORD called to the people of Israel and had a message for them, this time, the LORD calls to the Gentile nations of the world and has a message for them.  This is a prophecy about the coming Messiah and how He would be chosen by the LORD to be His Servant from the time He was conceived (even before then).  He would be given a special name, a special message (the Word of God which is a sharp sword would come from His mouth), and a special mission.  This coming Son would represent all of Israel and all that was promised to them and that Israel was supposed to do--it would all be fulfilled in Christ.  What was the special purpose and mission of Jacob?  To reunite the LORD with His chosen people, Jacob.

They have been separated from God not because of the physical exile but because of their spiritual exile from the time of Adam and Eve's sin in the Garden.  The LORD has shown them through these times of captivity and emancipation that He is their Savior and wants to set them free not only from their physical imprisonment, but their spiritual imprisonment.  This is why Isaiah says that the Messiah will come to bring light to the darkness, to set the prisoner day and declare both the judgment of God and the favorable day of the LORD for His people as His blessings flow for His people once again.  He is the Good Shepherd who desires all of His sheep to be gathered to Him once again.  We may think at this moment in biblical history that the only sheep of His pasture are the people of Israel, but if we've been paying attention to the biblical narrative since Genesis, we would understand that God has sheep in other pastures that we don't know anything about, and He will bring all of them together some day to be one flock with one Shepherd.  He would be a light to the nations (to the Gentiles).  This is quoted as part of the mission statement for why Messiah came.  To seek and to save the lost?  Yes! To speak the words God the Father put in His mouth?  Yes, absolutely! To save His people from their sins?  Most certainly! He is also to be the Light of the World and to let those who have been living in darkness see a great light--the light of His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

At some point, this Servant will become Master and King over everyone and everything so that the princes and rules of all nations will come and bow down before Him to pay Him tribute and honor.  He will be called King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and every knee in heaven and on earth and under the earth will bow in submission to Him and will worship Him for who He is and what He has done (even His enemies will have to bow down and declare His identity and worthiness).  While many think this passage speaks of the nation of Israel as a whole, we know Jesus was the True Israel that the Father was looking forward to and many of these prophecies only make sense when viewing them through the prophetic lens that Israel is to be a prophetic type with Christ being the anti-type in which all these things would truly be fulfilled, confirmed, and revealed.