Introduction | Song 1, Part 1 | Song 1, Part 2 | Song 2, Part 1 | Song 2, Part 2 | Song 2, Part 3 | Song 3 | Song 4, Part 1 | Song 4, Part 2 | Song 4, Part 3

The fourth section of this final Servant Song (Is 53.7-9) zooms in to allow us to see more specifically how the Servant is taking our place. Verse 7 describes his trial; verse 8, his death; and verse 9, his burial.

The trial is not pleasant. We’re told that he was “oppressed” and “afflicted.” The former word is used of the way the Egyptians treated the Israelite slaves in Egypt (Ex 3.7; 5.6, 10, 13) and King Jehoiakim’s oppression of Israel to get tribute money to pay to Egypt (2K 23.35). The latter word is also used of Israel’s slavery in Egypt (Ge 15.13; Ex 1.11-12; Dt 26.6); of Sarai’s treatment of Hagar after she became pregnant with Abram’s child (Ge 16.6); and of rape (Jdg 19.24, 20.5; 2S 13.12, 14, 22, 32; Lam 5.11).

Further, “he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter.” This is a show trial, a star chamber; the outcome has already been decided, and there is no justice to be had.

But the prophet’s surprise re-emerges. How would you or I respond under these circumstances? Would we protest the injustice? Call for divine judgment? Curse the unfairness of it all?

Not the Servant. He doesn’t even open his mouth—and the prophet states that fact twice, for emphasis.

He just takes it.

Now the prophet laments the life cut short by the execution (Is 53.8). After the sham trial—”apart from justice”— he is taken away.

The KJV differs from the modern translations in the next clause. The familiar phrasing is, “Who shall declare his generation?” This sounds like a lament that he will never have any children. But the Hebrew is ambiguous here (for you Hebrew nerds, the question is whether the אֶת is preceding an accusative of direct object or of reference; see BDB or HALOT), and most modern translators prefer “As for his generation, who shall consider?” That is, no one understood what was really happening here—specifically, that “he was cut off … for the transgression of my people.” They’ve all missed the point of the previous section: the vicarious nature of his death.

After the execution—being “cut off out of the land of the living”—comes the tomb (Is 53.9). “He made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich.” I observe here that no one, including Isaiah himself, could possibly have made any sense out of that statement; in Hebrew culture, the wicked and the rich are never buried together, or even under similar conditions. The wicked—executed criminals—are tossed out with the trash, as food for the vultures, as is befitting their condemnation (cf Pr 30.17); but the rich, oh, they’re treated very differently. They’re buried in rock tombs, well protected from scavenging beasts, and well marked as a memorial for their descendants.

How could the Servant experience both?

Looking back, after this prophecy’s fulfillment, we see the outcome perfectly clearly and with no confusion—two thieves, Joseph of Arimathea, and all that. But even with the prophecy in hand, no one in Isaiah’s day could have predicted the actual outcome. I’ve written on that at more length elsewhere.

But the prophet is directed by the Spirit, and despite his very likely confusion, he predicts the truth: he will be buried “with the rich … because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.”

Again, the Servant is not Isaiah, and he is not Israel.

But he is good, and he is utterly undeserving of the death he will die.

Yet …

Next time.

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Introduction | Song 1, Part 1 | Song 1, Part 2 | Song 2, Part 1 | Song 2, Part 2 | Song 2, Part 3 | Song 3 | Song 4, Part 1 | Song 4, Part 2

The middle section of Song 4 (Is 53.4-6) answers the previous section by explaining why this special envoy from God is in such dire straits—despised and rejected by men (Is 53.3). It is not because of anything he has done to deserve such treatment. On the contrary, he is taking the penalty for our sins.

Sin has consequences. God has designed the universe in such a way as to encourage us to behave ourselves and thereby “live a quiet and peaceable life” (1Ti 2.2). (Yes, I know I’ve taken that phrase out of its Pastoral context, but I think I can make a case that it’s accurate in this context as well.)

If we’ll obey God’s commandments, the natural order of things will work in our favor. If we’ll love our neighbors, genuinely, they’re likely to treat us better than if we act abusively toward them. If we’ll be diligent in our work, our physical needs are more likely to be supplied. If we’ll give ourselves to wisdom by looking right before we step off a curb in London, we’ll be less likely to get clobbered by one of those double-decker buses.

But if we ignore God’s commandments, things turn out very differently. If we get drunk with wine, we’re likely to do things we’ll regret later, even if we don’t remember them—and there’s the deep ditch of alcoholism ready to take us off the highway permanently. If we choose a promiscuous lifestyle, there are sexually transmitted diseases waiting for us, as well as unwanted pregnancies and irretrievably broken hearts in the people who love us most.

So yes, sin has consequences. And since we all sin, we all face them. Here Isaiah names just two of them: griefs and sorrows (Is 53.4). And, he says, the Servant takes that weighty load upon himself.

And then the prophet returns to the incredulity of his earlier observations. In our judgment, he says, the prophet is doing no such thing; we figure he’s just in trouble with God for something. We’re like the disciples, who asked Jesus, “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (Jn 9.2).

Look at him! He must have done something!

But no. His wounding, his bruising, is the punishment for our transgressions, our impingement on forbidden ground, our ignoring the “No Trespassing” sign (Is 53.5).

He’ll say more about that in a moment, but for now he revisits the disbelief he demonstrated earlier. The beating he’s taking is going to deliver us! It’s going to bring us peace; it’s going to bring us healing. Not only do we not suffer the well-deserved consequences of our sin, but after this we’re going to be different people. We’re going to be healed of the sickness (Je 17.9) that got us into this mess in the first place.

It’s interesting to me that at the nadir of this Song, the place where the darkness is the deepest, Isaiah is still wonderstruck with the unimaginable good that the Servant is accomplishing. The light does indeed shine in darkness, and it can’t be overcome.

At the end of this section Isaiah revisits our transgressions and iniquities. How extensive is the problem? How much does the Servant have to deal with?

It’s as pervasive, as extensive, as it can possibly be. All of us have gone astray (Is 53.6); every one has turned to his own way; and now the burden he carries is the sin of us all.

Every sin. Every person. For all time.

What a burden.

And yet, what a deliverance! All of it is carried by the Servant. That means that all can face the possibility of being delivered.

Isaiah isn’t going to spell all that out for us; we need further revelation to shine light on what is here just an implication. But we do not lack that light.

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Introduction | Song 1, Part 1 | Song 1, Part 2 | Song 2, Part 1 | Song 2, Part 2 | Song 2, Part 3 | Song 3 | Song 4, Part 1

The second section of Song 4 (Is 53.1-3) begins with the famous line “Who hath believed our report?”—which is to say, “What I’m about to tell you sounds unbelievable, I admit, but it’s true.”

We tend to imagine the display of God’s power as being flashy, and sometimes it is. Sometimes there’s thunder and lightning, and sometimes there are earthquakes, and sometimes Mount Saint Helens explodes into a devastating pyroclastic flow with a deafening roar. Sometimes the fountains of the great deep are broken up, and water covers the whole earth, and the Himalayas are thrust up to deoxygenated elevations.

God can do that.

But sometimes he speaks with a still, small voice. Sometimes the decayed acorn yields a tiny sprout that grows into a mighty oak whose roots split boulders, but silently and over decades.

Sometimes—no, most of the time—when God is working, hardly anybody notices.

And Isaiah, wonder in his voice, speaks of a time when God will show his power—reveal his mighty arm (Is 53.1)—through somebody who doesn’t look at all like what everybody’s expecting.

He’s just a tiny sprout, a root out of a dry ground (Is 53.2).

Dry ground isn’t supposed to sprout. But it will.

Earlier Isaiah has used a similar metaphor for this unbelievable development. He has spoken of “a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch … out of his roots” (Is 11.1), “a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people” (Is 11.10). There’s this old tree stump, see, that was cut down long ago, dry and visibly dead. And out of the middle of it will emerge a little green shoot: there was life in the old stump!

In his book Isaiah predicts that the kings of his day will be overturned, and their lines will end. That happens to Israel, the Northern Kingdom, in 722 BC when Assyria takes their leaders into exile, and to Judah, the Southern Kingdom, in 586 BC, when Babylon destroys Jerusalem, including the Temple, and takes its leadership captive as well. There’s eventually a return, but Judah has no king but Cyrus.

And then, for four centuries, God becomes mute. The heavens are silent. A series of foreigners rule the land—Persians, then Greeks, then Ptolemies, then Seleucids. And then Hasmoneans, who are Jews, but nowhere near competent or godly. And then, Romans.

But in the days of Caesar Augustus, when Cyrenius was governor of Syria, there was a carpenter or stonemason in Nazareth—can anything good come out of Nazareth?—who adopted the virgin-born (yes, miraculously virgin-born, but very quietly so) son of his fiancée and in so doing set in motion the renewal of the stump of Jesse, which had been cut off.

This boy grows up. As an adult he tells his home-town crowd who he really is, and nobody believes him. “Is not this the carpenter’s son?” (Mt 13.55). “He hath no form nor comeliness” (Is 53.2).

And it gets even more unbelievable. “He is despised and rejected of men” (Is 53.3); the religious leaders, the most knowledgeable and respected men of our people, say he breaks the Law of Moses, and they have him arrested, and they beat him, and they turn him over to the Romans for execution.

There’s nothing about him to find admirable; in fact, as he is led out to execution, he is shockingly disfigured, grotesque, too horrible even to look at. (Remember Servant Song 3?)

Who would believe it?

Next time: Why?

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Introduction | Song 1, Part 1 | Song 1, Part 2 | Song 2, Part 1 | Song 2, Part 2 | Song 2, Part 3 | Song 3 |

The fourth Servant Song is the one everybody knows about, and I expect it would still be even if Handel hadn’t included so much of it in his oratorio Messiah. We teach verse 6 to all the children in Sunday school, and we hear much of the Song read at Christmas time and at Easter.

This is the longest of the Songs and is very much a climax to all that we have seen in the earlier ones. It is probably the clearest statement of the vicarious atonement in all the Old Testament; of course the Mosaic sacrificial system testifies to that, but it doesn’t speak directly of a final, perfect sacrifice as this passage does.

One peculiarity of this Song is its grammatical instability. There are constant shifts among past, present, and future tenses (Is 52.13-15; 53.2-3, 7, 10) and second and third persons (Is 52.14; 53.10). We can only speculate on the reason for this; it seems to me to indicate an extreme emotional state in the writer, a constant change of perspective perhaps indicating the apparent chaos of what he’s seeing and describing.

I suppose some people think the Song consists of just chapter 53, but it actually begins with the last paragraph of chapter 52, where verse 13 names the Servant directly. The Song consists of 5 sections (it’s too much to call them stanzas) of 3 verses each. The initial paragraph contrasts the Servant’s unimpressive early appearance with that which will eventually be revealed. The first three verses of chapter 53 focus more closely on the Servant’s humble appearance, while verses 4 through 6 speak of our sin, for which he is the substitute sacrifice. Verses 7 through 9 describe the sequence of his suffering, and the final three verses address God’s motivation in planning and directing the event.

Isaiah 52.13-15 is something of an umbrella section, summarizing all that is to follow. The Servant is introduced with honor, as one who “shall deal prudently” and who “shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high” (Is 52.13). So Isaiah begins with the end in mind.

But immediately he turns to the irony of the situation: the Servant appears in such a humble condition that “many were astonished at thee” (Is 52.14) due to the brutality that has been imposed on him; his face and his body are damaged beyond anything previously seen. While this might be hyperbole, it might not be, either.

Yet this graphic disfiguration is not accidental or without purpose; this is the very means by which “he shall sprinkle many nations” (Is 52.15). This phrasing may well puzzle the modern reader, but Isaiah’s hearers would instantly grasp its meaning. The sprinkling of blood was an inherent part of the Mosaic sacrificial system; in an ordinary sacrifice the priest would sprinkle the blood of the sacrificed animal on the sides of the altar (e.g. Le 1.5, 11), and on the annual Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) the high priest would enter the Holy of Holies and sprinkle the blood of a bull and a goat upon the Mercy Seat, the solid gold covering of the Ark of the Covenant (Le 16.14-16). This was Israel’s holiest day, and the sprinkling was that day’s holiest act.

And now the Servant will extend this sprinkling, this cleansing, this forgiveness, far beyond the Temple to extend over “many nations.” This of course echoes statements in the earlier Songs (Is 42.1, 4, 6; 49.1, 6, 12) that the farthest nations of the earth will come under the umbrella of his salvation.

And the result will be that kings will be awed to silence by his presence and his work. Again this repeats an earlier theme (Is 49.7). Their awe will spring from the fact that this One is like no one or nothing they have ever seen before.

The next three sections of this Fourth Song, all of which are more familiar to us, will expand on these ideas. We’ll get to the second section next time.

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Introduction | Song 1, Part 1 | Song 1, Part 2 | Song 2, Part 1 | Song 2, Part 2 | Song 2, Part 3

The third Servant Song is the shortest of the four (Is 50.4-9) but is no less informative, giving us an intimate look at the mind of the Servant as he faces his accusers. The entire Song is in the first person; the Servant himself speaks throughout.

As we’ll see, this Song strengthens our conviction that the Servant is the Christ—an individual person, with a unique relationship with God, and with unusual abilities even as a man.

The six verses of the Song form three sections (it may be too strong to call them stanzas) of two verses each. In the first he describes God’s empowerment; in the second, his own response; and in the third, his confidence in God’s eventual deliverance.

God’s Empowerment

In this Song the Servant repeatedly refers to God as “the LORD God,” or “Yahweh Elohim” (Is 50.4, 5, 7, 9). This speaks of God as the personal, ever-present, promise-keeping one. He and the Servant have a close personal relationship.

This God has equipped the Servant in two particular ways. First, he has given him the ability to speak effectively—“the tongue of the learned” (Is 50.4). This recalls the statement in the Second Song that God “has made my mouth like a sharp sword” (Is 49.2). I note that Jesus’ hearers bore testimony to the power of his speech (e.g. Jn 7.46). Second, God has given him an ear to hear (Is 50.4b-5). In context this seems to refer to the Servant’s determination to obey what God tells him; he immediately says, “and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back” (Is 50.5b). This is in direct contrast to the nation of Israel, described in the previous chapters as ones whose ears were not open, and who would not hear (e.g. Is 48.8).

The Servant’s Trusting Obedience

Even though the Servant is empowered to “speak a word in season to him that is weary” (Is 50.4), he faces hostile opposition—“smiters” who beat his back, those who “pluck off the hair” from his cheeks, and those who spit in his face (Is 50.6). This recalls his surprising statement in the previous Song, lamenting the appearance of failure (Is 49.4) and God’s statement that he is “one whom the nation abhors” (Is 49.7).  Again, it’s impossible not to think of Jesus’ trial by the Romans.

In the face of this abusive mistreatment, he is both passively accepting and actively enduring. He allows his tormentors to do what they want (Is 50.6), and he persists in endurance; he has “set [his] face like a flint” (Is 50.7) and will be neither “confounded” nor “ashamed,” because “the LORD God will help me.”

Confidence in Court

In the third section the scene changes from the torture chamber to the courtroom. As the Servant stands at the bar of judgment, he has an advocate who will gain his acquittal (Is 50.8); the Hebrew verb here speaks of a declaration of “not guilty,” a pronouncement of justification. The Servant repeats his earlier statement that “the LORD God will help me” but this time introduced with the intensifier “Behold!” As God had helped him through the torture session, he will help him now in the courtroom. In modern parlance, the Servant says, “Bring it!” His enemies, his adversaries, who wish to contend with him and condemn him, are comparatively insignificant; they will melt away and disappear (Is 50.9).

And so the picture of this Servant becomes ever more clear. He is not the nation of Israel, as he stands in contrast to them. He is uniquely empowered by God and obedient to his will. He endures torture with confident determination, complete trust in God. And God will demonstrate his guiltlessness and bring him through victorious.

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Introduction | Song 1, Part 1 | Song 1, Part 2 | Song 2, Part 1 | Song 2, Part 2

Now God’s reply to the Servant points him to the outcome of his assuredly successful mission: the eternal deliverance and joy of the people he is serving.

With perfect timing, God is already hearing and helping his Servant, and he will continue to do so (Is 49.8). For the rest of the Song he appears to be focusing on the Servant’s work with Israel rather than the Gentiles; note the phrase “covenant of the people” (cf. Is 49.5-6 and “his people” in verse 13)—though he does speak briefly here of the “establish[ment of] the earth.”

He has much to say about the outcome of that work.

He will return Israel to the land of its inheritance, which is currently desolate. We should note that while Isaiah is writing in the 700s BC (probably just before the Assyrians deported the leadership of the Northern Kingdom, Israel), his primary audience appears to be Judah, the Southern Kingdom, as they will experience captivity in Babylon some 150 years later. (Perhaps the clearest indication of this is his naming of Cyrus, the Persian who overthrew Babylon, in Is 44.28 and 45.1.)

So I think that here he is speaking to the Jews who will be exiled in Babylon, predicting their release and return from captivity. It is they who will reinhabit their currently desolate Promised Land (Is 49.8), who will be released from captivity and return to lush pasturelands (Is 49.9). They will live in comfort, out of the heat of the sun and next to an ample water supply, because the Lord will show mercy—end their deserved punishment—and lead them home (Is 49.10).

In language reminiscent of the famous passage in Isaiah 40—“make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low”—God promises that the road home will be smooth and straight (Is 49.11). God’s people will flow back to their land from the far corners of the earth (Is 49.12).

Here we see hints of something more than the return of Judahites from Babylon. Those returning from Babylon would naturally approach Israel from the north, as they follow the water supply of the Euphrates River along the Fertile Crescent. But some are said to come from the west—and since Israel’s western border is the Mediterranean Sea, I would assume that this would refer to people coming from the Mediterranean Basin. And then there’s the reference to “the land of Sinim.” To be frank, nobody knows where that is. Some aggressive interpreters see the root “Sino-,” which is used in the modern age to refer to China, but the Bible nowhere uses the term in this sense; indeed, this is the only occurrence of the word in Scripture. Some have suggested Syene, on the Nile in southern Egypt. Or it may be noteworthy that during the Wilderness Wanderings Israel spent time in “the Wilderness of Sin” (Ex 16.1; 17.1; Nu 33.11-12), somewhere south of the Land. But in the end, nobody knows. The most highly regarded Hebrew lexicon (HALOT for you Hebrew nerds) says simply, “unknown.”

The Song ends with a doxology (Is 49.13). Heaven and earth are called to praise God with singing, for he “hath comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted.”

This Second Song, then, notes the Servant’s apparent unimpressiveness, an idea that we’ll come across again in the remaining Songs. Yet it assures the Servant—and us—of his exalted status, even apparently ascribing deity to him, even as it assures us that his people, both Jewish and Gentile, will eventually live in a changed world, one changed significantly for the better.

We see a phenomenon here not uncommon elsewhere in prophecy, where there’s a near-term prediction (in this case, Judah’s return from Babylon) but also wording that seems to call for a fulfillment much farther into the future, even in the eschaton.

We’ll turn next time to the Third Song, the shortest one.

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Introduction | Song 1, Part 1 | Song 1, Part 2 | Song 2, Part 1

God responds to the Servant’s “complaint” in Isaiah 49.4 by laying out the cosmic scope of his mission and the certainty of God’s empowerment and his eventual success. These frustrations, he says, are but temporary and inconsequential.

He begins by saying that it is of no consequence that the Servant has not yet achieved his mission (Is 49.5); he has been designed from the womb to bring Jacob / Israel back into fellowship with God, and though that has not yet happened, It certainly will: the Servant will be glorious in God’s eyes, and God will be his strength; omnipotence guarantees his success.

So it will happen (Is 49.6); since God has been keeping Israel for himself, the nation is still around for the Servant to rescue. This use of the word preserved here is an example of a “divine passive”; God isn’t said to be the one who has preserved Israel, but it clearly isn’t the Servant who has done it, and no one other than God could be the one accomplishing it.

But God doesn’t stop with mere assurance; he explodes the horizon by taking the Servant’s success from the national to the cosmic. The Servant will bring light even to the Gentiles, and salvation “to the end of the earth.” He’s talking about the “coastlands” from the first Servant Song. The Servant’s work will enlighten the farthest peoples—in New Testament phrasing, “every kindred, tongue, people, and nation” (Re 5.9, 14.6). And this extensive work will not merely “enlighten”; it will save.

This level of success will of course reverse the current apparent misfortunes of the Servant. The God who has redeemed—purchased—Israel as has no other (he is Israel’s “Holy One”) will exalt this Servant, who is despised by nation and individual alike, to the point where kings and princes will bow down and worship (Is 49.7). This may mean simply that they will worship God for his deliverance of Israel and the Gentiles. But contextually it may be saying that the princes will worship the Servant.

Now this is a remarkable statement, given that God himself has said repeatedly that only he may be worshiped (Ex 20.3-5; 23.24; 34.14; Dt 5.9; 6.13). This same God will take a despised person to the point where earthly royalty will worship him.

Is this contradictory? I would rule out that possibly outright.

This Servant is clearly worthy of worship, though he doesn’t appear to be at the moment. He’s not Isaiah. He’s not the nation of Israel. He is God, distinct in some way from God the present speaker, and disguised in some way from human eyes.

For this Testament, a conundrum. But for those of us who benefit from New Testament revelation, a Second Person of the Godhead.

Yahweh, the uniquely faithful one, the uniquely unchanging one, will raise his Servant to that height, and why? Because “he shall choose thee.”

What a poignant statement, particularly in light of the Servant’s frustration as expressed in verse 4.

This section continues, I think, nearly to the end of the Song at verse 13. But there seems to be a bit of a turning point here, as God begins to point the Servant’s attention to the successful outcome of his mission, to the joyous future of those whom he is liberating.

We’ll look to that subsection in the next post.

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Introduction | Song 1, Part 1 | Song 1, Part 2

The second Servant Song appears in Isaiah 49. Again, scholars disagree about its precise location; some would limit it to the first 6 verses, some to the first 7, while others take it all the way to verse 13. I’ll note that the Servant is addressed directly at the end of verse 7, and again in 8 and 9. Verses 10-13 appear to describe those that the Servant will deliver, “the prisoners” and “them that are in darkness” from verse 9. So I see the Song as extending through verse 13.

In this Song, for the first time, the Servant speaks. He describes his commission in verses 1-3, and he responds to it in verse 4. Then he relates how God responded to his words (Is 49.5-12). The Song ends with praise as the whole earth rejoices in what God has done through his Servant (Is 49.13).

In this post we’ll look at the Servant’s words. I will confess that as I was memorizing these verses, I was flabbergasted. We’ll get to the reason for that in a minute.

Before the Servant describes his call from God, he calls all the earth to hear his words. In this opening section, he’s not going to tell us why his call deserves the attention of the whole earth—that will come a few verses later, in God’s speech—but we already know from the First Song that the Servant’s mission will deliver the Gentiles as well as the people of the Covenant (Is 42.1, 4, 6), so this doesn’t surprise us. Since “the isles” (distant coastlands) will be affected (Is 42.4), he calls them now to hear what he has to say (Is 49.1).

And then he describes his divine call (Is 49.2-3).

This call comes while he is still in the womb, “the bowels of [his] mother” (Is 49.1). As a Christian, I’m inclined to see the Servant as the Messiah—though for the sake of careful study, I’ve avoided actively advocating for that in the previous posts. But of course it’s hard to avoid seeing here a reference to the Virgin Birth of Jesus, and the extensive material in Matthew and Luke that presents Jesus’ divine calling from before he was born—indeed, before he was even conceived. This calling is revealed to Joseph once he becomes aware that his fiancée is pregnant (Mt 1.18-23), before that, of course, to Mary (Lk 1.26-38), as well as to Zacharias (Lk 1.5-17, esp v 17), and to Elizabeth (Lk 1.39-45, esp v 43), the parents of John the Baptist.

And what, exactly, is the Servant’s call?

God has equipped him for special service; he is like a sharpened weapon, a sword or an arrow, to be sent forth and accomplish his mission effectively (Is 49.2). He is God’s Servant, and he will be successful in making God’s glory obvious (Is 49.3).

I note that here the Servant is called “Israel.” This seems to favor the standard Jewish interpretation, that Israel is the means by which God will bless the world and demonstrate his glory. Yet just 2 verses later, God will say that this Servant “will bring Jacob again to him” (Is 49.5). Readers of the Bible know that “Israel” is just another name for the biblical Jacob, which became the national name of Jacob’s descendants. Since the two names describe the same person / nation, how can the Servant, Israel, bring Israel back to God? It seems that even the context of verse 3 implies an individual, not national, deliverer.

Verse 4 is shocking. The Servant says,

Then I said, I have laboured in vain,
I have spent my strength for nought, and in vain:
Yet surely my judgment is with the Lord,
And my work with my God.

I’m flabbergasted. The Servant is expressing frustration, recognizing his own failure and depending on God to justify him and his work. This raises all kinds of questions, especially if the Servant is the Christ.

Let me put it bluntly: did Jesus have bad days? Did he confess thoughts like this to the Father in those long nights of solitary prayer? We know that Jesus did not exercise his divine omniscience during his earthly ministry (Mk 13.32), but relied on his Father to supply the knowledge that he needed (Jn 5.19, 30; 2.25). Did this dependency sometimes frustrate him?

Or is he simply saying that in his eventual death, he will apparently fail, as far as the world’s perspective is concerned? But he says that he said these words.

We are delving into matters that are far beyond us.

In response to this apparent cry of anguish, the Father responds. We’ll deal with that next time.

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Introduction | Song 1, Part 1

I noted in the previous post that some analysts end the first Servant Song with verse 4. I agree with those who posit a second stanza, which extends through verse 9. My reason for that is simple; verse 6 continues the singular form with which the chapter began (though it switches from 3^rd person to 2^nd). You can tell that “you” in verse 6 is singular if you’ll check the KJV; that version uses the archaic forms “thou” and “thee,” which consistently are singular in form and thus translate singular forms in the underlying Hebrew.

Verse 7 continues addressing the singular object and speaks of his mission in ways that the later Servant Songs will as well. So I’d say this first Song has a second stanza, verses 5-9.

There’s a second question: who is the Servant? Traditionally Jewish scholars have identified Israel as the Servant, while Christians have seen him as the Christ. A few interpreters think he’s simply the prophet Isaiah. This early in our survey I’m not ready to give my position, since we have little data to work with in just the 4 verses of the first stanza. I will note that Isaiah seems to be an unlikely prospect, since the first stanza speaks of him establishing justice around the world (Is 42.4), and Isaiah himself clearly did not do that. This second stanza seems to rule out Israel, since the Servant is said to be given “for a covenant of the people” (Is 42.6), and it seems unlikely that Israel would be given to Israel. But for now we’ll withhold judgment and keep looking for evidence in the text.

This second stanza begins with a proclamation about God, the one speaking: He’s the Creator and maintainer of heaven and earth and all it contains (Is 42.5). The stanza later repeats this idea (Is 42.8), in what literary analysts would call an “inclusio”: this Creator God is greater than all other gods, and he calls himself YHWH. Most English translations render this personal name, I think unfortunately, as “the LORD” (note the small caps). So the Master of this Servant is infinitely great, yet one who seeks a relationship with his people and remains ever-present with them. Evidence of this greatness extends into the next verse (Is 42.9): God has kept all his promises to this point, and he makes further promises about the future, because he sees and knows it perfectly.

Between these two bookend statements God reveals something of his relationship with the Servant as well as the Servant’s mission. Yahweh has called the Servant and will be present with him to make him successful in the accomplishment of his mission (Is 42.6), which will involve not only the covenant people Israel, but the Gentiles as well.

And what is that mission? To bring light to the blind and freedom to the imprisoned (Is 42.7). We’re not given the details at this point: are these people literally or spiritually blind? Are they literally or spiritually in prison? Perhaps we’ll learn more in later Songs.

But what have we learned so far?

Someone, a “Servant,” is coming. He has a special relationship with the all-powerful and all-knowing God. He may appear less than impressive, but we must not underestimate him, for he is empowered by God and will certainly be successful in bringing justice to the whole earth.

This is a unique God, and a unique Servant. This is an earth-shaking change, and best of all, a change for the better. This is a message of hope to all who suffer injustice, who wonder if there is deliverance. The God who has done marvelous things for centuries will repair the brokenness of what we see, thereby putting in place a good and gracious future world.

We don’t know—yet, here in Song 1—when or how all this will come to pass. But we have our confidence boosted by the power and the record of success evidenced by the covenant-keeping and eternally consistent God.

Next time, a Second Song—and a longer one.

Photo by Mick Haupt on Unsplash

Introduction

Isaiah’s first Servant Song appears at the beginning of chapter 42. There’s some disagreement among scholars as to where precisely it ends; in fact, the precise references of all the Servant Songs are somewhat fuzzy. For the first song, many would limit it to the first 4 verses, while others would take it through verse 9—in which case the song has a second stanza. I decided to memorize the longer passage, so we’ll take two posts for this song, one for each stanza.

This first stanza is in the voice of God, addressing Isaiah’s audience (note the plural “you” in Is 42.9) and referring to the Servant in the third person: “Behold my servant” (Is 42.1). God begins describing with affection, in relational terms:

• God’s soul delights in him (Is 42.1).
• God has put his “spirit” upon him (Is 42.1).

I find it interesting that God speaks of both his own soul and his own spirit. Now, since God is not a human, the question of trichotomy—is he body, soul and spirit, or just body and soul?—does not apply to him. I’d suggest, then, that his use of both terms together may suggest that he is “all in” in his relationship with the Servant.

Would it be reading the New Testament back into the Old to find a trinitarian implication here?—that the soul is that of the Father, and the spirit is the distinct person of the Holy Spirit? That would lead us to conclude that the Servant is the “missing” third person of the Trinity, the Son.

My background in biblical theology inclines me to be cautious about seeing too much later revelation here, centuries before the incarnation, so I’ll leave that question open.

The rest of the stanza speaks of the Servant’s task—his calling, if you will—and the manner in which he carries it out. Note the repeated theme of justice:

• “He shall bring forth justice to the Gentiles” (Is 42.1);
• “He shall bring forth justice unto truth” (Is 42.3);
• He shall “set justice in the earth” (Is 42.4).

The Servant’s primary task, apparently, is to overturn the injustice of the world system and make it a place where justice is done. We’re not told yet how he will do this, but those of us who’ve read the rest of the story can see easily where this is going.

The stanza ends with several descriptors of the Servant’s manner. We find that manner surprising, for a couple of reasons. First, he’s presented as mild-mannered; and frankly, mild-mannered approaches don’t typically overturn injustice, especially given the commitment of world rulers to maintaining their own power structures. But this one

• will “not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street” (Is 42.2);
• “A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench” (Is 42.3).

A second surprise comes when we read the third description of his manner:

• “He shall not fail nor be discouraged” (Is 42.4).

This seems to come right out of the blue. Here is someone who has God’s spirit upon him, who is called and empowered to overturn unjust earthly power structures and establish justice all across the earth, reorganizing even Gentile states (Is 42.1), the “isles” (distant coastlands) over which “his law” shall reign (Is 42.4)—so why would we be concerned that he might fail or be discouraged? Where did that come from?

In this first stanza of this first Servant Song, then, we find that the Servant is empowered by God, and in a special relationship with him, and therefore able to do world-shaking things in the cause of justice. Yet, in some way, we’re supposed to be surprised by that. This is a theme we’ll see again in the Songs.

I can’t fail to mention that this stanza shows up in the New Testament, in reference to Christ’s earthly ministry, and specifically in connection to what scholars call the “messianic secret.” Jesus sometimes tells his followers, and the recipients of his miracles, not to tell anyone what he has done. Matthew tells us that he did that in order to fulfill the prophecy of this stanza (Mt 12.15-21); part of his mission, apparently, is to appear not as a conquering king, but as someone who seems not to have any likelihood to be who he really is.

Why? Well, we’re not told. But it occurs to me that God delights in those who come to him by faith, and it doesn’t take much faith to trust in a conquering king on a white stallion. But a Jewish carpenter? from Nazareth (Jn 1.46)? Now, that’s another story.

Photo by Mick Haupt on Unsplash