(When I taught my two year long Bible study on Isaiah, I used The Pulpit Commentary Volume 10: Isaiah edited by H.D.M. Spence and Joseph S. Exell to give me a starting point and rough outline of the material covered in the chapters. In this article, when you read the phrase “my commentary”, I am referring to this volume.)
This chapter is broken into two large sections.
Verses 1-12: The Servant of the Lord is reintroduced and we learn more about who He is and what His mission is.
Verses 13-26: Zion is grieving and despondent in the present, but the Lord comforts her.
Before we begin reading in this chapter, let’s review what we have already learned about this person called “the Servant of the Lord” or “the Servant of Jehovah.” The person and mission of the servant was first introduced in Isaiah 42:1-7.
I want you to keep these earlier verses in mind as we study our current chapter.
Read Isaiah 49:1. This verse is packed full of interesting stuff! Since we know “the end of the story” and know that Isaiah is speaking of Jesus, the Messiah, here, we have an advantage over the Jews of Isaiah’s day when they heard these statements for the first time. In the previous chapter we saw that God was only speaking to the Jews, particularly to the Jews in exile. Read Isaiah 48:1. Now the audience has changed and what the Lord is saying through Isaiah is for all people, Jews and Gentiles alike. “Listen to me, you islands; hear this, you distant nations:”
The Servant would be someone important to all peoples, not just to the Jews. Isaiah goes on (speaking as the Servant) to say: “Before I was born the Lord called me; from my birth he has made mention of my name”. Jesus’ name and office was given to Him before he was even born, first to His mother Mary. Read Luke 1:31-33. Then later to his stepfather Joseph. Read Matthew 1:20-21. How that must have bewildered His parents to be told by God that Jesus was to “save his people from their sins!” For as God-fearing Jews they knew the Law and what the Law said, that only God could forgive sins. Read Luke 5:20-25. We know that Joseph died before Jesus, so Joseph most likely never came to understand who his stepson truly was on earth (though that must have been a joyous reunion in Heaven!) but Mary, after Jesus died and rose again, would have finally understood how her little baby was in truth God, and the ultimate sacrifice for her sins.
Read Isaiah 49:2. We have two general images here, one of the Servant being like a weapon (a sharpened sword and a polished arrow) and of being hidden or concealed. The first image of a weapon is one many of us are familiar with “my mouth like a sharpened sword.” The author of Hebrews refers to the Word of God being like a sword. Read Hebrews 4:12-13. The words of Jesus pierce the hearts of people as no other words can, deep into the soul, where it can be hard to forget them. This image of a sword coming out of the Lord’s mouth is repeated five times in revelation. Read Revelation 1:16.
A polished arrow can pierce even deeper, and cut even keener than a sword, in that one particular spot that needs to be lanced. We don’t have other examples of the Lord’s words being like an arrow, but we do have negative images of how a deceitful man’s tongue can be like an arrow. Read Proverbs 25:18, Jeremiah 9:8.
We have examples in the New Testament of how Jesus’ words cut to the quick with people, causing many people to come and follow Him, others to reject and hate him. Let’s review what happens when He preaches in the synagogue in His hometown, Nazareth. Note He preaches from Isaiah 61:1-2. Read Luke 4:14-30.
Note what happens at the end of this section in Luke, He walks miraculously through the crowd unharmed. This fits in with the other part of what we are studying here in Isaiah 49:2, that the Servant will be hidden in the “shadow of his hand” (in God’s hand) and concealed in the quiver. This indicates that the Servant will be protected from His enemies (as we just saw Jesus was) and/or not revealed until the proper time. My pastor actually talked about this second aspect while preaching on the passage John 16:16-18. My pastor explained how the disciples did not understand what Jesus was trying to tell them, that Jesus had to die, but would rise again. Jesus’ true purpose and calling was hidden from them, from everyone, really, until after the resurrection. Once His true purpose was revealed, then the arrow of His words would be even more effective, and would no longer rest unused in the quiver.
Read Isaiah 49:3. Here we confirm that it is the Servant of the Lord who is speaking. My commentary makes an interesting note here. It says that we should not read “Israel” here as literally Israel (that is the nation), but rather as explaining that the Servant will be the new ideal Israel, since the Servant will succeed where the Jews failed. “in whom I will display my splendor.” The Servant will be the instrument in how God will be glorified. Read John 17:1-5. Verse 4 in this section tells us how Jesus brought glory to God, “by completing the work you gave me to do.”
Read Isaiah 49:4. This verse shows the humanity of the Servant, that He would despair and feel that all His work and sacrificing was in vain. He would face strong opposition and apparent failure. This verse is part of the suffering servant theme we will see more in the next passage. The Servant would not be recognized for who He was and for what He was doing and He would feel despondent because of it. Read Matthew 23:37-39, 26:36-39. Here in the Garden of Gethsemane we see Jesus deeply sorrowing and asking the Father whether He must indeed go through the pain of death, but ultimately accepting that He must do the will of His Father. He knew that ultimately “Yet what is due me is in the Lord’s hand, and my reward is with my God.” The Servant knew He would be glorified by the Father for what He would do, in being obedient unto death.
Read Isaiah 49:5. We’ve seen the term “formed me in the womb” before, in Isaiah 44:2. There God is clearly speaking of the people of Israel. Here, in 49, we know from the context that God is speaking of Jesus. When I read this verse, however, it has a special meaning, since we know that God did literally and supernaturally form Jesus in Mary’s womb. Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus goes on here to say that one of His purposes was to “bring Jacob back to him and gather Israel to himself”, where “him” and “himself” is speaking of God the Father. As Christians we often forget that Christianity came out of Judaism. Jesus was a Jew. His first 12 apostles were Jews. The original church was a church of Jews. When Peter preaches his first sermon at Pentecost, he preaches to Jews. Read Acts 2:1-12, 36-41.
Read Isaiah 49:6. But God goes on and says it is not just enough for the Jews to come back in right relationship, He loves the Gentiles as well; Jesus will bring salvation to the Gentiles, too. This is not the first time in Isaiah God has mentioned that the Gentiles would be included in His grace. Read Isaiah 42:6. Though Jesus ministered primarily to the Jews while He walked the earth, He did also heal a Syro-Phoenician woman and a Roman soldier’s servant, as well as preach to Samaritans and some Greeks. Read John 12:20-22. Paul, a Jew, was known as the apostle to the Gentiles, though it was the Lord’s disciples who were first given what was become known as the Great Commission. Read Matthew 28:18-20.
This was Israel’s original purpose, spelled out way back in Genesis. Read Genesis 22:17-18.
To be continued…
Source
H.D.M. Spence and Joseph S. Exell (editors). The Pulpit Commentary Volume 10: Isaiah
