BIBLIOTHECA SACRA 139 (554) (April
1982): 129-45.
[Copyright
© 1982 Dallas Theological Seminary; cited with permission;
digitally
prepared for use at
Isaiah’s Songs of the Servant
Part 2:
The Commission of the
Servant in Isaiah 49:1-13
F. Duane Lindsey
In
the first Servant song (Isa. 42:1-9) Yahweh conveyed a
distant prophecy of His Servant who will bring
salvation and
establish a proper order on the
entire earth.1 The passage in-
troduced the Servant and
predicted His faithfulness in accom-
plishing the mission to which He
was divinely called. Scarcely a
hint was given of the pathway of suffering to be
trodden by
the Servant on the way to His completed mission.
The task
itself involved mediating a
New Covenant with
ing a just order to prevail
on the whole Gentile world.
The
second Servant song (Isa. 49: 1-13) brings out the
same basic concepts as the first poem, though
the establish-
ment of a worldwide
righteous order is not stressed. Instead
greater emphasis is placed on the physical and
spiritual res-
toration of the nation
second song is the apparent initial failure of
the Servant in His
mission to
from Yahweh to bring salvation to the Gentiles.
The
second Servant song begins a new division (49:1-
57:21) in Isaiah’s Book of Comfort (chaps.
40-66). It is note-
worthy that this division also contains the
remaining Servant
songs (50:4-11; 52:13; 53:12).
Contrary to much critical
opinion,2 the Servant songs seem
to form the backbone of the
structure of this division. Each song begins a
cycle that cul-
minates in a powerful message
of salvation.3 For example, the
129
130 Bibliotheca Sacra—April-June 1982
second song culminates in the proclamation of
salvation to
The
message of the second song is that the rejected Ser-
vant will bring salvation to
the Gentiles and ultimately
will restore
sizes not only the Servant’s expanded commission
to the Gen-
tiles but also His ultimate success in
fulfilling His initial mis-
sion to
first song (42:1-9), the initial strophe of the
second song
(49:1-6) is a prophetic report by the Servant,
followed by two
proclamations of salvation (v. 7; vv. 8-12) in
which Yahweh
addresses the Servant, climaxed by an
eschatological hymn by
the prophet (v. 13). The second Servant poem
includes these
facts: (1) The Servant reports to the nations
that Yahweh has
expanded His ministry to the Gentiles in view of
his rejection
by
bring to completion both the Gentile and Jewish
aspects of the
Servant’s mission (49:7-12). (3) The prophet
calls on all cre-
ation to praise Yahweh who
thus comforts His people (49:13).
The Servant Reports His Expanded
to the Gentiles (49:1-6)
1Listen
to me, you islands;
here this you distant nations:
Before
I was born the LORD called me;
from my birth he has made mention of my name.
2He
made my mouth like a sharpened sword,
in the shadow of his hand he hid me;
he made me into a polished arrow
and concealed me in his quiver.
3He
said to me, “You are my servant,
4But
I said, “I have labored to no purpose;
I
have spent my strength in vain and for nothing.
Yet
what is due me is in the LORD’s hand,
and my reward is with my God.”
5And
now the LORD says—
he who formed me in the womb to be his servant
to bring Jacob back to him
and gather
for I am honored in the eyes of the LORD
and my God has been my strength—
6he
says:
“It
is too small a thing for you to be my servant
to restore the tribes of Jacob
The Commission of the Servant in Isaiah 49:1-13 131
and bring back those of
I
will also make you a light for the Gentiles,
that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the
earth.”4
The
Servant reports to the nations His expanded commis-
sion by Yahweh to minister
to them in view of His rejection by
belongs to the “general
category of the prophetic call narrative
…in which the prophet seeks to authenticate his
claim to
speak on God’s behalf”5
(cf. Amos
several points of similarity between the
prophetic call of Jere-
miah and this call of the
Servant6 (cf. Jer. 1:5). Melugin, how-
ever, holds that “the poem does not make it
clear whether it is
the commissioning of a
prophet or of a king or of some other
kind of official.”7 Even if it can be
demonstrated that the
genre of the passage is the report of a prophet,
Whybray is
incorrect in maintaining that the Servant is “Deutero-Isaiah”
himself.8 Rather, it must be
contended with Blocher that:
...apart
from the third Servant Song [Isa. 50:4-11], and the
kindred prophecy of Isaiah 61, this kind of I-discourse is
found
nowhere else in the entire book of Isaiah. When the prophet
tells
us about events in his own life…the style, mood, and
situation
are altogether different. The kind of I-discourse which we
have in
the second Song is found only when God is the speaker. God—
and the Servant.9
The
development of the paragraph (49: 1-6) indicates that:
(1) the Servant directs
attention to His call, preparation, pres-
ervation, and commission by
Yahweh (49:1-3); (2) the Servant
makes reference to His past
confession of apparent failure and
to His past (or present?) affirmation of trust
in God (49:4); and
(3) the Servant relates the enlargement of His
call to bring
salvation to the Gentiles (49:5-6).
THE SERVANT SPEAKS OF HIS DIVINE CALL AND
COMMISSION (49:1-3)
The
Servant announces to the nations His prenatal call
by Yahweh
(49:1).
The Servant introduces the announcement
to His prenatal call by Yahweh with a summons to
the nations
—“Listen to me, you islands; hear this you
distant nations” (v.
1a) —for “the servant speaks with absolute
authority, com-
manding the world to listen.”10
The speaker (“me”) is the “Ser-
vant” of verse 6, identical
with the Servant of 42:1-9. The
132 Bibliotheca Sacra -April-June 1982
worldwide Gentile audience is
addressed as “islands”11 and
“distant nations.” The Servant then refers to
His prenatal call:
“Before I was born the LORD called me; from my
birth he has
made mention of my name” (v. 1b). The Hebrew
employs vivid
imagery in speaking of the process of birth. The
phrases could
be translated literally “from the womb” and “from
the belly of
my mother.” Young over-optimistically suggests, “It
is the refer-
ence to ‘my mother’ that
makes it clear that the speaker is the
Messiah.”l2
Yet it is significant that there is no mention of Mes-
siah’s human father in the Old
Testament (cf. Gen. 3:15; Ps.
22:9). The idea of calling before birth clearly
indicates sovereign
choice, but to say that such calling is
equivalent with predes-
tination (i.e., pretemporal, rather than just prenatal choice) is a
theological rather than an
exegetical conclusion which may or
may not be implied in this text. “He has made
mention of my
name” is literally “He caused my name to be
remembered.” It is
not so much a naming process as a designating
event, pointing
to the Servant’s office
and vocation.l3
The Servant affirms His preparation and
preservation by
Yahweh
(49:2).
The first and third lines of this verse employ
synonymous parallelism to indicate the
preparation of the Ser-
vant—“He made my mouth like
a sharpened sword” (simile)
and “he made me into a polished arrow”
(metaphor). The con-
notation of preparation is seen in that Yahweh “made”
the
Servant these things. Sharpening and polishing
also imply a
process of preparation. Similarly, it is
possible to speak of the
Servant’s gifts in terms of His speaking
ability. The Servant’s
“mouth” is probably a metonymy for his “words”
which are
described under the figure of a sharpened sword
as cutting or
effective. The Servant functions as “the
mouthpiece of
Yahweh,”l4 the sword being a figure
for the revelation of God
(cf. Eph. 6:17; Heb. 4:12; Rev. 1:16). North
thus maintains
that “the ‘sharp’ word [sic] of the Servant is the word of a
prophet rather than the edict
of a king.”15 Thus “the word of
the LORD is a formidable weapon, and it is
because the Ser-
vant’s task is arduous and
dangerous that Yahweh does not
send him to it until he has been properly
equipped to face it.”l6
The “polished arrow” is a less common figure
(cf. Jer.
but it seems to indicate either the piercing or
the far-ranging
effect of the Servant’s prophetic word: “God has
endowed the
Servant’s word with the power to penetrate (a ‘sharp
sword’)
and to range far and wide (‘a polished arrow’).”l7
The Commission of the Servant in Isaiah 49:1-13 133
The
second and fourth lines of verse 2 —“in the shadow of
his hand he hid me;…and concealed
me in his quiver”—further
indicate the Servant’s relationship to Yahweh
who prepared Him
in terms of preservation by Yahweh. But a
question arises as to
the purpose of the preservation. Is it a
concealment until the
proper time? Or does it simply indicate God’s
care and pro-
tection? If the former, it
might refer to the period of over thirty
years in Jesus’ preparation
for public ministry,18 or to His pres-
ent session in heaven
during the interadvent period as He
awaits the Second Advent (cf.
Rev. 1:16, where He is described
as having a sharp sword coming out of His
mouth). On the
other hand “to be hidden by the Lord means to be
under his
care and protection (cf. Psalms 17:8; 27:5;
31:20; 64:2; Jer.
36:26).”19 Perhaps both elements—concealment
as well as
protection—are included in Yahweh’s preservation
of the
Servant.
The Servant reports His divine commission as
the true
divine call, preparation, and preservation, the
Servant con-
tinues His report to the
Gentiles with a rehearsal of the words
of divine commission. “He said to me, ‘You are
my servant,
genre appears to move at this point from the
call of the prophet
to the designation of a king (cf. Isa. 42:1-4;
Ps. 2:7). This in-
volves no inconsistency since
the promises concerning the
Davidic Messiah (beginning in 2 Sam. 7) and the
prophet like
Moses (cf. Deut.
of Jesus Christ, already began to intertwine in
Isaiah’s Servant
songs.
On
the surface, the statement “You are my servant,
explicitly identifies Yahweh’s Servant as the
nation
Isa. 41:8-16; 42:18-25; 43:1-13; 44:1-4;
48:20-21). However,
an apparent contradiction then arises in verses
5-6 in which
the Servant’s task is to bring
land. This apparent contradiction leads Kelley
to exclaim: “The
elusiveness of the Servant’s identity is nowhere
more apparent
than in this second Servant Song.”20
Some
scholars remove the problem by removing the term
“
gards “
ness to the collective interpretation of the
Servant, one gloss
among the many that seek to interpret the text.”21
But this
134 Bibliotheca Sacra -April-June 1982
view is contradicted by the manuscript evidence
which clearly
supports inclusion of the term “
Those
who retain “
two interpretive paths: (1) “
this passage is pictured corporately under the
figure of an indi-
vidual servant, or (2) an
individual servant is here designated by
the generic name “
says that “
very much as we say that the first mission of
the Church is to
the Church.”23 But, as Leupold responds, “this seems too much
like exhorting a nation to draw itself up by its
own
bootstraps.”24 Furthermore, the vivid
detail in the description
of the Servant as an individual “goes beyond
possibilities of
metaphor”25 (e.g., the expression, “from
the bowels of my
mother,” v. 1, AV).
The
view of Young that “
true people of God, the whole body of the
redeemed as mem-
bers under the Head, the
Messiah,”26 is just as deficient as the
similar view of Alexander.27
Birks refuted that view over a cen-
tury ago as a view “opposed
to the plain words of the text….
For the Church is no single person, has no
mother, was not
named by prophecy before
birth, does not restore
receiver, not the giver of salvation.”28
Thus the view that
“
harmonizes most satisfactorily with the passage
and context.
The
glorification of Yahweh is indicated as the ultimate
purpose in the commission of the Servant—“in
whom I will
display my splendor.” While the Servant speaks
in verse 5 of
His honor and success in the eyes of Yahweh, in
verse 3
Yahweh directs attention to the Servant’s
glorification. Wester-
mann avers that it is
expected of a servant to glorify his mas-
ter, not of the master to
glorify the servant, and views the glor-
ification as “a hidden and
paradoxical one; partly because the
lord’s [sic] purpose is to glorify himself at the hands of the
Servant, and partly because only the opposite of
glory can be
discerned in the Servant.”30 The
ultimate resolution of this
paradox is discerned in the
distinction between the Servant’s
distinct accomplishments at His two advents, the
First Advent
culminating in “the sufferings of
Christ” and the Second Advent
manifesting “the glories that would follow” (1
Pet.
glorification is manifested in part by the
Servant’s ultimate
acceptance by Gentile kings and princes (Isa.
49:7).
The Commission of the Servant in Isaiah 49:1-13 135
THE SERVANT CONFESSES HIS APPARENT FAILURE BUT
AFFIRMS
HIS FAITH IN GOD (49:4)
This
present acknowledgment by the Servant of His past
confession of apparent failure and of His past
(or present?)
affirmation of trust in God possibly reflects
several motifs of
the thanksgiving or declarative
praise psalm.31 Westermann
calls it a “lament of a mediator.”32
It is not clear whether the
confession of trust (v. 4b) is a part of the
past lament (the NIV
includes it within the quotation that follows “I
said”) or a pres-
ent statement in contrast with
the past lament. In either case
the context implies a continuing confidence in
God on the part
of the Servant.
The Servant reports His apparent past failure
(49:4a).
The Servant’s affirmation of confidence in God
(v. 4b) comes in
the wake of His reference
to apparent failure regarding the
fruitfulness of His mission to
have labored to no purpose;
I have spent my strength in vain
and for nothing’” (v. 4a). Though these words
may reflect dis-
couragement or despondency on the
part of the Servant, they
do not reflect doubt or defeat,
for the Servant retains His confi-
dence in Yahweh despite difficulties
(cf. 42:4; Ps. 22). The
adversative “but” contrasts the high calling and
remarkable
abilities of the Servant (vv. 1-3) with His
seemingly disappoint-
ing results in carrying out
His task (v. 4a). The passage is remi-
niscent of the situation of
Jeremiah, the weeping prophet (cf.
Jer.,
Christ on the cross.
The Servant affirms His confidence in God
(49:4b). The
Servant’s apparent failure does not abort His
expression of
confidence in God. “Yet what is due me is in the
LORD’s hand
[lit., “my right is with Yahweh”], and my regard
is with my
God” (v. 4b). The word translated “what is due
me” (NIV) or “my
judgment” (AV) is yFiPAw;mi the word so significant in the first
Servant song.33 It is tempting to
translate and interpret FPAw;mi
here in a sense identical
with its usage in 42:1,3,4 (referring
to the Servant’s activity in establishing a just
order on the
whole earth).34
Yet it is probably “best to preserve the judicial
sense of Fpwm that the verdict of Yahweh on the service of the
Servant will be a favorable one.”35
Thus “vindication” (or “just
reward”) would be an appropriate translation. The
parallel with
Ytil.AfuP;, meaning “reward” or “recompense”
(i.e., the fruit or re-
136 Bibliotheca Sacra -April-June 1982
sult of His labor; cf. Lev.
19:13; Prov.
supports this meaning. In
further support of this view, Pieper
points out that “the suffix
[the pronoun “my” in English]
shows that this right is a
personal prerogative of the
Servant.”36 In contrast with the
apparent failure of His mis-
sion, the Servant voices His
deepest trust that Yahweh will
confirm and vindicate His work
by granting His Servant ulti-
mate success (cf. Isa. 50:8;
53:11-12). Although the dark sha-
dow of the Cross apparently
blacks out the accomplishment of
God’s purpose, the brilliant splendor of the
crown reflects the
ultimate success of the Servant.
THE SERVANT RELATES HIS ENLARGED CALL TO BRING
SALVATION TO THE GENTILES (49:5-6)
Rather
than resulting in the discontinuation of His mis-
sion, the apparent failure
of the Servant leads on to an enlarge-
ment of His mission to
include all nations. While the Gentile
mission of the Servant is an advancement in the
task of the
Servant to glorify God and follows on His
rejection by the Jews
(cf. Acts
God’s purpose for
The Servant affirms Yahweh’s purpose to
restore
spiritually
through Him (49:5).
Before rehearsing the enlarged
call (“And now the LORD says…”) concerning the
Gentile mis-
sion, the Servant
recapitulates and evidently reaffirms
Yahweh’s initial calling and purpose to bring
salvation to
bring Jacob back to him and gather
I am honored in the eyes of the LORD and my God
has been my
strength” (v. 5). Westermann justifiably calls
verse 5 “a longish
introduction” to the new commission
in verse 6.37 This em-
phasis on the originally
revealed purpose of God through the
Servant is not to introduce its nonfulfillment but rather to reaf-
firm its ultimate fulfillment. The Servant was
born to accom-
plish a certain divine
purpose and the power of God through
the Servant will not fail in the accomplishment
of that pur-
pose. MacRae’s
suggestion that the phrase “formed me in the
womb” possibly refers to the
virgin birth38 must be evaluated
in the light of one’s conclusion regarding the
birth process in
verse 1.
The
purpose of the Servant’s mission as stated in this
verse is spiritual —to bring
The Commission of the Servant in Isaiah 49:1-13 137
55:7; Jer. 4:1), not
to bring them back from Babylon.39 The
Hebrew text (i.e., Kethiv)
has the negative xlo, “not” (AV), which
has the same sound as the Ol, “to himself” (NIV and other
modern translations). Ol is probably to be
preferred, having the
support of IQIsa and some other
manuscripts and versions.
The resulting synonymous parallelism between “bring
back to
him” and “gather to himself” also gives a
smoother under-
standing of the passage. However, if xlo is correct, then the verb
probably has the sense of “sweep away”—“that
not be swept away.”40
The
verse concludes with an assurance of the Servant’s
vindication before Yahweh, probably anticipating
His ultimate
success in His mission to
The Servant affirms Yahweh’s enlarged call
(49:6). The
Servant affirms Yahweh’s enlarged call not only
for the Servant
to restore
tion to the Gentiles
spiritually. The Servant first quotes
Yahweh’s commission to Him regarding an enlarged
mission to
the Gentiles. Yahweh answers the Servant’s “discouragement”
(v. 4a) with a call to greater responsibility
(cf., Jer. 12:5;
21; 1 Kings 19:9-18). The enlarged task is
related to the initial
task regarding
servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring
back those of
The
phrase “tribes of Jacob” implies political organization
and so a political task, that is, restoring the
tribes of Jacob
back to the position of
dignity they do not now enjoy.41 As verse
5 identified the spiritual aspect of the Servant’s
task toward
the physical/political aspect
of the mission—to bring
back to the land. Yet even this is “too small a
thing,” that is, it is
insignificant in comparison with the greater
task of bringing
salvation to the whole world. This neither
belittles nor annuls
the Servant’s mission to
task…does not exclude the
lesser.”42 Yahweh promises the
Servant success in both His Jewish and Gentile
missions
(49:6-12).
Young
sees this work of restoration as first alluding to the
return from exile and finally referring to “the
spiritual restora-
tion of [spiritual]
Christ.”43 His conclusion that “nowhere
does the Bible teach
that the entire physical
138 Bibliotheca Sacra -April-June 1982
nized with a proper
understanding of Romans 11:26-27. At the
Second-Advent judgment on living Israelites
(described in Matt.
25:1-30; Ezek. 20:37-38; Mal. 3:2-3, 5), the
unbelievers will be
purged out of
regenerate nation
beginning of the millennial
kingdom.45
The
enlarged mission to the Gentiles climaxes the Ser-
vant’s commission from Yahweh—“I
will also make you a light
for the Gentiles, that you may bring my
salvation to the ends of
the earth” (v. 6b). “Light” is here parallel
with “salvation” (cf.
Isa. 42:6). Yahweh’s initiative is clearly
indicated in the verb (“I
will also make you”), as seen by Young, “God has
appointed the
servant to this work and determined that he should
carry it
out.”46
Yahweh
Promises a Completely Fulfilled
to the Servant (49:7-12)
7This
is what the LORD says—
the Redeemer and Holy One of
to him who was despised and abhorred by the nation,
to the servant of rulers:
“Kings
will see you and arise,
princes will see and bow down,
because of the LORD, who is
faithful,
the Holy
One of Israel, who has chosen you.”
8This is what the LORD
says:
“In the time of my favor
I will answer you,
and in the
day of salvation I will help you;
I will keep you and will
make you
to be a
covenant for the people,
to restore the land
and to
assign its desolate inheritances,
9to say to the captives, ‘Come
out,’
and to
those in darkness, ‘Be free!’
They will
feed beside the roads
and find
pasture on every barren hill.
10They will neither hunger
nor thirst.
nor will
the desert heat or the sun beat upon them.
He who has compassion on
them will guide them
and lead
them beside springs of water.
11I will turn all my
mountains into roads,
and my
highways will be raised up.
12See, they will come from
afar—
some from
the north, some from the west,
some from the region of Sinim.”
The Commission of the Servant in Isaiah 49:1-13 139
The
speaker in this unit is Yahweh (cf. v. 7a), the person
addressed is the Servant (cf. v.
7b),47 and the subject is the
ultimate success of the Servant with respect to
both
the Gentiles. Yahweh promises to His Servant
that He will ful-
fill both the Gentile and Jewish aspects of the
Servant’s mis-
sion—that the Gentiles will
worship Him (v. 7) and that
will be restored by Him (vv. 8-12). This twofold
fulfillment of
the Servant’s mission (Gentile and Jewish
aspects) corres-
ponds with the literary genre of the passage
which consists of
two oracles or announcements
of salvation—one concerning
the worship of the Gentiles (v. 7) and the other
regarding the
restoration of
unit is twofold: (1) Yahweh promises His
despised Servant that
the Gentiles will worship Him (v. 7) and (2)
Yahweh promises
His Servant that at the appointed time He will
restore
safety from all over the earth (vv. 8-12).
YAHWEH PROMISES HIS DESPISED SERVANT THAT THE
GENTILES WILL WORSHIP HIM (49:7)