ISAIAH 49 “God’s Ideal Servant Declares His Own Coming
And Works”
By
1.
INTRO
1.1.
In our last study, with
chapter 48 we finished up the previous section of the book of Isaiah which
began in chapter 41, and which dealt with prophesies concerning Judea in which
she would be taken captive by Babylon and then years later that a deliverer of
the nation would come along, whose name was foretold by Isaiah to be
Cyrus. In our study today, we saw that
chapter 48 was climactic for the section and dealt with the fact that after the
Judeans are allowed to return to their city and nation, that they will still
need to take ownership of their sin, realizing that they are in captivity
because they turned away and forsook the covenant of their God, going their own
way from the Lord, and that now they will need to realize all of the ways in
which they have fallen into sin, so that they might repent of their sins
1.1.1.
We saw that one of the keys
to our real growth as Christians and coming to the place where God can really
use our lives is when we also take ownership of our own sins, realize what our
sin has done in our life and the life of those around us, and we realize just
how wrong our life has been before the Lord, i.e. when we realize what God has
saved us from
1.2.
In our study today, we are
going to look at chapter 49 and see that in this chapter God’s ‘ideal servant’
who was introduced in chapter 42, now himself begins to proclaim his future
coming and works
1.2.1.
We will see in this chapter
how several aspects in the description of the ‘ideal servant’ convince us that
his identity could not be that of any prophet nor the nation of
1.2.2.
We will see how that Isaiah
now begins to reveal to us the ways in which God’s ‘ideal servant’ will be
called to come not as a conquering Messiah, at least not initially, but rather
to suffer for mankind
1.2.3.
We will concentrate upon the
hope that we have in Jesus the Messiah, the ‘ideal servant’ who will meet all
of our needs
2.
VS 49:1-3 - “1 Listen to Me, O islands, And
pay attention, you peoples from afar.
The Lord called Me from the womb;
From the body of My mother He named Me.
2 And He has made My mouth like a sharp sword; In the shadow of His hand He has concealed
Me, And He has also made Me a select arrow;
He has hidden Me in His quiver. 3
And He said to Me, “You are My Servant,
2.1.
In chapter 42, Isaiah first introduced God’s
Ideal Servant to us. There we saw that
He was the ‘ideal’ or ‘perfect’ servant, and that only Jesus Christ could qualify
to have the role that was prophesied about him.
There we saw that Isaiah was introducing us to the ‘ideal servant,’
however what is different here is that the ‘ideal servant’ is introducing
himself.
2.1.1.
Some have referred to Isaiah chapter 42 as a
biographical chapter concerning God’s ‘ideal servant,’ and this chapter as
being His ‘autobiographical’ chapter, since he is introducing himself and
telling us about his mission.
2.2.
God’s ‘ideal servant’ cries out to the
farthest reaches of the earth, the ‘islands,’ for them to hear and pay
attention to his declarations here.
2.3.
From the outset I want to say that there are
several things written in this chapter about God’s ‘ideal servant’ that lead us
to the conclusion that he could only be the Lord Jesus:
2.3.1.
He is called ‘the covenant’ of the Lord, he
does not introduce or inaugurate this covenant but says that He is the very
covenant himself.
2.3.1.1.Jesus
said to His disciples at the last supper that the wine was the new covenant in
his blood, indicating that He himself was providing the means for the new
covenant for mankind.
2.3.1.2.Jesus
Himself is our salvation, you see.
2.3.2.
He is called ‘the salvation’ of the Lord, he
is not the one who proclaims the means of the salvation but rather points to
himself as the means.
2.3.3.
The mere fact that he points to himself as
being the means of salvation for God’s people sets himself apart from all of
the other Old Testament prophets and the nation as a whole. They all sought to deflect attention away
from themselves and point the people to the Lord as their hope.
2.3.4.
The Lord has determined to show His glory
through the ‘ideal servant’ would indicate that it is in fact Jesus who is
being prophesied.
2.3.5.
There is no other prophet who was called to
be light to all of the nations so that salvation could go to the ends of the
earth, this could only be a reference to Jesus.
2.4.
Isaiah tells us that God’s ideal servant is
called and named even from his mother’s womb.
2.4.1.
In Luke 2:21,
we read that Jesus’ name was given by the angel Gabriele when he appeared to
Mary (Luke 1:31) before Jesus was conceived in Mary’s womb, “21 And when eight days were completed before His circumcision, His
name was then called Jesus, the name given by the angel before He was conceived
in the womb.”
2.4.2.
We know of course from other scriptures that
Jesus’ going forth (Micah 5:2) was from everlasting or eternity, before there
was anything that was created, for being the third person of the Triune God, He
was also the creator of all that existed (Col. 1:17).
2.5.
Isaiah tells us that God’s ideal servant
shall have his mouth sharpened as a sword.
In John’s vision of the resurrected Jesus upon the island of Patmos, Rev. 1:16, we see that Jesus had a sharp two-edged
sword coming out of His mouth, “16 And in His right hand
He held seven stars; and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword; and His
face was like the sun shining in its strength.”
2.6.
Isaiah tells us that God’s ideal servant will
be a ‘select arrow’ in God’s quiver. In
those days, a person would grease a special arrow so that it would have less
air friction when being shot and thus travel faster, and then when it hit its
target it would penetrate farther and thus be more lethal.
2.6.1.
Jesus was always straight as an arrow in His
setting of His face to accomplish all that He was called to accomplish as the
Messiah who would purchase our salvation.
2.6.2.
Jesus can also go straight to the heart of
what ails each of us His children and then bring that healing of our sins and
encouragement of our heart to trust Him.
2.7.
We finally get to the difficult statement in
this chapter. The ‘ideal servant’ is
called ‘
2.8.
2.8.1.
The name ‘
2.8.2.
‘
2.8.3.
‘
2.9.
Isaiah tells us that the Lord would show His
glory through the ‘ideal servant.’ John
wrote in John 1:14 about how that the
glory of the Lord was manifest in the life of Jesus, “14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His
glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
3.
VS 49:4 - “4 But I said, “I have toiled in
vain, I have spent My strength for nothing and vanity; Yet surely the justice due to Me is with the
Lord, And My reward with My God.”” - The ‘ideal servant’ reveals that he feels
that his toil has been in vain
3.1.
This is the first verse that really begins to
expound upon the suffering that God’s ‘ideal servant’ was called upon to
experience for the sake of mankind.
There surely must have been much frustration felt when Jesus’ disciples
kept not understanding the things that he taught them, when people saw His
glorious miracles and works and then asked Him to show them a sign so that they
might believe, when the religious leaders of Jerusalem constantly plotted how
they might trick Him and somehow find a reason to put Him to death, etc., etc.
3.2.
Isaiah tells us that the justice that was due
to God’s ‘ideal servant’ he did not possess, instead that justice was ‘with the
Lord.’ This may be a reference to the
fact that Jesus was denied justice and crucified on trumped up charges and paid
off witnesses, plus the fact that He was dying and paying the penalty not for
His own sins, for He had none, but for the sins of the world.
3.3.
This is the first reference of Isaiah also to
the fact that Jesus would become the judge of the world, for Isaiah writes that
the reward of God would be with the ‘ideal servant.’
4.
VS 49:5-6 - “5 And now says the Lord, who
formed Me from the womb to be His Servant, To bring Jacob back to Him, in order
that Israel might be gathered to Him (For I am honored in the sight of the
Lord, And My God is My strength), 6 He says, “It is too small a thing that You
should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the
preserved ones of Israel; I will also make
You a light of the nations So that My salvation may reach to the end of the
earth.”” - The
‘ideal servant’ now tells us that God the Father has said that he will raise up
the tribes of Jacob and restore a remnant of Israel, but also be a light to the
Gentiles and His salvation will reach to the end of the earth
4.1.
The nation of
4.1.1.
How could
4.2.
The ‘ideal servant’ is called in verse 6 to be
a ‘light to the nations,’ so that salvation could reach to the end of the
earth. This again shows that no Old
Testament prophet, nor the nation of
5.
VS 49:7 - “7 Thus says the Lord, the
Redeemer of Israel, and its Holy One, To the despised One, To the One abhorred
by the nation, To the Servant of rulers, “Kings shall see and arise, Princes
shall also bow down; Because of the Lord
who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel who has chosen You.”” - God the Father again speaks
and tells the ‘ideal servant,’ who is now referred to as the ‘One abhorred by
the nations’ and the ‘Servant of rulers,’ that kings will see and arise and
princes will bow down to him
5.1.
This is now the second reference in this
chapter of the suffering that the ‘ideal servant’ will be called upon to
experience for mankind:
5.1.1.
He is going to be rejected by the nation of
Israel Isaiah tells us that he will be ‘abhorred by the nation’ (singular).
5.1.2.
He is going to be a ‘Servant of rulers,’
which now tells us that the idea that the nation of Israel had of the
“conquering Messiah” or “political Messiah” was totally against what the
scripture had revealed about the Messiah, at least in his first appearance on
earth. The Messiah’s first mission was
to come to the earth as the “suffering servant” to bear the sins of the world
and to procure salvation for mankind.
5.2.
All kings and princes will eventually come
and bow down at the feet of Jesus and confess that He is Lord according to Phil. 2:10-11, “10 that at the name of
Jesus every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven, and on earth, and
under the earth,11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
5.2.1.
For this special honor and glory the ‘ideal
servant’ has been chosen, and again there is no other Old Testament prophet nor
nation as a whole to whom this can refer.
5.3.
What a blessing it is that Jesus was rejected
of men that we might be accepted of God!
6.
VS 49:8-10 - “8 Thus says the Lord, “In a
favorable time I have answered You, And in a day of salvation I have helped
You; And I will keep You and give You
for a covenant of the people, To restore the land, to make them inherit the
desolate heritages; 9 Saying to those
who are bound, ‘Go forth,’ To those who are in darkness, ‘Show
yourselves.’ Along the roads they will
feed, And their pasture will be on all bare heights. 10 “They will not hunger or thirst, Neither
will the scorching heat or sun strike them down; For He who has compassion on them will lead
them, And will guide them to springs of water.” - God the Father says that the ‘ideal servant’
will be given for ‘a covenant’ of the people
6.1.
In these verses, Isaiah begins to further
expound upon that special work that God’s ‘ideal servant’ shall be sent to
perform. He has already begun to tells
us of the suffering that the ‘ideal servant’ shall experience for mankind, and
in these verses we see the fruits of salvation that he shall produce, for the
‘ideal servant’ is now going revealed to:
6.1.1.
Himself be given in order that a new covenant
might be made with the people.
6.1.1.1.As
we saw already this is a reference of Jesus’ death upon the cross of
6.1.1.2.It
is not that he is to proclaim the covenant, he becomes the covenant.
6.1.2.
Provide for the
6.1.2.1.Those
of the replacement theology camp error greatly by seeing in ‘land’ here a
reference to the church. The church is
never referred to as a land, and it does not need to be restored it needs to be
inaugurated.
6.1.2.2.This
restoration will occur during the Millennial Reign of Christ as He rules from
6.1.3.
Provide that the promises given to Abraham
again be inherited.
6.1.3.1.This
is derived from the inheriting of ‘desolate heritages’ that is mentioned. It could be that the reference is to the
restoration of Israel as a nation, however again if that is the case, that work
will only be accomplished by Christ after the 7 Year Tribulation of the book of
Revelation during the Millennial Reign of Christ.
6.1.3.2.We
as Christians inherit promises that were given to Abraham and his descendants
because we have been grafted into
6.1.4.
Provide for the freeing of those who are
bound.
6.1.4.1.This
is the binding that is caused by sin which Jesus frees men from who are willing
to submit themselves to Him.
6.1.4.2.We
as Christians need to allow Christ to set us free from anything that binds us,
any sin or stronghold of the Devil in our lives does not need to be there. Jesus will free us if we will just come to
Him and ask and allow Him to free us.
6.1.5.
Provide for the satisfying of those who
hunger and thirst.
6.1.5.1.This
could be a reference to the return from
6.1.5.2.In
many ways, the key to the Christian life is desiring what the Lord can do in
our life, hungering and thirsting after Him.
If we will hunger and thirst for Him, He will fill us.
6.1.5.2.1.In
1 Peter 2:2-3, Peter wrote about how
that we should also long for the pure milk of the word of God in order that we
might grow in respect to our salvation in Christ, “2 like
newborn babes, long for the pure milk of the word, that by it you may grow in
respect to salvation,3 if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.”
6.1.5.2.1.1.That
desire for the word of God will cause us to be in the word of God and be where
the word of God is taught and seek to rightly divide the word of God.
7.
VS 49:11-13 - “11 “And I will make all My mountains
a road, And My highways will be raised up.
12 “Behold, these shall come from afar;
And lo, these will come from the north and from the west, And these from
the
7.1.
The path to
7.2.
This people of ‘Sinim’ are a bit of a
mystery. There is a people of this name
that exist in southern
7.3.
Joyful praise of all creation, in the heavens
and on earth, is called for on the day that the Lord comforts His people and
has compassion on the afflicted through the procuring of salvation for them
through God’s ‘ideal servant.’
7.3.1.
In Luke 2:9-11,
when the angel of the Lord appeared to the shepherds and announced the birth of
Jesus he announced great joy for all, “9 And an
angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone
around them; and they were terribly frightened.10 And the angel said to them,
“Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which shall
be for all the people;11 for today in the city of David there has been born for
you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”
8.
VS 49:14-16 - “14 But
8.1.
The Judeans had faulty memories, for instead
of the Lord leaving them, they had left the Lord. If they were simply to remember their history
they would realize that whenever their hearts were right before the Lord that
they were also blessed by God and He provided great deliverance for the people.
8.2.
The Lord tells the Judeans that He can no
more forget them than a woman can forget her nursing baby and have no
compassion on him.
8.2.1.
The Lord’s love for mankind is as a father,
but as this scripture and others indicate He also loves us with the love of a
mother.
8.2.2.
The Lord is always in a dilemma with
rebellious men because if He provides for, prospers, and protects rebellious
men, then they tend to take Him for granted and not worship and look to the
Lord. Therefore, to bring them to Him He
allows some trails and suffering in their lives in order to reveal their
frailty and how finite they are in their own strength and wisdom, yet in
allowing these things in their lives, rebellious men can begin to think that
the Lord has not been there for them.
8.2.3.
When the Lord allows trials and sufferings
into His children’s lives they come out of love and as chastisement from the
Lord in order to purify motives and redirect a man’s or woman’s perspective
back on the Lord and those things that are eternal.
8.2.3.1.Hebrews 12:4-11 describes how that the Lord uses trials and
sufferings in the lives of His people, “4 You have
not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin;5
and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, “My
son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, Nor faint when you are
reproved by Him; 6 For those whom the
Lord loves He disciplines, And He scourges every son whom He receives.” 7 It is for discipline that you endure; God
deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not
discipline?8 But if you are without discipline, of which all have become
partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.9 Furthermore, we had
earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much
rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live?10 For they disciplined us
for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good,
that we may share His holiness.11 All discipline for the moment seems not to be
joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it
yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”
8.3.
The Lord tells us that He has even inscribed
His people upon the palms of His hands, and thus His thoughts are always upon
His children and acting upon their best interests.
8.4.
The Lord tells us that His people’s ‘walls’
are continually before Him, that is, all of the very details of their lives are
ever before Him. This reminds me of when
Jesus told His disciples that even the very hairs upon our heads have been
numbered by the Lord.
8.5.
Oh, how these verses encourage our hearts to
trust in the Lord and to know that He will always bring into our lives only
those things that He knows are truly best for us!
9.
VS 49:18-22 - “18 “Lift up your eyes and look
around; All of them gather together,
they come to you. As I live,” declares
the Lord, “You shall surely put on all of them as jewels, and bind them on as a
bride. 19 “For your waste and desolate
places, and your destroyed land— Surely now you will be too cramped for the
inhabitants, And those who swallowed you will be far away. 20 “The children of whom you were bereaved
will yet say in your ears, ‘The place is too cramped for me; Make room for me that I may live here.’ 21 “Then you will say in your heart, ‘Who has
begotten these for me, Since I have been bereaved of my children, And am
barren, an exile and a wanderer? And who
has reared these? Behold, I was left
alone; From where did these come?’ 22 Thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I will
lift up My hand to the nations, And set up My standard to the peoples; And they will bring your sons in their bosom,
And your daughters will be carried on their shoulders.”” - The Lord tells the captive
Judeans in Babylon living some 100+ years after the time of Isaiah’s writing
that their desolate land and city shall one day too cramped because of its
inhabitants
9.1.
This verse has a dual fulfillment.
9.1.1.
When the captive Judeans return from
9.1.2.
When Israel is finally restored at the
beginning of the Millennial Reign of Christ, the land shall be overflowing with
inhabitants because of all of God’s people, both the resurrected and those who
are God’s people and have lived through the 7 Year Tribulation of the book of
Revelation.
9.1.2.1.This
interpretation is the more complete fulfillment of this prophesy because of the
sheer numbers of people who shall return, plus the fact that the returning ones
are referred to as ‘all of them’ and their coming as being from all of the
nations. The coming of these people of
God are those who will return from all of the four corners of the earth, not
merely from Babylonian captivity.
9.2.
Isaiah tells us that the ones returning to
the land shall be put on as jewels upon a bride, for they shall adorn God’s
people and land as His treasured possessions.
9.2.1.
One of the Calvary Chapel pastors once told
us at a pastor’s conference the story of how his father had always told his
kids that up in his attic that there was a box that had all of his treasured
possessions in it. After the father had
died that year, his kids decided to go up and open the box that contained dad’s
treasured possessions. In this box,
there was not any money, jewels, treasury bills, stocks, etc., all that it
contained was pictures of his kids and small mementos of their growing up. In this account of Isaiah’s, we see that the
Lord’s true treasures are His people.
What a blessing it is to know how that the Lord treasures me, His child!
9.2.2.
These ones who shall come to the land on that
day will be a blessing to
9.3.
Being carried upon the shoulders of the
nations indicates that they will be honored by the nations.
10.
VS 49:23 - “23 “And kings will be your
guardians, And their princesses your nurses.
They will bow down to you with their faces to the earth, And lick the
dust of your feet; And you will know that
I am the Lord; Those who hopefully wait
for Me will not be put to shame.” - The Lord tells the Judeans that kings will be
their guardians and nurses and they will bow down to them
10.1.
Again this verse just shows the fact that the
nations will honor God’s people when they are returned to the
10.2.
God’s people will return to their land as
princes, sons of the great King over all of the earth.
10.3.
The licking of the dust of God’s people
indicates that the nations will be trampled upon by God’s people who will
dominate them.
10.4.
The Lord gives a promise that His people of
all eras can claim for themselves, and that is that when we wait upon the Lord
as our hope and help that He will come through in His timing and according to
His perfect will for us, because He says that we will ‘not be put to shame.’
11.
VS 49:24-26 - “24 “Can the prey be taken from
the mighty man, Or the captives of a tyrant be rescued?” 25 Surely, thus says the Lord, “Even the
captives of the mighty man will be taken away, And the prey of the tyrant will
be rescued; For I will contend with the
one who contends with you, And I will save your sons. 26 “And I will feed your oppressors with
their own flesh, And they will become drunk with their own blood as with sweet
wine; And all flesh will know that I,
the Lord, am your Savior, And your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”” - The Lord promises His people
that He will contend with the one who contends with them and save their sons
11.1.
These verses are a present encouragement
again for the future generation of captive Judeans living 100+ years after the
time of Isaiah’s writing, as well as an encouragement for God’s people of all
eras. The Lord is encouraging His people
not to be fearful of tyrants and those who are mighty for the might of man will
never be able to contend with the arm of the Lord.
11.1.1.The
Lord tells the Judeans that He will save their sons. There will always be a remnant of God’s
people who will serve Him.
11.1.2.He
will feed those who oppress His people with their own flesh, and He will give
them their own blood to drink.
11.1.3.The
Lord will work on behalf of His people in all eras of time in such a way that
people will know that the Lord is our Savior and Redeemer, He is the ‘Mighty
One of Jacob.’