Isaiah 49: The Servant Brings Salvation.

I enjoy seeing how various translations title chapters. I have the HCSB above; the ESV calls this chapter "The Servant of the Lord" and the KJV has it "Christ, being sent to the Jews, complains of them." We certainly read of Jesus rebuking the Jewish leaders during His earthly ministry. You decide if this chapter has Him complaining about them.

I haven't been leaning on commentaries much during this walk through Isaiah, but I see what John Gill said every once in a while. He agrees with me that this chapter is a prophecy about the Lord Christ; it begins the section in this book about the suffering Servant.

Isaiah 49:1-3 (HCSB) Coastlands, listen to me; distant peoples, pay attention. The LORD called me before I was born. He named me while I was in my mother’s womb. He made my words like a sharp sword; He hid me in the shadow of His hand. He made me like a sharpened arrow; He hid me in His quiver. He said to me, “You are My Servant, Israel; I will be glorified in him.”

The first three verses identify who is being called (distant people- Gentiles); that this Servant was called by God before He was born (Jesus - eternally with the Father); and was named while in the womb (see Matt 1:21). The Servant was like an arrow crafted by the Father, hidden until the fullness of time when He would come as a man to fulfill the Father's will and glorify Him in all He did.

Some will say that these terms are applied to mortals in Scripture - true enough! But recall that this book is a vision given to Isaiah (first verse) and types that were true in the time of the author find their fulfillment in the spiritual reality that was to come - in the person of Christ or in the consummation of the ages when He returns the second time.

Isaiah 49:4-5 (HCSB) But I myself said: I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and futility; yet my vindication is with the LORD, and my reward is with my God. And now, says the LORD, who formed me from the womb to be His Servant, to bring Jacob back to Him so that Israel might be gathered to Him; for I am honored in the sight of the LORD, and my God is my strength.

Jesus, speaking of the reception He would have among His own people. This aligns with His lament about the leaders of that people - "Jerusalem, Jerusalem! She who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her. How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, yet you were not willing!" (Matt 23:37). He worked signs and wonders among them and yet, they demanded He be crucified and the murderer released. And for the glory of His Father's approval, Christ went to the cross on behalf of His sheep, bringing the elect from near (Israel) and far (Gentiles) back to the sheepfold of God. His strength was to do the Father's will and in Him God the Father was delighted. It was the Holy Spirit that conceived Christ in the womb of Mary for this very purpose!

Isaiah 49:6-7 (HCSB) He says, “It is not enough for you to be My Servant raising up the tribes of Jacob and restoring the protected ones of Israel. I will also make you a light for the nations, to be My salvation to the ends of the earth.” This is what the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel, his Holy One, says to one who is despised, to one abhorred by people, to a servant of rulers: “Kings will see and stand up, and princes will bow down, because of the LORD, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel—and He has chosen you.”

We read here the Father telling the Son something they both already knew, but ethnic Israel would have a long time failing to understand this. The Son would redeem people from all of ethnic Israel, He would also be a light unto the nations, redeeming people from the far corners of the planet in every generation. The emphasis here is to remind the Jewish people that "their" God would save people from every nation. Jesus came to His own, the Jewish people, but they did not receive Him - He was mocked, ridiculed, and put to death by them. He came to serve those He would save and would be renowned throughout the world as the chosen One, the promised One, the only Son of the one true God.

Isaiah 49:8-12 (HCSB) This is what the LORD says: I will answer you in a time of favor, and I will help you in the day of salvation. I will keep you, and I will appoint you to be a covenant for the people, to restore the land, to make them possess the desolate inheritances, saying to the prisoners: Come out, and to those who are in darkness: Show yourselves. They will feed along the pathways, and their pastures will be on all the barren heights. They will not hunger or thirst, the scorching heat or sun will not strike them; for their compassionate One will guide them, and lead them to springs of water. I will make all My mountains into a road, and My highways will be raised up. See, these will come from far away, from the north and from the west, and from the land of Sinim.

This segment highlights YHWH's declaration that He will be help to His Son in the day of salvation, when the Messiah would suffer for us. He would appoint the Son to be a covenant for us which would provide homes in the heavenly land, where prisoners were free, and the people would have neither hunger nor thirst. The Lamb of God will guide them to His sheepfold, providing springs of water and smooth ways for all the elect to come from all four corners of the world.

Isaiah 49:13 (HCSB) Shout for joy, you heavens! Earth, rejoice! Mountains break into joyful shouts! For the LORD has comforted His people, and will have compassion on His afflicted ones.

At the good news in verses 8-12, the people and heavenly hosts have every good reason to shout for joy and rejoice with gladness! YHWH has comforted His people with the Lamb - has compassion on His afflicted ones, those who are poor in spirit.

Isaiah 49:14-21 (HCSB) Zion says, “The LORD has abandoned me; The Lord has forgotten me!” “Can a woman forget her nursing child, or lack compassion for the child of her womb? Even if these forget, yet I will not forget you. Look, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; your walls are continually before Me. Your builders hurry; those who destroy and devastate you will leave you. Look up, and look around. They all gather together; they come to you. As I live”— ⌊this is⌋ the LORD’s declaration— “you will wear all your children as jewelry, and put them on as a bride does. For your waste and desolate places and your land marked by ruins— will now be indeed too small for the inhabitants, and those who swallowed you up will be far away. Yet as you listen, the children that you have been deprived of will say, ‘This place is too small for me; make room for me so that I may settle.’ Then you will say within yourself, ‘Who fathered these for me? I was deprived of my children and unable to conceive, exiled and wandering— but who brought them up? See, I was left by myself— but these, where did they come from?’”

The ones chosen by God whine that He has abandoned them, forgotten them.  He answers, using striking metaphors to drive the point home. God further declares that they - the redeemed - will have countless children. Recall the promise to Abram - he would be the father of many nations. We are children of Abraham if we have faith in Christ! Many children has father Abraham! In the agrarian life of the ancient near east, having many children insured wealth - this is the reason the people were whining and it's the reason God uses the metaphors He does to assure them they have not been abandoned.

Isaiah 49:22-23 (HCSB) This is what the Lord GOD says: Look, I will lift up My hand to the nations, and raise My banner to the peoples. They will bring your sons in their arms, and your daughters will be carried on their shoulders. Kings will be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. They will bow down to you with their faces to the ground, and lick the dust at your feet. Then you will know that I am Yahweh; those who put their hope in Me will not be put to shame.

When a prophet declares "this is what the Lord God says" - pay close attention! That is the point. Nothing new being presented here - God will call to the nations and bring children of Abraham to Zion. The people listed - sons, daughters, kings, queens, foster fathers, and nursing mothers - all serve one another in the New Covenant. Once proud people would humble themselves before other saints - and all would then know the Savior, being found in Him would be a refuge on the day when people seek a hiding place apart from Christ.

Isaiah 49:24-26 (HCSB) Can the prey be taken from the mighty, or the captives of the righteous be delivered? For this is what the LORD says: “Even the captives of a mighty man will be taken, and the prey of a tyrant will be delivered; I will contend with the one who contends with you, and I will save your children. I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh, and they will be drunk with their own blood as with sweet wine. Then all flesh will know that I, Yahweh, am your Savior, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”

YHWH brings up these questions because, like people today, people then had worries that they might not be secure, safe in His care. Again, reminiscent of the promise to Abraham - "I will bless those that bless you, I will curse those that curse you." The battle against our enemies belongs to the Lord. They will be soundly defeated so that all flesh will that YHWH is the savior of His people, their Redeemer, the Mighty One that none can withstand.

Child of God - do not doubt the saving and keeping power of God regarding His chosen ones. Jesus is faithful even when we are faithless. Faith in Him works itself out by daily trusting in Him. This day - do you trust in Christ? He is surety for all who trust in Him.