Isaiah began this pericope by clarifying the calling and ministry of the Servant. He referred to this Servant earlier (42:1-9), but now he reiterated and reinforced what he had revealed in preparation for further revelation about this key figure.514
"The first [biographical Servant] Song was a word from the Lord to the world about his Servant: Your plight is known, my Servant will deal with it' [42:1-4]; but the second [autobiographical] Song is the Servant's testimony how that world-wide task devolved upon one who was already commissioned to minister to Israel."515
"If . . . the first song can be viewed as contemplating the ministry of Jesus the Servant in prospect from the perspective of his baptism, this second song seems to be looking back on that ministry from its close."516
49:1 Using the same terminology with which the Lord had appealed to Israel to listen to Him (cf. 41:1; 46:3, 12; 48:1, 12), someone called the world's population to pay attention to what he had to say. He claimed a divine calling from his birth; God had commissioned him to announce what he would reveal (cf. Jer. 1:5; Matt. 1:21; Luke 1:31-33, 41; 2:21; Gal. 1:15). There was more to announce than just that Yahweh would redeem Israel from Babylonian captivity (cf. 48:20). Who is the speaker? What follows, which this description of Him corroborates, is that the Servant Messiah is speaking, not Israel or the believing remnant in Israel or Cyrus or Isaiah.517
"When Assyria was coming to prominence Isaiah predicted the coming of the King, the virgin's Son [7:14]. Now that the world power is exercising its might and will take God's people captive, Isaiah announces the Servant of the Lord as the true Deliverer. Thus the two epochs point us to the Messiah, first to His Person and then to His work."518
49:2 Cyrus' calling was to liberate Israel with the sword, but this speaker's calling was to announce words from God, piercing, incisive words that would cut like a sword (cf. 1:20; Heb. 4:12; Rev. 1:16; 19:15).
"His is an office of the mouth, his task a declaration of the Truth; for he is a prophet par excellence, and his word is the Gospel . . ."519
The Servant would be available for His Master's use whenever needed. He would not be prominent at all times but would be protected and hidden until summoned into use. Both the sword and the arrow were offensive weapons, the former used at short range and the latter at longer range. Likewise this Servant's words would be instruments that would defeat enemies. Jesus Christ was the embodiment of this word from God (cf. John 1:1-4, 14-15).
49:3 Yahweh called His Servant Israel. Israel would indeed prove to be an instrument of God by which He demonstrated His glory, but in the context the Servant appears to be an individual. Messiah was Israel in that He was the ideal Israel, what the nation should have been but never attained. Furthermore, He was the Prince with God that neither the nation nor its namesake ever fully became. When God referred to His Servant as Israel He was referring to the Servant's function, not His identity. Throughout this book we have seen that the nation Israel was not able to carry out her function of being a light to the nations because she was blind, deaf, and rebellious. God would provide an individual to do what the nation had failed to do.
"Faced with Israel's failure, God does not wipe out the nation; he simply devises another way in which Israel's servanthood could be worked out: through the ideal Israel."520
This description eliminates Isaiah or any other simply human prophet as the possible Servant in view (cf. vv. 5-6).
49:4 In spite of the Servant's calling it would appear, even to Himself, that He was less than successful (cf. John 1:10-11). If the previous verse describes a more than human Servant, this one presents a fully human Servant. When Jesus Christ died it appeared that He had accomplished very little. Most people regarded His life as a waste. He even prayed on the cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"(Matt. 27:46).
"God does not approach the arrogance and oppression of the world with greater arrogance and greater oppression. Rather, he comes with the humility, the vulnerability, and the powerlessness of a child."521
Nevertheless, the Servant's work would please God, if not men. Man's justice gave Messiah the Cross, but God's justice gave Him the crown. The Servant would commit His work to God and would trust Him for a just reckoning.
This verse clarifies that feelings of futility and faith in God need not be mutually exclusive. The Servant trusted God for the final outcome of His ministry though as He was carrying it out it appeared to be ineffective. The Apostle Paul took the same view of his ministry (cf. Rom. 8:31-39; 1 Cor. 4:1-5).
". . . despondency arises through listening to ourselves and our self-assessment etc., instead of looking to God, recalling his purposes, living according to our dignity in him and rediscovering in him our source of power."522
49:5-6 The Servant's calling would be more than bringing Israel back to God in repentance and revival, a calling we have yet to see since this was not Israel's response to Jesus' earthly ministry. It would include bringing the light of the knowledge of God and His salvation to Gentiles all over the world (cf. 5:26). The preaching of the gospel accomplishes both of these goals only partially. They will be fully attained in the Millennium when all Jews and Gentiles will turn to the Lord (cf. Phil. 2:10-11).
Clearly the Servant cannot be Israel in the light of these verses nor can the believing remnant within Israel. Neither group has saved or can save the world. No merely human Hebrew prophet, including Isaiah, could be the savior of the world either. Cyrus' calling was to restore Israel to Judah, but Messiah's calling, from His very birth, was to restore Israel and the Gentiles to God. Indeed, it was to besalvation (cf. Luke 2:32; Acts 13:46-47). The Servant marveled at God's grace in choosing Him for this calling and affirmed His dependence on God to accomplish such a great salvation (in the parenthetical statement in verse 5).
49:7 Yahweh, Israel's Redeemer and Holy One, assured the Servant--who the Israelites and the Gentiles, whom He came to save, would despise--that eventually even rulers would bow before Him. This would happen because Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel, who had called Him was faithful to fulfill what He had set out to accomplish through His Servant. Again, the success of a servant of the Lord is due to the Lord because He enables the servant to be successful (cf. 48:15).
This verse distinguishes two aspects of the Servant's ministry: the first characterized by rejection and humiliation (cf. v. 4; 52:13-53:12), and the second marked by acceptance and glorification. The first advent of Christ fulfilled the first aspect and His second advent will fulfill the second aspect. All that Israel had experienced--being despised, abhorred, and used--the Servant would experience (cf. vv. 25-26). And all that God intended Israel to be--admired, respected, and served--the Servant will become.
". . . to be the chosen of God does not mean glory along the way, but it does mean glory at the end of the way."523
Isaiah now announced more about the work of the Servant (cf. 42:5-9). He will enable people around the world to return to God, similarly to how the Israelites would return to Jerusalem after the Exile. The response to God's saving work will be universal joy (cf. 42:10-13).
49:8 In response to the Servant's feelings of frustration (v. 4), the Lord promised that at the appointed hour of salvation He would support and enable His Servant (cf. Ps. 22:19-21). He would make the Servant a covenant of the people, namely, He would make a new covenant with His people that the Servant would embody (cf. 42:6; Jer. 31:31; 32:40; Ezek. 37:26; Luke 22:20; 1 Cor. 11:25; 2 Cor. 3:6; Heb. 8:8-12). The Servant would fulfill God's covenants with Israel.
"To speak of the Servant as the covenant means that while, as we know, it is through his work that covenant blessings become available, it is only in him, in the union of personal relationship, that these blessings can be enjoyed. Prophets preached the covenant and pointed away from themselves to the Lord; the Servant will actualize the blessings and point to himself."524
The Servant would restore the land, make the Israelites inherit desolate areas, and (v. 9) free captives. The terms used in this verse recall the relief that came to the Israelites in their Jubilee Year (cf. Lev. 25:8-22). The salvation in view will appear in the Millennium, which the Jubilee Year anticipated. Then too the Servant will represent Israel.
The Apostle Paul quoted this verse in 2 Corinthians 6:2. To him the present day was the day of salvation that Isaiah predicted. I take it that Paul meant that the day of salvation had begun because Christ had died on the cross, not that everything that will mark that day had arrived. Clearly God has not yet restored the land to Israel. The day of salvation will come to its glorious climax in the future Millennium.
49:9 Part of the salvation to appear in that favorable time will involve the liberation of captives, physical and spiritual (cf. 61:1-4). God's sheep will enjoy feeding even on the roads and formerly barren heights of their land (cf. 17:2; 40:10-11; 41:18; 43:19; 63:11). This is a picture of abundant pasturage, and it represents millennial blessings.
49:10 The picture continues along the lines of the Good Shepherd providing for and protecting His flock, compassionately leading them and supplying all their needs (cf. Exod. 12:21; 17:6; Ps. 23; Rev. 7:16-17).
49:11 God will also make His mountainous barriers as flat as a road so His people can come to His habitation. He will also raise up His highways so they will be thoroughfares for His people (cf. 11:16; 19:23; 36:8; 40:3-4; 42:16; 62:10).
49:12 People will come from all over the world to worship God (in Jerusalem) at that time (cf. v. 22; 43:6). What Isaiah described was more than just the return from exile in Babylon. Sinim may refer to Aswan in southern Egypt, which marked the southern border of the civilized world in Isaiah's day.525
49:13 Isaiah concluded by calling on the whole created universe to rejoice because the Lord had comforted His people (cf. 40:1; 47:6) and had shown compassion on His formerly afflicted nation (cf. 42:10-13; 44:23; 45:8; 52:8-9; 55:12-13). This is rejoicing over deliverance from sin, not just exile. When the Servant completes His work of salvation, the whole creation, not just humankind, will experience liberation from the effects of the Fall (cf. Rom. 8:19-22).
