3-5 The Servant Songs In Isaiah
It is significant that Paul takes a passage from one of Isaiah’s servant
songs and applies it to us. The servant who suffered and witnessed to
the world was evidently the Lord Jesus. And yet Isaiah is also explicit
that the servant is the whole seed of Abraham, “Jacob”, the slowly-developing
people of God (Is. 41:8; 44:1)(1). There
are many connections within Isaiah between the servant songs, and the
descriptions of the people of Israel into which the songs are interspersed.
The Saviour-servant was to bring out the prisoners from the dungeons (Is.
42:7), so was every Israelite “to let the oppressed go free...loose the
bonds”, and to “undo the bands of the [heavy] yoke” (Is. 58:6) as Christ
did (Mt. 11:28,29); His work of deliverance is to be replicated by each
of us in our witness. Whoever is in Him will by this very fact follow
Him in this work. In Isaiah’s first context, the suffering servant was
King Hezekiah. Yet all Israel were to see themselves as ‘in’ him, as spiritual
Israel are to see themselves as in Christ. “He was oppressed”, as Israel
at that time were being “oppressed” by Assyria. As they were covered in
wounds and spiritual sickness (Is. 1:5,6), so the suffering servant bore
their diseases and rose again in salvation victory. Significantly, Isaiah
40-53 speak of the one servant, whereas Isaiah 54-66 speak of the “servants”
who fulfil in principle the work of the singular servant.
Other parts of the servant songs are quoted concerning us. Paul’s description
of the warrior of the Gospel in Ephesians 6 composites together various
descriptions of Messiah’s clothing in the servant songs (Is. 11:5 = “loins
girded with truth”; 49:2 “mouth like a sharp sword”; 52:7 “bring good
tidings / publish salvation” = “the preparation of the Gospel of peace”;
59:17 “breastplate of righteousness”; 59:17 “helmet of salvation”). The songs of the suffering Servant are applied to us in Rom. 8:31, where Paul exalts that "if God be for us, who is against us?"- alluding to Is. 50:8 "The Lord God is helping me- who is he that would convict me?".
Our theme is brought together in Is. 44:26:
Of his servant [singular]
Of his messengers.
The singular servant is equated with His “messengers”, whose “counsel”
to others is the word which is Jesus, the true servant. This theme of
declaring the word occurs repeatedly in this part of Isaiah. Because “I
have declared…and I have shewed…therefore ye are my witnesses”
(Is. 43:12). We are to witness / declare . shew, just as the Father has
done. Our unity with the Father and Son is thus reflected in our witnessing
in the way they witness; and thus their witness is through us. The unity
between the preacher and his Lord is therefore wonderful. Truly He is
with us in our life of witness, in our obedience to His command to preach
world-wide, unto the end of the age.
The Lord Himself quoted Is. 61:1 about Himself (2):
He proclaimed liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison
to them that are bound. But this passage is evidently behind Peter’s
assertion that after His resurrection, the Lord Jesus preached to
the spirits in prison (1 Pet. 3:18,19). His resurrection was the
basis of His command to go into all the world and preach the word;
and thereby His preachers went out to do and continue the work which
He personally had done. The Lord’s servant being called from the
womb (Is. 49:1) was applied by Paul to himself (Gal. 1:15), as it
was likewise true of Jeremiah (Jer. 1:5). Or take Is. 49:8,9: “In
an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation
have I helped thee [quoted about us in 2 Cor. 6:2 in the context
of us being preachers, labouring with God]: and I will preserve
thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to raise up the
land, to make them inherit the desolate heritages; saying to them
that are bound, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Shew yourselves”
(RV). This is the language of the Lord’s preaching, which freed
men from the prison house (Is. 61:1,2). Yet because we are in Him,
we too have His ministry; our words too can make men inherit
the Kingdom, and free men from their bondage. “We are witnesses
[through being] in him” (Acts 5:32 RVmg.). As the Lord in Isaiah’s
servant songs was the suffering, saving, atoning servant, lifted
up to give salvation world-wide- so are we. For we are in Him. Paul
explained his life of devotion to world-wide witness by saying that
the fact his Lord was a saving witness to all men was de facto a
command to him, as one in Christ, to do likewise
(Acts 13:47). This is why the concept of the Name of Christ is sometimes
put for ‘the work of preaching His Gospel’, so definite is the connection
between baptism into His Name and the work of witness which this
naturally entails (Mt. 19:29; Acts 9:16; 15:26; 3 Jn. 7).
Is. 9:6 states that the Lord Jesus personally is "called"
or "proclaimed" as peace. This is the same Hebrew word
as in Dt. 20:10- Israel were to "proclaim peace" to cities
they attacked, demanding either their submission or destruction.
And yet we are the ones who "proclaim [the] peace"
of Christ to men (Is. 52:7). Insofar as we represent Him in our
witness, our hearers are faced with a radical choice- to submit
to Him or eternally perish. It's easy to forget that this is how
God sees it, as we witness to people. We're so used to the rejection
of our message that we perhaps fail to see the eternal importance
of the choice we lay before people; and this should impart a verve
and urgency of appeal to our preaching, rather than an indifferent
inviting of people to meetings, discussion, etc.
(1) The Is. 42 passage concerning
Jesus as preaching to the Gentiles is quoted in the Gospels from the LXX.
But this reads: “Jacob is my servant, I will help him: Israel, is my chosen,
my soul has accepted him...he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.
He shall not cry, nor lift up his voice...but...He shall shine out, and
not be discouraged” (Is. 42:1-4 LXX). The passages primarily exhorts Israel
at the time of their living in Babylon to live up to their role as a missionary
nation; they didn’t need to cry or lift up the voice in preaching, because
their own example and being would be the witness. They would “shine out”
as the light of the Gentile world in which they had to live. But they
failed in this; and yet the prophecy came true in the Lord Jesus, the
true servant of Yahweh. But the prophecy still has to be fulfilled in
us, the servants of the Lord, as those in Christ, as we live through our
(2) It is also noteworthy that
the parable of Mk. 12:6 has Jesus describing Himself as both a servant-
the last servant- and the only beloved son of the vineyard owner.