Biblion Bible Commentary
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A Light to the Nations
Isaiah 49:1-13
1 Listen, islands, to me. Listen, you peoples, from afar: Yahweh has called me from the womb; from the inside of my mother, he has mentioned my name. · WEB
The servant reports that his work has failed, and is given a larger assignment.
Listen, islands, to me... Yahweh has called me from the womb; from the inside of my mother, he has mentioned my name Isaiah 49:1.
The second Servant Song, and the servant speaks for himself. His audience is the coastlands rather than Israel.
He has made my mouth like a sharp sword. He has hidden me in the shadow of his hand. He has made me a polished shaft. He has kept me close in his quiver Isaiah 49:2.
Two weapons, and both are described as stored rather than used. A sword in the shadow of a hand and an arrow still in the quiver — prepared, sharpened, polished, and waiting. The long concealment is part of the commission.
He said to me, "You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified" Isaiah 49:3.
The servant is named Israel, and three verses later he is sent to bring Israel back. The book states both without reconciling them, which is the tension the songs carry throughout: a servant who is the nation, and a servant who does for the nation what it cannot do.
But I said, "I have labored in vain. I have spent my strength in vain for nothing" Isaiah 49:4.
The servant's own assessment of his ministry, and it is failure. Nothing in the passage corrects him on the facts.
Yet surely the justice due to me is with Yahweh, and my reward with my God. The verdict is deferred rather than disputed.
It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob... I will also give you as a light to the nations, that you may be my salvation to the end of the earth Isaiah 49:6.
The answer to I have labored in vain is an enlargement. The assignment he thinks he has failed at is described as too small a thing to be the whole of it, and the scope is extended to the end of the earth.
Paul and Barnabas quote this verse when the synagogue at Antioch rejects them, and apply it to themselves Acts 13:47.
Yahweh... says to him whom man despises, to him whom the nation abhors, to a servant of rulers: "Kings shall see and rise up, princes, and they shall worship" Isaiah 49:7.
The first hint of what the fourth song will describe. Despised, abhorred, and a servant of rulers — and kings stand up when he passes.
Saying to those who are bound, "Come out!"; to those who are in darkness, "Show yourselves!" Isaiah 49:9.
The prisoners are not fetched. They are told to come out, which assumes the door is already open.
They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun strike them, for he who has mercy on them will lead them Isaiah 49:10.
The verse is taken up almost unchanged in the vision of the great multitude Revelation 7:16–17.
settled What this mark means