Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye peoples from afar. Jehovah hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name.
A new speaker steps forward here. He does not address Israel first, but the distant coastlands and peoples far off. Two questions follow. Who is this Servant, named by God before His birth? And why does He call the far edges of the world, and not Israel?
Chapter 49 does not continue the argument of the chapters before it. Those chapters dealt with Babylon and with idols. Here the subject changes. One writer marks the exact span of the new division.
A new division of Isaiah opens here. It is no longer about Babylon and idolatry, or about a destruction seen as the overthrow of idol worship in the earth. Here it is the far deeper question of Christ Himself and His rejection by the Jews. We find that this portion runs from Isaiah 49:1 to the end of Isaiah 57... They were wicked in both ways. They were wicked in going after the false gods of the Gentiles, and more wicked still in rejecting their divine Messiah.
At first the words sound like the nation describing its own calling. The next verses give the speaker away.
Of whom is it written: "The LORD called me from the womb; from the body of my mother He named my name, … and said to me, You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified"? This, one would say, must be the nation. But at once we hear a voice that is not the nation's: "I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely my right is with the LORD, and my recompense with my God."
Israel held the title of servant. The title now passes.
Such was the purpose of God about Israel; but, Israel failing, Christ becomes the true Israel. It is the transition from the people to the Messiah in Whom alone it could be.
The verse says two things about the time before this Servant was born. God called Him, and God spoke His name. One writer points to where the Gospels record that second detail.
In the first four verses we hear the voice of Christ through the Spirit of prophecy. The Lord calls upon the Isles of the Gentiles, and the nations from afar, to listen to His words. All are to know that Jehovah has "called" Him, and that His Name was announced before His birth. These words came true in the Gospel of Matthew. There the angel says to Joseph about Mary that "she will bear a son, and you shall call His name JESUS." All the nations are to know that JESUS, the Servant of Jehovah, is the Saviour of the world.
The audience is the surprise. A Jewish reader expects a message about his own nation. The first line gives him something far wider.
So as we start Isaiah 49, and pass into the central section, we hear His voice at once in the spirit of prophecy, calling us to listen to Him. The Gospel of John presents Him to us as "the Word," the One in whom the whole mind of God is expressed. At the transfiguration the voice out of the cloud said, "Listen to Him." So we are not surprised that in prophecy He should say, "Listen … to Me." What might surprise us, and might well surprise an attentive Jewish reader, is that He should address His call to the "isles," and to "peoples from afar." The word, we understand, is in the plural. It means the distant nations, and not the people of Israel. But so it was. So the start of this new section shows that what He has to say, and what He will do, will be for the benefit of all men and not only for the people of Israel.
This opening line begins a story that runs to the end of the chapter. Jerusalem is listening in.
In this beautiful song of the prophet, we hear Messiah telling His own history, from the very womb of the Virgin to the throne of the kingdom. But Zion, as if she had been listening, complains like one forgotten. She does not find her own place in this history. Messiah answers this fear and this complaint with good and comforting words. This I may therefore call "Jesus and Jerusalem."
The road from the womb to the throne runs through death.
In this great passage we also learn that the final blessing comes only through the Servant of Jehovah becoming obedient to death. The atoning sufferings must come before the displayed glory.
- Servant named. God called Him before birth and named Him beforehand. The angel then told Joseph to call the child Jesus.
- Servant substituted. Israel held the title of servant and failed. Christ becomes the true Israel, and the prophecy moves from the people to the Messiah.
- Servant heard. His first word is a call to the distant coastlands and far peoples, not to Israel — a signal that what He does is for all men.
- Servant rejected. From this chapter to the end of chapter 57 the theme is Christ Himself and His rejection. That guilt runs deeper than Israel's earlier turning to idols.
- Servant glorified. Glory comes only after obedience to death: the atoning sufferings first, the displayed glory after.
And he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword, he hath concealed me under the shadow of his hand, and he hath made me a polished shaft in his quiver hath he hidden me.
Isaiah 49 opens with a servant telling how God prepared him: a mouth like a sharp sword, and an arrow kept hidden in a quiver. The question behind the whole chapter is who this Servant is — the nation of Israel, or the Messiah who takes Israel's place.
This verse stands at the start of a new division in the book. The subject has changed.
A new division of Isaiah opens here. It is no longer Babylon and idolatry... Here it is the far deeper question of Christ Himself and His rejection by the Jews... They were wicked in both ways: wicked in going after the false gods of other nations, and wicked yet more in rejecting their divine Messiah.
The same writer reads the two halves of the verse as preparation and protection. He also sees the servant's name pass from the nation to one Man. (The writers quoted here use an older translation, which reads "polished shaft" where the ESV has "polished arrow.")
There was a great providential preparation... "in the shadow of his hand he has hidden me, and made me a polished shaft; in his quiver he has hidden me." So there was protection too... Such was the purpose of God about Israel; but, Israel failing, Christ becomes the true Israel. It is the transition from the people to the Messiah in Whom alone it could be.
Both weapons stand for speech. One writer shows what each meant in the life of Jesus.
As Man, in the service of God in this world, the Lord in spirit can say, "And He has made my mouth like a sharp sword" (verse 2). His word reached into the innermost corners of heart and conscience while He was speaking on earth. It brought divine blessing to many, and stirred up the opposition of those who were against God and His Son. He also said, "in the shadow of His hand He has hidden me," for He was always conscious of God's protection while men under Satan's influence bitterly attacked Him. He was also "a polished shaft," whose word reached not only those where He was, but reached into the distance, even to us in this day. It was a weapon that brought down the power of the enemy — a secret weapon, hidden in God's armoury, which He brought out to defeat the enemy at the time He had appointed.
That same word also cuts the hearer.
The One who is the Saviour will also convict us of our sins, and so show our need of the Saviour. His word will be like a sharp sword and a polished shaft. It pierces the conscience and reveals the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
The verse hides Him twice over: first in the hand, then in the quiver. One writer finds an order there, and a pattern for anyone God will use.
In Isaiah 49 He says, "In the shadow of His hand He has hidden me, and made me a polished shaft; in His quiver He has hidden me." We must be in the "hand" — the place of shaping — before we are in the quiver, ready to be used. Then He comes out brightly polished, we might say, and says, "I delight to do your will, O my God." That is the flexibility of a servant, and we see it in Christ, who adapted Himself to every service on earth.
An arrow in a quiver has not been shot yet. So the picture looks ahead to the day He appears.
His words will cut like a sword and pierce like an arrow when He comes out from the Divine quiver. He will appear as the true Servant of God and the true Israel — that is, "Prince of God." As the earlier chapters have shown, God had called the nation Israel to serve Him, but it had failed completely. This true Israel is called from the womb and made a "polished shaft" to fly straight to the mark as directed. Of Him, Jehovah says, "I will be glorified."
The shadow of God's hand covers more than the Servant.
The believer's place of safety is no longer a sheepfold on earth, as in former days. It is the hand of the Good Shepherd. There, in the shadow of His hand (compare Isaiah 49:2; Isaiah 51:16) they are securely hidden from every enemy. That hand of unbeatable might... will surround the frail and feeble sheep and protect them from every attack of the enemy.
- Turn. The verse opens a section about Christ Himself and His rejection by His own people, not about idols and Babylon.
- Transfer. Israel was called to be God's servant and failed; the titles and the task pass to the Messiah, the true Israel.
- Formed. Hidden in the hand first, in the quiver second: shaping comes before service.
- Fired. The sword is His speech and the arrow His word. It cut consciences then, reaches us now, and will strike in the open when He comes out of the quiver.
- Sheltered. The shadow that covered the Servant now covers the sheep — the hand that hid Him is the hand that holds them.
And he said unto me, Thou art my servant, Israel, in whom I will glorify myself.
In verse 3 God gives His Servant a nation's name, "Israel," and says He will be glorified in Him. Commentators see a turning point here: the nation called to serve God had failed, and both the service and the glory now pass to one Person.
One writer explains what the name means, and what follows if the Servant is read as the nation and not as Christ.
It is to Him, to this same Servant, God says in verse 3, "You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified." This is the only place in our section where God calls His Servant "Israel." The name, as we know, means "Prince of God." A believing heart sees Christ in this verse. But the rationalistic critics would shut Him out, despite the verses before and after. They would make the Servant the nation of Israel here, and all through. If that were true, then it is the nation in verse 5 that restores Jacob, and in Isaiah 53 makes atonement.
The Hebrew wording itself is disputed. One writer weighs it, then names the question that really matters.
The question is this: can asher-b'ka (word for word, "whom in you") be translated "you in whom"? … I am not sure we are justified in adding "you are he" before "in whom." What matters is the question of who "My servant" is here — Israel, or Christ the blessed Lord? This is plainly the transition point between Israel and the Lord as Servant; verse 4 makes it clear.
One writer traces this move through three names Israel once carried.
When Jehovah said "You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified" (Isa. 49:3), He was speaking to Messiah. In Him God took up the history of Israel afresh for His own glory. Whether seen as God's son (Ex. 4:22-23), as God's vine (Isa. 5), or God's servant (Isa. 49), the history of Israel begins anew in Messiah. He brings God pleasure and glory in the very things where Israel brought God sorrow and dishonoured His Name.
Another writer applies the sword and the hidden arrow of verse 2 to this same Servant.
His words will cut like a sword and pierce like an arrow when He comes out from the divine quiver. He will appear as the true Servant of God and the true Israel, that is, "Prince of God." The earlier chapters have shown that God called the national Israel to serve Him, and that it failed completely. God declares that He called this true Israel from the womb and made Him a "polished shaft" to fly straight as directed. Of Him Jehovah says, "I will be glorified." We can now say that God has been glorified in Him, and that He will yet be glorified in Him in a supreme and public way.
The next verse sounds like failure. One writer sets that beside the glory God gave Him.
Look again at the servant "in whom I will be glorified" in Isaiah 49. As far as Jacob and Israel are concerned, He seems to have spent His strength for nothing and in vain. But "though Israel is not gathered, yet I shall be glorious in the eyes of Jehovah." And so He is. For "God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow… and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
One writer puts God's glory and our salvation in order, and names the mistake of turning that round.
Our hearts would gladly treat what puts away our sins as the highest view of the cross. This is a mistake. God's glory is the first thing; our salvation is the second. To maintain God's glory was the chief, the dearest object of the heart of Christ. He pursued this object from first to last, with unwavering purpose and unflinching faithfulness.
The Servant bearing Israel's name does not cancel what God promised the nation.
Jehovah had said to them, "You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified." In fulfilment of this, they will yet become "a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord." Then "righteousness and praise" will "spring forth before all the nations." This will not come from keeping the law, but from being clothed with Jehovah's robe of righteousness. That which has failed under the law is yet to be accomplished in grace.
- Named — God gives His Servant the nation's name, "Israel," which means "Prince of God." This section names Him so only here.
- Transferred — Israel failed as son, vine and servant. The history begins again in Messiah, who brings God pleasure where the nation brought Him dishonour.
- Debated — the Hebrew line is hard. One writer will not force it, and lets verse 4 settle who the Servant is.
- Glorified — the Servant's work looked spent for nothing. Yet God has highly exalted Him, and the glory promised here will yet be public.
- Restored — God's glory comes first and our salvation second. The nation itself will still become a crown of glory — by grace, not by law.
-- And I said, I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought and in vain; nevertheless my judgment is with Jehovah, and my work with my God.
In Isaiah 49 a Servant speaks about His own work, and by verse 4 He says it has all come to nothing. That raises two questions: who is speaking, and how can a mission from God end in emptiness?
Who is speaking here? The nation that carried the servant's name had proved unfaithful.
Isaiah 49 presses the heavier and more serious charge. The prophet shows us the deep guilt of the returned remnant, who rejected their own true Messiah. Both Testaments share the same principle: the faithful One takes the place of the unfaithful "servant." Messiah the True Vine replaces Israel the empty vine. Messiah takes up Israel's place as Jehovah's servant, the One in whom God will be glorified. But because His people reject Him, He speaks the words of verse 4.
His labour was real and His strength really was spent. Anyone watching the end of His path would have called it failure.
How often in this fallen world have the servants of God had to taste the bitterness of defeat and apparent failure. It seems to have been the rule rather than the exception. Our Lord Himself is the supreme example. He came, as the Apostle Paul states, "A Minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers" (Rom. 15:8). But "the circumcision" rejected Him, and from that standpoint His mission ended in failure.
The ESV puts Paul's words this way: "Christ became a servant to the circumcised" — that is, a servant to the Jewish people.
One writer sums it up: "At the end of His path what was there to show for all His labours? He was left alone, betrayed by one of His disciples, denied by another, abandoned by everyone, and crucified as a criminal" (An Outline of Sound Words).
The second half of the verse is not resignation.
But to all this the perfect Servant answered, "Yet surely My judgment is with the Lord, and My work with My God." In Isaiah 53 we read, "He was taken from prison and from judgment." Acts 8 gives this as, "In His humiliation His judgment was taken away." In condemning Him, men broke every principle of right judgment. But He was content to keep silence before His judges and to move His judgment to the highest Court in the universe. He knew that His vindication in the presence of Jehovah was sure.
These lines follow an older translation. The ESV reads, "yet surely my right is with the LORD, and my recompense with my God."
A servant can care about results without living on them.
The Lord's food as a Servant was to do the work given Him, whatever the results might be. Was He unmoved by results? Far from it. What true servant should be? Compare these words of the Lord in Isaiah with His words in John. He was not indifferent to the results of His ministry in Israel. Yet the success of His labours was not what fed His soul.
The rejection did not shrink the mission; it opened it out.
Christ was set before the people, and they utterly rejected Him. That proved that unbelieving Israel would not be gathered. God foreknew the failure of Messiah's mission, and Isaiah 49:4 and the verses that follow acknowledge it fully. But Jehovah's answer opens up His counsels and purposes. They are being fully carried out in this acceptable time, as He calls out people from among Jews and Gentiles into the church. This remarkable prophecy shows us the exact order of events recorded in the New Testament. First, Christ's mission to Israel fails for a time. Then a suffering and rejected Messiah is received and glorified in heaven, and made God's salvation to the ends of the earth.
The comfort of this verse reaches anyone whose service looks wrecked.
Every servant of the Lord who is in earnest knows well the discouragement of the apparent wreck of what he is doing. The lowly and the humble are especially prone to this discouragement, but the proud and self-satisfied know nothing of it. Yet God does not want us to be discouraged, even though all appears to be in vain... Ours to do His bidding, His to give success or failure, but even the failure is no failure; it is part of the ways of God to bring about His purpose.
- Servant — The nation failed in the servant's place. Messiah takes it and speaks here as the faithful One.
- Spent — His labour and strength ended in visible defeat: alone, betrayed, denied, crucified.
- Surrendered — He does not defend Himself. He moves His case to God's court, where His vindication is sure.
- Sustained — He felt the empty result, yet the success of His work was never what fed His soul.
- Spread — The apparent failure is the turning point. Rejected in Israel, He becomes God's salvation to the ends of the earth. So no faithful worker's labour is finally wasted.
And now, saith Jehovah, that formed me from the womb to be his servant, that I should bring Jacob again to him; (though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorified in the eyes of Jehovah, and my God shall be my strength;)
Isaiah 49 opens with a Servant who speaks in the first person. God set Him apart before birth and sent Him to gather Jacob. Verse 5 is the turning point. His mission to Israel seems to fail, yet God honours Him and becomes His strength.
Earlier in the chapter God calls His servant "Israel." Commentators say the key is the shift from the nation to one Person.
The chapter opens with a call to the islands to listen... "And He said to me, You are my servant Israel, in whom I will glorify myself" (vv. 1-3). Such was the purpose of God about Israel; but, Israel failing, Christ becomes the true Israel. It is the transition from the people to the Messiah in whom alone it could be.
The same writer adds that this first failure is not the end of God's purpose. It leads to something larger.
Christ substitutes Himself for Israel. They had held the name and the responsibility of the servant; Christ becomes the true and righteous servant of God, when the other proved false... God's purposes seem to fail at first because of man's wickedness. That failure only settles them more firmly, and gives them a more glorious form and display in the end.
The Servant's confidence rests on who formed Him, and on where His strength comes from.
He knew that He had been formed from the womb to be the LORD's servant. God was His strength for His service. And even if Israel was not gathered, yet He Himself should be glorious in the eyes of the LORD.
The ESV reads "that Israel might be gathered to him." Older versions read "though Israel be not gathered." The old manuscripts and translations are split.
Isaiah 49:5 — the text of the Authorised Version gives one reading, "be not gathered"; the margin has the other, "gathered to him." The Vulgate here supports the Authorised Version. Some manuscripts, with the Septuagint, the Targum, and Aquila, read as the margin, without the negative.
The writers here follow the older reading. They tie it to what happened when Christ came.
Christ was presented to the people, and they utterly rejected Him. That proved that unbelieving Israel would not be gathered — "How often would I have gathered your children together… and you would not!" (Matt. 23:37). God foreknew the failure of Messiah's mission... This remarkable prophecy shows us the exact order of events recorded in the New Testament. First comes the temporary failure of Christ's mission to Israel. Then a suffering and rejected Messiah is received and glorified in heaven, and made to be God's salvation to the ends of the earth.
God's verdict on the Servant is the opposite of man's.
God completely cancels man's thought and judgment. The humbled Man — the discredited Prophet of Nazareth — walked His way to Calvary among the jeering crowd, abandoned by His disciples and mocked by men. Yet He was glorious in the eyes of the LORD. He was about to lay the foundation for the structure of glory yet to come.
God has not kept that honour hidden.
Yet the Servant glorified God, and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross. God has highly exalted Him and given Him a name which is above every name. The heavens have been opened, so that by faith we may look up and see Jesus crowned with glory.
God's reply widens the Servant's work far beyond Israel.
At His first coming, the mission of the Lord seemed to fail. The tribes of Jacob were not restored, and the preserved of Israel were not brought back to blessing. Yet He knew that, even if His work looked like failure, He was "glorious in the eyes of the Lord." He had completed the work God gave Him to do. Israel will indeed be gathered again when the Lord comes back. Meanwhile there is a still greater work, for God says to Him, "I will also give You for a light to the Gentiles, that You may be My salvation to the end of the earth."
- Formed — God shaped the Servant from the womb for one task: to bring Jacob back to Him. Israel had held that title and failed. Christ takes the place and fills it.
- Refused — His own people turned Him away. Kelly finds the whole order of events here: a rejected Messiah, glorified in heaven, then salvation to the ends of the earth.
- Honoured — God cancels man's judgment on Him. The discredited Prophet walking to Calvary was, at that very moment, glorious in the eyes of the LORD.
- Strengthened — He does not draw on results for confidence, but on God: "my God has become my strength."
- Widened — The refusal did not shrink His mission. It enlarged it. God gives Him as a light to the Gentiles, His salvation to the end of the earth.
-- and he saith, It is a small thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel; I have even given thee for a light of the nations, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.
God speaks these words to His Servant. The Servant has just said His work seemed to come to nothing, and God's answer is not a smaller mission but a far larger one — which raises the question of who this Servant is, and what becomes of Israel once the nations come into view.
Israel had held the place of God's servant and had failed in it. Here the One speaking is the Messiah, standing where Israel stood.
"And I said (says Christ), I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing." Christ substitutes Himself for Israel. They had been the servant in name and in responsibility. Christ becomes the true and righteous servant of God, when the other proved false.
The same writer finds this exchange all through the Bible, Old and New.
It is a striking instance of a principle common to the New Testament as well as the Old, the replacement of the faithless "servant" by the faithful One, of Israel the empty vine by Messiah the True Vine.
The phrase does not make Israel's restoration small in itself. God measures it against something wider.
God proclaims Him here as Israel's Restorer. Important as that is, God says it is a small thing in comparison. This one nation is not the only one that will come directly under Him. All the nations shall have Him as their Light. So, right to the ends of the earth, our Lord Jesus Christ shall be God's Salvation.
The mission grows at the very point where Israel refuses Him.
Israel rejected the Messiah. Yet He would not only be "glorious in the eyes of the Lord"; He would also secure blessing for a far greater company than Israel, and His God would be His strength in reaching this great end.
The direction of the mission changes. The light now goes out to the Gentiles — the nations outside Israel — and writers say this turn shapes the present day.
The original thought was to gather Israel, but Israel would not be gathered. Then, says God, That is too small a thing; I will save the nations also. But Christ is first given as a light to the Gentiles. It is going out rather than gathering in. At any rate, that is the turn the passage takes now, under the gospel. While Israel is not yet gathered, Christ becomes a light to the Gentiles.
The second half of the verse does not cancel the first. Writers keep both, and set them in order.
God's Servant came to do a work for Israel, and God would carry it out in His own good time. Israel would be regathered for the millennial day, the tribes of Jacob raised up, and the preserved of Israel restored. But something would also be done among the Gentiles, both in the day in which we live and in the millennium.
The two titles God gives here — light, and salvation — are the very words an old man used when the infant Jesus was brought into the temple in Jerusalem.
Here we see Him as The Servant; the Light, and the Salvation of God. What a wonderful Saviour! Mary took Him to the temple. There a man named Simeon, one of the faithful few left in Israel and "a servant" of the Lord's, rejoiced to see in Him God's "Salvation" and "the glory of His people Israel." He also saw in Him "a Light for revelation of the Gentiles," that they, brought out of their darkness and ignorance, might be revealed in God's marvellous light.
When the Jews would not hear him, Paul quoted this verse and called it a command. God spoke the words to Christ, yet Paul takes them as spoken to himself.
What had this to do with Paul and Barnabas? Everything. Without question the prophet has Christ in view, and some might want to limit the words to Christ alone. The Holy Spirit does not, and so He extends their reach to Paul and Barnabas… Christian faith takes for itself what God said to Him.
Why did Paul see it when others did not? One writer gives a simple reason.
The Jews would not listen to Paul and Barnabas, so they think of the word of the Lord… I doubt anyone else would have seen that but Paul. The reason was simply this: his heart was with the Lord.
- Servant — Israel failed in the role. Christ steps into it as the true and righteous Servant, the True Vine in place of the empty vine.
- Small — Raising up Jacob is called a small thing, not because it is minor. God answers rejection by widening the work, not shrinking it.
- Light — God gives the rejected One as light to the nations. Simeon used that very title over Him in the temple.
- Salvation — The reach runs "to the end of the earth." The mission turns from gathering Israel in to going out, and that is the work of today.
- Command — Paul read a prophecy about Christ as an order for himself and turned to the Gentiles. What God says of Christ, faith takes for those who belong to Him.
Thus saith Jehovah, the Redeemer of Israel, his Holy One, to him whom man despiseth, to him whom the nation abhorreth, to the servant of rulers Kings shall see and arise, princes, and they shall worship, because of Jehovah who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who hath chosen thee.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
Thus saith Jehovah In a time of acceptance have I answered thee, and in the day of salvation have I helped thee; and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the land, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages;
Isaiah 49 sets before us a Servant whom His own nation rejects. Verse 8 is Jehovah's reply to Him: acceptance, help, and a covenant that reaches far beyond the nation that refused Him.
The "you" of this verse is not the prophet and not the nation. It is the Servant whom men despise. The promise given to Him assumes a scene of total ruin.
It is clear that Christ is now viewed here as a rejected person, the cross being the great expression of that rejection. It is evident that this supposes all to be in ruin, but that the Lord Jesus is the destined repairer of the breaches.
Before there could be an acceptable time, there was an hour when the answer did not come.
There was a moment when He was not only despised and rejected by men, but forsaken by God. In that moment He could not say, "As for me, my prayer is to you, O Lord, in an acceptable time" (Psalm 69:13). His words were, "I cry, but you do not hear." He had to pass through this moment of unspeakable sorrow, and He passed through it in atonement for our sins... He who was crucified in weakness was raised by the power of God. So Jehovah can now say to Him in resurrection, "In an acceptable time have I heard you, and in a day of salvation have I helped you."
Older translations read "heard" where the ESV has "answered," and the writers quoted here follow them. Both words point to one event, and that event starts a whole era.
The humbled Servant whom men would not hear has been heard by Him, helped and lifted up... The significance of this may have been lost on Old Testament readers, but the Apostle Paul seized upon it in 2 Corinthians 6:2. The rejection of the Messiah, foretold in verse 7, would result in His death. He would be "heard" and "helped" by resurrection from the dead, and this was to inaugurate the "acceptable time" and the "day of salvation."
Paul takes up the first half of this verse in 2 Corinthians 6:2 and adds one word: now. That word marks off the time we are living in.
The words of the eighth verse are quoted here: "I have heard you in a time accepted and in the day of salvation I have helped you." They are addressed to Christ, whom Israel rejected. God raised Him from the dead, and though Israel is not gathered, He becomes the power of salvation for the Gentiles. This is the meaning of "behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." "Now" means this present age, when God offers salvation to the Gentiles.
Old Testament readers could not have guessed how far these words would reach.
Old Testament saints read of Messiah being heard in an accepted time and helped in a day of salvation. Who among them could have known that there would be a people accepted in His acceptance, saved in His own salvation out of death and judgment, and able to say that by His resurrection they were risen with Him? Jehovah said "I have heard you in a time of acceptance" to Christ personally. The Spirit of God has made known to us that we, through grace, are now included in that "you."
One writer notes how rarely Scripture gives Christ the title used here.
Only once more is our Lord Jesus Christ called the Covenant. It is here, in Isaiah 49:8. Only through Him can this be brought about.
That title also settles the ground of Israel's blessing.
The once-rejected Messiah is to be "a covenant of the people," for they will not enter into blessing on the basis of the covenant of law. He, and He only, will bring to pass the blessing on earth so glowingly described in these verses.
The closing clauses look past our own time to a coming age, when a restored nation lives in a restored land.
The day will come when the nation of Israel will be restored and brought into millennial blessing. Jehovah was glorified by His Servant Jesus. He accepted His work, heard His cry, helped Him, and preserved Him. Through Him, and all that He has done, Jehovah will fulfil His promises to His earthly people. He will establish the land, and at last the nation will inherit the land that for so long has been desolate.
- Cry — There was an hour when the Servant cried and no answer came. That hour was the atonement, and He passed through it first.
- Answer — "Heard" and "helped" are resurrection words. God's answer to the rejected Christ was to raise Him.
- Now — His resurrection opened the accepted time we live in. Salvation now goes out to the nations, while Israel is not yet gathered.
- Accepted — Jehovah spoke those words to Christ personally. They now cover a people accepted in His acceptance, saved in His salvation, risen with Him.
- Covenant — Christ Himself is called the Covenant. Through Him God establishes the desolate land, and the nation at last inherits it.
saying to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Shew yourselves. They shall feed in the ways, and their pasture shall be on all bare hills.
This verse is one line in a longer message God speaks to His Servant, and it is a command of release. Two questions decide how we read it — who are these prisoners, and when does the word go out?
The command is not the prophet's own. God gives it to His Servant, and the setting is a scene of total ruin. (The writers quote older translations, which read "Go forth" and "Show yourselves" where the ESV has "Come out" and "Appear".)
"I will preserve you and give you for a covenant of the people (that is, of Israel) … saying to the prisoners, Go forth" (vv. 8-9). This assumes everything is in ruin, but that the Lord Jesus is the appointed repairer of the breaches.
Some read this release of prisoners as a rescue of the dead from hell. One writer rejects that, and points to the verse's own setting: the earth and its ruined lands.
This is Jehovah's prophetic word to the Messiah, and it applies expressly to the earth and not to hell at all: "I will also give you for a light to the Gentiles, … to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages; that you may say to the prisoners, Go forth." Familiar passages use similar language, and nobody would dream of carrying it further. Anyone who applies this to hell must assume it. Will they say why?
If the prisoners are Israel, no human effort can arrange their freedom. The One who speaks sets the time.
Men may try to restore the land to the Jew, and bring the Jews back to the land. But their efforts, even if they seem successful for a time, will only bring the Jew back for the judgment of the great tribulation. To come back for blessing they must wait until Christ gives the word. In His time He will say to the prisoners, "Go forth". And to those in darkness, "Show yourselves". Today the Jew may be a captive, often hiding from the pitiless persecution of ruthless enemies. But when Christ says "Go forth" and "Show yourselves" no power will withstand His words.
This verse names prison and darkness. The next verse adds hunger and thirst. Each meets its exact opposite.
Prisons, and darkness, and hunger, and thirst, will yield up their captives and their victims at the gracious command of our Lord Jesus Christ; so that they may enjoy liberty, and light, and plenty. He will Himself guide them (vv. 9-10).
The second half of the verse turns from prison to pasture. It also settles where the freed come from.
"They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be on all bare heights… Behold, these shall come from afar; and behold, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim" (vv. 9-12). This predicts the return of Israel from all parts of the earth. But it is a return after they were scattered there. So they come not only from the north and south, but even from the land of Sinim — that is, from China. From there they emerge at last and gather in Palestine.
These captives have a name elsewhere in Scripture, and a scene in heaven matches their relief.
In verses 8-10 God gives Him as a covenant to the people, that is, Israel. He comes to bring in the blessing on earth, to set free captive Israel — "Prisoners of hope," Zechariah 9:11-12 — and to open the prison doors to those who are bound. So the true Shepherd of Israel feeds His now gathered flock, which would hunger and thirst no more. How similar is the language of Revelation 7:16-17, which the elder in heaven uses about those who had come out of the great tribulation.
- Ruin — the verse assumes everything lies in ruin: wasted lands, prisoners, people in the dark.
- Repairer — God gives His Servant as a covenant, and He is the appointed repairer of the breaches.
- Release — these prisoners are captives on the earth, not souls after death. His word ends both prison and darkness.
- Reach — release runs from every direction, from the north, the west, and lands as far off as China.
- Rest — the freed become a flock, fed along the ways and on bare heights, never hungry or thirsty again.
They shall not hunger nor thirst, neither shall the heat nor sun smite them; for he that hath mercy on them will lead them, and by the springs of water will he guide them.
Isaiah 49 describes the work of God's Servant. His own nation rejects Him, yet God gives Him to bring a scattered people home. Verse 10 pictures that homecoming, and it raises three questions: who are these people, when does this happen, and what makes it certain?
Verse 10 sits in a chapter about Christ. Israel's refusal of Him looks like failure. Instead God widens the promise to the nations, and then returns to Israel:
The original thought was to gather Israel, but Israel would not be gathered. Then, says God, That is too small a thing; I will save the nations also. But Christ is first given as a light to the Gentiles… "This is what Jehovah, the Redeemer of Israel, his Holy One, says to Him whom the soul despises, to Him whom the nation hates." Clearly Christ is now seen as a rejected person, and the cross is the great expression of that rejection. "I will preserve you and give you for a covenant of the people (that is, of Israel), to establish the land." All this supposes that everything is in ruin, but that the Lord Jesus is the destined repairer of the breaches.
The freedom from hunger, thirst and heat belongs to a journey home. One writer separates that homecoming from every human plan to resettle a people:
Men may seek to restore the land to the Jew, and bring the Jews back to the land. Their efforts may seem to succeed for a time. But they will only bring the Jew back for the judgment of the great tribulation. To come back for blessing they must wait until Christ gives the word… No longer will they hunger and thirst nor suffer the heat of a pitiless world. For the One who has mercy on them will Himself go before them. He will restore His wandering sheep, lead them by springs of water, and guide them over mountains and along His highways. They will be led back from every part of the earth.
The verse gives the reason for this care: the One leading them has mercy on them. One writer underlines that word:
At last the comfort announced in the opening verse of Isaiah 40 will have reached "His people." Those who for so long had been "His afflicted" will find mercy. MERCY, notice; not merit, as the end of Romans 11 shows so clearly.
The picture sounds like paradise, so many readers take it for heaven. One writer points to what the rest of the chapter says:
This passage is not a prophecy about heaven, but about restored Israel; for it goes on to declare, "I will feed them that oppress you with their own flesh," and concludes by saying that "all flesh shall know that I, Jehovah, am your Saviour, and your Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob." (v. 26.)
The promise is spoken to Israel. Yet one writer notes that the same prophecy reaches further:
And though these blessings are promised to Israel, the same prophecy shows us also a Gentile remnant, who share, at least in part, the same portion.
Revelation uses the same words of a crowd drawn out of every nation, and another writer takes both companies to be in view:
In the first part of Revelation 7 we have seen that in the time of these judgments God will have a saved remnant from Israel and the Gentiles. In the closing verses one of the elders in heaven answers the question of who this company is and where they come from. It would seem that these verses apply to both classes, for in Isaiah 49:10 exactly similar language is used to describe the blessing of restored Israel.
One writer gives the passage two applications, one future and one present:
This beautiful passage… will come literally true during the millennium, for all who are faithful to "the King of glory." (Compare Isa. 49 with Rev. 7.) But it is also true now, in a spiritual sense, of every sheep and lamb in the highly favoured flock of Christ. But do you know this truth, O my soul, for yourself — is it your own experience? Only the word of God can make it known, and only faith can enjoy it in the heart.
- Mercy begins it. The One who leads them leads in mercy. The blessing comes to those who "find mercy… not merit."
- Mercy is carried by a Servant. His own nation rejected Him, yet God gives Him as a covenant, and He becomes "the destined repairer of the breaches."
- Mercy sets the timing. No human effort brings the people home for blessing; they "must wait until Christ gives the word."
- Mercy reaches wide. Revelation uses the same words of a saved company from every nation, so both Israel and the Gentiles seem to be in view.
- Mercy lands on earth. This is "not a prophecy about heaven, but about restored Israel" — yet its comfort is true now, by faith, for every sheep of Christ.
And I will make all my mountains a way, and my highways shall be raised up.
Isaiah 49 answers the Servant's apparent failure. Here God promises a road home for a scattered people. The mountains that would block their return become the route. So who builds this road, who walks it, and when?
This promise sits inside a larger commission. God hands the rejected Messiah the ruined land and its scattered people to restore.
"I will preserve you and give you for a covenant of the people (that is, of Israel), to establish the land (or, earth), to cause to inherit the desolate heritages; saying to the prisoners, Go forth, to those in darkness, Show yourselves" (vv. 7-9). Clearly this supposes everything is in ruin, but also that the Lord Jesus is the destined repairer of the breaches.
The chapter names God's servant as Israel, yet the Servant speaks as a Person distinct from the nation. One writer explains it:
If we may dare to say it, Christ takes the place of Israel as the true servant of God. As He said, "I am the true vine." This creates an apparent difficulty, but it gives the true sense of chapter 49.
The next verse names where the travellers come from. That shows how far these highways reach.
"And I will make all my mountains a way, and my highways shall be exalted. Behold, these shall come from afar; and behold, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim" (vv. 9-12). This predicts the return of Israel from all parts of the earth. It is a return after they have been scattered there. So they come out not only from the north and south, but even from the land of Sinim — that is, China — and gather at last in Palestine.
(This is an older rendering; the ESV reads "I will make all my mountains a road, and my highways shall be raised up.")
People can try to bring the Jews back to their land by their own effort. One writer warns that such efforts run ahead of God's timing.
Men may seek to restore the land to the Jew, and bring the Jews back to the land. But their efforts, even if they seem to succeed for a time, will only bring the Jew back for the judgment of the great tribulation. To come back for blessing they must wait until Christ gives the word... The One who has mercy on them will Himself go before them. He will restore His wandering sheep, lead them by springs of water, and guide them over mountains and along His highways.
The verses around this one describe the travellers as prisoners and as people hiding in dark places. Their condition settles what they can claim when they arrive.
Some will be prisoners, some hiding in dark places; coming over the mountains from distant spots in north and west, and even from "the land of Sinim," which some identify with China. At last the comfort announced in the opening verse of Isaiah 40 will have reached "His people." Those who for so long had been "His afflicted" will find mercy. MERCY, notice; not merit — as the end of Romans 11 shows so clearly.
One writer sets the same care beside the Lamb's care for His flock in Revelation. He finds in it both a promise for the millennium and a truth for today.
"They will hunger no more, nor thirst any more; the sun will not strike them, nor any heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will feed them and lead them to living fountains of water; and God will wipe away all tears from their eyes." This beautiful passage ... will be literally true during the millennium of all who are faithful to "the King of glory." But it is also true now, in a spiritual sense, of every sheep and lamb in the highly favoured flock of Christ.
(An older rendering of Revelation 7.)
The next verse calls creation to sing. One writer ties that shout to God's old pledge to Israel about land and liberty.
But what when the great Jubilee surpasses this generous pledge beyond all comparison! Then... "Shout, you heavens; and be joyful, you earth; and break forth, you mountains, into singing; for Jehovah comforts his people, and will have mercy on his afflicted ones" (Isa. 49:12-13). No loss of liberty or land any more.
- Builder. The road is not a human project — the rejected Servant is the appointed repairer of the ruin, and He makes the way.
- Word. The road opens when Christ says "Go forth." Efforts that run ahead of Him bring tribulation, not blessing.
- Reach. Its highways stretch to the far ends of the earth — north, west, and Sinim — so God can gather every exile, however distant.
- Basis. Those who travel it are prisoners and afflicted ones met by mercy, not by merit.
- End. It leads to a Jubilee greater than the old one, where liberty and land are never lost again.
Behold, these shall come from afar; and behold, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim.
This verse ends a picture of Israel coming home from every corner of the earth. It names one place so remote that readers still argue over where it was, and it raises a bigger question: who brings them back?
Two kinds of return are possible, one writer says, and only one of them ends in blessing.
Men may seek to restore the land to the Jew, and bring the Jews back to the land. Their efforts may seem to succeed for a time. But they will only bring the Jew back for the judgment of the great tribulation. To come back for blessing they must wait until Christ gives the word. In His time He will say to the prisoners, "Go forth". And to those in darkness, "Show yourselves". Today the Jew may be a captive, often hiding from the pitiless persecution of ruthless enemies. But when Christ says "Go forth" and "Show yourselves" no power will withstand His words. From every quarter of the earth they will be led back.
Older translations read "the land of Sinim" where the ESV has "the land of Syene." Most writers here read it as China. One traces the name through the scholars who studied it.
This predicts the return of Israel from all parts of the earth. But it is a return after they have been scattered there. So in the end they come out and gather in Palestine not only from the north and south, but even from the land of Sinim — that is, from China… Gesenius had too much sense to miss that a distant people at the south or east edge of the world was meant. Even Knobel and Hitzig point to China, whose Rabbinical name is Tsin.
The writers do not all agree. One reference work lists the options and shows why China fits the verse.
A remote place from which some will be brought when in a future day God is blessing Israel. The Septuagint, an early Greek translation, has "the land of the Persians." The land of the Sinae, who settled in Western China, has been suggested: this would not clash with "north" and "west," which are also mentioned in the same passage.
A few verses earlier the Lord tells His Servant that He answered Him at an accepted time. One writer says the homecoming here hangs on that answer. The same promise held something no Old Testament reader could see.
Jesus is preserved, treasured up in the heavens now, awaiting the moment of the ingathering of Israel… Old Testament saints read that the Messiah Himself was heard in an accepted time and helped in a day of salvation. They dimly saw that Israel's coming out from the north and west, and from the land of Sinim, depended on it. But which of them could have known that there would be a people accepted in His acceptance? A people saved in His own salvation out of death and judgment? A people able to say that by His resurrection they were risen with Him?
Isaiah 40 opens with a promise of comfort. One writer says these travellers are where that promise lands.
Some will be prisoners, some hiding in dark places; coming over the mountains from distant spots in north and west, and even from "the land of Sinim," which some identify with China. At last the comfort, announced in the opening verse of Isaiah 40, will have reached "His people," and those who for so long had been "His afflicted," will find mercy. MERCY, notice — not merit, as the end of Romans 11 shows so clearly.
One writer reads this verse against Israel's jubilee law.
Israel alone had God's guarantee every fifty years. But what happens when that generous promise is far surpassed in the great Jubilee!… No loss of liberty or land any more; "for as the new heavens and the new earth that I make shall remain before me, says the Lord, so shall your offspring and your name remain."
The next verse calls on heaven and earth to sing. One writer lists what has to happen first.
At last the Servant will finish the will of the Lord. The nation will be restored, the Gentiles will come into blessing, and kings and princes will bow and worship at His feet. Then the heavens and the earth will join to sing His praise. The wide creation will break out in singing, and all will own that the Lord has done it all.
- Cause. Everything rests on the Servant, heard "in an accepted time" — on what He accomplished, not on political effort.
- Command. The journey starts when Christ says "Go forth" and "Show yourselves." No power will withstand His words.
- Compass. North, west, far away, and Sinim — most read it as China, some as Persia. No distance is too far for His word.
- Character. Those who arrive come as prisoners and afflicted ones, and what meets them is mercy, not merit.
- Chorus. The homecoming ends in a jubilee: no more loss of land or liberty. Heaven and earth sing that the Lord has done it all.
Shout, ye heavens; and be joyful, thou earth; and break forth into singing, ye mountains for Jehovah hath comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted ones.
Isaiah 49 has just described the Servant of the Lord. His own nation rejected Him, and His work looked wasted. Yet God gave Him as a light to the nations and as the one who brings scattered Israel home. Verse 13 is the song that answers all of that. Why does it call heaven, earth and mountains to join in, when the comfort is for one afflicted people?
Israel had been God's servant, and Israel had failed. The chapter puts a true Servant in that place. The song comes only when His work is finished.
Israel failed as God's servant, so God set Israel aside and put Christ forward as the true servant. Yet Christ says, "I have laboured in vain," because Israel rejected Him. God's answer comes in verse 5 and the verses after it. It was too small a thing for Him only to raise up the tribes of Israel; God would lift Him high and give Him as a light to the nations. In verse 8, God gives Him as a covenant to the people, to deliver them at the end.
Hamilton Smith reads verse 13 as the last step in a sequence running through the chapter. He also names who gets the credit.
Seventh, the Servant will finish the will of Jehovah at last. God will restore the nation. He will bring the nations into blessing. Kings and princes will bow and worship at His feet. Then at last the heavens and the earth will join to sing His praise. The whole creation will burst into song, and all will admit that the Lord has done it all.
The people comforted here are the ones named just before: prisoners and people in dark places, coming home from far away. How God treats them matters as much as who they are.
Verse 13, though, seems to point mainly, perhaps only, to an afflicted remnant of Israel. Some will be prisoners. Some will be hiding in dark places. They come over the mountains from far-off places in the north and the west, and even from "the land of Sinim," which some take to be China. At last the comfort announced in the opening verse of Isaiah 40 will have reached "His people." Those who had been "His afflicted" for so long will find mercy. Mercy, notice — not merit.
The very next verse has Zion saying she has been forsaken and forgotten. So this comfort is not general encouragement. It answers one despair, and it answers with a love stronger than the closest human bond.
No wonder the call goes out for the heavens to shout and the mountains to sing. Comfort has come to God's people through Israel's Restorer. Zion thought she had been abandoned for good. A woman may forget her own baby, against all nature; but Jehovah does not forget His own people. He comforts Zion. He consoles her, and He quickly increases the number of her children.
Earlier in the chapter the call went out to the distant coastlands. Here the audience widens past anything human.
No wonder the call to rejoice goes out not only to the islands, but to heaven and earth… These are the last days. Jehovah is looking back over His goodness and calling the whole universe to be joyful.
This song fits a wider pattern. Writers tie creation's joy to one coming event, and the prophets and the apostle name that event in different ways.
The apostle hangs all this joy of creation on "the revealing of the sons of God" (Rom. 8). The prophets hang it on the redemption of Israel (Isa. 44:23; Isa. 49:13; Isa. 55:12). The testimonies differ because apostles and prophets had different ministries. In one place the Psalmist joins the two in a few words, touching the note where their harmonies meet — "when the Lord builds up Zion, He appears in His glory." (Ps. 102:16)
That is why the call reaches the mountains. Creation has been waiting, and its release comes at the same moment.
There has already been a creation song. The earth came fresh from the hands of God, and "the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy" (Job 38:7). Then sin spoiled that beautiful creation. Singing gave way to weeping, and songs to groans. In the thousand-year day to come, God will make the earth new. Creation's groan will fall silent, and heaven and earth will join in a new song.
- Cause. The song rests on the Servant. Israel rejected Him, and He said He had laboured in vain. God then gave Him as a light to the nations and a covenant to the people.
- Gift. The afflicted receive mercy, not merit. The comfort promised in Isaiah 40 reaches prisoners and exiles gathered from as far away as the land of Sinim.
- Answer. Zion said she was forsaken and forgotten. A mother may forget her child; God does not forget His people.
- Reach. The call widens from the far-off coastlands to heaven, earth and mountains. The whole universe joins in one nation's relief.
- Result. Creation's groan falls silent. The prophets tie that release to the redemption of Israel; the apostle ties it to the revealing of God's sons. One day, one song.