What does it mean that Israel is a light to the Gentiles (Isaiah 49:6)?

He is here proclaimed by God to be Israel’s Restorer; but important as that is, God says it is a small thing comparatively; for not only this one nation shall come immediately under Him; all the nations shall have Him as their Light; so that, right away to the ends of the earth, our Lord Jesus Christ shall be God’s Salvation. What excellent and exceeding distinctions are here attributed to Christ!

With Isa. 49 the heavier and more heinous charge is pressed. The prophet sets before us throughout the section the aggravated guilt of the returned remnant in rejecting their own, the true, Messiah. It is a striking instance of a principle common to the N.T. as well as the O.T., the replacement of the faithless "servant" by the faithful One, of Israel the empty vine by Messiah the True Vine, the fleshly son of God called out of Egypt by His Only-begotten in due time. Indeed it is the question for faith and unbelief between the first man and the Second, which underlies all revelation, and determines the lot of every soul before whom it comes, for not time only but eternity. Messiah takes up Israel's place, as Jehovah's servant in Whom He will be glorified; but in view of His rejection He says (ver. 4), "I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought and vanity: yet surely my judgment is with Jehovah, and my work [or wages] with my God." The next verse is the answer, which demonstrates the substitution of Messiah for Israel, not distinct only but for the present opposed to Him. "And now saith Jehovah that formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, that Israel may be gathered to him (yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of Jehovah, and my God shall be my strength); and he said, 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 will even give thee for light to Gentiles, to be my salvation unto the end of the earth" (vers. 5, 6). The text is here rendered in a form substantially as learned Jews prefer. What can be plainer, even if we had not the apostle's application in Acts 13, than that here we have the blessed result of the gospel for Gentiles, on the refusal of the Messiah by His own people? No doubt despising man joined the nation in its apostate abhorrence, and the Cross followed. This infinite grace made the ground of salvation indiscriminate to Jew or Gentile that believed: a state of things wholly distinct from what was before the first advent and what will follow the second, when Jehovah will prove that He never forgot Zion, but at length will contend with her enemies, and save her children then repentant and looking to Him Whom they pierced. Thus verses 7, 8, quite confirm the grace now going out far and wide (cf. 2 Cor. 6:2), while the chapter passes on to the millennial rescue and exaltation of Israel on earth. All is due to the Servant, and is God's gracious use of His rejection. Meanwhile the Jew has lost Him as King in Zion; and the believer (whosoever he may be) has Him as Saviour, Lord, Priest, and Head in heavenly glory.

Jesus as God's Servant had come to save His people Israel, but they would not have Him and so rejected their own mercies. God's answer to the rejection of His Son by Israel is, "It is a light thing that Thou shouldest be My servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give Thee for a light to the Gentiles, that Thou mayest be My salvation unto the end of the earth" (verse 6). Not only would Messiah, rejected by Israel, be "glorious in the eyes of the Lord," but He would secure blessing to a far greater company than Israel, and His God would be His strength in achieving this great end.

What God's Servant came to accomplish for Israel would be achieved in God's good time, Israel would be regathered for the millennial day, the tribes of Jacob would be raised up, and the preserved of Israel be restored, but there would be something done among the Gentiles, both in the day in which we live, and also in the millennium, Christ being God's light for the Gentiles, and His salvation to the end of the earth. The mystery of Christ and the church is not revealed here, that awaited Christ taking His place on high and the coming of the Holy Spirit, but the preaching of Christ as God's light and salvation now is within the scope of this prophecy.

Turn once more to Isaiah 49. In verse 6 the Lord is pointed out as Jehovah’s Servant, to restore the preserved of Israel; but again God says, “I will also give Thee for a Light to the Gentiles, that Thou mayest be My Salvation unto the end of the earth.” Here we see Him as The Servant; the Light, and the Salvation of God. What a wonderful Saviour! When Mary took Him to the temple, one of the remnant of Israel; “a servant” of the Lord’s, Simeon by name, rejoiced to see in Him God’s “Salvation,” and “the glory of His people Israel;” also “a Light for revelation of the Gentiles” (N.Tr.), that they, brought out of their darkness and ignorance, might be revealed in God’s marvellous light. Nor is this truth limited to the bodily presence of our Lord Jesus Christ on earth, for in preaching the gospel the Apostle Paul, when “the Jews seeing the crowds, were filled with envy, and contradicted,” said, “Lo we turn to the Gentiles; for thus the Lord enjoined us: I have set thee as a light of the nations” (Acts 13:47). This striking reference to Isaiah decisively conforms the truth of which we have spoken. The Light, like the gospel, and the salvation of God, is sent out for all men everywhere.

Christ has been set as a light to the Gentiles, that He should be for salvation to the ends of the earth, and Paul preaches Christ that all may get this saving light. This is what is meant by getting the eyes opened; it is to get light as to God. Man by nature is in darkness; he does not know God. His thoughts are all wrong about his Creator. Athens was perhaps the most enlightened city in the world in the days of the apostles, but when Paul went there he found they had erected an altar to "The unknown God." Man cannot discover God by searching. Neither astronomy nor geology will give him the knowledge of God. His power and divinity are witnessed to by creation; but we need to know more than His power and divinity to turn to Him and to trust in Him. We naturally think God cares little or nothing for us, that He is regardless, so to speak, whether we sink or swim. And then, man being a sinner with a bad conscience, he is unable to view God in any other light than that of judge. Hence the thought of God is not pleasant to him, and added to all this there is the power of the devil, who misrepresents God to him, and fills his depraved mind with superstitious terror, so that the god he worships, if he worships any, is a monster, not the true God. He reasons from himself to God. His thoughts cannot rise above himself, and being evil and corrupt and malicious he cannot conceive a God of purity, grace and goodness. Hence the gods the heathen served were demons. When they thought of God it was a demon rose up before the mind, an evil being full of evil and corrupt desires, malicious and cruel, with unlimited powers to work out all the wickedness the black heart was privy to.

"And I said (says Christ), I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for naught." Christ substitutes Himself for Israel. They had been the servant nominally and responsibly; Christ becomes the true and righteous servant of God, when the other proved false. Nevertheless, even in Christ all comes to nothing at first through Jewish unbelief, through man's evil and enmity. "I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for naught, and in vain; nevertheless my judgement [is] with Jehovah, and my work with my God" (v. 4). The failure, apparently, of the purposes of God in the first instance from man's wickedness only leads to a better establishment of them, and to a more glorious form and display in result. "And now, says 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 glorious in the eyes of Jehovah, and my God shall be my strength)." This is the comfort of Christ, that although the work was not done, and Israel would not be gathered (how often would He have gathered them!) yet would He be glorious. "And he says, 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 will also give thee for a light to the nations, that thou mayest be my salvation to the end of the earth" (vv. 5, 6).

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 rather going out than gathering in: at any rate, such is the turn given to the passage now, under the gospel. While Israel is not yet gathered, Christ becomes a light to the Gentiles. But God's purpose never fails, and so we find, "Thus says Jehovah, the Redeemer of Israel, his Holy One, to him whom the soul despises, to him whom the nation abhors" (it is clear that Christ is now viewed as a rejected person, the cross being the great expression of that rejection), "to a servant of rulers, kings shall see and arise, princes and they shall worship, because of Jehovah that is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen thee. Thus says Jehovah, In an acceptable time have I answered thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee: and I will preserve thee and give thee 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 them that [are] in darkness, Show yourselves" (vv. 7-9). It is evident that this supposes all to be in ruin, but that the Lord Jesus is the destined repairer of the breaches.

The answer of Jehovah begins in verse 6. We are prophetically advised that in the coming of the Lord Jesus wider and weightier purposes were involved than the gathering and blessing of Israel and Jacob. Light was to shine for all the nations, and salvation was to be made possible and available to the ends of the earth. Here is a prediction that — praise be to God! — is being verified today. He is the salvation. It cannot be disconnected from Him, as the Apostle Peter made so plain before the Jewish council — see Acts 4:12.

(V. 6). Fourthly, during the time of Christ’s rejection by the Jew – while Israel is still dispersed among the nations – Christ will be given as a light to the Gentiles, so that He may become God’s salvation to the ends of the earth. Doubtless, the prophecy for its complete fulfilment looks on to the Millennial blessing of the world, but, in the meantime the Spirit of God, through the Apostle Paul gives these beautiful words an application to the present time. When the Jews rejected the Apostle’s preaching at Antioch, he uses these words as his authority for proclaiming the grace of God to the Gentiles.

And we are permitted in this chapter to have a glimpse of the Divine purposes. To raise up Jacob's tribes and restore a godly remnant of Israel was a comparatively small matter. Wider and weightier things were in view. What were they? To be a light to the Gentiles and to be set as God's salvation to the ends of the earth. Ultimately Israel will be gathered, as we know, but here is predicted what God is doing today, and into this light and blessing have we been brought by the grace of God, for now is the accepted time and the day of salvation.

The glad tidings of the grace of God is for all men. It is to the Jew first, but, thank God, it is also to the Gentile. Peter was sent to the Jew, Paul to the Gentile. The man who would not allow the Jew to hear the gospel, but persecuted to the death those who carried it and those who received it, is the very man chosen by God to be a herald of that same gospel to the farthest corners of the earth. It is in the synagogue of the Jews he speaks the words I have been reading in your ears. He says, “Men and brethren, children of the stock of Abraham, and whosoever among you feareth God, to you is the word of this salvation sent.” He lets all know that the word of God was not now to be limited to Jewish ears. The salvation of God was sent to the Gentiles also. There were evidently some of the Gentiles in that synagogue, men who had in some way, possibly by coming in contact with the devout Jews, received some divine impressions, and feared God. To them as to the Jews he addresses the message. The next Sabbath, at the request of the Gentiles, he goes outside the Jews altogether, and preaches the word to the Gentiles alone, quoting from Jewish scriptures to prove the action to be according to the mind of God: “I have set Thee (the word of God to Christ) to be a light of the Gentiles, that Thou shouldest be for salvation to the ends of the earth.” The word of God had first to be spoken to the Jew. The Lord told His disciples to begin at Jerusalem. But now that the Jews had put it from them, and judged themselves unworthy of everlasting life, the apostles turned to the Gentiles. The Gentile who walked in darkness, worshipped devils, and wallowed in pollution, was now to see the light of God