Isaiah 49:1-13 Click here for Bible Verses
Hi GAMErs!
Today’s passage is Isaiah 49:1-13. Let’s go!
Isaiah 49:1-12 (NIV)
1 Listen to me, you islands; hear this, you distant nations: Before I was born the LORD called me; from my birth he has made mention of my name.
2 He made my mouth like a sharpened sword, in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me into a polished arrow and concealed me in his quiver.
3 He said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will display my splendor.”
4 But I said, “I have labored to no purpose; I have spent my strength in vain and for nothing. Yet what is due me is in the LORD’s hand, and my reward is with my God.”
5 And now the LORD says– he who formed me in the womb to be his servant to bring Jacob back to him and gather Israel to himself, for I am honored in the eyes of the LORD and my God has been my strength–
6 he says: “It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.”
7 This is what the LORD says– the Redeemer and Holy One of Israel– to him who was despised and abhorred by the nation, to the servant of rulers: “Kings will see you and rise up, princes will see and bow down, because of the LORD, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”
8 This is what the LORD says: “In the time of my favor I will answer you, and in the day of salvation I will help you; I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people, to restore the land and to reassign its desolate inheritances,
9 to say to the captives, ‘Come out,’ and to those in darkness, ‘Be free!’ “They will feed beside the roads and find pasture on every barren hill.
10 They will neither hunger nor thirst, nor will the desert heat or the sun beat upon them. He who has compassion on them will guide them and lead them beside springs of water.
11 I will turn all my mountains into roads, and my highways will be raised up.
12 See, they will come from afar– some from the north, some from the west, some from the region of Aswan.”
On verses 1-12: After speaking repeatedly in chapters 41-48 about how the Jewish people would be delivered from captivity in Babylon by a man called Cyrus, suddenly starting in chapter 49 Isaiah stops referring to Babylon and Cyrus. Instead, he turns his focus to someone he calls “the Servant”. This servant would have an impact not only on the Jewish people, but on the nations, bringing “light for the Gentiles” and “salvation to the ends of the earth” (v6).
So these verses are all about this servant that God will raise up. Verses 1-6 picture the servant himself speaking. Verse 7-12 are God speaking about this servant. Before I used to think that maybe this servant was Isaiah and that in Isaiah 49 God was expanding Isaiah’s mission from focusing only on the Jewish people to reaching the nations. But as I read various descriptions that Isaiah gives of this servant, both here in chapter 49 and in subsequent chapters, it becomes clearer and clearer to me that this servant whom Isaiah is referring to is not himself, but Jesus Christ. No one comes close to fulfilling this servant’s job description the way that Jesus does – not Israel, not Isaiah, no one else.
Verse 1 describes how this servant will be called by God even before birth.
Verse 2 describes how this servant’s words will be like a sword that cuts to the depths of people’s hearts.
Verse 3 says that this servant will display God’s splendour. Now you may be wondering, “If this servant is Jesus, why in verse 3 is this servant called ‘Israel’?” That is because Jesus is prototype Israel, the one who fulfilled all of God’s requirements whereas the nation of Israel had failed. As Pastor David Pawson would say, Jesus is Israel as Israel was always meant to be.
Verse 4 describes the rejection and discouragement this servant would encounter. Still this servant will choose to trust in God.
Verses 5-6 describe the mission of this servant: not only to bring Judah and Israel back to God (v5) but to light the way for nations around the world to come to know God as well (v6).
Verse 7 says that the servant will be despised by the nations (for example, what name is used more as a curse word in our world today than the name of Jesus?). Yet one day kings of nations will bow down before him.
Verse 8 says that this servant will become “a covenant for the people”, that is, the centrepiece of a new relationship between God and people (see also Isaiah 42:6; Luke 22:20; 1 Corinthians 11:25).
Verses 8-10 also say that because of this servant captives will be set free. They will no longer hunger, thirst or suffer under the desert heat because this servant will compassionately lead them to springs of water. Later on Revelation 7 will quote this verse in Isaiah 49:10 when speaking about Jesus the Lamb.
Verses 11-12 are two of my favourite verses in this chapter because they describe how because of this servant, instead of mountains (obstacles), there will be roads and highways being raised up, allowing people from the ends of the earth to come and experience the freedom, hope and refreshing that this servant will bring (v12). Jesus is the one who will break down barriers and build bridges to God.
Isaiah 49:13 (NIV)
13 Shout for joy, O heavens; rejoice, O earth; burst into song, O mountains! For the LORD comforts his people and will have compassion on his afflicted ones.
On verse 13: Through the sending of this servant, God is giving all of creation – both the heavens and the earth – reason to rejoice. For God will comfort His people and have compassion on them through this servant.
Thank You Jesus for the freedom and the refreshing that You brought to a captive like me, a freedom and refreshing that I still get to enjoy every day, especially when I come to You. Thank You that, as the most amazing Servant, You make this freedom and refreshing available to everyone on this planet, and that You paid the highest price to make it available to us. Thank You for giving all of creation so many reasons to rejoice. In Jesus’ name, AMEN!
