
The Servant Sings Of His Salvation
Isaiah 49:1-7
- a song of the Messiah 700 years before His arrival
- about the globalisation of His salvation (from the Israel to the world)
- skipped chapters are largely to do with the prophecy on the restoration of Israel and the fall of Babylon (last chapter preached on was ch.42)
- source of tremendous comfort and proof of the accuracy of the Scripture
- Ch.49 prophesies the coming of the True Servant of God - Jesus Christ
I. The preparation of the servant
- it is not uncommon to assume that Christ, in His human ministry, wouldn't need any preparation. However, His human capacity required preparation
- He needed to grow mentally, physically (as accounted for in the Gospels)
- v. 2 says, "He made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me a polished arrow; in his quiver he hid me away."
- what was He being sharpened and polished for? So that He could be the "True Israel of God" (recalling that ch. 42 "Israel the Servant" was not the literal Israel, but Christ); that He might be the One to accomplish the things that Israel was not able to do.
- read Hosea 11:1 (type and shadow of the Christ)
- when we come to Christ, we become part of the spiritual Israel (Israel is a typological Kingdom of God)
II. The frustration of the servant
- v. 4 says, "But I said, "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."
- think about Christ's choicest disciples; one of them betrayed Him and some abandoned Him. And on the cross, He experienced that greatest abandonment.
- though His immediate experience signals vanity and failure, Christ's faith was in God.
- His reward and right is in the Lord. He is the ultimate example of great endurance.
- It is God that determines our success.
III. The salvation of the servant
- v.5-6 says, And now the LORD says, he who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him; and that Israel might be gathered to him- for I am honored in the eyes of the LORD, and my God has become my strength- he says: "It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth."
- Israel's salvation is too light and small for the greater glorious thing that Christ was going to do. Hence, Christ is made king over the whole world.
- the reason we are saved is because the glory and weightiness of Christ's worth calls for it
- this also suggests the reason we will never be able to exhaust the infinite grace and mercy of God
- our sins may be great but His love and grace are greater
IV. The exaltation of the servant
- v. 7 says, "Thus says the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One, to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nation, the servant of rulers: "Kings shall see and arise; princes, and they shall prostrate themselves; because of the LORD, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you."
- God's response to the Messiah's song
- Kings don't rise when regular people walk into a room. When Christ walks into the world again, kings and princes will fall prostrate before Him.
- Christ has come to your life. Is Christ not worthy of your standing and falling prostrate before Him?