Listen to me, you islands;
    hear this, you distant nations:

At the outset of another passage introducing ‘the Servant of the Lord’, we have yet again a sense of a global outreach. God’s Word and Work are not just for Israel, but for the whole world. (See also 42:1-4).

”For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” John 3:16.

As the Samaritan people said to the woman, who had been so impacted by her encounter with Jesus:

”We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Saviour of the world” John 4:42.

Jesus Himself, marvelling over the faith of the Gentile Centurion, said:

”…many will come from the east and the west, and take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven” Matthew 8:11.

Barry Webb notes that the first essential for the Jews being addressed here ‘is to be reminded that there is a whole world out there waiting to hear the truth about God. Healing begins when we stop focusing on ourselves and our arguments with God and start looking outward to the world that he loves and that needs to know about him (6b).’ (‘Isaiah’, p.193).

PRAYER: Lord, please rescue me from parochialism. Help me to live on a world map.