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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 honoured 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 my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth

How could Jesus go through all He did, in order to fulfil prophecy and be the Jewish Messiah, and Saviour of the world? How could He face the rejection, the scorn, the mockery, the discouragement, and ultimately the suffering of the Cross? The answer is that He became so human that He needed the power of the Holy Spirit for every aspect of His life and ministry. So, of course, do we. We can take great encouragement from reading the book of ‘Acts’ and seeing how the church did the same things in the world that Jesus did, when that church received power from on high (Acts 1:8); when they were anointed by the same Spirit who came upon Jesus.

 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. (Ephesians 6:10).

Here is the key to keeping going when the wind beats mercilessly against you. If God is your strength you need never lose heart.

He said to me, “You are my servant,
    Israel, in whom I will display my splendour.”
⁴ But I said, “I have laboured in vain;
    I have spent my strength for nothing at all.
Yet what is due me is in the Lord’s hand,
    and my reward is with my God.”

There is encouragement here for every church leader (‘servant’) who has thought: ‘What am I doing? What’s it all for? Will there be anything lasting to show for all my efforts?’ Jesus – the ‘Servant of the LORD’ – can identify with such emotions. However, He also points the way to transcend the downward drag of our negative feelings. Look at the final two lines of verse 4. We need to commit our way and our work to God, knowing that lasting fruitfulness comes from Him alone.

In ‘the Message’ we read:

But I said, “I’ve worked for nothing.
    I’ve nothing to show for a life of hard work.
Nevertheless, I’ll let God have the last word.
    I’ll let him pronounce his verdict.”

 Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain. (1 Corinthians 15:58: emphasis mine).

I also noticed in today’s text the juxtaposition of the words:

He said…But I said…

The challenge is to believe what God says about us and our ministries, and not what we say or think or feel. We regularly give credence to lying emotions.

PRAYER: Lord, please help us to always speak in line with the truth of your Word.

He said to me, “You are my servant,
    Israel, in whom I will display my splendour.”
⁴ But I said, “I have laboured in vain;
    I have spent my strength for nothing at all.
Yet what is due me is in the Lord’s hand,
    and my reward is with my God.”

In the early part of chapter 49 we can maybe see some parallels with Jeremiah (or with his experience) But I have found Barry Webb’s comments on this passage very helpful. Here they are:

‘Like Jeremiah…he meets with opposition which brings him close to despair – but carries on anyway, trusting God to reward him (4). But just as we are beginning to think he must be Jeremiah or some other known prophet, he is referred to in a way which explodes all our categories and puts him in a class of his own:

You are my servant,
    Israel, in whom I will display my splendour. (3).

His name is Israel! But how can this be, since, as we have already seen, a key aspect of his mission is to restore Israel to a proper relationship with God (5)? We are forced to look back to the tentative conclusion we reached in chapter 42, that he is a figure who embodies all that the nation of Israel was called to be, and therefore one who is truly worthy of the name – God’s perfect Servant. As such he is far greater than Jeremiah, or any other Old Testament prophet for that matter. He is the prophet par excellence.‘ (‘Isaiah’, pp.193/4).

   …in the shadow of his hand he hid me;
he made me into a polished arrow
    and concealed me in his quiver.

Following his birth, and dedication in the temple, Jesus lived a fairly anonymous life until He was thirty years old. That is apart from one appearance in the temple when He was 12. He pretty much had thirty hidden years, followed by three years of intensely powerful public ministry.

It sems to me, and I understand it, that many leaders in the church secretly (or not so secretly!) covet a high profile. But how many want the (potentially) years of hiddenness it may take to prepare for such a role? As I read the Bible, it strikes me that God has done some of His most strategic work in people, at His ‘university of the desert.’ To have ‘private education’/’personal tuition’ provided by the Lord Himself is a precious gift. But it has to be said that it takes patience to endure the hidden years in the wilderness.

It should also be noted that not all obscurity is preparation for prominence. Many people will be called to serve in ‘hidden valleys’ all their lives, and if it is God’s call, it is something to be embraced, not resisted.

‘To pursue obscurity is simply to resist the magnetic pull of self-promotion and platform building and ”influence” that plagues so much of the contemporary culture, including the contemporary Christian culture…the better part of righteousness lies, as our Lord reminded us, precisely in its hiddenness and secrecy before our heavenly Father…’ R. Lucas Stamps.

He made my mouth like a sharpened sword…

Here is Jesus’ prophetic ministry.
 

In the first chapter of the last book of the Bible (‘Revelation’) the apostle John records a vision he was given of Jesus. Verse 16 includes these words: ”…and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword” (see also Hos.6:5; Ephesians 6:17).

A Christ-like ministry will, at times, have a sharpness to it. When Peter preached on the day of Pentecost, the people who heard him ”were cut to the heart” (Acts 2:37). Who do you think was ‘preaching’ through him?

I regularly pray for a prophetic cutting edge in my ministry. Only God can give this. Note: ”He made my mouth…” It’s not what we can make of ourselves, but what the Lord makes of us that counts:

“Follow me, and I will make you…” (Matt.4:19).

Before I was born the Lord called me;
    from my mother’s womb he has spoken my name.

From our vantage point in time, our distance in history, we have come to believe that ‘the Servant Songs’ are about Jesus. He came in fulfilment of these words. So it seems relevant that His birth should be mentioned. However, there is no indication here of there being anything remarkable about it. The point made is about His calling, somewhat reminiscent of Jeremiah’s:

The word of the Lord came to me, saying,

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
    before you were born I set you apart;
    I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” (Jeremiah 1:4,5).

We see repeatedly in the gospels that Jesus did not come in His own Name; He did not act on His own initiative. His delight was to do the Father’s will:

”Then I said, ‘Here I am – it is written about me in the scroll – I have come to do your will, my God.’ ” Hebrews 10:7.

‘If we are truly devoted to doing God’s will, pain and pleasure won’t make any difference to us.’ Brother Lawrence.

PRAYER: Help me, Heavenly Father, to seek only your will and not my own.’

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.

Leave Babylon,
    flee from the Babylonians!

The great, mighty, fearful empire of Babylon was going to fall – and it did.

As we have seen before, in the Bible this once great kingdom also stands as a symbol, an emblem, of the current world system, organised without reference to God. It is going to come down one of these days. It is rotten to the core. As we have seen previously, the downfall is described (and exulted over!) in Revelation chapters 17-19. In the middle of these chapters we hear again the urgent call to leave:

”Come out of her, my people,’ so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues…” (Rev.18:4a).

Once we sense the taint of ‘Babylon’ on anything, along with it we will hear the call to ‘leave.’

If God is calling you to leave anything behind, don’t hesitate to respond promptly.

I think about John’s words:

 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. ¹⁶ For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. ¹⁷ The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever. (1 John 2:15-17).

Leave Babylon,
    flee from the Babylonians!
Announce this with shouts of joy
    and proclaim it.
Send it out to the ends of the earth;
    say, “The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob.”
²¹ They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts;
    he made water flow for them from the rock;
he split the rock
    and water gushed out.

²² “There is no peace,” says the Lord, “for the wicked.”

Although it still lies in the distant future, Isaiah again writes about the deliverance of the Jewish captives from Babylon. Once more we see it depicted in terms of a ‘second exodus’. As the Lord led His people out of Egypt, and provided for them supernaturally on the way to the Promised Land (Ex.17:6; Nu.20:11), so He will bring them back through the desert from Babylon, and they too will know His remarkable, abundant and miraculous provision.

This rescue, however, is but a foretaste of the greater escape from the tyranny of sin, death and the devil, to be provided by Jesus in His death on the Cross. There He was wounded for us all and living water poured from His opened side (John 19:34; see also 1 John 5:6-12). It flows still for all who will receive it. This is what is ‘good’ about ‘Good Friday.’

But there was a preacher who used to point out that the gospel is ‘bad news before it is good news.’ The chapter ends on a note of severe warning. If we will not listen to God, and come to Him, and receive what He offers, we cannot experience for ourselves the goodness of Good Friday.’ Derek Kidner says ‘…the high price of self-will is stated and re-stated as nothing less than a farewell to peace (18,22).’ (New Bible Commentary’, p.660). The word ”peace” includes health, security, prosperity and above all fellowship with God and eternal salvation.

PRAYER: Lord, thank you so much that you have enabled me to personally enjoy the goodness of Good Friday. Thank you Jesus for dying for me. Help me to joyfully proclaim the great news of redemption.