This chapter speaks of God’s servant of salvation, He speaks and reproves the despondence of Zion.
In these verses, God’s servant will restore Israel to God. What is said of this servant is unique and can apply only to Christ, Luke 2:31-32, Jesus is the seed of Genesis 3:15 / Galatians 4:4.
1. Out of His mouth issues the words of life, John 6:68 / John 12:48 / Hebrews 4:12-13.
2. It is in Jesus that God was and is glorified, John 17:4 / Hebrews 1:13 / John 15:1-8.
3. The whole world is called upon to hear what the Messiah has to say about His mission and destiny, John 14:6.
Though His mission seems to bear no fruit, God will make sure of His reward. God kept his Servant close in His quiver, He was kept close until it was His time for ministry.
De Hoff, in his commentary, says the following.
‘It will be noted that in his prophecies Isaiah makes mention of himself as God’s spokesman, of Cyrus who was raised up to bless God’s people and of the Messiah coming to usher in the last great age of the world. All of these things must be kept in mind as we read his prophecy.’
The servant meets the words of the divine calling with a complaint which immediately silences itself. This would be understood in a prophetic sense that after all his earthly labours, one of the closest disciples betrayed Him and the others scattered.
Pledge, in his commentary, says the following.
‘After his resurrection, they even spent part of the time fishing, and later they watched him ascend to heaven with a wrong conception of the kingdom still in their hearts.’
The main thrust of this is that it has failed to draw the nation of Israel back to God.
The mission God has given this servant isn’t restricted to Israel but is worldwide, the Gentiles, Luke 2:32. All of Israel would not be gathered, therefore, Jesus didn’t fail in His mission but was glorified by God because he accomplished his work, John 17:4-5 / Philippians 2:9.
God replies and indicates the nature of the mission of Jesus.
1. His mission isn’t to be served but to be a servant, Matthew 20:25-28 / Isaiah 53.
2. Christ was despised and rejected by His own people when He came to them. He was executed as a common criminal, Luke 23:18-23.
3. But God is faithful to keep His promises and has chosen this very Servant and through Him provided salvation, Acts 4:12.
Jesus was despised and rejected, but upon His resurrection, He was manifested to be for millions the King of kings and Lord of lords, 1 Timothy 6:15.
Here we read of the glory of the vocation of this servant is seen. Here, pardon is promised through the travail of the soul of the Servant whom God prepared as a Mediator for His people.
The Messiah now begins to fall into the background and the return of the redeemed is about to be described.
Pledge, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The imagery of the lands is to the Jew in captivity but is in such close connection with Jesus that it must be understood in that connection.’
The Messiah has brought all, Jew and Gentile, to God. No matter how far His people were scattered throughout the world, they will be restored to God in their land.
Heaven and earth respond with praise because he has saved its people and the joy of Israel becomes the joy of all the earth.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following.
‘A song of praise in view of the glorious results of the work of Messiah. The appearance of this outburst of praise in the midst of a long list of prophecies is similar to the appearance of the proleptic songs interspersed throughout the prophecy of Revelation, thus exhibiting the same characteristic found in other authentic portions of God’s Word.’
Israel in her captivity now complains that God has forgotten her suffering but God says, it would be as easy for a woman to refuse compassion toward her infant son as it was for God to forget Israel. In other words, the thought of Israel was constantly upon God’s mind. Jerusalem’s walls are engraved on the palm of His hands.
Because God will not forget her, Israel can look forward to renewed glorification among the nations. The population Zion recovered will be to her as a woman’s ornaments. Zion will once again shine forth with a multitude of people so that she would need to enlarge her borders.
Coffman, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The New Testament applies such promises not to ‘the present Jerusalem’, but to ‘the Jerusalem which is above’, Galatians 4:25-27 / Isaiah 54:1, i.e., to the universal church in heaven and on earth. The ruins of the city, the literal Jerusalem, were indeed rebuilt in the 6th and 5th centuries, but these prophecies transcend the modest scale of those events.’
The national restoration would produce such an amount of population that Zion would marvel in disbelief as she remembered her desolation in captivity.
The prophecy now looks backwards a step from the future of verse 21 and describes the way the people are restored.
Those who held them captive will be their nursing fathers and mothers as they allow them to return to the land. God, through Cyrus, provided the material means for their return. These verses indicate the extent of material help given to Israel, and all of this served to enlarge their faith in God.
The fact that they returned would be evidence that God was true to His people, and so, the true God among all the nations of the world.
A question now arises from Israel’s weak faith while they are in captivity. They are so weak and Babylon is so strong that deliverance looks impossible.
Isaiah describes the condition of his day, but he continually keeps before the people the promise that the blessed Messiah will come and provide deliverance for all mankind.
The prophecy closes with God’s answer that He would ‘curse those who had cursed her’, Genesis 12:3, in such a manner that all flesh, Jew and Gentile, would know that He was God. This is both a stern rebuke and a strong promise to Israel.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘These last two verses contain a glorious promise of deliverance to the persecuted Church of Christ from the ‘terrible one,’ Satan, and all his representatives and vicegerents, and persecuting anti-Christian rulers. They shall, at last, cease from persecuting the Church of God, and destroy one another.’
"For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline."