The Makers and Teachers of Judaism / From the Fall of Jerusalem to the Death of Herod the Great

by Charles Foster Kent

Section XCIX. THE TRAINING AND MISSION OF THE TRUE SERVANT OF JEHOVAH

[Sidenote: Isa. 49:1-3]
Hearken to me, ye coastlands,
And listen, ye distant peoples:
He hath called me from the womb,
From my mother's lap made mention of my name.
He hath 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 concealed me,
And he said to me, Thou art my servant,
Israel, in whom I will glorify myself.

[Sidenote: Isa. 49:4]
But I said, I have labored in vain,
I spent my strength for nothing and vanity,
Nevertheless my right is with Jehovah,
And my recompense with my God.

[Sidenote: Isa. 49:5, 6]
And now, thus saith Jehovah,
(He who formed from birth to be his servant,
To bring Jacob back to him,
And that Israel might be gathered to him;
For I was honored in the sight of Jehovah,
And my God became my strength):
It is too little a thing to be my servant,
To raise up the tribes of Jacob,
And to restore the survivors of Israel;
Therefore I will make thee the light of the nations,
That thy salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.

[Sidenote: Isa. 49:7]
Thus saith Jehovah,
The Redeemer of Israel, his Holy One,
To him who is heartily despised,
To the one abhorred of the people, a servant of rulers:
Kings shall see and arise,
Princes and they shall do homage,
Because of Jehovah who is faithful,
The Holy One of Israel who hath chosen thee.

[Sidenote: Isa. 49:3-9b]
Thus saith Jehovah,
In a time of favor I answer thee,
And in a day of deliverance I help thee,
And I make thee a pledge to the people,
To raise up the [ruined] land,
To reapportion the desolate heritages,
Saying to those who are bound, 'Go forth,'
To those in darkness, 'Show yourselves!'

[Sidenote: Isa. 49:9c-11]
They shall pasture along all ways,
Even oh all the bare hills shall they graze.
They shall not be hungry nor thirsty,
Neither shall the glowing heat nor the sun smite them,
For he who hath pity on them shall lead them,
And to gushing fountains will he guide them.
And I will make all mountains a road,
And highways shall be built up.

[Sidenote: Isa. 49:12,18]
Behold, these come from afar,
And these from the north and west,
And these from the land of the Syenites!
Shout with joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth!
Let the mountains break forth into shouts of joy!
For Jehovah hath had pity on his people,
And will show mercy to his afflicted ones.

[Sidenote: Isa. 50:4-6]
The Lord Jehovah hath given me the tongue of a trained disciple?
To give to the fainting a word of help, he waketh me early,
Early he waketh me, that I may listen as a disciple.
The Lord Jehovah hath opened mine ear,
And I have not been wilful nor turned back rebelliously.

[Sidenote: Isa. 50:6, 7]
My back I gave to smiters and my cheek to those who plucked the beard,
My face I hid not from insult and spitting,
For my Lord Jehovah is my helper; so that I am not confounded.
Therefore I have set my face like flint, and I know that I shall not be
put to shame.

[Sidenote: Isa. 50:5, 9]
He is near who justifieth me, who will contend with me? let us stand up
together!
Who is the adversary to oppose my cause? let him draw near to me!
Behold the Lord Jehovah is my helper; who is he that can harm me?
Lo, they shall all fall to pieces like a garment, the moth shall consume
them.

[Sidenote: Isa. 50:10]
Who among you feareth Jehovah, let him hearken to the voice of his
servant?
Who walked in darkness, having no light,
Let him trust in the name of Jehovah and rely on his God?

[Sidenote: Isa. 52:13-18]
Behold, my servant shall prosper,
He shall be raised up and highly exalted.
Even as many were appalled at him,
So shall many nations tremble,
Kings will close their mouths before him,
When what has not been told them they see,
And what they have not heard they perceive.

[Sidenote: Isa. 53:1-2b]
Who believed what has been reported to us,
And to whom was Jehovah's might revealed?
For he grew up before us as a young shoot,
And as a root out of dry ground.

[Sidenote: Isa. 53:2c-f]
He had no form that we should regard him,
Nor appearance that we should delight in him.
His appearance was more disfigured than any man's
And his form than any human being's.

[Sidenote: Isa. 53:3]
He was despised and forsaken of men,
A man of suffering and acquainted with sickness;
Like one for whom men hide their face,
He was despised so that we esteemed him not.

[Sidenote: Isa. 53:4]
Surely our sickness he himself bore,
And our sufferings—he carried them,
Yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken,
Smitten of God and afflicted.

[Sidenote: Isa. 53:5]
But he was wounded for our transgressions,
Crushed because of our iniquities;
The chastisement for our well-being was upon him,
And through his stripes healing came to us.

[Sidenote: Isa. 53:6]
All of us, like sheep, had gone astray,
We had turned each to his own way;
While Jehovah made to light upon him
The guilt of us all.

[Sidenote: Isa. 53:7]
Yet when afflicted he opened not his mouth;
Like a lamb led to the slaughter,
And like a sheep dumb before her shearers,
So he opened not his mouth.

[Sidenote: Isa. 53:8]
By an oppressive judgment was he taken away,
Yet who of his generation considered
That he had been cut off from the land of the living;
For our transgressions had been stricken to death?

[Sidenote: Isa. 53:9]
And his grave was made with the wicked,
And among evil-doers his burial mound,
Although he had done no violence,
Neither was deceit in his mouth.

[Sidenote: Isa. 53:10-11b]
Yet Jehovah was pleased to crush him;
Through giving himself as an offering for guilt,
He shall see posterity and length of days,
And the pleasure of Jehovah will be realized in his hands;
Out of his own suffering he shall see light,
He shall be satisfied with his knowledge.

[Sidenote: Isa. 53:11c-12]
My righteous servant shall make many righteous,
And himself will bear the burden of their iniquities.
Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,
And with the strong shall he divide spoil,
Because he poured out his life-blood,
And was numbered with transgressors,
And himself bore the sins of many,
And interposed for transgressors.

I. The Different Portraits of Jehovah's Servant. Isaiah 49-54 contains three distinct portraits of the ideal servant of Jehovah. Each in turn develops characteristics suggested in the preceding. These descriptions are interspersed with exhortations addressed to Jehovah's servant Israel and assurances that God will fully restore Jerusalem and bring back her scattered children. These three portraits of the type of servant that Jehovah required to realize his purpose in human history, together with the earlier portrait in 42:1-7, supplement each other. In the first of these four (42:1-7) the prophetic qualities of the servant are especially emphasized. Like the earlier prophets, he will not fail nor be discouraged until he has established justice in the earth. His task is to open blind eyes and to deliver prisoners from the darkness of ignorance and sin in which they were sitting. In the second picture (49:1-9a) the world-wide mission of the servant is emphasized. He is called not only to gather the outcasts of Israel, but also as an apostle to bring light to all the nations of the earth. In this passage for the first time appears that note of suffering and ignominy which is the lot of the true servant of Jehovah. In the third portrait (50:4-10) the servant is pictured as a disciple, attentively listening to the divine teachings, learning the lessons which will fit him in turn to become a teacher of men. The last and fullest picture (52:13-53:12) describes at length his suffering. A strong contrast is drawn between his present shame and ignominy and the future glory and victory which he will achieve through his voluntary and complete self-sacrifice. These pictures embody the prophet's ideal, and they can be fully understood only in the light of their historical background.

II. The Prophet's Purpose. In his earlier poems this great unknown prophet dealt largely with the interpretation of Israel's past history and the proclamation of the coming deliverance (40-48). His chief aims in chapters 49-55 may be briefly epitomized as follows: (1) to interpret the inner meaning of the period of adversity through which the Jewish race was then passing; (2) to make absolutely clear the character and quality of the service that Jehovah required of his chosen people, if they were to realize his purpose in human history; (3) to inspire them all to make the needed sacrifices and thus to prove themselves true servants of Jehovah; (4) especially to make plain to the innocent and faithful sufferers in the Judean community the real meaning and value of their present shame and suffering, if bravely and voluntarily borne.

III, Character and Condition of Those to Whom the Prophet Appealed. From the allusions in the prophecies themselves it is possible to determine the classes that the prophet had in mind. In 49:2 his address is to the coast lands and the distant peoples who lived at the extremities of Israel's horizon. It is not probable, however, that he anticipated that his message in its present form would go out as it has to all races and nations; rather his attention was fixed on the scattered members of his own race, those who lived in the north and the west and in the distant city of Syene, far up the Nile (49:12). In 49:3 he clearly identifies the nation Israel as Jehovah's servant, whom he makes declare:

Jehovah said to me, Thou art my servant,
Israel, in whom I will glorify myself.

It is evident, however, that the prophet has especially in mind the Judean community amidst which he lived and for which he worked. In 54, as elsewhere, he calls upon this group of discouraged Jews to enlarge their tent, for their period of punishment is over and their foundation and walls are about to be rebuilt. At last they shall cease to tremble at the fury of the oppressor. In 51:18-20 he addresses Jerusalem directly and gives a vivid picture of its condition before the appearance of Nehemiah:

Rouse thee! Rouse thee! stand up, O Jerusalem,
Who hast drunk at Jehovah's hand the cup of his wrath!
The bowl of reeling thou hast drunken, hast drained!
There is none to guide thee of all the sons whom thou hast borne,
And none to take thee by the hand of all the sons whom thou hast reared.
These two things have befallen thee—who can condole with thee?
Desolation and destruction, famine and the sword—who can comfort thee?

IV. The Task and Training of Jehovah's Servant. The term servant means literally slave, not in the Western sense, but in that of the ancient East, where a slave was often a privileged member of society. In many a Hebrew household the slaves, next to the children, enjoyed the protection and consideration of the master of the household. He was under obligation to guard their welfare and interests. On the other hand, slaves, like Eleazar in the story of Abraham (Gen. 26) faithfully cared for the interests of their master and spared no effort to carry out his commands. Semitic usage had also given the term slave a significant meaning. The faithful officials of all Oriental kings called themselves his servants or slaves. It was the common term expressing, on the one hand, confidence and protection, and on the other, devotion, loyalty, and service. Most of Israel's patriarchs, kings, and prophets are spoken of as the servants or slaves of Jehovah. Haggai, in his address to Zerubbabel, called him Jehovah's servant. In Deuteronomy 32:36 the people of Israel are called the servants of Jehovah, and, as has been noted, in the prophecies of the II Isaiah they are frequently referred to as the servant of Jehovah. The term, therefore, was well chosen to express that complete devotion And loyalty to Jehovah which the prophet aimed to evoke from his fellow-countrymen. It was also free from the kingly associations and material interpretation that were connected with the word Messiah.

The prophet's aim was to present so vividly the task and methods of the true servant of Jehovah that all would recognize a personal call to duty. He emphasizes three distinct yet related elements in the mission of the servant. They were: (1) To free the prisoners from their captivity, whether imprisoned by walls of stone or brick or under the tyranny of fears and false ideas. (2) To restore the scattered tribes of Israel and thus to lay the foundations for a renewed national life that would furnish concrete evidence to all the world of Jehovah's power to deliver. (3) To go beyond the narrow bounds of their race and to bring to the nations that were groping in the darkness of heathenism the knowledge and truth that had been imparted to Israel. Thus the unknown prophet laid the foundations for that Kingdom of God, that dominion of God in nature and in the minds of men that was the guide and inspiration of all later prophets and the goal for whose realization the Great Teacher and Prophet of Nazareth labored and died.

The prophet places great emphasis upon the training of Jehovah's servant. He declares that from birth Jehovah formed him to be his servant. In [50:4-7] he is spoken of as a trained disciple attentively listening to the words of his divine teacher, never rebelling at the bitterness of the needful discipline, but ever seeking to prepare himself to give to the fainting a word of help. The steadfastness with which he endures shame and bitter wrongs is the evidence of his ability as a disciple and an essential part in his preparation for his exalted mission.

V. Methods of Jehovah's Servant. In accomplishing his task the servant is to use definite instruction, but his teaching is to be illustrated by his own character and attitude. By the voluntary, uncomplaining endurance of ignominy and suffering he is to do Jehovah's work and win the grateful recognition, not only of his divine Master, but of all succeeding generations. Through a keen analysis of life the prophet had attained to a clear appreciation of the inestimable value of voluntary self-sacrifice. He saw that it was the most effective means of uplifting the race and leading mankind to accept God's mastery over their minds and lives. The truth here presented is illustrated in human experience as clearly to-day as in the past. The self-denying service of parents is absolutely essential if their children are to attain to the noblest manhood and womanhood. Only through the self-sacrificing labors of those who love their fellow-men can social evils be removed and society attain its highest development. The low standards in the business and professional world can be raised only as certain men, with the spirit and courage of the ancient prophets, make their own personal interests and popularity subservient to the rigorous demands of justice. It is the law of life that he who would elevate the standards of his associates and thus lead men to the fullest realization of the divine ideals must ordinarily do it in the face of opposition, ignominy, and seeming failure. It is this quiet, heroic self-sacrifice—the heroism of the commonplace—that the great prophet proclaims is the absolutely essential characteristic of Jehovah's servant. Despised by his contemporaries, the victim of persecution and calamity, he must do his task, leaving the reward and the appreciation to Jehovah and to the enlightened sense of later generations.

VI. Realization of the Ideal of Service. The portrait is so concrete that the question naturally arises, Who was the servant of whom the prophet was speaking? Undoubtedly the tragic experiences of such prophets as Jeremiah suggested many elements in the picture. For half a century that faithful servant of Jehovah suffered, often shrinkingly, yet voluntarily, a constant martyrdom. Upon him fell the persecutions of his countrymen. Yet in the life of later Judaism those principles for which he lived and died gained acceptance and application. Of him it may be truly said:

He was numbered with trangressors,
And himself bore the sins of many,
And interposed for transgressors.

The unknown author of these immortal poems spoke out of the depth of his own painful experience and doubtless in a large degree realized the ideals of service which he thus effectively set forth. Those of his contemporaries who, amidst persecution and insults, in their lives embodied the ideals of the earlier prophets were crushed like Jeremiah because of the iniquities of others; but by thus pouring out their life-blood they brought healing to their race. Nehemiah, in responding to the call of service and in turning his back upon the allurements of the Persian court in order to rebuild the city of his fathers, proved himself a faithful servant of Jehovah. With true insight the Christian Church has always recognized that in the character and life of Jesus is found the only complete realization of this ancient ideal of service. With the immortal chapters of the II Isaiah he was clearly familiar, and from them he doubtless received many suggestions regarding his divine mission and the methods by which it was to be accomplished. Their author was clearly speaking to his contemporaries; but in portraying the way in which Jehovah's purpose in human history could alone be realized he presented an ideal which has a permanent significance in the thought of the human race, Paul rightly recognized that the same responsibility to make this ideal a reality rested upon him, and all who would serve God, when he quoted the words of 49:6 (cf. Acts 13:47):

"I have set thee for a light of the Gentiles
That thou shouldst be for salvation to the uttermost parts of the earth."