Consequently there is a further choice within the chosen people. The use of the title, the Servant of Jehovah, is narrowed. The prophet knows that God’s ends will be worked out, that through Israel Jehovah’s name will be carried to the ends of the earth; he also sees as clearly that the nation as a nation is unfit for this lofty duty; so he recognises that the Servant who shall do this work will be found within the people. Whether he identified the Servant of Jehovah in this narrower sense with the small group of really God-fearing men who formed the soul of Israel in his own day, or whether he thought of an individual to be specially prepared for the task by Jehovah, we do not know. Most probably this point was not clear to the prophet himself.[[153]]
It is in four poems of peculiar dignity and surpassing spiritual penetration that this narrower use of the title occurs. In the first[[154]] of these Jehovah describes His Servant’s character and work; in the second[[155]], the Servant tells how Jehovah prepared him for his task; in the third,[[156]] we have a portrait of the Servant as a martyr; while in the fourth[[157]], he is represented, though righteous himself, as dying a shameful death as an atonement for the sins of the unrighteous. It is to this fourth poem that we would direct the attention of our readers.
THE ATONING DEATH OF THE SERVANT OF JEHOVAH.
Jehovah.—
Lo, My Servant shall deal wisely;
He shall rise, be uplifted, and be exalted exceedingly.
Even as many were amazed at him,—
So marred from a man’s was his appearance,
And his form from that of the sons of men!—
So shall he startle many nations;