But it is important to remember that this prophecy does not stand alone, and a little before, we read in a similar passage, 'It is too light a thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth. Thus saith the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One, to him whom man despiseth, to him whom the nation abhorreth, to a servant of rulers: Kings shall see and arise; princes, and they shall worship.'[377]
[377] Isa. 49. 6-7; comp. 42. 1-6.
Here it will be noticed the Lord's servant is clearly distinguished from both Jacob and Israel, and evidently means the Messiah. While His bringing salvation to the Gentiles, as well as to the Jews; His humiliation in being despised by men and hated by the Jewish nation; and His subsequent triumph, even Kings submitting themselves to Him; are all alluded to, much as they are in the present passage.
No doubt there is a difficulty in the prophet thus passing from one meaning of the word servant to another (especially, in a closely connected passage),[378] and various attempts have been made to explain it; but it does not alter the fact that he does so. Perhaps the best explanation is that Israel was intended to be God's Servant, but owing to their sins became unfitted; when God promised in the future to raise up a righteous servant, who should do all His pleasure and atone for Israel's failure. And, it may be added, the term Servant is applied to the Messiah both by Ezekiel and Zechariah, as well as in the New Testament.[379]
[378] Isa. 49. 3, 5.
[379] Ezek. 34. 23; Zech. 3. 8; Acts 3. 13 (R.V.).
Moreover, the Jewish interpretation not only leaves all the details of the prophecy unexplained and inexplicable, but ignores its very essence, which, as before said, is the atoning character of the sufferings. No one can say that the sufferings of the Jews were voluntary, or that they were not for their own sins, but for those of other people, which were in consequence atoned for. Or, to put the argument in other words, if the He refers to the Jewish nation, to whom does the our refer in such sentences as He was wounded for our transgressions? While v. 8 expressly says that the Jews (God's people) were not the sufferers, but those for whom He suffered. (For the transgression of my people was he stricken.) This interpretation then is hopelessly untenable, and the passage either means what Christians assert, or it means nothing.
In conclusion, it must be again pointed out that all these minute historical details attending Christ's death, and all these remarkable Christian doctrines concerning it, are all found within fifteen verses of a writing many centuries older than the time of Christ. It would be hard to over-estimate the great improbability of all this being due to chance; indeed, such a conclusion seems incredible.