July 1, 2023 - Isaiah 49

The servant songs of Isaiah. Of course, Isaiah 53 must be placed at the pinnacle of Old Testament prophecies as Isaiah so clearly depicts the person and the ministry of Messiah. There in the 53rd chapter, Isaiah declares, concerning Messiah, “Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities” (53:1). Here, in the 49th chapter, Isaiah explains who these “many” are. The Lord says to his servant: “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth” (49:5,6).

In other words, here is the promise fulfilled in the future reality that John saw: the elect of Israel and “a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages” (Revelation 7:9). Our God is not ours only, but the God of all!

In Christ there is no east or west,

in him no south or north,

but one great fellowship of love

throughout the whole wide earth.

In Christ now meet both east and west,

in him meet south and north.

All Christly souls are joined as one

throughout the whole wide earth. -- John Oxenham (1908)