Isaiah 49:1 - Meaning and Application

Here, an audience is called together, and attention is demanded. The message in the previous chapter was directed to the house of Jacob and the people of Israel (Isaiah 49:1, Isaiah 49:12). But this one is addressed to the islands, that is, the Gentiles, because they are called the islands of the Gentiles (Genesis 10:5), and to the people from far away, who once lived outside the commonwealth of Israel and were far off. Let them listen (Isaiah 49:1), as to news coming from a distance, yet news they should hear with desire and care.

Notice two things. First, the good news about a Redeemer is sent to the Gentiles, even to those farthest away, and they are meant to listen. Second, the Gentiles listened to the gospel when the Jews refused to hear it.

The great author and messenger of redemption gives his authority from heaven for the work he has taken on. God appointed him and set him apart for it. The Lord called me from the womb to this office and named me, marking me out as the Savior. By an angel, he was called Jesus, a Savior who would save his people from their sins (Matthew 1:21). Even before the world began, in the plan of God, he was called to this work, and help was laid on him. He came when called, saying, “I come,” with an eye to what was written about him in the book. This was said of some prophets, as pictures of him, Jeremiah 1:5. Paul was set apart for the apostleship from his mother’s womb (Galatians 1:15).

God also fitted him for the service he planned for him. He made his mouth like a sharp sword and made him like a polished shaft, or bright arrow, giving him everything needed to fight God’s battles against the powers of darkness, defeat Satan, and bring God’s rebel subjects back to obedience through his word. That word is the double-edged sword (Hebrews 4:12) that comes from his mouth (Revelation 19:15). The convictions the word brings are the arrows that will pierce sinners’ hearts (Psalm 45:5).

God also favored him for the service he had reserved for him. He hid him in the shadow of his hand and in his quiver, which shows two things. First, concealment, because the gospel of Christ, and the gathering in of the Gentiles through it, were hidden for a long time from past ages and generations, hidden in God (Ephesians 3:5, Romans 16:25), and hidden under the shadow of the ceremonial law and the Old Testament pictures. Second, protection, because the house of David was under God’s special care, since that blessing was in it. Christ, in his infancy, was sheltered from Herod’s rage.

God also owned him and said to him, “You are my servant, whom I have employed and will prosper. You are Israel, in the sense that you are the prince who has wrestled with God and prevailed, and in you I will be glorified.” The people of God are Israel, and they are all gathered up in Christ, the great representative of all Israel. He is like the high priest, who had the names of all the tribes on his breastplate. In him God is, and will be, glorified. So God said by a voice from heaven (John 12:27, John 12:28). Some read the words differently: “You are my servant,” as Christ is called in Isaiah 42:1. “It is Israel in whom I will be glorified through you.” That is, it is the spiritual Israel, the chosen people, in whose salvation through Jesus Christ God will be glorified, and his free grace will be admired forever.

He is also assured that his work will succeed, because whom God calls, he will prosper. On this matter, he brings up the discouragement he faced at the beginning of his work (Isaiah 49:4). “Then I said, with a sad heart, I have labored in vain. Those who were ignorant, careless, and far from God are still that way. I have called, and they refused. I have stretched out my hands to a stubborn people.” This was Isaiah’s complaint, but it was only what he had been told to expect (Isaiah 6:9). Jeremiah felt the same temptation and was ready to stop laboring because of it (Jeremiah 20:9). It is the complaint of many faithful ministers who have not been lazy, but have worked hard and spent themselves, and yet, for many, it seems all in vain. They will not be persuaded to repent and believe. Here it seems to point to the stubbornness of the Jews, among whom Christ himself preached the gospel of the kingdom. He labored and spent his strength, yet the rulers and most of the nation rejected him and his teaching. So few were brought in, when it seemed that none should have held back, that he could well say, “I have labored in vain, preached many sermons, and worked many miracles in vain.” Let ministers not think it strange if they are ignored, when the Master himself was ignored.

He comforts himself with this thought: he is engaged in God’s cause, and God called him to it. “Yet surely my judgment is with the Lord, and my work with my God.” His comfort, and the comfort of all faithful ministers, when they see little fruit from their labor, is this. Even so, it is a righteous cause they are pleading. They are with God and for God. They are on his side and work together with him. They do not think less of their message or their work because people disbelieve it (Romans 3:3).

They also know that God sees how they have handled this cause and carried on this work. They can appeal to him about their sincerity, and they know it was not from any neglect on their part that they labored in vain. “He knows the way that I take. My judgment is with the Lord, to decide whether I have not done my duty and left the blood of those who perish on their own heads.”

Even if the labor seems vain toward those they serve, it is not vain for the faithful laborer. His judgment is with the Lord, who will justify him, that is, declare him right and support him, even if people condemn him and tear him down. His work, meaning the reward for his work, is with his God, who will see that he is not made a loser, even by work that seems to fail. Though the judgment is not yet brought to victory, and the work is not yet complete, both are with the Lord. He will carry them forward and give them success, according to his purpose, in his own way and time.

He receives a further answer from God to this objection (Isaiah 49:5, Isaiah 49:6). He knew well that God had set him to work, had formed him in the womb to be his servant, and had not only called him to it so early (Isaiah 49:1), but had also begun early to fit him for it and prepare him for it. Those whom God plans to use as his servants he shapes and prepares long before, when they and others may not yet realize it. It is he who forms the human spirit within a person. Christ was to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him, since Jacob had turned away in treachery. So the seed of Jacob, according to the flesh, had to be dealt with first, and means had to be used to bring them back.

Christ and the message of salvation through him were first sent to Israel. In fact, Christ came in person to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But what if Jacob would not be brought back to God, and Israel would not be gathered? That is what happened. Even so, there was comfort in it.

First, Christ would still be glorious in the Lord’s eyes, and those are truly glorious whom God counts glorious. Few in the Jewish nation believed Christ’s preaching and miracles, and many covered him with shame and insult. Yet God honored him and made him glorious at his baptism and transfiguration. He spoke to him from heaven, sent angels to serve him, and made even his shameful death glorious through the many wonders that happened then, especially his resurrection. In his sufferings, God was his strength, so he did not fail or lose heart, even when he met every kind of discouragement from people he had tried so hard to help. An angel was sent from heaven to strengthen him (Luke 22:43). In the same way, faithful ministers, even if they do not see the fruit of their work, will still be accepted by God. In that, they will be truly glorious, because God’s favor is our honor, and he will help them keep going and stay faithful.

Second, the gospel would be glorious in the eyes of the world. Even if the Jews did not welcome it, the nations would receive it (Isaiah 49:6). The Messiah seemed to be sent mainly to bring Jacob back (Isaiah 49:5). But here he is told that this is a small thing compared with the greater honor and wider work planned for him. “It is too small a thing for you to be my servant only to raise up the tribes of Jacob and restore the people of Israel who are kept safe. I will also make you a light to the Gentiles, so that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.” Many great nations would be brought by the gospel of Christ to know and worship the true God. This is the salvation God designed for lost humanity.

This is why Simeon called Christ “a light for revelation to the Gentiles” (Luke 2:32). Paul also used this text in exactly this way, and his explanation should guide us (Acts 13:47). That is why he said they turned to the Gentiles to preach the gospel, because the Lord had commanded it: “I have made you a light for the Gentiles.” In this, the Redeemer was truly glorious, even though Israel was not gathered. The setting up of his kingdom in the Gentile world was a greater honor than if he had raised up all the tribes of Jacob.

This promise has already been partly fulfilled, and it will have more fulfillment if the time Paul spoke of is still to come, when the full number of the Gentiles comes in. Notice that God calls it “my salvation,” which shows how pleased he was with it, how much he gloried in it, and, so to speak, how much his heart was set on it. Christ is given as a light to everyone to whom he is given as salvation. People perish in darkness. Christ opens their eyes, and in doing so, he makes them holy and happy.