Read this section through in more than one translation. In our study we will be zeroing in on what are known as the Songs of the Servant.

Three things to hold as you read. First, these chapters are remarkable in the field of prophecy: they describe the situation of a people already in exile and already coming home, generations before it happened. Second, reference is made to an unwilling servant of Yahweh — Cyrus, the Persian king, named in 44:28 – 45:4, who serves God’s purpose without knowing Him. Third, another Servant of Yahweh is constantly referred to, and He is a very different figure: chosen, Spirit-filled, obedient, rejected, killed, and vindicated. Learning to tell those two apart is most of the work of reading this half.

Movement four  ·  Chapters 40–48  ·  Comfort, and the God who is incomparable

Salvation will follow judgment  40:1–11

“Comfort my people! Comfort them!” says your God. “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and announce to it that its time of hard labor is over and its wrongs have been paid for.”

Isaiah 40:1–2  ·  God’s Word

The message given, to be proclaimed to the people of God, was concerned with the plan God would bring to pass in spite of their failure. Israel and Judah, fleshly bearers of the covenant promises, are seen in this passage as grass. The time of harvest has come; they are drying up, and the hot breath of Yahweh ends them.

Grass dries up, and flowers wither, but our God’s word will last forever.

Isaiah 40:8  ·  God’s Word

But what of God’s declared purposes to be accomplished through this people? His will shall certainly be done, for it was declared before Israel came to be. They owed their national existence to the work of God’s promise, and it would continue even though they had failed. Jesus, born into Israel, was that Word (John 1:1–14) and, having accomplished all its terms, brings it to man by the Spirit, rebirthing them into an Israel not of flesh but of living Word — see I Peter 1:22–25.

Our incomparable God  40:12–31

Having announced comfort, the prophet has to answer the obvious objection: can He actually do it? The exile had made people doubt the size of their own God. So chapter 40 turns to a series of questions with only one possible answer — who measured the sea in the palm of his hand, who weighed the mountains on a scale, who brings out the stars one by one and calls them each by name. And then the promise the whole chapter has been building toward:

The eternal God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, doesn’t grow tired or become weary… Yet, the strength of those who wait with hope in the LORD will be renewed. They will soar on wings like eagles. They will run and won’t become weary. They will walk and won’t grow tired.

Isaiah 40:28, 31  ·  God’s Word

The first Song of the Servant  42:1–9

Here is my servant, whom I support. Here is my chosen one, with whom I am pleased. I have put my Spirit on him. He will bring justice to the nations. He will not cry out or raise his voice… He will not break off a damaged cattail. He will not even put out a smoking wick.

Isaiah 42:1–3  ·  God’s Word

This is the first of a series of songs commonly called the Songs of the Servant. Jesus is that Servant, the One who put on our humanity to do the will of the Father — see Philippians 2:1–9. He is also referred to as Israel, for He is the very essence of Israel. Jesus is all that Israel was meant to be.

Sometimes it is difficult to determine whether Isaiah is speaking about the Servant or about the Israelites. This is not surprising, since where the head is, there is the body also. Look for both Jesus and His Church in these songs — see Matthew 12:15–21.

vs. 3. Reeds grew plentifully by the river bank and were fashioned into pipes by the children. They were easily broken and discarded. Unlike conquerors who would dispense with the helpless, the Servant would not discard the broken. Those who have been bruised by life, Jesus makes into the best instruments.

“A smoking flax” (KJV). Flax placed in a saucer-like container of oil was lit to give light. When the oil was spent, the smell of smouldering flax was obnoxious. The Servant will not discard the smouldering and obnoxious, but instead turn them into shining lights.

vs. 6. Jesus is the covenant. Being joined to God is achieved in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. To receive Him is to receive the covenant; and apart from Him no one has claim to the covenant.

The battle cry of God  42:10–25

A new song is called for from the ends of the earth, and then the tone changes completely: the God who would not break a damaged reed “marches out like a warrior… shouts, gives the battle cry, and overpowers his enemies” (42:13). He says He has kept quiet a long time and will keep quiet no longer. The gentleness of the first song is not weakness; it is restraint. And notice what the warrior does when He moves: “I will lead the blind on unfamiliar roads… I will turn darkness into light in front of them” (42:16). The section closes by naming who handed Israel over to be plundered — the LORD did, and they did not take it to heart.

Yahweh alone saves  43:1 – 44:5

The most personal passage in the second half. God speaks to a people He has every right to be finished with, and instead uses the language of ownership and rescue:

Do not be afraid, because I have reclaimed you. I have called you by name; you are mine. When you go through the sea, I am with you. When you go through rivers, they will not sweep you away. When you walk through fire, you will not be burned.

Isaiah 43:1–2  ·  God’s Word

He does not promise them no water and no fire. He promises to be in it with them — the same point made on Zephaniah: God shelters us in judgments, not from them. The section runs on to Israel as God’s witnesses, His blotting out of their sins for His own sake, and the promise of His Spirit poured out on their descendants.

Idols cannot save  44:6 – 46:13

Man is so deceived that not only can he not save himself, he does not realise he needs saving. Deluded in his heart, he has put his trust in a hand-carved, lifeless block of wood.

I am the first and the last, and there is no God except me.

Isaiah 44:6  ·  God’s Word

This is also where Cyrus is named — a pagan king called by name, and called God’s anointed and His shepherd, long before he was born. The unwilling servant and the willing Servant stand within two chapters of each other. And the movement closes on one of the tenderest lines in Scripture, spoken to people who had been carrying idols around on their shoulders:

Even when you’re old, I’ll take care of you. Even when your hair turns gray, I’ll support you. I made you and will continue to care for you.

Isaiah 46:4  ·  God’s Word

Disaster ahead for Babylon  47:1–15

Babylon is addressed as a pampered queen ordered down off her throne into the dirt to grind flour. The charge against her is precise, and it is the same one Nahum brings against Assyria: God did hand His people over to her — “I was angry with my people… I put them under your control” — but, “You showed them no mercy” (47:6). Being God’s instrument is not a defence. Her boast, “I’m the only one, and there’s no one else,” is a parody of what God has just said about Himself in 45:5, and it collapses in a single day.

Obstinate Israel  48:1–22

The movement ends honestly. God recounts what He has done, tells them He foretold it in advance precisely so they could not credit their idols, and calls them what they are: obstinate, with a neck of iron and a forehead of bronze. He refines them, He says, but not as silver — in the furnace of suffering. Then the flat closing line, which is where this movement stops and the Servant becomes necessary:

“There is no peace for the wicked,” says the LORD.

Isaiah 48:22  ·  God’s Word

Movement five  ·  Chapters 49–55  ·  The Servant who suffers

The human Servant  49:1–13

vs. 1. Jesus came not only for the Jews but also for the distant nations — see Ephesians 2:19. The ideal Servant of Yahweh must be true Man; see Galatians 4:4.

vs. 2. Jesus is the final prophet. He does not just bring us the Word of God, He is it — John 1:1; John 5:39. When God’s arrow pierces us, we then see that what we thought was darkness is light.

vs. 3. The Servant is called Israel. The name means one whom God has conquered. The nation had steadfastly refused to be conquered by God. Now in this Servant is the perfect Israelite, who lives to do His Father’s will.

vs. 4. This prophecy gives an amazing insight into the true humanity of Jesus the Servant. He is seen knowing the feelings of discouragement. He does not go into despair, but rests in Yahweh. Compare Mark 8:17–21; 9:19.

You are not just my servant who restores the tribes of Jacob and brings back those in Israel whom I have preserved. I have also made you a light for the nations so that you would save people all over the world.

Isaiah 49:6  ·  God’s Word

vs. 7. The Servant is despised, yet at the same time honoured by kings — an Old Testament picture of the cross and the resurrection.

vs. 8–10. A picture of the results of the Gospel. Compare Revelation 7:9–17.

And when Zion answers that the LORD has forgotten her, the reply is 49:15: “Although mothers may forget, I will not forget you.”

The obedient Servant  50:4–9

vs. 4. Because Jesus listened to His Father, His words were as soothing ointment to the spirit of weary man. Compare Mark 1:35; John 8:28, 38; 12:50.

vs. 5. The open ear of the Servant is probably a reference to Exodus 21:6. The Servant is the willing slave who freely chooses to do Yahweh’s will. Compare Psalm 40:6.

I will offer my back to those who whip me and my cheeks to those who pluck hairs out of my beard. I will not turn my face away from those who humiliate me and spit on me.

Isaiah 50:6  ·  God’s Word

vs. 6. His obedience went as far as being shamed by those who hated Him. Note that He gave His back to those who struck Him — see John 10:17, 18. The beard was a sign of manhood, dignity and covenant; to pluck it was an act of utmost contempt — see Matthew 26:67; 27:30, 31.

vs. 8, 9. Those looking at Jesus on the cross would say, “This man must be a great sinner,” for cursed is anyone who hangs on a tree. But Jesus knew that He would be vindicated and that all their arguments would fall apart like a moth-eaten garment — as they did at the resurrection.

Everlasting joy  51:1–23

To a people who cannot see how a ruin becomes a nation again, God says: look at where you came from. “Look to the rock from which you were cut… Look to Abraham, your ancestor… When I called Abraham, he was childless” (51:1–2). One old man with no children is the precedent. So He will make Zion’s desert like Eden. The sky wears out like smoke and the earth like clothing, but His salvation lasts for ever — and the chapter ends with the cup of staggering taken out of Jerusalem’s hand and put into the hand of her tormentors.

The crushed Servant  52:13 – 53:6

52:13. To be “raised and lifted up and highly exalted” corresponds with the resurrection, the ascension and the seating of Jesus at the right hand of His Father.

vs. 14. The Hebrew word for astonishment means a paralysed astonishment — horrified awe. That is the effect of looking at the One in whom the wrath of God against sin resides.

vs. 15. In sprinkling many nations, He is bringing life to others. See Leviticus 14:7.

53:1. The arm of the Lord represents His strength. In the preaching of the Gospel there is the power of God to save — see John 12:37; Romans 1:16. Salvation is primarily a matter of the heart, the result of an inward revelation.

vs. 2. Jesus is the root, Israel is the parched ground. The manifestation of the Servant will be as life springing forth in a desert. His simple and humble background will not betray His divine origin and mission.

vs. 3. “Sorrows” is better rendered as “pains,” “grief” as “sickness.” This One is to bear all the results of sin as well as sin itself. The awful picture is of men hiding their faces from one stricken with a loathsome disease.

He certainly has taken upon himself our suffering and carried our sorrows, but we thought that God had wounded him, beat him, and punished him. He was wounded for our rebellious acts. He was crushed for our sins. He was punished so that we could have peace, and we received healing from his wounds. We have all strayed like sheep. Each one of us has turned to go his own way, and the LORD has laid all our sins on him.

Isaiah 53:4–6  ·  God’s Word

vs. 4. “Bore” means to lift up and carry away. He has no sins to carry away, but He does take away the sins of others. See Numbers 14:34; I Peter 2:24.

vs. 5. The word “crushed” in Hebrew indicates the complete destruction of the person. The nature of sin demands such a penalty.

vs. 6. “Fall on Him” is better rendered to encounter, confront, hit or strike at violently. Jesus violently suffered the consequences of our sin. The great problem of Christians today is guilt — the result of not believing that Christ’s work is sufficient.

The exalted Servant  53:7–12

He was abused and punished, but he didn’t open his mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter… He didn’t open his mouth.

Isaiah 53:7  ·  God’s Word

vs. 7. The lamb is probably the most helpless and meek of all the sacrificial animals mentioned in the Bible. It seems to offer itself at the slaughterhouse to be used for food and clothing. Jesus is the willing Servant of God. The reference to the lamb immediately connects this One to the whole idea behind the Passover — see Exodus 12.

vs. 8. “Oppression” can also be translated “arrest.” Jewish courts were to save lives if at all possible. In Jesus’ case the usual court procedures were abandoned in order to ensure a guilty verdict.

vs. 9. Humiliation began for Jesus when He was born. His exaltation begins by His not being placed in a tomb with criminals, but being buried with the rich.

vs. 10–12. These verses deal with His exaltation, resurrection and ascension. Although He has died a violent death, He lives again (“prolong His days”) and sees the result of His anguish. The result is the justifying of many — men and women who are enabled to stand before God as if they had never sinned.

He will see and be satisfied because of his suffering. My righteous servant will acquit many people… because he poured out his life in death and he was counted with sinners. He carried the sins of many. He intercedes for those who are rebellious.

Isaiah 53:11–12  ·  God’s Word

No more judgment  54:1–17

Immediately after the Servant dies and is satisfied, a barren, abandoned woman is told to sing and enlarge her tent, because she will have more children than the married woman. That is not a change of subject — the descendants of 53:10 are arriving. And the promise is sworn on the terms of the oath after the flood: “The mountains may move, and the hills may shake, but my kindness will never depart from you” (54:10).

Your husband is your maker. His name is the LORD of Armies. Your defender is the Holy One of Israel… I abandoned you for one brief moment, but I will bring you back with unlimited compassion.

Isaiah 54:5, 7  ·  God’s Word

Husband, redeemer, and a return after abandonment — that is the whole book of Hosea in three verses, said this time not to one man about one marriage, but to a nation. The word rendered “defender” here is the same ga’al as in 43:1: the kinsman who pays.

Seek the LORD  55:1–13

The invitation that closes the movement, and it is free.

Listen! Whoever is thirsty, come to the water! Whoever has no money can come, buy, and eat! Come, buy wine and milk. You don’t have to pay; it’s free! Why do you spend money on what cannot nourish you and your wages on what does not satisfy you?

Isaiah 55:1–2  ·  God’s Word

Everything the Servant purchased is now offered to people with nothing to pay with. The chapter goes on to the distance between God’s thoughts and ours, and ends with the guarantee that His word does not come back empty: “It will accomplish whatever I want” (55:11).

Movement six  ·  Chapters 56–66  ·  The servants, and a new creation

Salvation for Jews and Gentiles  56:1–8

The two groups the law had kept at arm’s length — the foreigner and the eunuch — are told in so many words not to count themselves out. The eunuch, who can have no descendants, is promised something better than sons and daughters: a permanent name that will not be forgotten. And the house itself is redefined:

My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.

Isaiah 56:7  ·  God’s Word

This is the verse Jesus quotes when He clears the temple. It is also where the plural begins: from here on, the people who belong to the Servant are called the servants.

The rulers of Israel are rebuked  56:9 – 57:13

The welcome is followed immediately by its opposite. Israel’s watchmen are blind, and the guard dogs will not bark; the shepherds understand nothing, and each one has turned to his own gain. Compare Micah on the same failure. What follows is a catalogue of the idolatry that had gone on under the surface — and the observation that the righteous die and nobody notices they have been taken away from disaster.

Peace to the lowly in spirit  57:14–21

I live in a high and holy place. But I am with those who are crushed and humble. I will renew the spirit of those who are humble and the courage of those who are crushed.

Isaiah 57:15  ·  God’s Word

The same God whose robe filled the temple in chapter 6 says He keeps two addresses. This is where the book locates greatness.

God’s chosen fast  58:1–14

Only if our hearts are humbled does God see our humbled bodies. God does not judge by outward appearances but looks straight through to the heart.

This is the kind of fasting I have chosen: Loosen the chains of wickedness, untie the straps of the yoke, let the oppressed go free… Share your food with the hungry, take the poor and homeless into your house.

Isaiah 58:6–7  ·  God’s Word

Yahweh our intercessor  59:1–21

A prayer of confession, and it begins by removing the excuse: “The LORD is not too weak to save or his ear too deaf to hear. But your wrongs have separated you from your God” (59:1–2). The chapter then does something remarkable — God looks for someone to intervene and finds nobody, so His own arm brings salvation. He puts on righteousness as a breastplate and a helmet of salvation, the armour Paul later hands to the church in Ephesians 6.

The glorious city of the LORD  60:1–22

Arise! Shine! Your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has dawned. Darkness now covers the earth, and thick darkness covers the nations. But the LORD dawns, and his glory appears over you. Nations will come to your light, and kings will come to the brightness of your dawn.

Isaiah 60:1–3  ·  God’s Word

The promise of 2:2–4 arriving: the nations streaming in. The city that was accused in chapter 1 is now the one giving light to everybody else.

The anointed Servant  61:1–9

This passage is not usually counted as a Song of the Servant, but it plainly speaks of the Servant. Jesus claimed this passage for Himself in Luke 4:16–21.

The Spirit of the Almighty LORD is with me because the LORD has anointed me to deliver good news to humble people. He has sent me to heal those who are brokenhearted, to announce that captives will be set free and prisoners will be released.

Isaiah 61:1  ·  God’s Word

vs. 1. The coming upon of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament was always to give strength to accomplish the mission given by Yahweh. So, as perfect Man, Jesus received the Spirit to accomplish man’s salvation.

vs. 2. “Favourable year of the Lord” can be rendered “the year of the Lord’s grace.” It is a reference to the year of Jubilee — see Leviticus 25 — a year in which all debts were absolved and all property returned to its owner. It meant restoration and rest to all Israelites. The Servant is to usher in the ultimate year of Jubilee.

vs. 3. The people of God sit in mourning, wearing ashes in their hair and the black robes of sadness. The Servant changes death into life, with joy and peace.

The city no longer deserted  62:1–12

The prophet refuses to be quiet until it happens: “For Zion’s sake I will not remain silent… until its righteousness shines like the dawn” (62:1). The city is given new names — no longer Deserted and Destroyed, but My Delight and Married — and watchmen are posted whose job is to give God no rest until Jerusalem is established.

Treading the winepress  63:1–6

A figure comes up from Edom in red-stained clothes and is asked why. The answer is that He has trodden the winepress alone: “I looked, but there was no help… So with my own power I won a victory” (63:5). Read it alongside 59: twice in a few chapters God looks for a man to act and finds none, and does it Himself. That is the whole reason there is a Servant.

A longing for the loving-kindness of God  63:7 – 64:12

The second long prayer, and the tone drops from the winepress to remembering. “In all their troubles he was troubled… He always held them and carried them in the past” (63:9). Then the confession that has stayed in the church’s vocabulary ever since — “all our righteous acts are like permanently stained rags” (64:6) — and the plea that God would tear the sky open and come down.

Prosperity for true Israel  65:1–25

God answers the prayer, and the answer is not what was asked for. He was available to people who never asked and found by people who were not looking; He held His hands out all day to a stubborn people who went their own way (65:1–2 — the verses Paul applies in Romans 10:20–21). The chapter then separates the servants from the wicked by name, and opens out into the promise the whole book has been travelling toward:

I will create a new heaven and a new earth. Past things will not be remembered.

Isaiah 65:17  ·  God’s Word

People will build and actually live in the house; plant and actually eat the fruit. “Before they call, I will answer” (65:24). And the wolf and the lamb feed together — chapter 11 again, arriving.

The supernatural birth of a nation  66:1–22

Heaven is my throne. The earth is my footstool. Where can you build a house or resting place for me?… I will pay attention to those who are humble and sorry for their sins and who tremble at my word.

Isaiah 66:1–2  ·  God’s Word

vs. 18, 19. All nations are going to behold the glory of God. This is a reference to the blessing of Abraham that was to be for all nations — see Genesis 22:18.

vs. 20, 21. These men from all nations are to be involved in the worship of Yahweh — even to becoming priests. Under the old covenant there could be no priesthood outside the tribe of Levi and the family of Aaron. A further company of priests made up of Jews and Gentiles would be a shock to every Israelite who read it. It speaks of God’s covenant people — Jew and Gentile together.

Where the thread ends

A tree cut to a stump in chapter 6. A shoot out of that stump in chapter 11. A Servant in 42, 49, 50 and 53 — despised, crushed, and satisfied afterwards. And then, from 56 on, servants: foreigners, eunuchs, the humble and the crushed in spirit, people from every nation serving as priests, living in a new creation where nothing is hurt or destroyed.

That is one continuous argument, and it starts in the year King Uzziah died. The judgment was never the point. It was how the seed got into the ground.