Holy Week and the Servant Songs from Isaiah: Part 2

Hear me, O islands,
listen, O distant peoples.
The LORD called me from birth,
from my mother’s womb he gave me my name.
He made of me a sharp-edged sword
and concealed me in the shadow of his arm.
He made me a polished arrow,
in his quiver he hid me.
You are my servant, he said to me,
Israel, through whom I show my glory.

Though I thought I had toiled in vain,
and for nothing, uselessly, spent my strength,
Yet my reward is with the LORD,
my recompense is with my God.
For now the LORD has spoken
who formed me as his servant from the womb,
That Jacob may be brought back to him
and Israel gathered to him;
And I am made glorious in the sight of the LORD,
and my God is now my strength!
It is too little, he says, for you to be my servant,
to raise up the tribes of Jacob,
and restore the survivors of Israel;
I will make you a light to the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.

This second of the four Servant Songs not only gives us a re-affirmation of the Servant's call- it is also the first indication that things might not go according to plan. Even though the servant has been called from Birth, and his name given to him from the time he was in the womb, he seems to be laboring in vain.

How true this is of Jesus' own ministry!  Luke's Gospel shows us that Jesus was named when the Angel of the Lord declared God's plan to Mary. He was indeed sent for a special purpose, but as is evidenced by the Gospels, the people he was sent to would not heed his message.

And Yet, Jesus did not lose hope- for he knew that God's plan would still be fulfilled.

The Passage gives the servant hope, because the servant realizes that even though his work seems to be in vain, and his message has not been received, his reward is to be found in the Lord, who will glorify him, and make him a light to the nations (as was also mentioned in the first Servant Song.)   God's glory will indeed be shown through his servant, but as so often happens in Scripture, it doesn't exactly happen in the way that people might expect. For as it says elsewhere in the book of Isaiah, "My ways are not your ways, says the Lord."  How true this is.  And as we turn to part 3, and look at the 3rd servant song, this will become even more clear!