Isaiah 49-51
Today we get two more of Isaiah’s “Servant Songs” in Isaiah 49:1-13 and Isaiah 50:4-9. As I mentioned before, the ESV avoids capitalizing “servant” or personal pronouns, and I suggest that it is useful to read these texts this way (uncapitalized) to avoid a biased interpretation. The NASB, on the other hand, capitalizes “Servant” and personal pronouns throughout Isaiah 49:1-13. The NKJV likewise provides such capitalization, but — interestingly — does not do so in Isaiah 49:3-4. (What, pray tell, makes the “Me” in verse 1 any different from the “me” in verse 3?)
[The LORD] says:
Isaiah 49:6
“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 for the nations,
that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
In speaking to the Jews at Antioch in Pisidia, Saint Paul quotes the end of this verse as justification for taking the Gospel to the Gentiles (i.e., the nations). (See Acts 13:13-52, specifically Acts 13:47.) And so here we are today, mostly Gentiles according to our DNA, receiving this message of the LORD’s salvation. Indeed, may His salvation reach to the end of the earth!