Isaiah 49:1-13 The Comfort of the Reward
As we move into Part 2 of God's Highway Project (Isaiah 49-57), there is a distinct change in the narrative tone. All mention of Cyrus and Babylon, the former things and new things, are now gone. Instead, there is a new voice that speaks--the voice of the Servant whose work becomes the focal point for Part 2. Through the Servant, God begins to address Israel intimately, as a bridegroom dealing with a wayward bride. Rebuke is softened into exhortation as He extends grace and peace to her, and He lays before her the vision of a glorious kingdom and a reward for the faithful who persevere--all of which is bound up in the saving work of the Servant.
There is a new set of stumbling blocks to overcome in their relationship, the first of which is despair. Despair is something that the Servant Himself suffers, and in the opening verses of Isaiah 49, He models a particular strategy for combatting it.
Isaiah 49:1-4
The chapter opens with an address from the Servant. You might think that the Servant is the personification of the nation of Israel because verse 3 says, "And He said to me, 'You are My servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified.'" (Isaiah 49:3 NKJV) But this is not the nation of Israel speaking, which will become evident in verse 5. The Servant who is speaking is from Israel and He represents Israel, but He is His own person.
The Servant opens with a proclamation to the coastlands, introducing Himself. This may seem a little odd. Why wouldn't He address Israel first? There is a reason for it. The author is structuring this opening passage of Part 2 in a particular way so that it creates a parallel picture with the opening passage in Part 1 (Isaiah 41). Both Isaiah 41 and 49 open with an address to the coastlands, followed by the introduction of a deliverer.
Back in Isaiah 41, we discussed who the “coastlands” were. The coastlands represented the outermost reaches of the Babylonian empire in those days, and generally referred to the Gentile nations. Isaiah 41 then went on to talk about the coming deliverer, Cyrus. Look at the forceful, exultant tone that the LORD takes in announcing this king:
Now look at how the Servant similarly describes Himself in Isaiah 49.
Like Cyrus in Part 1, the Servant now takes center stage as the conquering king. He is glorious. He is confident and full of purpose as He embraces His mission. But then He follows it in verse 4 with an oddly despairing comment:
Despite the gloriousness of His mission, the Servant suddenly sinks into doubt and despair.
He says, “I have labored in vain,” meaning without purpose, and again, “I have spent my strength in vain,” meaning His effort has been like a vapor or breath--futile and fleeting.
Before we talk about the reason for the Servant's despair, let me just ask you . . .
We might say that about our past lives before we became Christians, when we pursued the things of the world and the flesh. We might even say that of our current lives. (Have any of you ever raised children? Ever feel like you are wasting your breath?) We can identify with the Servant in this.
Sometimes when we are engaged in pursuits that don’t reap a reward that we think they should, it is good to begin with a reflection on the nature of our pursuit. Back in Isaiah 40, the LORD presented us with the contrast between what is fleeting and what is eternal. Anything that is sourced in God and His word is eternal in nature and reaps an eternal form of comfort. Anything sourced in the flesh is fleeting and futile and offers little comfort.
If we are feeling a sense of fruitless, it might mean that we are pursuing the wrong thing, and that can be a reason to despair. But, like the Servant, we might be pursuing the right thing—some godly tasking—and still despair because we feel like our effort has been pointless. Have you ever had this experience? Maybe it was in the raising of the aforementioned children, who became rebellious and left the faith that you so diligently tried to instill in them. Maybe you despaired of reaching someone with the message of God's grace. Maybe you witnessed to them for years but to no avail. Despair happens, even when we are engaged in godly pursuits.
It is not hard to imagine Christ expressing these very sentiments as He wept in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before His crucifixion. He had been sent to comfort His people, but all His words, all His healing works had seemed to do such little good. Everyone would desert Him in this hour of trial. Not even His own disciples offered Him any comfort. What had He accomplished in this life?
No, of course not. He was the conquering king, even as He hung on that cross. Is that what a conquering king was supposed to do? Where was His sword? Where was His army? Why didn't He conquer and claim His kingdom? There is the desire to compare Him with Cyrus, and in this He seems to fail. This is the opening challenge to Israel's thinking: how do you define a conquering King?
While Cyrus and the Servant both share that messianic role as conquering kings who release Israel from bondage physically, but this Servant does what Cyrus did not. He releases His people from spiritual bondage first. That death on the cross is where the narrative is heading a few chapters from now.
The Servant is a conquering king. The first battle in which He engages in His first advent is effort to pardon Israel's sin and release her from that bondage. On the eve of that battle, facing rejection from His own people and even death as a result of their treachery, it is not hard to imagine Him in despair, thinking His earthly effort to have been as fleeting as vapor and without purpose. The second battle that He undertakes in His second advent will be as conquering king who saves His people from their physical bondage, and that effort will have no call for despair. Having conquered in the spiritual battle, success in the physical battle is assured.
But from where He stands, as a mortal man looking toward that cross on the eve of that great spiritual battle, His future is bleak, and it doesn't seem like it will accomplish anything.
The hope of the eternal reward He will receive from the LORD and the knowledge that He had done what was asked of Him. It didn't matter that a majority of His people still rejected the comfort He offered them or the salvation He purchased for them (many of them chose not to return from Babylon in Cyrus' day, either). As we have seen and will continue to see with Israel, victims in oppression will often reject a comforter's efforts for various reasons.
But that is not a reflection on the comforter. What the Servant gained in terms of earthly success did not matter, only that He completed His task to the LORD's satisfaction, and His focus remained fixed on that eternal reward. Though He was hard-pressed and perplexed, He did not despair.
Isaiah 49:5-13
The LORD now responds to the Servant with three proclamations (“The LORD says”). In the first, He expands the Servant's tasking (49:5-6). In the second, He promises the reward of rulership to the Servant (49:7). In the third, He describes the blessing that will flow to the people as a result of the Servant's work (49:8-12).
The Servant's tasking will not be to save Israel alone, but to save the whole world, to the ends of the earth (49:5-6). Thus, the Servant becomes a universal Savior. The author is making another parallel, this time with God’s statements in Isaiah 44-45. In Isaiah 44:22-28, God presents Himself as the redeemer of Israel as a nation, but then He expands the scope of that salvation and offers it to all the earth through Israel (Isaiah 45:22-23). Just as God is a universal God offering salvation to all, so the Servant is a universal Savior (but then He is also God).
This expanded tasking is followed by a promise of rulership (49:7). The LORD increases the glory and reputation of the Servant by causing kings and princes bow to the Servant they once despised. We talked about victims' needs for validation, vindication, and vengeance in Part 1, and this is what the LORD grants the Servant when He gives Him that crown. The very people who spat on Him will grovel at His feet.
The LORD then explains the blessing that flows from the Servant's work (49:8-12). The LORD’s words here echo what was previously said in Isaiah 42:1-9. The Servant will be a covenant to the people. He will restore not just Israel's heritage but the whole earth. The prisoners will be set free of bondage and brought into the light. They will not hunger or thirst or suffer exposure. God's Highway Project will be accomplished.
In summary, this is the comfort the LORD offers the Servant to help Him overcome His despair: 1) the promise of the reward of a crown and 2) the knowledge that the LORD will use that experience to make a difference in the lives of the people.
This section describing the Servant is capped off with the command to sing. Sing, for the LORD has comforted His people! And what is Israel's response in the very next verse (49:14)? Despair.
The Stumbling Block of Despair
Despair is the first stumbling block to be addressed in Part 2, so it is appropriate that our Wonderful Counselor leads us with His own example and way of combatting it. He keeps His eyes focused on that future reward of a crown and on the blessing that will flow to others as a result.
What makes that a difficult strategy for us to follow when we find ourselves going through a fiery trial or a rough patch in life? Perhaps I should ask:
This is where different doctrinal stances begin to sway things. Here is a quick list of the perspectives I have heard.
I myself am in the first camp. Yes, we are in pursuit of a crown and the crown is not salvation. It is something added on top of salvation because it is reckoned to our account differently. Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us,
Salvation is by grace alone, by faith alone in Christ alone, and not by works. If anything more than simple belief is involved, then it is no longer grace. There is a reason why Israel is cast in a passive stance in this part of Isaiah where salvation is being discussed. She can do nothing to save herself from her bondage but believe in the coming Savior and accept that sacrifice for her release.
Salvation aside, there is the promise of our works being judged for a reward. We see this promised in Isaiah and also in the book of Revelation:
Unlike salvation, the reward is reckoned according to works. As it has been defined so far in Isaiah, the reward is the promise of a crown and the status of royalty. It was granted to Cyrus first for accomplishing his tasking. It is the reward on which the Servant fixes His hope and it will be granted to Him when He completes His tasking. The Servant will then extend that right to the faithful as we will see in Isaiah 53 and 55. These pictures in Isaiah accord with the New Testament teachings about crowns that are awarded for enduring and persevering through trials, even unto death.
That reward of a crown is meant to be a comfort. It is a vital part of the program when overcoming despair because of the hope it represents.
The reward is meant as a comfort, but this is where the problem lies for me. When I am struggling in this life, in my immediate circumstances, that reward of a crown in future kingdom can seem so far down the road as to be discouraging rather than comforting.
The answer to that is yes, there are, and we will be delving into those in the coming chapters. The Servant will be part of that comforting process, but He won’t be able to offer comfort without first enduring the trial Himself, and the only way He was able to endure the His own trial was by keeping that reward in view.
There is a new set of stumbling blocks to overcome in their relationship, the first of which is despair. Despair is something that the Servant Himself suffers, and in the opening verses of Isaiah 49, He models a particular strategy for combatting it.
Isaiah 49:1-4
The chapter opens with an address from the Servant. You might think that the Servant is the personification of the nation of Israel because verse 3 says, "And He said to me, 'You are My servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified.'" (Isaiah 49:3 NKJV) But this is not the nation of Israel speaking, which will become evident in verse 5. The Servant who is speaking is from Israel and He represents Israel, but He is His own person.
The Servant opens with a proclamation to the coastlands, introducing Himself. This may seem a little odd. Why wouldn't He address Israel first? There is a reason for it. The author is structuring this opening passage of Part 2 in a particular way so that it creates a parallel picture with the opening passage in Part 1 (Isaiah 41). Both Isaiah 41 and 49 open with an address to the coastlands, followed by the introduction of a deliverer.
Back in Isaiah 41, we discussed who the “coastlands” were. The coastlands represented the outermost reaches of the Babylonian empire in those days, and generally referred to the Gentile nations. Isaiah 41 then went on to talk about the coming deliverer, Cyrus. Look at the forceful, exultant tone that the LORD takes in announcing this king:
“Who raised up one from the east? Who in righteousness called him to His feet? Who gave the nations before him, and made him rule over kings? Who gave them as the dust to his sword, as driven stubble to his bow? Who pursued them, and passed safely by the way that he had not gone with his feet? Who has performed and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I, the LORD, am the first; and with the last I am He.” - Isaiah 41:2 NKJV
Now look at how the Servant similarly describes Himself in Isaiah 49.
"Listen, O coastlands, to Me, and take heed, you peoples from afar! The LORD has called Me from the womb; from the matrix of My mother He has made mention of My name. And He has made My mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of His hand He has hidden Me, and made Me a polished shaft; in His quiver He has hidden Me. And He said to me, ‘You are My servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified.’" - Isaiah 49:1-3 NKJV
Like Cyrus in Part 1, the Servant now takes center stage as the conquering king. He is glorious. He is confident and full of purpose as He embraces His mission. But then He follows it in verse 4 with an oddly despairing comment:
"Then I said, 'I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and in vain . . ." Isaiah 49:4a NKJV
Despite the gloriousness of His mission, the Servant suddenly sinks into doubt and despair.
He says, “I have labored in vain,” meaning without purpose, and again, “I have spent my strength in vain,” meaning His effort has been like a vapor or breath--futile and fleeting.
Before we talk about the reason for the Servant's despair, let me just ask you . . .
Q: Have you ever felt like the Servant, that you have labored in something for no purpose and spent your strength on things that were futile or fleeting?
We might say that about our past lives before we became Christians, when we pursued the things of the world and the flesh. We might even say that of our current lives. (Have any of you ever raised children? Ever feel like you are wasting your breath?) We can identify with the Servant in this.
Sometimes when we are engaged in pursuits that don’t reap a reward that we think they should, it is good to begin with a reflection on the nature of our pursuit. Back in Isaiah 40, the LORD presented us with the contrast between what is fleeting and what is eternal. Anything that is sourced in God and His word is eternal in nature and reaps an eternal form of comfort. Anything sourced in the flesh is fleeting and futile and offers little comfort.
If we are feeling a sense of fruitless, it might mean that we are pursuing the wrong thing, and that can be a reason to despair. But, like the Servant, we might be pursuing the right thing—some godly tasking—and still despair because we feel like our effort has been pointless. Have you ever had this experience? Maybe it was in the raising of the aforementioned children, who became rebellious and left the faith that you so diligently tried to instill in them. Maybe you despaired of reaching someone with the message of God's grace. Maybe you witnessed to them for years but to no avail. Despair happens, even when we are engaged in godly pursuits.
Q: To what earthly effort is the Servant referring that is causing Him despair?
It is not hard to imagine Christ expressing these very sentiments as He wept in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before His crucifixion. He had been sent to comfort His people, but all His words, all His healing works had seemed to do such little good. Everyone would desert Him in this hour of trial. Not even His own disciples offered Him any comfort. What had He accomplished in this life?
Q: Did He fail to accomplish His task as the conquering king mentioned in verses 1-3?
No, of course not. He was the conquering king, even as He hung on that cross. Is that what a conquering king was supposed to do? Where was His sword? Where was His army? Why didn't He conquer and claim His kingdom? There is the desire to compare Him with Cyrus, and in this He seems to fail. This is the opening challenge to Israel's thinking: how do you define a conquering King?
While Cyrus and the Servant both share that messianic role as conquering kings who release Israel from bondage physically, but this Servant does what Cyrus did not. He releases His people from spiritual bondage first. That death on the cross is where the narrative is heading a few chapters from now.
The Servant is a conquering king. The first battle in which He engages in His first advent is effort to pardon Israel's sin and release her from that bondage. On the eve of that battle, facing rejection from His own people and even death as a result of their treachery, it is not hard to imagine Him in despair, thinking His earthly effort to have been as fleeting as vapor and without purpose. The second battle that He undertakes in His second advent will be as conquering king who saves His people from their physical bondage, and that effort will have no call for despair. Having conquered in the spiritual battle, success in the physical battle is assured.
But from where He stands, as a mortal man looking toward that cross on the eve of that great spiritual battle, His future is bleak, and it doesn't seem like it will accomplish anything.
Q: What helps Him combat His despair?
The hope of the eternal reward He will receive from the LORD and the knowledge that He had done what was asked of Him. It didn't matter that a majority of His people still rejected the comfort He offered them or the salvation He purchased for them (many of them chose not to return from Babylon in Cyrus' day, either). As we have seen and will continue to see with Israel, victims in oppression will often reject a comforter's efforts for various reasons.
But that is not a reflection on the comforter. What the Servant gained in terms of earthly success did not matter, only that He completed His task to the LORD's satisfaction, and His focus remained fixed on that eternal reward. Though He was hard-pressed and perplexed, He did not despair.
Isaiah 49:5-13
The LORD now responds to the Servant with three proclamations (“The LORD says”). In the first, He expands the Servant's tasking (49:5-6). In the second, He promises the reward of rulership to the Servant (49:7). In the third, He describes the blessing that will flow to the people as a result of the Servant's work (49:8-12).
The Servant's tasking will not be to save Israel alone, but to save the whole world, to the ends of the earth (49:5-6). Thus, the Servant becomes a universal Savior. The author is making another parallel, this time with God’s statements in Isaiah 44-45. In Isaiah 44:22-28, God presents Himself as the redeemer of Israel as a nation, but then He expands the scope of that salvation and offers it to all the earth through Israel (Isaiah 45:22-23). Just as God is a universal God offering salvation to all, so the Servant is a universal Savior (but then He is also God).
This expanded tasking is followed by a promise of rulership (49:7). The LORD increases the glory and reputation of the Servant by causing kings and princes bow to the Servant they once despised. We talked about victims' needs for validation, vindication, and vengeance in Part 1, and this is what the LORD grants the Servant when He gives Him that crown. The very people who spat on Him will grovel at His feet.
The LORD then explains the blessing that flows from the Servant's work (49:8-12). The LORD’s words here echo what was previously said in Isaiah 42:1-9. The Servant will be a covenant to the people. He will restore not just Israel's heritage but the whole earth. The prisoners will be set free of bondage and brought into the light. They will not hunger or thirst or suffer exposure. God's Highway Project will be accomplished.
In summary, this is the comfort the LORD offers the Servant to help Him overcome His despair: 1) the promise of the reward of a crown and 2) the knowledge that the LORD will use that experience to make a difference in the lives of the people.
Q: Is there comfort in knowing that the trial you are experiencing will make a difference in the lives of other people?
This section describing the Servant is capped off with the command to sing. Sing, for the LORD has comforted His people! And what is Israel's response in the very next verse (49:14)? Despair.
“But Zion said, ‘The LORD has forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me.’” (Isaiah 49:14 NKJV)
The Stumbling Block of Despair
Despair is the first stumbling block to be addressed in Part 2, so it is appropriate that our Wonderful Counselor leads us with His own example and way of combatting it. He keeps His eyes focused on that future reward of a crown and on the blessing that will flow to others as a result.
What makes that a difficult strategy for us to follow when we find ourselves going through a fiery trial or a rough patch in life? Perhaps I should ask:
Q: Is the crown a reward that we, also, can hope to attain?
This is where different doctrinal stances begin to sway things. Here is a quick list of the perspectives I have heard.
- Some say we are in pursuit of a crown, and that crown is not salvation.
- Others will say, we are in pursuit of a crown, but the crown is salvation.
- Others will say that pursuing a reward is too mercenary. We should not be concerned with being rewarded for living a Christian life. (I have heard this myself.)
- Others will say there is no reward at all.
I myself am in the first camp. Yes, we are in pursuit of a crown and the crown is not salvation. It is something added on top of salvation because it is reckoned to our account differently. Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us,
"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." - Ephesians 2:8-9 NKJV
Salvation is by grace alone, by faith alone in Christ alone, and not by works. If anything more than simple belief is involved, then it is no longer grace. There is a reason why Israel is cast in a passive stance in this part of Isaiah where salvation is being discussed. She can do nothing to save herself from her bondage but believe in the coming Savior and accept that sacrifice for her release.
Salvation aside, there is the promise of our works being judged for a reward. We see this promised in Isaiah and also in the book of Revelation:
"Behold, the Lord GOD shall come with a strong hand, and His arm shall rule for Him; Behold, His reward is with Him, and His work before Him." - Isaiah 40:10 NKJV
". . . Yet surely my just reward is with the LORD, and my work with my God.' " - Isaiah 49:4 NKJV
". . . Surely your salvation is coming; Behold, His reward is with Him, and His work before Him." - Isaiah 62:11 NKJV
"And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work." - Revelation 22:12 NKJV
Unlike salvation, the reward is reckoned according to works. As it has been defined so far in Isaiah, the reward is the promise of a crown and the status of royalty. It was granted to Cyrus first for accomplishing his tasking. It is the reward on which the Servant fixes His hope and it will be granted to Him when He completes His tasking. The Servant will then extend that right to the faithful as we will see in Isaiah 53 and 55. These pictures in Isaiah accord with the New Testament teachings about crowns that are awarded for enduring and persevering through trials, even unto death.
That reward of a crown is meant to be a comfort. It is a vital part of the program when overcoming despair because of the hope it represents.
Q: If we cut the reward out of the picture, as some do, then how do we combat despair?
Q: If we make our salvation the reward, does that help relieve despair or only increase it? (In other words, if your salvation is judged and granted only after a reckoning of your good and bad deeds in life, do you have any hope of making it into Christ's kingdom?)
The reward is meant as a comfort, but this is where the problem lies for me. When I am struggling in this life, in my immediate circumstances, that reward of a crown in future kingdom can seem so far down the road as to be discouraging rather than comforting.
Q: Are there other, more immediate forms of comfort that the LORD offers to despairing people?
The answer to that is yes, there are, and we will be delving into those in the coming chapters. The Servant will be part of that comforting process, but He won’t be able to offer comfort without first enduring the trial Himself, and the only way He was able to endure the His own trial was by keeping that reward in view.
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