The Servant of God's Ministry and Preparation (Second Essay) in Is. 49

Almost anyone who has ambition to accomplish anything in life becomes frustrated. Some of us are frustrated very easily; others of us have learned to endure the slings and arrows of malicious fortune and people with more equanimity and grace. Along with the sense of frustration is the feeling that everything is worthless, that we are accomplishing nothing and that the fruit of our effort will, ultimately, be negligible. The Servant of Yahweh felt this way:

"But I said, 'I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity,'" v. 4.

The word translated "nothing" here is the same word used in Gen. 1 to describe the primordial chaos (tohu) before God began to bring order to the world. The author of Ecclesiastes could have been a soulmate of the Servant when he says, "Vanity of vanities; all is vanity." There is nothing like having the work at which you had labored for years either go up in smoke or lead to nothing. Some of us, in the "win-win" 1990s, adopted the philosophy that no effort is ever wasted; that each act of kindness or patience or love that we extend will have some kind of effect "down the road." Nothing, in fact, is in vain. All will be repaid. That was what many of us thought and said.

But we wonder if that is just a "salon philosophy," a kind of publicly-stated belief which we trot out for nice occasions but which, in fact, we don't really believe. The Servant of Isaiah wouldn't be the first one to believe that it all has been in vain. Why do people feel the way that the author does? Because often the results sought are not visible, even in a lifetime. The frustrating thing for those who have a clear sense of call is that things that are so limpid for you, so crystalline, so full of hyaline clarity, take years or decades or longer for others to understand. A small illustration will make my point. About 8 years ago I tried to "reframe" the death penalty argument in my home state by focusing not so much on the "morality" of capital punishment or its abolition as on the "finances" or the "public policy" behind the death penalty. When you consider the latter two topics you approach the issue with completely different questions. You begin to ask which ends the penalty is supposed to fulfill; how much it costs to administer; what the effect is on victims' families, defendants and the legal system of the capital punishment system, etc. What seemed so obvious to me 8 years ago is finally beginning to get a hearing among a few people. But, it will take many more years, I think, for it to be broadly recognized in my state. And then, the issue might become passe because of a number of other things.

The tendency of people who invest deeply in what they believe without seeing the fruit of their efforts, then, is to wonder if their effort has been in vain. Perhaps, too, there were other negative things that happened to the prophet which would have fueled this thought. By using the word "tohu", empty or formless, the author was emphasizing that things looked as hopeless and formless as the world did before the creation.

V. The Prophet and His Further Ministry (v. 7)

But, we can be grateful that this feeling is not the last word on the situation. In fact, what happens in v. 7 is fairly unexpected. Instead of constricting his message, or pulling back his "campaign" because he didn't win the NH primary (last night!) or the Iowa caucuses, the Servant in the last verse of our passage receives an expanded mission. We know from the beginning of the passage that the coastlands far off will hear his message (v.1) but here we are told that "Kings shall see and stand up, princes, and they shall prostrate themselves.." The significant point is that this appears to be, if not a reversal, then an expansion of Jesus' concept in the Gospels. You will recall that Jesus said, "Whoever is faithful in little is faithful in much" (Lk. 16:10). The point seems to be that if you show yourself worthy in a "small" ministry or place, you will also do this in a larger sphere. But the Servant of God in Isaiah tried it in a "smaller" environment and had the feeling of failure. His "reward"? To get a bigger world in which to engage himself. And, surprisingly, he will emerge victorious in this new endeavor. I suppose one could say that he was faithful to God in his first ministry--it just brought no results; in any case, however, he would receive a larger and more comprehensive mission, and the result would be that kings and princes would recognize the Lord.

Conclusion

Jesus spent his ministry trying to understand the full-orbed picture of what it meant to be the Servant of God. Surely he knew that it included the work of Is. 42--that the Servant would not cry out in the street or break the bruised reed--because God's call from heaven in Matt. 3 included a mention of the words from Is. 42. But Jesus also, as a student of the Bible, would have known this passage too. And this passage takes us deeper into the self-understanding of the Servant than even Is. 42. For here we see a deep consciousness of the call and protection of the Servant, the frustration and empty feelings that characterized his life and, finally, the expanded mission to the ends of the earth. It was an image that Jesus could swim around in with delight. And, as we consider our call in 2008, the Servant of God passage might also inspire us to understand and affirm the most precious call of God in our lives.

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