The Light of God's Mission Dispels Our Discouragements (Isa 49.1-7)

As I was preparing this message, I was struggling to come up with a good attention-grabber for the intro. (Spoiler alert: I didn’t come up with one, so that’s why you’re hearing this story about my struggle instead of a real introduction!) In today’s passage, Isaiah tells us a story, he takes us on a journey. This story starts with humble beginnings, has a lot of discouragement in the middle, and concludes with a bigger happy ending than we could see coming! I thought about maybe making a comparison to humble unassuming Frodo Baggins, his journey to destroy the One Ring, frought with hardship and discouragement, and the eventual amazing triumph of good over evil. But then I was like, “No, if I use Lord of the Rings as a hook, Jordan might feel like he needs to wait a bit longer before the next reasonable time he can bring Middle Earth into a sermon, and I don’t want to take that away from him!” But also, that illustration wouldn’t have done justice to Isaiah’s journey. The completely unexpected triumph that concludes Isaiah’s story today far outshines the conclusion of Tolkien’s tale.

This is the second of Isaiah’s “Servant Songs,” a series of four passages where Isaiah speaks as or about Yahweh’s Servant and the deliverance he will provide. The exact identity of the Servant is hard to pin down: commentators have argued that the Servant is Isaiah himself, the nation of Israel (restored and faithful), or the coming Messiah. They argue because there’s evidence for all three identifications. We’ll even see that shift from “Isaiah” to “Israel” to “Messiah” happening between verses in today’s text.

Humble Beginnings (1-3)

Isaiah begins by calling his audience to attention: coastlands and peoples from far away.

1 Listen to me, O coastlands;
pay attention, you peoples from far away!

These phrases refer not to Israel’s Mediterranean coasts, but to the ends of the world, the farthest locations imaginable.

Isaiah then gives us three sentences that follow the same pattern. Each of these sentences starts with preparation, then puts that preparation in an obscure location.

The Lord called me before I was born; [preparation]
while I was in my mother’s womb he named me. [obscurity]
2 He made my mouth like a sharp sword; [preparation]
in the shadow of his hand he hid me; [obscurity]
he made me a polished arrow; [preparation]
in his quiver he hid me away. [obscurity]

What kind of preparation does the Servant undergo? Broadly, he’s called by God. Isaiah gets into specifics with two weapon metaphors. His mouth is made into a sword and he is like a polished arrow. After a couple chapters of very literal military language (Cyrus leading the Persians to overthrow Babylon making way for the return to Jerusalem), Isaiah retains that same language but moves it into the realm of metaphor. The Servant isn’t being prepared to attack anyone with literal swords and arrows; those are just images. A mouth like a sharp sword refers to powerful words that win; a polished arrow indicates that his message will go fast, far, and accurate. These images communicate the power and effectiveness of the prophetic message for accomplishing the mission.

The Servant is prepared by God for a special task, and that preparation happens in obscurity. The Servant is not famous, not a public figure, not well-known or widely regarded.

After those three lines of preparation and obscurity, we find encouragement (3):

And he said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.”

It’s almost as if God knew that despite such powerful preparation, the obscurity would bring a strong temptation to discouragement.

Note: in this line, we see the meaning of Servant shifting, broadening to Israel. By overlapping his poetic autobiography with this national reference, Isaiah is identifying with the corporate people of God. There’s a practical takeaway for us to consider here. “Servant” means both “Isaiah the prophet” and “Israel the people,” and that reminds us that mission isn’t just for ordained people. We might assume that being called and prepared was something super unique for Isaiah, but he doesn’t let us do that: he reminds us that we all are God’s Servant, carrying out God’s mission.

Discouraging Lack of Progress (4)

We noted the encouragement that might have helped stave off the discouragement of being prepared in obscurity, but sure enough, Isaiah hits some low notes in verse 4.

4 But I said, “I have labored in vain;
I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity;

Recall Isaiah’s vision of his calling in chapter 6.9-12. God assigned him this ministry:

Go and say to this people:
“Keep listening, but do not comprehend;
keep looking, but do not understand.”
…
Until the cities lie waste…,
until the Lord sends everyone far away.

It’s no wonder that years later, he’s concerned that he’s “spent [his] strength for nothing and vanity!”

The second half of Isaiah’s complaint is worth paying attention to.

yet surely my cause is with the Lord
and my reward with my God.”

On a quick read, we see Isaiah holding on to faith in spite of discouragement, but there’s more under the surface. Isaiah’s statement that is not a positive spin that denies his former discouragement; on the contrary, these words hold God responsible for the very circumstances that are discouraging. The word “cause” is common in the Hebrew Bible and is normally translated “justice” or “judgment.” And “reward” is not “something extra” or “bonus” like we use it today, but simply means “wages” or “compensation.” Isaiah is holding God responsible for the justice that includes a proper outcome for his ministry. The full implication here is “this is going nowhere and, God, you’re the one responsible.” Like many other places in Scripture, Isaiah is demonstrating that it’s OK to tell God about our frustration at circumstances that are in God’s control and not ours.

Where are the areas we’re discouraged in our participation in God’s mission?

Like Isaiah, we may feel that so much time is elapsing and so little progress is visible. We may look at years invested in a relationship or ministry and feel like we too have spent our strength for nothing and vanity.

We may feel frustration when we realize that the Church at large abdicates its role in God’s mission. If we look at Christendom today, we see segments of the Church prioritizing loyalty to earthly power structures over loyalty to God’s mission. We see complicity in political power-brokering, abusive or authoritarian hierarchies, systemic racism, or other oppressive endeavors. Those are current topics, but please don’t accuse me of shoehorning modern issues backwards into an ancient text; Isaiah himself repeatedly called God’s people to repent of their acts of oppression:

Or perhaps, we’re frustrated at the lack of mission progress that comes when the people of God harm the kingdom by walking in sin. We’re far too quick to engage in mission-undermining activities like:

These vices, by the way, are exactly the areas of kingdom ethics in which Jesus instructs his followers during the Sermon on the Mount. If we weren’t looking at Isaiah 49 because it’s World Mission Day, we’d be taking a hard look at some of those exact applications in Matthew 5. Jordan’s sermon last week discussed Jesus’ words on “gospel goodness” and those are the exact areas of kingdom/mission ethics that Jesus used to flesh out “gospel goodness.”

This negative focus is not to say that the God’s mission isn’t visibly successful at all. No, there are places (especially once we take our focus off of Western nations) where the Gospel is running, the Kingdom is flourishing, and God’s mission is succeeding. But, our local reality still stands, and there is a lot we could be discouraged about when it comes to God’s mission. Like Isaiah, we can tell God what we see and share our frustrations while keeping in mind that God is the one responsible for the mission. But also like Isaiah, we need more. We need to hear God’s vision for mission.

Unimaginable Success of God’s Kingdom (5-6)

So we started with Isaiah’s preparation through obscurity and we saw how that translated into a discouragingly slow progress for his mission. Now, let’s consider God’s answer to that discouragement. God doesn’t answer by merely overcoming the obscurity, or by giving Isaiah’s mission success within Judah. Instead God escalates with a promise of a truly universal scope for ministry. It’s in these final words that we see the Servant as Messiah layer shining most clearly.

5 And now the Lord says,
who formed me in the womb to be his servant,
to bring Jacob back to him,
and that Israel might be gathered to him,
for I am honored in the sight of the Lord,
and my God has become my strength—

First, Isaiah “preaches to himself” a bit. He interrupts his own “Thus says the Lord” with words recalling his own previous complaints. Only now, he’s shifting: obscurity is met by “honor in the sight of the Lord” and “strength [spent] for nothing and vanity” is replaced with “God has become my strength.” We’re seeing Isaiah process his discouragement. He feels what he feels and those feelings are real, and also feelings are like a tunnel and he’s moving through them, not parking in them.

Now we finally get to God’s answer, to the end of Isaiah’s journey, to the grand finale.

6 he says,
“It is too light a thing that you should be my servant
to raise up the tribes of Jacob
and to restore the survivors of Israel;
I will give you as a light to the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

God isn’t just answering the exact details of the complaint; the reply is so much bigger. In fact, God’s reply responds to Isaiah’s pep talk and blows even those words of self-encouragement away. God is in effect telling Isaiah, “Look, it’s great that you’re feeling better about your mission to your nation, but that’s not a big enough vision. Fasten your seatbelt; we’re not stopping there! I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” (If that sentence sounds familiar, it’s because we’ve opened our last several services with those words: vs 6 is our seasonal greeting for Epiphany.)

I love the image of light that God is using here. A couple months ago, we began the season of Advent with a call to “walk in the light of the Lord” (Isa 2.5) by following Jesus, the Light of the World. In chapter 9, Isaiah proclaims that “people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.” If we skip to the end of Isaiah’s ministry, we find in chapter 60 that the Light God promises isn’t merely a human prophet, or even God’s people successfully on mission. The light of the nations is God:

19 The sun shall be no more
your light by day,
nor for brightness shall the moon
give light to you by night;
but the Lord will be your everlasting light,
and your God will be your glory.
20 Your sun shall no more go down,
nor your moon withdraw itself;
for the Lord will be your everlasting light,
and your days of mourning shall be ended.

Isaiah is looking forward to the same end of the world that John’s visions revealed in Revelation 21. Let’s be captivated by the mission that God is pursuing, the mission that Isaiah played a part in in his day, the mission that the Messiah would one day take up, the mission that we participate in today. This mission isn’t merely local, regional, or even national. God is the light of the nations, drawing all people to faithfulness, to holiness, to justice, to worship before God’s throne.

Conclusion

I want to conclude this message by drawing the themes together for a perhaps predictable punchline. Can you think of any other significant narratives in Scripture that began with humble obscurity, little visible progress, but then unimaginable success? Perhaps a prophet from Nazareth, despised and rejected by his own people, executed like a criminal while a mere handful of followers even observed, but who was himself the very light of the world, drawing all people to himself, and taking his life up again to sit at God’s heavenly throne till the mission is fully accomplished?

Isaiah 49 gives us a giant lofty motivating vision about light to the nations and salvation to the ends of the earth. That vision finds its fulfillment in Jesus, the ultimate Servant, bringing in the kingdom with its life-changing ethics. Big visions and lofty motivations are great, but let’s wrap up by asking ourselves, practically, where do we fit in? What immediate actions can we take to participate in the mission? How can we devote ourselves and our resources to the mission?