Isaiah 49:5 - Exposition

And now, saith the Lord , etc.; rather, and now the Lord hath said—he that formed me from the womb to be a Servant to him , that I might bring back Jacob to him , and that Israel might be gathered to him; for I shall be glorious in the eyes of the Lord , and my God is become my Strength—he hath said—It is a light thing , etc. The whole of Isaiah 49:5 , after the words, "and now the Lord hath said," is parenthetic. (On the service which our Lord continually rendered, while on earth, to the Father, see Luke 2:49 ; Luke 4:43 ; John 4:34 ; John 6:38 ; John 17:4 .) The Revelation of St. John shows that in heaven he is still engaged in carrying out his Father's behests. Though Israel be not gathered . This reading, as Mr. Cheyne remarks, "entirely spoils the symmetry of the verse." The practice of writing fresh copies of the Scripture from dictation is answerable for the double reading of לֹא and לוֹ both here and in other places. Yet shall I be glorious . The "Servant" would receive glory even by such a partial conversion of the Jews as took place through his ministry. It is never to be forgotten that all the original twelve apostles were Jews, that Matthias was a Jew, that Paul and Barnabas were Jews, and that the original Church was a Church of Jews ( Acts 2:41-47 ). All that was truly spiritual in Judaism flowed into the Church of Christ, as into its natural home, and the Jewish element in the Church, if not numerically great, was yet the predominant and formative element.