CALLED TO BE LIGHT
Isaiah 49:1-6
“I will give you as a light to the nations,
that my salvation may l reach to the end of the earth” (vs 6)
This passage of scripture is part of what is known as the “Servant Songs” in the book of Isaiah. There are four distinct passages of scripture that are identified as “Servant Songs” in the book of Isaiah – 42:1-7; 49:1-6; 50:4-9; 53:1-11. The “servant” motif is found in many other places in Isaiah, but these passages focus on the call and commissioning of the “Servant.”
It is hard for us to read these scripture passages without thinking about Jesus Christ, but the servant passages are hotly debated and many suggestions have been put forward as to who this servant might be. Remember the Ethiopian Eunuch? - READ ACTS 8:26-35
Note verse 34 – “The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?”
It is a fair question and deserves to be taken seriously. There are in fact several layers of understanding involved in the “Servant Passages.”
I. THE SERVANT PASSAGES REFER TO ISRAEL
1. There are different views about Israel’s purpose in God’s overarching plan
2. God’s purpose for Israel was very simple - God’s purpose in calling Israel was to have a people to call His own
3. There were no such people before God called Abraham out of Ur
4. God called Israel into existence!
5. When God called Abraham, He promised him four things – a name, a land, descendents, and that he would be a blessing to all people
6. In Genesis 12:3 God said “through you all the nations of the world will be blessed” (Gen 12:3)
7. This is a key to the purpose of Israel, the Chosen People
8. They were chosen to be a blessing
9. They were blessed by God in many ways, but all of that was a part of God’s Sovereign work preparing them, molding them, getting them ready for the Supreme Blessing
10. Paul, speaking as a Jew, refers to the many ways that God had blessed this people – READ ROMANS 9:1-5
11. Paul focuses on the fact that Israel was chosen by God to be the people through whom Messiah would come into the world
12. Long before the fulfillment of that coming – Gal 4:4 - “the fullness of time” – Israel was in the world, called, chosen, set apart to be the people of God to reveal to the world God’s love, grace, purpose, mercy, longsuffering and desire for relationship with all people groups
13. Exodus 19:6 (NIV) – “you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” – bridge builders between God and man
14. Isaiah 49:6 – “I will give you as a light to the nations”
15. The nation of Israel came to believe that she was called to be blessed and she forgot to be a blessing
16. Israel failed to fulfill her purpose to be light, to be a missionary nation (the book of Jonah is the story of Israel’s failure to be the missionary nation God created her to be)
17. The people who were called to be light to others were walking in darkness
18. God pronounced judgment upon Israel’s failure to be light many times and in many ways including through the prophets and ultimately through the Babylonian Captivity
19. Jesus speaking to the religious leaders of Israel said,“I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom.” (Matt 21:43)
II. THE SERVANT PASSAGES REFER TO THE PROPHETS
1. The prophets of God became the light of God during dark times
2. The prophets represent the fact that God always has a people, a remnant
3. The prophets were clearly “suffering servants” of God
4. READ HEBREWS 11:36-39
5. The prophets of the OT remained faithful and called Israel to repentance
6. Jesus spoke of how Israel persecuted the prophets (Matt 23:37 NIV)
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.”
7. The prophets – Isaiah, Jeremiah, et al, were suffering servants
III. THE SERVANT PASSAGES REFER TO JESUS
1. Well of course the servant songs are about Jesus!
2. How could anyone not see Jesus in the words of Isaiah 53?
3. READ ISAIAH 53 (NLT)
4. The OT is the story of God’s promise to send One born of the seed of woman who would crush the head of the serpent
5. It is the story of Abraham’s call to be a blessing to the whole world
6. It is the story of the birth of a nation that was called by God to be holy, to be priests, to be light
7. The ultimate fulfillment of the promise to Abraham is fulfilled in the person of Jesus
8. Jesus is “The Suffering Servant”
IV. THE SERVANT PASSAGES REFER TO THE CHURCH
1. But there is another level of interpretation of the servant passages
2. Notice the progression –
a. Israel was to be light
b. The prophets were light
c. Jesus is The Light – remember, He said . . .
John 8:12 (NRSV) - “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”
John 9:5 (NRSV) - “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
d. The church is light (Matt 5:14:-16) - 14“You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. 15No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
3. The church is in the world and remains in the world to be light to the ends of the earth
4. The church was not a last ditch effort by God – not plan B – not secondary in any way
5. Eph 5:25 says that “Christ loved the church and gave himself for her”
6. Rev 13:8 speaks of “the Lamb slain before the world was created”
7. Eph 2:14-15 (NIV) - 14For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two
8. Gal 3:28-29 - 28There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
9. We must be clear about our identity as the NT people of God
10. We are called to be God’s people
11. Set apart and commissioned to be God’s light
12. This is what Epiphany Sunday is about – light shining to the ends of the earth
13. Epiphany celebrates the coming of the Wise Men, Gentiles who followed the light
14. Acts 1:8 - But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
