The Servants Mission

Clint Fink

Sermon • Submitted a year ago

Isaiah 49:1–7

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Before Birth He named me.

In this opening statement that eight chapters earlier God Himself addressed the world.

Fear Not, for I Am with You

41 Listen to me in silence, O coastlands;

let the peoples renew their strength;

let them approach, then let them speak;

let us together draw near for judgment.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Is 41:1. Now, from our passage,

The Servant of the LORD

49 Listen to me, O coastlands,

and give attention, you peoples from afar.

The LORD called me from the womb,

from the body of my mother he named my name.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Is 49:1. In our opening passage it is not God but his servant boldly speaking to the known world. As I spoke last week I need confidence. Isaiah speaks with confidence. One of my favorite moments in the history of our Bible happens in this opening passage. (from the body of my mother he named me) Does this speak to you? It speaks loudly to me. I have felt for many years that God chose me from the beginning; that he has given me a name and one day when I meet him face-to-face he will call me by my true name.

English Standard Version Chapter 49

2 He made my mouth like a sharp sword;

in the shadow of his hand he hid me;

he made me a polished arrow;

in his quiver he hid me away.

3 And he said to me, “You are my servant,

Israel, in whom I will be glorified.”

Notice how God speaks of his servant with boldness. (in whom I will be glorified) If God is so sure of you, can you not be sure in his promises?

English Standard Version Chapter 49

4 But I said, “I have labored in vain;

I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity;

yet surely my right is with the LORD,

and my recompense with my God.”

Let me know if this feels familiar; it hits close to home for me. The servant complains that he has labored in vain, he has worked with no gain. I suffered, I complained, I am not able, I am not worthy. Yet my God, your God says,

5 And now the LORD says,

he who formed me from 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 eyes of the LORD, and my God has become my strength—

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Is 49:5.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Is 49:5. This statement again offered by Isaiah concerning what the Lord has told him. Have you heard this before?

5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,

and before you were born I consecrated you;

I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Je 1:5.

English Standard Version Chapter 49

6 he says:

“It is too light a thing that you should be my servant

to raise up the tribes of Jacob

and to bring back the preserved of Israel;

I will make you as a light for the nations,

that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

What we see as too much for us He sees as to little. We only see failure, He sees our true potential.

English Standard Version Chapter 49

7 Thus says the LORD,

the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One,

to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nation,

the servant of rulers:

“Kings shall see and arise;

princes, and they shall prostrate themselves;

because of the LORD, who is faithful,

the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”

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