Isaiah 49:3-4

And said unto me, Thou art My servant

The service of man the manifestation of God’s highest glory

How numerous are God’s servants! All things in heaven and upon earth, all worlds, all elements, and all creatures are His servants, which obey His word, and declare His greatness and glory.

But of all God’s servants in this world man ranks highest, and through his service God is glorified in a sense that He could not be glorified through the service of any other creature. Israel was God’s servant in a pre-eminent sense, whether the word be taken to mean the nation as God’s chosen people or an individual as God’s messenger to do His will. But the ideal of God’s servant in this book was realised only in the Lord Jesus Christ. Man appears greatest when he serves, and there is no way to true greatness but through service. And God appears greatest when He condescends to serve. The Son of God looks more Divine on the Cross of His humiliation than on the throne of His glory, for on the Cross that which was deepest in His nature became visible. And it may be said that in every good man God becomes incarnate, and takes upon Himself the form of a servant, and by so doing bestows upon him the highest greatness. God says to every one of His faithful children, “Thou art My servant, in whom I will be glorified.” The way to glorify God is by serving man.

I. WHAT IS MEAT BY GOD’S GLORY? With glory we associate the ideas of purity, beauty, and sublimity; and God’s glory is the energetic expression of His holiness in all His works, in myriad different forms and ways.

II. THE SERVICE OF MAN AS THE MANIFESTATION OF GOD’S HIGHEST GLORY. Man has been created for the revelation of the highest glory of the Divine nature, and when he serves God faithfully, God breaks forth into glory in his character and work. This is the glory of His moral attributes, the glory of His love, mercy, compassion, and tenderness, which is infinitely greater than all the glory of the material universe. You can never learn the character of God from the facts of nature, any more than you can learn the character of the artist from his paintings, of the architect from the buildings he has planned, or of the builder from his work. In every gentle and kind word spoken to the affected, in every look of compassion, in every tear of sympathy, and in every deed of kindness, God breaks into glory that would make you tremble and adore if you were spiritual enough to see it. How the Divine glory shone in the life of the apostle Paul! In a dark age, when the superstition of the Papacy covered the land, God called Martin Luther, and said, “Thou art My servant, in whom I will be glorified.” And in Rowlands, Whitefield, Wesley, and others, God’s glory broke forth in a similar manner. In the only-begotten Son was revealed the glory of God as the Eternal Father (John 1:14). Before the same glory shines forth in us we must become something more than professed Christians, we must become Christ’s. (Z. Mather.)

God’s servants

Painters, poets, and musicians are God’s servants, and in their masterly]productions the Divine glory bursts forth. Raphael was God’s servant, and m the Transfiguration God’s glory broke forth. Handel was God’s servant, and in his Messiah God’s glory broke forth. Milton was God’s servant, and in his Paradise Lost the Divine glory majestically broke forth. Statesmen, reformers, and philanthropists are also God’s servants, and He says to each one of them, “Thou art My servant, in whom I will be glorified.” But the shining of the Divine glory is not confined to the highly gifted, but breaks forth in those who faithfully serve God in obscure spheres of labour, unnoticed by the world. (W. Hay Aliken, M. A.)

The three-fold experience of Christ

I. THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF A HIGH VOCATION. “He said unto Me, Thou art My servant,” &c. Just as the words, “Out of Egypt have I called My son,” never found their full significance until they were applied to God’s greater Son, so the name “Israel” was never fulfilled finally in Jacob, who first bore it, nor even in the nation that has borne it after him, but has found its ultimate fulfilment in Him who is pre-eminently a “Prince with God,” and our Prince, because He is our Saviour. We have, therefore, here a prediction of the consciousness of a high mission which possessed the Christ, and brought Him to this world of ours. Some of us will never forget the day when we were conscious for the first time of the inspiring fact that God had spoken to us, and through that experience of ours we may be able--as, indeed, the prophet through his experience was supremely able--tounderstand something of the ecstasy with which Christ, conscious of His glorious mission, came to this world of ours. It was that that Christ remembered throughout His life, and it was that which sustained Him throughout His personal ministry in the face of opposition and discouragement of every kind. He knew that He was doing His Father’s will, and it was this consciousness that found expression in the prayer which He uttered on the eve of His great passion, “I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do.” It was this assurance, too, that He sought to give to His disciples as the mainspring of all their heroism. “As the Father hath sent Me, even so send I you.” “Israel, in whom I will be glorified.” Scholars are divided here in opinion. Some say that this ought to be translated, “In whom I will burst forth into glory.” This is a translation that charms me. Jesus was indeed “the effulgence” of the Father’s glory--the shining forth of the light which had ever been the light, but which would have been largely invisible to man apart from the Incarnation. Then there is the other translation, “In whom I will beautify”--or “glorify”--“Myself.” In harmony with this Jesus exclaimed near the close of His life, “Father. .. glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee.” Did not the Son glorify the Father by the very outburst of light which distinguished His life among men?

II. THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF APPARENT FAILURE. “I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought and in vain.” We trace this consciousness at times even in the Master in Gospel story. His disappointment in the face of human unbelief, His sorrow over human sinfulness and ingratitude, the apparent waste of the Divinest life that was ever lived among men in precept and example--these weighed heavily upon Him. In this respect, as in many others, He was touched with the feeling of our infirmity.

III. THE ASSURANCE OF FINAL VINDICATION. “Yet surely My judgment is with the Lord, and My recompense with My God.” In other words, He knows the motives which have prompted Me, and what led Me on step by step. Whether life be a failure or not, whether My self-sacrifice appear fruitless or not, He knows what is the root of all. Yea, I know more than that--I know not only that He will vindicate Me and the motives which prompted Me; but I also know that My work must find its reward; that all that is apparent failure is only apparent; that My toil must bring forth fruit--“Surely. .. My work is with My God” (or, according to the R.V., “My recompense is with My God”). Here again there is the double meaning, and therefore a special wealth of significance. The word denotes more than the “work,” and more than the “recompense.” It denotes the work and its result; all that the work meant: the toil of saving men, and the reward of seeing them saved. Thus the Christ Himself, amidst all the ignominy and anguish of the Cross and Passion, fell back upon the assurance of the Father’s final vindication. These, then, being pre-eminently the words of the world’s Redeemer, are surely an example and an inspiration to us to follow His example. (D. Davies.)