Servant songs

Some say the first nine verses, some say the first four is the first servant song.

There's going to be four servant songs in Isaiah.

And then there's this hymn in Isaiah 42, 10 through 17.

So that's kind of the breakdown of how this works out as far as this bit of Isaiah.

good.

Now, for

me, I mean, I love it all, but I really do like the servant songs.

There's four of them.

The Jews were expecting the Messiah.

They were not expecting the suffering servant.

When the earliest universities, the Ivy Leagues, were being established, Dartmouth was a voice crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord.

This is their motto.

Now, these chapters 42 through 45 of Isaiah use three different images of women.

One's pregnant, one's in childbirth, one's delivery.

But as you look at the context and the background, they're all preparing for this servant idea, the Lord's servant, and later on the suffering servant.

And they're all filled with prophecies.

There is a suffering with him.

The suffering servant received victory and we share that with him.

So that's why Jesus said in...

Jesus explained these things and how he interceded for the transgressor.

So how do we lead like Jesus and lead in the best way possible?

Who is the servant of the Lord? This was the question that the chief financial officer of Ethiopia asked the evangelist Philip.

Tell me please, who is the prophet talking about? Himself or someone else? The title Servant of the Lord is one of great dignity reserved for leaders such as Abraham, Moses and David.

But in the four servant songs, a distinct concept of servanthood comes into sharper focus.

The role of this servant can be illustrated with the St. Andrew's Cross.

Paul points out that the book of Deuteronomy says, "'Cursed is everyone who's hung on a tree.' It was the depth of disgrace to be crucified.

He became a curse and at the same time dissolved the curse." He deliberately put himself in harm's way for you and me.

You are justified through what Jesus, the servant of the Lord, did on the cross for you by becoming a curse for you.

[upbeat music] Hi, this is Ben Lowell, and this is Back to the Bible Canada with Dr. John Neufeld.

Well, we conclude this week our series, The End of the Beginning, with a message entitled The Suffering Servant.

So turn in your Bibles to Luke 24:25-27 as we join Dr. Neufeld now.

[upbeat music] I think a great many of us when we read the First Testament, and I genuinely hope you are reading the First Testament, but when you read the First Testament that you don't make the mistake that it's just a series of morality tales instead of the story that's actually there.

But in order for Joseph to be such a great savior, was it not necessary that he be sold into slavery and then later so falsely accused that he ended up in a dungeon? Are not the forerunners to the ultimate savior the lesser saviors, the one I'm talking about, the one whose lives prefigured the ultimate salvation from sin and death? Did not all of them suffer terribly before they affected their salvation? And that is why Isaiah's messianic prophecies are so complete.

You see, he sees that not only will the Messiah reign in such a way that ultimately all the nations will beat their swords into plowshares, but Isaiah has so much more to say about the Messiah.

For Isaiah knows the Messiah is also going to be the suffering servant.

Isaiah 53, 7 to 9.

Ate ekiro bano bapangapanga ne Yuda Iskariyoti.

So kye twagala okulaba, am Marko atupresentingera Yesu nga the suffering servant.

Twegamba mutulaga nga bw'ali, eh a-a-akulaga Yesu nga suffering servant.

Bw'abeera amwanjula, amwogerako n'agamba nti enkiri oba ekitabo ky'okuzaalibwa ekwa Yesu Kristo.

Ne basically ng'agamba nti enkiri ya Yesu Kristo omwana wa Katonda ate Omulozi.

It may say somebody was sitting down.

But the manuscripts do not disagree with one another when they unfold the story of Jesus of Nazareth, Messiah, Son of God, Suffering Servant, Risen Christ, Returning King.

And the reason that people do not want to turn to the Bible is because they are unbelievers, and unbelief is sin, and it is sin which clouds our vision and prevents us from believing the gospel.

Now, I take time on that because I think it is absolutely fundamentally important.

Um, uh, Ibn Ezra speaks about it very circumspectly, and everybody else really completely ignores it.

So if it's rabbinic in nature, so how come it's essentially rejected by all the medieval, or not mentioned by all the medieval Jewish commentaries? Well, the reason is because the Christians called this chapter the Suffering Servant.

And by medieval Christian times, it was pointed to, this chapter or set of chapters from fifty-two, verse thirteen through the end of fifty-three, was pointed to as a proof that Jesus was the Messiah, and he was prophesized about by Isaiah, predicted by Isaiah.

Now, I am no expert in this field of early Christianity or Christianity in general, but I'm pretty sure that early Christianity, specifically the Christian testament, does not equate Jesus with the Eved here in Safer Yeshayahu.