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Holy Week · Tuesday of Holy Week · Year C

Isaiah 49:1-7

The Servant of the Lord

Simeon's Song of Praise, Aert de Gelder
Simeon's Song of Praise, Aert de Gelder, c. 1700–1710Mauritshuis, The Hague
A late pupil of Rembrandt, working long after the style had gone out of fashion. Simeon holds the child up in a wash of golden light with his eyes nearly closed.I will give you as a light to the nations: Isaiah's servant song is the verse Simeon reaches for when he finally sees the child.Aert de GelderRembrandt's last pupil, who kept his master's manner for fifty years after it had gone out of fashion, and was alone in doing so.Mauritshuis, The HagueA small seventeenth-century town house holding a concentrated Dutch Golden Age collection, including Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring.Mauritshuis, The Hague

Overview & Insights

“I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” (Isaiah 49:6)

So 49:1–6 is a major turning point. So far the Poet’s focus has been Jacob-Israel. Henceforth it will be Jerusalem-Zion. So far the addressee has been Jacob-Israel. Henceforth it will be Jerusalem-Zion. So far Yahweh’s promise has thus concerned the fall of Babylon and the end of the Judeans’ enforced residence there. Henceforth it will concern the restoring of the city that virtually none of the exiles have ever seen. Once more there is no need to infer that time has moved on or that the people are already back in the city. While that might be so, it is just as plausible to imagine the prophet continuing to exercise a ministry in Babylon. Chapters 49–55 are just as relevant to the people there as are chapters 40–48 to people in Judah.

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Who is the Servant of Isaiah 49?

Called from the womb, the Servant is given as a light to the nations so that God's salvation may reach the ends of the earth, a portrait fulfilled in Christ.

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