The Servant's Commission to Restore Israel and the Nations
Isaiah 49:1-8
1Hear, O coastlands, to me, and listen, O peoples from afar. The LORD called me from the belly; from the belly of my mother he caused my name to be remembered.2He made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand he hid me. He made me into a purified arrow; in his quiver he hid me.3He said to me, "You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified."4But I said, "I have toiled in vain; I have finished my strength for formlessness and vanity. Surely my justice is with the LORD, and my wages are with my God."5And now the LORD says, who formed me from the belly to be a servant to him, to return Jacob to him; Israel is not gathered to him, yet I will be honored in the eyes of the LORD, and my God has become my strength.6He said, "It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and the preserved of Israel to return; I will give you as a light to the nations, to be my salvation to the end of the land."7Thus says the LORD, the redeemer of Israel, his Holy One, to the one despised in soul, to the one abhorred by a nation, to a servant of rulers: kings will see and arise; rulers will bow down, because of the LORD who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, and he has chosen you.8Thus says the LORD: "In a time of acceptance I answered you, and in a day of salvation I helped you; I watched you and gave you as a covenant of people, to raise up the land, to cause desolate inheritances to be inherited."