Some scholars claim that the “suffering servant” of Isaiah 53 is the nation of Israel personified. Why do you believe that the servant passages of the book of Isaiah apply to the Messiah?

There can be no doubt that passages such as Isaiah 41:8,9, Isaiah 42:18–22, and Isaiah 44:21,22 speak of the nation of Israel. Isaiah 42:18–22 describes the servant as blind and deaf, “a people plundered and despoiled,” “trapped in caves,” and “hidden away in prisons.” This is a description of backslidden Israel, not the righteous Messiah.

Yet, when we examine all of Isaiah’s servant passages, a poetic portrayal of the ideal Israel emerges. Ideal Israel is not the backslidden nation of the past, but is the obedient nation of the future Messianic reign. In that day, the Messiah will gather the scattered descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob into their own land, and God will establish His covenant with them (Jeremiah 31:31; 33:14–16). The reconstituted nation of Israel, under the Messiah’s reign, will become the model nation for all the nations of the world (Isaiah 2:2–4).

It is important to understand that in Scripture a kingdom is sometimes described as having the characteristics of its king. The “head of gold” of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream-image was at once the king of Babylon and the Babylonian kingdom (Daniel 2:31–40). Similarly, descriptions of the ideal Israel, as portrayed in the servant passages, are also descriptions of the nation’s ultimate King and representative Head—the Messiah. With this in mind, it is not difficult to see the transition from kingdom to King, from the nation to the nation’s representative Head, in Isaiah’s servant passages.

Notice, for example, Isaiah 42:1–7: “Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen one in whom My soul delights. I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry out or raise His voice, Nor make His voice heard in the street. A bruised reed He will not break, And a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish; He will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not be disheartened or crushed, Until He has established justice in the earth; And the coastlands will wait expectantly for His law. Thus says God the Lord, Who created the heavens and stretched them out, Who spread out the earth and its offspring, Who gives breath to the people on it, And spirit to those who walk in it, I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness, I will also hold you by the hand and watch over you, And I will appoint you as a covenant to the people, As a light to the nations, To open blind eyes, To bring out prisoners from the dungeon, And those who dwell in darkness from the prison” (New American Standard Bible).

Notice that the Servant is appointed as “a covenant to the people,” showing that He is distinct from the people. The people are the people of Israel, so the Servant who fulfills the covenant promises cannot be a mere personification of the nation. He must be the Messiah, the Davidic King who will bring the people into their own land and lead them to repentance and obedience.

The above passage also speaks of the Messiah’s two ministries. The first is an unassuming ministry in which the Servant does not cry out or make His voice heard in the street. This was fulfilled in Jesus Christ’s first coming (compare Matthew 12:14–21). In His second ministry the Servant establishes justice in the earth and declares His law to the coastlands. This aspect of the Servant’s mission will be accomplished during Christ’s millennial reign.

The fact that the Servant is called “Israel” does not necessarily mean that the nation of Israel is being addressed. The name Israel was given to (1) Jacob, the father of the men for whom the tribes of Israel were named, and (2) the tribes collectively. It is appropriate, then, that the nation’s representative Head also be called “Israel.” The name itself means “he prevails with God,” and was given to Jacob because God allowed the patriarch to overcome Him in a wrestling bout (see Genesis 32:24–28). Jesus Christ is the overcomer par excellence! (See Revelation 3:21; 5:5; 14:14.) How appropriate that He should be called by a name that means “overcomer.”

In Isaiah 49:3, the Servant is called “Israel.” We know that this passage is speaking of the Messiah because Israel the Servant is clearly distinct from Israel the nation. The Servant’s mission is to “bring Jacob back to Him [God], in order that Israel [the nation] might be gathered to Him” (verse 5), to “raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved ones of Israel” (verse 6). It would make no sense whatsoever to say that God formed the nation of Israel in order to bring the nation of Israel back to Him. But it makes perfect sense to say that the mission of Israel the Servant is to bring Israel the nation back to God.

Isaiah 53 is not a personified description of a nation. It is a poetic description, a prophecy, of the suffering Servant of God, the Messiah, who would suffer and lay down His life for our transgressions. He is none other than Jesus Christ, the Son of God.