This is clearly a Servant...
Illustration
This is clearly a Servant Song outlining an agenda for leadership as commissioned by God. (vv. 1-4) However, most important to understanding the quality of the chosen servant is an understanding of the nature of God's Spirit that is put upon him. The one called and the one calling are consonant.
Contrary to some depictions, here, God's justice is faithful --not loud and obscene; not meted out unfairly to the weak, prisoners, infirmed, or oppressed. God gives breath (life), covenant, Spirit, illumination, sight, and liberation. Jonathan Edwards in his famous sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" paints a quite divergent portrait. He preached that "the God that holds you over the pit of Hell, much as one holds a spider or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you ..."
A good illustration that contrasts the two portraits and speaks to the proper understanding of God and the Servant of God as depicted in Isaiah is the fable of "The Wind and the Sun." These two forces of nature made a wager to determine which was the stronger. The proven victor would be the one who could induce the man to remove his coat. The Wind blithely and assuredly tried by tugging, whipping, whistling, shrieking, and howling. The man only wrapped his coat tighter around himself and in despair the Wind gave up. The Sun then emerged from the clouds with its gentle warmth and smiled radiantly upon the man. The coat was now unnecessary. Off it went!
Contrary to some depictions, here, God's justice is faithful --not loud and obscene; not meted out unfairly to the weak, prisoners, infirmed, or oppressed. God gives breath (life), covenant, Spirit, illumination, sight, and liberation. Jonathan Edwards in his famous sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" paints a quite divergent portrait. He preached that "the God that holds you over the pit of Hell, much as one holds a spider or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you ..."
A good illustration that contrasts the two portraits and speaks to the proper understanding of God and the Servant of God as depicted in Isaiah is the fable of "The Wind and the Sun." These two forces of nature made a wager to determine which was the stronger. The proven victor would be the one who could induce the man to remove his coat. The Wind blithely and assuredly tried by tugging, whipping, whistling, shrieking, and howling. The man only wrapped his coat tighter around himself and in despair the Wind gave up. The Sun then emerged from the clouds with its gentle warmth and smiled radiantly upon the man. The coat was now unnecessary. Off it went!
