4aThen I said, ‘I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and in vain; Yet surely my1 just reward is with the Lord, And my1 work with my God.’ ”
5 “And now the Lord says, Who formed Me from the womb tobe His Servant, To bring Jacob back to Him, So that Israel ais gathered to Him (For I shall be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, And My God shall be My strength),
6 Indeed He says, ‘It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob, And to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also give You as a alight to the Gentiles, That You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.’ ”
7 Thus says the Lord, The Redeemer of Israel,1 their Holy One, aTo Him1 whom man despises, To Him whom the nation abhors, To the Servant of rulers: b“Kings shall see and arise, Princes also shall worship, Because of the Lord who is faithful, The Holy One of Israel; And He has chosen You.”
8 Thus says the Lord: “In an aacceptable time I have heard You, And in the day of salvation I have helped You; I will1 preserve You band give You As a covenant to the people, To restore the earth, To cause them to inherit the desolate1 heritages;
9 That You may say ato the prisoners, ‘Go forth,’ To those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves.’ “They shall feed along the roads, And their pastures shallbe on all desolate heights.
10 They shall neither ahunger nor thirst, bNeither heat nor sun shall strike them; For He who has mercy on them cwill lead them, Even by the springs of water He will guide them.
The reference to Christ as God's Servant here is reminiscent of Acts 2:18 (and Joel 2:29), where God says He will pour out His Spirit "on My menservants and on My maidservants." Those in God's New Testament church act as God's servants, under Christ, the Head of the church, to preach the gospel "in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come" (Matthew 24:14). Only about thirty verses later, in Matthew 24:45-51, Jesus again makes use of the servant metaphor, this time in the Parable of the Faithful and Evil Servants. The working servant is rewarded at Christ's return, but the evil one, convinced that "My master is delaying His coming," finds himself "cut . . . in two."
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