The four Servant Songs

Within Deutero-Isaiah, the second part of the book of Isaiah, four passages stand out where a figure appears whom God calls his Servant. The Hebrew word rendered as “servant”, ebed (עֶבֶד), designates the one who belongs to a master and accomplishes his work. These four songs, Isaiah 42:1-4, 49:1-6, 50:4-9 and 52:13 to 53:12, form a sequence: God first presents his chosen one, then the mission widens to the nations, the Servant next endures the trial as a faithful disciple, and at last he gives his life for the multitude before being raised. A question runs through them, which they answer little by little: who is this Servant?

The first song: the chosen one who brings justice to the nations

God opens the sequence by himself presenting his Servant, whom he has chosen and on whom he has set his Spirit. “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.” Isaiah 42:1 His mission is to establish justice, the right order willed by God, and to extend it beyond Israel to the peoples. He accomplishes it with a gentleness that spares the most fragile. “He will not break the bruised reed, he will not quench the failing wick; according to truth he will bring forth justice.” Isaiah 42:3 Nothing will stop him before his work stands over all the earth. “He will not grow faint, he will not be crushed, until he has established justice on the earth, and the coastlands shall wait for his law.” Isaiah 42:4 At the baptism of Jesus, the Spirit descends upon him and the voice of the Father declares him his beloved Son, the one in whom he sets his joy. These words, and the Spirit resting upon him, are those of the first song: Jesus is there designated as the Servant whom God presents.

The second song: the light of the nations

In the second song, the Servant speaks in his turn. He knows himself called before his very birth, set apart for a mission. “The Lord called me from my mother's womb, from her body he pronounced my name.” Isaiah 49:1 God then gives him the name of his people. “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will show my glory.” Isaiah 49:3 His labour seems, however, to remain without result, and he commits himself to God. “In vain have I toiled, for nothing, for the wind I have spent my strength; but my right is with the Lord.” Isaiah 49:4 To this weariness God answers by widening the mission far beyond Israel. “It is too little that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob: I make you the light of the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.” Isaiah 49:6 Presenting the child Jesus in the Temple, Simeon will recognise him as this light of the nations.

The third song: the disciple who holds firm

The third song shows the Servant as a disciple, attentive to God day after day. “The Lord has given me a disciple's tongue, that I may know how to sustain with my word the one who is weary. Each morning he wakens my ear that I may listen like a disciple.” Isaiah 50:4 This listening leads him to the trial, which he accepts without fleeing. “I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who tore out my beard; I did not hide my face from insults and spittle.” Isaiah 50:6 He holds firm because God comes to his aid, and turns towards the trial a face that nothing makes waver. “The Lord God comes to my aid: therefore I have set my face hard as flint, knowing that I shall not be put to shame.” Isaiah 50:7 This face hardened towards the trial, the Gospel finds again in Jesus, who resolutely takes the road to Jerusalem where the blows and the cross await him.

The fourth song: the suffering Servant

The fourth song brings the figure to its summit and unveils its meaning. God first announces the success and the exaltation of his Servant. “Behold, my servant shall succeed; he shall be raised high, lifted up, exalted to the utmost.” Isaiah 52:13 This announced glory passes through the most total rejection. “Despised, forsaken by men, a man of sorrows, familiar with suffering, he was like one before whom faces are hidden.” Isaiah 53:3 His suffering is that of others: he bears their fault. “It was our sufferings that he bore. He was pierced because of our sins; the chastisement that brings us peace is upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.” Isaiah 53:4-5 He undergoes everything in silence, delivered up without resistance. “Ill-treated, he humbles himself, he does not open his mouth, like the lamb that is led to the slaughter.” Isaiah 53:7 His death becomes an offering that redeems, and God raises him beyond death. “After the trials of his soul, he will see the light. My servant will justify the multitudes, he who will bear their faults.” Isaiah 53:11 The song speaks its last word about the Servant. “He stripped himself even unto death and was counted among the criminals, while he bore the sin of the multitudes and interceded for the guilty.” Isaiah 53:12 The Church reads in these pages the Passion of Christ, the Lamb delivered for sinners, who saves by taking upon himself what condemned them. It is this song that the Ethiopian was reading, to whom Philip announced Jesus.

Who is the Servant?

The songs let two faces of the Servant appear. At times God names “Israel” his servant, by the very name of his people, whom he had chosen to know him, to adore him and to carry his light to the nations. At times the Servant is distinct from the people: he receives the mission to raise up Israel itself, and he endures a trial that is his own. Called to serve God, Israel failed in its vocation and lost itself in unfaithfulness and exile. A distinct Servant then rises, faithful where the people fell short, who accomplishes for all what Israel was meant to be. From one song to the next, his figure grows clearer: the chosen one bearing justice, the light of the nations, the tested disciple, and at last the victim who saves by dying. The Church recognises in him Christ, the true Israel and the suffering Servant, who saves the multitude by his obedience unto death.