Who is Isaiah's Suffering Servant?

In the eighth chapter of Acts we read the account of Philip’s interaction with the Ethiopian eunuch.  The eunuch was reading Isaiah 52 and needed help understanding what the passages were talking about.  The deacon Philip came alongside him and told him about Jesus Christ.

Since the earliest times, Christians have understood the “suffering servant” of Isaiah to be a direct reference to Jesus.  You can see this again in 1Peter 2:24, where the Apostle says:

“He himself ‘bore our sins’ in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; ‘by his wounds you have been healed.’"

However, the most common counterargument to the Christian claim – particularly from a Jewish perspective – is that we’re misunderstanding the image of the Suffering Servant.  The Servant was not a particular historical man, but rather a symbol of Israel.  He is the nation literarily personified.

Today we’re going to look at the relevant portions of Isaiah to see if that’s true.

Chapters 41 and 43: Definitely Israel

The book of Isaiah goes through a couple tone-shifts.  In chapters 36-39 we’re treated to an interlude of straightforward history.  Then in chapter 40 we’re back to the prophetic style.

So we’ll begin in Isaiah 41.  This is where we find the first mention of God’s “servant” in the post-chapter-40 section.  In these passages, God promises a coming judgement upon the nations but promises to preserve Israel:

"Who has performed and done this, calling the generations from the beginning? I, the Lord, am first, and will be with the last. The coastlands have seen and are afraid, the ends of the earth tremble. [] But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friend; you whom I took from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest corners, saying to you, 'You are my servant, I have chosen you and not cast you off'; fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." - Isaiah 41:4-10

So it’s pretty obvious there.  The servant is the nation of Israel.

Now we’ll scoot forward to Isaiah 43, where the servant appears again:

“But now thus says the Lord, O Israel: ‘Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you. Do not fear, for I am with you. I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you. 

Bring forth the people who are blind, yet have eyes, who are deaf, yet have ears! Let all the nations gather together, and let the peoples assemble. Who among them declared this, and foretold to us the former things? Let them bring their witnesses to justify them, and let them hear and say, ‘It is true.’ 'You are my witnesses,' says the Lord, 'and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I AM.’” - Isaiah 43:1-10

In this passage God is promising to gather Israel so they can testify to the nations that the Lord alone is God.  Once again, the servant is the nation of Israel address corporately.

Chapter 49: A Figure Emerges

Next we’re headed to Isaiah 49.  This is where things start to get a bit weird.

In Isaiah 49 the text undergoes a change of voice.  Isaiah is no longer speaking for God, but seemingly for himself, using the personal pronoun 'I'.

Let’s read:

"Listen to me, O coastlands, and give attention, you peoples from afar. The Lord called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name.  He made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me a polished arrow; in his quiver he hid me away.  And he said to me, 'You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.'  

But I said, 'I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity. Yet surely my right is with the Lord, and my recompense with my God.'” - Isaiah 49:1-4

Now, who is identified as the servant?  One is tempted to say Israel, because the hearer is addressed as such.  But the first few sentences seem like a more fitting description of Isaiah personally.  Plus, Isaiah responds as if he is addressed. So which is it?

Is Isaiah somehow being addressed as “Israel”?  Is it like how a person might be addressed as his hometown?  (Like a man being called "Tex" because he's from Texas.)

Or God speaking of Israel - saying He will be glorified by the nation - but Isaiah is objecting, saying he's failed to make Israel what God intended it to be?

It's obscure to me, at least. But let's keep going:

"And now the Lord says— he who formed me in the womb to be his servant to bring Jacob back to him and gather Israel to himself, (for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord and my God has been my strength)—  he says: 'It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.'” - Isaiah 49:5-6

Now, there the "servant" is definitely not corporately personified Israel.  We can see this because we're told the servant is on a mission to restore Israel.  So unless one wants propose that Israel was on a mission to restore Israel, we're left to conclude the "servant" is an individual man.

However, it doesn’t seem like it is Isaiah, because Isaiah wasn’t a light to the Gentiles and didn’t restore the tribes of Jacob.  Reading on:

"This is what the Lord says— (the Redeemer and Holy One of Israel) — to him who was despised and abhorred by the nation, to the servant of rulers: 'Kings will see you and stand up, princes will see and bow down, because of the Lord, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.'” - Isaiah 49:7

Here again the servant is more sensibly an individual (and not the nation of Israel) because he is contrasted with "the nation".  In fact, we're told this servant is to be despised by the Israelites, but he'll one day see princes and kings honoring him. 

Chapters 52 and 53: Who is This Man?

Let’s move onto the final segment.  The end of Isaiah 52 says:

"Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted. As many were astonished at you— his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind—  so shall he sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths because of him, for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand." - Isaiah 52:13-15

In this section it is plausible to think of the servant as corporate Israel.  Israel was – for a time – lifted high and exalted but then it was beaten up beyond recognition.  Let’s continue into chapter 53…

"Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?  For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.  He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.  But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—everyone—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all." - Isaiah 53:1-6

Whose voice Isaiah is using now?  He isn’t speaking for God, but rather for himself and his fellow Israelites.  The nation of Israel is being invoked every time you see Isaiah using the first-person plural “we” and “us”.

The "servant" is thus being contrasted with Israel (again).  So when Isaiah speaks of the servant bearing “our sins", he’s far more plausibly speaking of an individual.

Let’s continue.  This is the same section the Ethiopian eunuch was reading:

"He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth." - Isaiah 53:7-13

In this part we see, very explicitly, Isaiah saying the suffering servant bore the sins of “my people”.  And Isaiah’s people would be Israel.

So, again, it makes little sense to say the suffering servant is Israel when it says he bore sins on behalf of Israel.  This points us to the suffering servant being a man.


Final Thoughts:

My conclusion is that while the “servant” in Isaiah 41 and 43 is clearly Israel, this changes when you get to chapters 49 through 53.  At that point the term refers to a man who is rejected by his own nation, undergoes horrible beatings, bears the sins of his people, and eventually sees kings doing him honor.

Who is that man?