Isaiah 49: Who Is "The Servant"?

When Isaiah mentions "the servant" (as he frequently does), it's natural to ask the question, just who does he mean?  In fact, that very question itself is biblical!

Acts 8 tells us the story of Philip happening upon an Ethiopian eunuch in a chariot.  As it turns out, the eunuch was reading from a section of the book of Isaiah about the Lord's servant.  In  verse 34, we read, "The eunuch asked Philip, 'About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?'"

Philip's answer should settle the debate.  "Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus" (Acts 8:35).

Isaiah 49 gives us clues that the servant is not the prophet himself, but someone special that God had in mind yet to come.  Verses 5 and 6 describe how the mission of the servant is the restoration of Israel and, even more than that, the salvation of the world!

"He says, 'It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the survivors of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth'" (vs. 6).  Jesus, who goes by "the light of the world" in the gospels, is by far the most sensible candidate to be Isaiah's foreseen "servant".