Isaiah 49 explained: Not Forgotten, Sent to Everyone

A servant called before birth (vv. 1-4)

The speaker says the LORD chose him before he was born and kept him ready like a hidden sword or arrow, meaning his words would cut deep when the time came. Though he is called "Israel," he feels his work has failed, yet he leaves the outcome and his reward with God.

A light for all nations (vv. 5-6)

His first task was to bring Israel back to God, but God says that is too small a job: he will be a light so that rescue reaches the ends of the earth. Scholars debate who the servant is, whether the nation, a faithful few within it, or the prophet himself, and Christians read it as pointing to Jesus.

Despised now, honored later (v. 7)

The servant is scorned by others and made to serve those in power. God promises that one day kings will rise and princes bow, because God keeps his word.

The road home (vv. 8-13)

Captives are told to walk free, and God leads them home like a shepherd, with food on bare hills, water in the desert and mountains turned into roads. People come from every direction, even from a far place usually identified today as Aswan in southern Egypt, though the name is uncertain and older readers thought it meant China.

Can a mother forget? (vv. 14-21)

Jerusalem, pictured as a grieving woman, says God has forgotten her, and God answers that even a mother might forget her baby, but he will not, for he has engraved her on the palms of his hands. The ruined, childless city will be so crowded with returning children that she will wonder where they all came from.

Nations carry them home (vv. 22-26)

Foreign kings and queens will carry Israel's children back and bow to the ground before them, a complete reversal of who holds power. God vows to free captives from strong enemies, and the chapter ends with a brutal image of oppressors eating their own flesh, often read as a picture of enemies destroying one another.

Key verse: Isaiah 49:6

Where Christians differ

Christians differ on whether the servant here is mainly the nation of Israel or the prophet, later fulfilled in Jesus, or whether the passage speaks directly and primarily about Jesus.

Something to think about

When have you felt forgotten, and what, if anything, made you feel remembered again?