Letter To The Jews / Chapter 18

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18: The Two Servants

Now, in laying the groundwork for salvation, we have seen that YHWH uses servants appointed in advance. And the prophet Isaiah is the one to talk most frequently about YHWH's servant. But who is YHWH's servant to Isaiah?

For the prophets from Moses onwards, including Isaiah himself, were called God's servants. And Israel itself is also God's servant, as Isaiah says:

“But you, Israel, are my servant; Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham my friend. You whom I have taken hold of from the ends of the earth, and called you from its most distant parts, I am saying to you, you are my servant. I have chosen you, and I have not rejected you.” 1

Now, each servant he calls has a purpose to YHWH. For Israel, YHWH says: “Look! I have made you a spiked threshing sledge, new, with blades. You will thresh mountains and pulverize them, and make hills as chaff. You will winnow them, and a wind will carry them away, and a windstorm will scatter them. And you will rejoice in YHWH. In the holy one of Israel you will boast.” 2

And so Israel is spoken of as being like a threshing instrument. But then Isaiah speaks of one man as God's servant:

“Look! My servant, whom I uphold; my chosen one, in whom my soul has approved. I have put my spirit on him. He will bring forth judgment to the nations. He will not cry out or raise his voice, or cause it to be heard in the street. No bruised reed will he break, and no smoldering wick will he extinguish. He will bring forth judgment according to truth. He will not fail or be bruised, until he establishes judgment in the earth; and the islands will wait for his law.”3

Now, your great teacher Maimonides, in his commentary on the Mishnah and the world to come, says these words apply to the Messiah, and that Messiah will die, and that his son, and his son's son will rule after him, and that God has already described his death when the prophet writes, “He will not fail or be bruised, until he establishes judgment in the earth.” 4

Whoever this servant is, he seems to be a very different servant from Israel, the “spiked threshing sledge.” Of this peaceful man, Isaiah continues:

“I, YHWH, have called you in righteousness, and I will take hold of your hand, and I will preserve you and give you for a covenant of the people, for a light of Gentiles, to open the eyes of the blind, to bring out the prisoner from confinement, those dwelling in darkness from the prison.” 5

But how could a man be given for a covenant of the people, and for a light of the nations? For Moses was your lawgiver, and gave you the Torah from the mouth of YHWH, but even Moses did not give himself for a covenant, but was simply a mediator of that covenant.


1 Isaiah 41:8,9. 2 Isaiah 41:15,16. 3 Isaiah 42:1-4. 4 Mishnah Commentary, Tractate Sanhedrin, Pereḳ Ḥeleḳ (Chapter 10). 5 Isaiah 42:6,7.

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