Albert Barnes Commentary Isaiah 49:6

"yea, he saith, It is too light a thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth." — Isaiah 49:6 (ASV)

And he said—that is, Yahweh said in His promise to the Messiah.

It is a light thing—Margin: ‘Are you lighter than that you,’ etc. Lowth renders it, ‘It is a small thing.’ Hengstenberg says, ‘It is too little that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob.’

The meaning is that God intended to glorify Him to an eminent degree. It would not be as much honor as God designed to confer on Him if He were to appoint Him merely to produce a reformation among the Jews and to recover them to the spiritual worship of God.

He designed Him for a far more important work: the recovery of the Gentile world and the spread of the true religion among all nations.

The Septuagint renders this: ‘It is a great thing for you to be called my servant.’ The Chaldee proposes it as a question: ‘Is it a small thing for you that you are called my servant?’

My servant—().

To raise up the tribes of Jacob—Hebrew, (lehâqîm)—‘To establish,’ or confirm the tribes of Jacob; that is, to establish them in the worship of God and in prosperity.

This is to be understood in a spiritual sense, as it corresponds to the blessings He would bestow on the Gentiles. His work in regard to both was to be substantially the same.

In regard to the Jews, it was to confirm them in the worship of the true God; and in regard to the Gentiles, it was to bring them to the knowledge of the same God.

And to restore—to bring back (lehâshîb), that is, to recover them from their sin and hypocrisy and bring them back to the worship of the true and only God.

The Chaldee, however, renders this, ‘To bring back the captivity of Israel.’ But it undoubtedly means to recover the alienated Jewish people to the pure and spiritual worship of God.

The preserved of Israel—Lowth renders this, ‘To restore the branches of Israel,’ as if it were netsârêy in the text, instead of netsûrêy.

The word nêtser means “branch” (see the notes at Isaiah 11:1; Isaiah 14:9), and Lowth supposes that it means the branches of Israel—that is, the descendants of Israel or Jacob—by a similitude drawn from the branches of a tree which are all derived from the same stem or root.

The Syriac here renders it, ‘The branch of Israel.’ But the word properly means those who are kept or preserved (from nâtsar—“to keep, preserve”).

It may be applied either literally to those who were kept alive or who survived any battle, captivity, or calamity—as a remnant—or spiritually, to those who are preserved for purposes of mercy and grace out of the common mass that is corrupt and unbelieving.

It refers here, I suppose, to the latter and means those whom it was the purpose of God to preserve out of the common mass of the Jews who were sunk in hypocrisy and sin.

It was God’s design to restore these to Himself, and to do this was the primary object in the appointment of the Messiah.

I will also give you for a light to the Gentiles—I will appoint you to the higher office of extending the knowledge of the true religion to the darkened Gentile world.

The same expression and the same promise occur in Isaiah 42:6 (see the notes at that verse).

That you may be my salvation to the end of the earth—(See the note at Isaiah 42:10).

The true religion shall be extended to the Gentile nations, and all parts of the world shall see the salvation of God.

This great work was to be entrusted to the Redeemer, and it was regarded as a high honor that He should thus be made the means of diffusing light and truth among all nations.

We may learn from this:

1. That God will raise up the tribes of Jacob—that is, that large numbers of the Jews shall yet be ‘preserved,’ or recovered to Himself.
2. That the gospel shall certainly be extended to the ends of the earth.
3. That it is an honor to be made instrumental in extending the true religion.

So great is this honor that it is mentioned as the highest which could be conferred even on the Redeemer in this world.

There is no higher glory for humankind than to tread in the footsteps of the Son of God. He who, by self-denial, charity, personal toil, and prayer, does most for the conversion of this whole world to God is most like the Redeemer and will have the most elevated seat in the glories of the heavenly world.