Wisdom-Trek / Creating a LegacyWelcome to Day 1346 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.I am Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to WisdomMastering the Bible – Messianic Prophecy – Worldview WednesdayWisdom - the final frontier to true knowledge. Welcome to Wisdom-Trek! Where our mission is to create a legacy of wisdom, to seek out discernment and insights, to boldly grow where few have chosen to grow before. Hello, my friend, I am Guthrie Chamberlain, your captain on our journey to increase Wisdom and Create a Living Legacy. Thank you for joining us today as we explore wisdom on our 2nd millennium of podcasts. Today is Day 1346 of our Trek, and it is Worldview Wednesday. Creating a Biblical Worldview is essential to have a proper perspective on today’s current events. To establish a Biblical Worldview, you must have a proper understanding of God and His Word. Our focus for the next several months on Worldview Wednesday is Mastering the Bible, through a series of brief insights. These insights are extracted from a book of the same title from one of today’s most prominent Hebrew Scholars, Dr. Micheal S. Heiser. This book is a collection of insights designed to help you understand the Bible better. When we let the Bible be what it is, we can understand it as the original readers did, and as its writers intended. Each week we will explore two insights.


Mastering The Bible – Messianic ProphecyInsight Forty-Seven: The “Servant” of Isaiah Is Both an Individual and the Collective Nation of IsraelWe immediately think of the Messiah at the mention of the servant in the book of Isaiah. This is natural, since the one whom the prophet said would be led like a lamb to the slaughter (Isaiah 53:7) and have our sins placed upon him (Isaiah 53:6) is called God’s servant twice (Isaiah 52:13; 53:11). But the servant of Isaiah is often not an individual messianic figure. In several passages, Israel is that servant.


For example, in Isaiah 41:8 (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+41%3A8&version=NLT) God speaks, “But as for you, Israel, my servant, Jacob my chosen one, descended from Abraham my friend” But in the very next chapter, God sends a servant to the nation of Israel (Isaiah 42:1, 18-25). Then the prophet moves back to the corporate servant of Israel in the chapters that immediately follow:


Isaiah 44:1-2 (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+44%3A1-2&version=NLT)


“But now, listen to me, Jacob, my servant, Israel, my chosen one.


The Lord who made you and helps you says: Do not be afraid, O Jacob, my servant, O dear Israel, my chosen one.


Isaiah 44:21 (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+44%3A21&version=NLT)


Pay attention, O Jacob, for you are my servant, O Israel. I, the Lord, made you, and I will not forget you.


Isaiah 45:4 (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+45%3A4&version=NLT)


“And why have I called you for this work? Why did I call you by name when you did not know me? It is for the sake of Jacob, my servant, Israel, my chosen one.


Isaiah 49:3 (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+49%3A3&version=NLT)


He said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, and you will bring me glory.”


Oddly enough, the final reference sets up a transition back to the individual servant whom God sends to Israel in Isaiah 49:5 (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+49%3A5&version=NLT)


And now the Lord speaks, the one who formed me in my mother’s womb to be his servant, who commissioned me to bring Israel back to him. The Lord has honored me, and my God has given me strength.


Why the back-and-forth? Can’t Isaiah make up his mind? There is a good reason both portraits are in Isaiah. Throughout the Old Testament, the nation was represented by a single individual and by language describing a single...