There is disagreement as to the identity of the Servant. Some believe the Servant is the whole nation of Israel. But most agree that the language points to an individual. The latter position seems more likely. The first few verses in the chapter present God as clearly telling Israel that her bondage was deserved. As Oswalt then correctly asks, Can it now be Israel, or even a righteous remnant of Israel, that says she has never disobeyed God?
1 To be sure, as Christopher Wright notes, there is a measure of identity between the Servant and the nation, but across the Servant songs there is a growing discontinuity and distinction between them.2 When Isaiah first prophesied about the servant, he presented the servant as the whole nation of Israel. Isaiah 41:8–9, But you, O Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen…I took you from the ends of the earth, from its farthest corners I called you. I said, You are my servant; I have chosen you and have not rejected you.
A little later, the Lord says about his servant Israel, I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind
(Isaiah 42:6–7). As God’s servant, Israel was called to be a light to the world, and to open blind eyes. Yet Israel did not fulfill her calling. Israel turned against God, and didn’t serve him. And rather than being a light to the nations, Israel herself became blind. So instead of bringing God’s salvation to others, Israel herself now needed someone to bring her back to God. Who would do that? Who would first bring Israel back to God and then serve as God’s light to the nations?
The answer comes from what follows in Isaiah. God is no longer going to look to the nation as a whole, but now to one individual within that nation. He’s going to call upon one individual who will be faithful to him, one individual who will fulfill God’s calling. This individual will bring Israel back to God, and then be God’s light to the nations. And so we read in Isaiah 49:5–6, And now the Lord says—he who formed me in the womb to be his servant to bring Jacob back to him and gather Israel to himself…—he says: 'It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.'
This is now one individual doing God's bidding; he is to reconcile Israel with her God, and then he is to deliver the gospel of God’s glorious grace to the ends of the earth.
4 The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.