“Thou Art My Servant, O Israel”

George Reynolds, Janne M. Sjodahl

Some commentators recognize in the book of Isaiah four so-called “servant poems”: that is to say, four prophecies in poetic form, in which Israel, as a nation, is considered in the character and mission of a servant of the Lord. The first of these poems is Mosiah 14)

This interpretation may be accepted as the first and literal meaning of these grand prophecies; in fact, the text itself seems to demand this. (See 49:6) But it is not the full meaning of them. Israel, as a servant of the Lord, is but a type, a shadow, of that perfect ideal of Man, the Messiah, the Holy One of Israel, the Son of God, and the complete and perfect fulfilment of these Scriptures is found only in the character and mission of our Lord Jesus Christ. The silence of Jesus before his persecutors and judges; the sufferings to which he voluntarily submitted; his death among the wicked and his burial with the rich; his vindication by the resurrection—all these are foretold, and the fulfilment is found only in the life and death of Him, who is, in the fullest meaning of the word, the Servant of the Lord.

Commentary on the Book of Mormon, Vol. 1

References