The Important Order of the Servant Songs

Well, there is a specific order to these four songs. There is a progressive or a gradual unfolding of the picture of Christ. Imagine a child coming to a door and slowly pushing the door open on Christmas morning.

And you know, you get an ever-widening perspective. So we're looking at the coming of the Messiah, centuries before the birth of Christ. And we are getting in each song a progressively clearer look. So Isaiah 42 is the first look at the coming servant.

And what's said there is wonderful, but it's just a peek. 49 builds on that. 50 builds on 49 and 42. And then ultimately, Isaiah 53, the song of the cross, really is built on what we learn in the first three, which I find very helpful.

Because if we can discipline ourselves and slow down and let the prophet reintroduce us to Jesus of Nazareth, and not interrupt the prophet, you know, so to speak, right in the middle of, you know, one of these chapters, it's always a temptation for me to jump in and say to Isaiah, wait, wait, wait, I know exactly who you're speaking about.

Well, this is Christ. And we have all of our, you know, knowledge that we've collected about the Lord Jesus Christ through the New Testament, through sermons. Whether or not our knowledge of Christ is careful, it's better not to interrupt the prophet.

If you do, what happens is you become the teacher and you don't learn anything new. It would be so much more beneficial for our souls if we let Isaiah be our teacher for these next weeks. So while we're reading 42, 49, 50, and 53, here's what we want to do.

Even though we know it's talking about Christ, we want to try to discipline ourselves. And I don't know if I'll be able to succeed. And we want to say, here is the coming hope. It is the servant of God.

But let Isaiah introduce you to him. And by the time you reach 53 then, and you see the servant on the cross, then in a sense, we're free to let all that we know from the New Testament fill that picture.

And again, we ought to want to sing. Thanks for watching the clip. We hope it was spiritually beneficial for you. We really do appreciate being able to interact with you through the comments. So if you have questions or just comments you'd like to leave, leave them below and we'll get back to them as we have a chance.