Have you ever been blue, worried, discouraged, disappointed about a task or job that you agreed to do, were asked to do, or called to undertake? Have you begun the task or assignment or mission with great hopes, high expectations, and tons of energy only, somewhere along the way, the hopes and expectations seem to be trampled and the energy just flows away into weakness and futility?

Then you know something of the experience of the servant of the Lord in today's Old Testament Lesson. Yahweh God had called this unnamed person from his birth to be the servant of the Lord. Yahweh had named him, had equipped him with the Word of God, for the task and protected him in carrying out the mission. The Lord had called, assigned, sent the servant on a mission to Israel in the Babylonian exile. He wa…