This week's text introduces the first of the four wonderful "servant songs" found in Second Isaiah. This first "song" (so-called because of its poetic form) is seen by many scholars as this servant's original "call" or "commission." It begins with the unmitigated exuberance of the Lord for this servant. The cry "Here is" or "See" (Hebrew hen) which introduces verse 1 is emphatic with its positive delight - starkly contrasting this approved servant with the condemnation of the worthless idols also pointed to with a hen in 41:24, 29.

This first servant song purposefully keeps obscure the identity of the "servant" with whom God is so pleased. Elsewhere, the Isaiah scroll has no qualms about identifying active emissaries of the Divine - whether that servant be all Israel or a pagan Persian ki…