This is the fourth and final Servant Song in Second Isaiah, and because of its content, it has been called the Suffering Servant Song. As with the Servant Song that we dealt with on Passion Sunday, it was originally a prophecy considering an idealized Israel. Second Isaiah set before the exiles in Babylonia the task of giving their life for the sake of the world. Israel was despised and rejected in exile, cursed by all who saw her plight. But there would come a time when God would deliver her from captivity and exalt her among the nations. When other peoples saw her salvation, then they would realize that God had subjected Israel to judgment in order that he might manifest his power to save her before all the world. Israel would become the living testimony to the God of judgment and of sal…