For Whom Did the Servant Suffer?

In my reading today of Randall Heskett’s Messianism Within the Scriptural Scrolls of Isaiah, there was a discussion on pages 208-209 about the beneficiaries of the Suffering Servant’s atonement: for whom did the Servant of Isaiah 53 die? Was it for the Jews, the Gentiles, or both?

In my post, The “We” of Isaiah 53; Bible-Based Mishnah Rules, I talked about the debate concerning the speakers of Isaiah 53: is it the Gentile nations marveling that Israel suffered for their sins, or is it Israelites talking about a Servant in their midst who died for them? Randall says, “Koole solves this problem by ‘cautiously’ opting ‘for the view that it refers to Israel; salvation reaches the world via Israel.’”

Second Isaiah talks about Israel’s sins, but it also discusses Israel being a light to the nations, and it’s probably the most universalistic section of the Hebrew Bible, in that it exhorts the Gentiles to turn to the LORD. Isaiah 49:5-6 says that the Servant’s mission is not just to restore Israel, but to be God’s salvation to the ends of the earth (to draw some from the KJV).

I can understand the view that the Servant is Israel, and that, in Isaiah 53, the Gentiles are marveling that Israel suffered for their sins, and are now astounded at her restoration. Second Isaiah has a lot about Israel being restored in the sight of the nations, which then acknowledge that the LORD is God.

But I can also understand the view that the Servant was an individual or community who suffered for Israel. My mind turns to R.N. Whybray’s thesis: that the Servant was trying to get Israel in exile to join his program of restoration, and yet Israel was reluctant. The Servant is saying that Cyrus will soon topple Babylon, and, naturally, the Babylonians put him in jail as a traitor and torture him. But the Servant is released, and the Israelites realize that the Servant suffered because of their reluctance to get with God’s program. Israel could have joined God’s plan to be restored as a nation and to become in consequence a light to the Gentiles. But she was dragging her feet. God’s Servant had to show Israel what being God’s servant entailed: devotion and faithfulness to God’s mission.

On another note: I remember reading a hyper-dispensationalist book, and it was trying to argue that God’s plan to save the world through Jesus was hidden until the time of Paul. But what about Isaiah 53? If my memory serves me correctly, the author argued that all we can really get from Isaiah 53 is that the Servant would suffer and die for Israel’s sins. The notion that his death was for the Gentiles, too, was first revealed to Paul, in this view.