The Identity of the Servant in the Servant Songs: A Case for Universal Salvation

By the time of the writing of second Isaiah, the Hebrew people had been living in exile in Babylon over a generation. The promise of a Davidic kingdom that “shall be made sure forever before me” (2 Samuel 16), had been shattered. While first Isaiah blames this failure on the sins of the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah, second Isaiah offers a kinder perspective: you will suffer, but through suffering there will be salvation and a return to the land that was promised first in Exodus, and then reaffirmed when David ascended…