ix. 5 (6), but also from the works which are assigned to Him,--works by

far exceeding human power. He rules over the whole earth, according to chap. xi.; He slays, according to xi. 4, the wicked with the breath of His mouth (compare chap. l. 11, where likewise He appears as a partaker of the omnipotent punitive power of God); He removes the consequences of sin even from the irrational creation, chap. xi. 6-9; by His absolute righteousness He is enabled to become the substitute of the whole human race, and thereby to accomplish their salvation resting on this substitution, chap. liii.

The Messiah appears at first in the form of a servant, low and humble, chap. xi. 1, liii. 2. His ministry is quiet and concealed, chap. xlii. 2, as that of a Saviour who with tender love applies himself to the miserable, chap. xlii. 3, lxi. 1. At first it is limited to Israel, chap. xlix. 1-6, where it is enjoyed especially by the most degraded of all the parts of the country, viz., that around the sea of Galilee, chap. viii. 23 (ix. 1.) Severe sufferings will be inflicted upon Him in carrying out His ministry. These proceed from the same people whom He has come to raise up, and to endow (according to chap. xlii. 6, xlix. 8), with the full truth of the covenant into which the Lord has entered with them. The Servant of God bears these suffering's with unbroken courage. They bring about, through His mediation, the punishment of God upon those from whom they proceeded, and become the reason why the salvation passes over to the Gentiles, by whose deferential homage the Servant of God is indemnified for what He has lost in the Jews, chap. xlix. 1-9, l. 4-11. (The foundation for the detailed announcement in these passages is given already in the sketch in chap. vi.,--according to which an election only of the people attain to salvation, while the mass becomes a prey to destruction.) But it is just by these sufferings, which issue at last in a violent death, that the Servant of God reaches the full height of His destination. They possess a vicarious character, and effect the reconciliation of a whole sinful world, chap. lii. 13-liii. 12. Subsequently to the suffering, and on the ground of it, begins the exercise of the Kingly office of Christ, chap. liii. 12. He brings law and righteousness to the [Pg 9] Gentile world, chap. xlii. 1; light into their darkness, chap. xlii. 6. He becomes the centre around which the whole Gentile world gathers, chap.