After the Prophet has, in chap. li. 1 to lii. 12, described the transition of the Church of God from humiliation and sorrow to glorification, it is quite natural that he should now turn from the members to the Head, through whose mediation this transition was to be accomplished, after the same contrast had been exhibited in Himself There is the most intimate connection between the Church of God and His Servant; for, all that He does and suffers. He does and suffers for her; and all that befals her is prefigured by the way in which He has been led by the Lord.
With what follows, too, the section before us stands in a close relation. The glorification of the Servant of God described at the close of chap. liii., is, in Him, bestowed at the same time, upon the Church. Thus chap. liv., in which the Church is comforted by pointing to her future glorification, is connected with the preceding. The Church of the Lord appears here as a woman who, after having been put away by her husband, and after having, for a long time, lived in a childless, sorrowful solitude, is again received by him, and sees herself surrounded by numerous children. The time of punishment is now at an end, and the time of mercy is breaking.
Chap. lii. 13. "_Behold, my Servant shall act wisely, He shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high._"
השכיל always means "to act wisely" (LXX. συνήσει; _Aquil. Sym._: ἐπισθημονισθήσεται), never "to be successful" (the Chaldean, whom most of the modern interpreters follow, renders it by יצלח), and this ascertained sense (comp. Remarks on Jer. iii. 15; xxiii. 5, where the verb is used of the Messiah, just as it is here), must here be maintained so much the more, that our passage evidently refers to David, the former servant of God. Of him it is said in 1 Sam. xviii. 14, 15: "And David was acting wisely in all his ways, and the Lord was with him. And Saul saw that he was acting very wisely, and was afraid of him;" comp. 1 Kings ii. 3, where David says to Solomon: "And keep the charge of the Lord thy God ... in order [Pg 265] that thou mayest act wisely in all that thou doest, and whithersoever thou turnest thyself;" Ps. ci. 2, where David, speaking in the name of his family, says: "I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way;" and 2 Kings xviii. 7, where it is said of Hezekiah: "And the Lord was with him, and whithersoever he went forth, he acted wisely." According to these fundamental and parallel passages, the expression, "He shall act wisely" refers to the administration of government, and is equivalent to: He shall rule wisely like his ancestor David. _Stier_ is wrong in opposing the view, that the Messiah here presents himself as King. He says: "The King has here stepped behind the Prophet, Witness, Martyr, Saviour;" but in chap. liii. 12, the royal office surely comes out with sufficient distinctness. We must never forget that the different offices of Christ are intimately connected with one another by the unity of the person. The _prosperity and success_ which the Servant of God enjoys, are first brought before us and detailed in what follows; and appear, just as in the fundamental passages quoted, as the consequence of acting wisely: "My Servant shall, after having, through the deepest humiliation, attained to dominion, administer it well, and thereby attain to the highest glory." To the words: "He shall act wisely" correspond, afterwards, the words: "The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper by His hand," chap. liii. 10. The fact that a person acts wisely is, in a twofold aspect, a fruit of his connection with God: _first_, because God is the source and fountain of all wisdom, and, _secondly_, because from God the blessing proceeds which always accompanies his doings. The ungodly is by God involved in circumstances which, notwithstanding all his wisdom, make him appear as a fool. Compare only chap. xix. 11: "The princes of Zoan become fools, the counsel of the wise counsellors of Pharaoh is become brutish; how can ye say unto Pharaoh: a son of the wise am I, a (spiritual) son of the (wise) kings of ancient times?" comp. ver. 13; Job xii. 17, 20; Eccles. ix. 11. In the second clause the Prophet puts together the verbs which denote elevation, and still adds מאד "very" in order most emphatically to point out the glory of the exaltation of the Servant of God.