D. Scott Meadows

Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

Evening, May 17

Thou art my servant; I have chosen thee (Isa 41:9).

If we have received the grace of God in our hearts, its practical effect has been to make us God’s servants. We may be unfaithful servants, we certainly are unprofitable ones, but yet, blessed be his name, we are his servants, wearing his livery, feeding at his table, and obeying his commands. We were once the servants of sin, but he who made us free has now taken us into his family and taught us obedience to his will. We do not serve our Master perfectly, but we would if we could. As we hear God’s voice saying unto us, “Thou art my servant,” we can answer with David, “I am thy servant; thou hast loosed my bonds.”

But the Lord calls us not only his servants, but his chosen ones—“I have chosen thee.” We have not chosen him first, but he hath chosen us. If we be God’s servants, we were not always so; to sovereign grace the change must be ascribed. The eye of sovereignty singled us out, and the voice of unchanging grace declared, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love.” Long ere time began or space was created God had written upon his heart the names of his elect people, had predestinated them to be conformed unto the image of his Son, and ordained them heirs of all the fulness of his love, his grace, and his glory.

What comfort is here! Has the Lord loved us so long, and will he yet cast us away? He knew how stiffnecked we should be, he understood that our hearts were evil, and yet he made the choice. Ah! our Saviour is no fickle lover. He doth not feel enchanted for awhile with some gleams of beauty from his church’s eye, and then afterwards cast her off because of her unfaithfulness. Nay, he married her in old eternity; and it is written of Jehovah, “He hateth putting away.” The eternal choice is a bond upon our gratitude and upon his faithfulness which neither can disown.

Pastor Meadows’ commentary

Spurgeon takes a text from Isaiah 41 which ought to be appreciated in its context first. Its theme is “abundant consolation to Israel” (Isa 41.8–20; Allan Harman’s commentary), that is, to the OT nation, the people who were the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and formed a nation by God when He delivered them from slavery and called them out of Egypt unto Himself in the wilderness. They were freed from their cruel taskmaster Pharaoh to become the Lord’s servant.

This is the first instance of “servant” in Isaiah as applied to the nation of Israel. It precedes the four “Servant Songs,” describing the person and character of the “Servant of the Lord” (42.1–4; 49.1–6; 50.4–9; 52.13–53.12). Ultimately the OT nation of Israel proved to be an unfaithful servant and was definitively judged as such. But from it arose the One who would prove to be the true Servant of the Lord, even the Messiah who alone is our Lord Jesus Christ. And when the OT nation of Israel had fulfilled its purpose in type and shadow, its Antitype arose—Christ and His Church in Him. God’s promise of deliverance to His chosen people has its fulfillment, then, in the exaltation of Christ (resurrection, ascension, coronation, session, and ultimate glorification in His return as Judge), and in the Christian church of believers (chosen in Christ, preserved in Christ, glorified in Christ).

Spurgeon assumes all this and jumps immediately, with all legitimacy, to a most spiritual and personal interpretation and application of these words in Isaiah 41.9. What is true of the aggregate is true of the parts. As the whole Church is the Lord’s chosen servant, so is each true Christian individually.

Our relationship to the Lord is one of a servant to his or her Master. We belong to Him in a special way, that is, in a gracious covenant whereby He has committed Himself to us and we are committed to Him. We are bought with a price, even with the precious blood of Christ, and therefore we have become His possession which He will never relinquish. A “livery” is a uniform, commonplace in Victorian England when Spurgeon lived, worn by servants for identification of their function and association, such as those worn by maids in wealthy households.

Further, as Spurgeon beautifully explains, each Christian’s status as the Lord’s servant comes about only on account of His sovereign, eternal, and unconditional choice and election of us to be His. The New Testament in many places teaches that individual believers have been chosen by God through grace alone to be saved, and that we love Him only because He first loved us (e.g., Eph 1.4–7; 1 Jn 4.19).

Spurgeon applies these truths primarily for our comfort as Christians (cf. Heidelberg Catechism #1). The truly saved can never be lost because of the almighty power and unshakeable faithfulness of the Lord who saves us (John 10.28, 29)! He has chosen us in Christ to be His servants, and His servants we shall ever be. Ω