“Incline your ear and come to Me. Listen, that you may live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, according to the faithful mercies shown to David. Behold, I have made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples” (Isa 55:3-4).
The importance of these verses in the book of Isaiah can hardly be overstated. Chapter 55 is the closing chapter in Isaiah’s “New Exodus,” which is the second of three major divisions in the book (Isaiah 40–55). It simply cannot be a coincidence, therefore, that the only mention of David and the Davidic Covenant in Isaiah’s New Exodus appears in this chapter, which serves as one of the literary “seams” of the book—i.e., texts that serve to bind the macro-sections of the book together.
…Isaiah 55 functions as the big reveal. It is here in the book that Isaiah explicitly identifies the Servant of the LORD, who died for the sins of God’s people, as the one through whom God will fulfill His covenantal promises to King David.
Contextually, the individual who is a “witness to the peoples” and “a leader and commander for the peoples” (Isa 55:4) must be the Spirit-filled Servant of the LORD, whom God has “appointed as a covenant to the people” and a “light to the nations” (Isa 42:1, 6; 49:6, 8). This means that Isaiah 55 functions as the big reveal. It is here in the book that Isaiah explicitly identifies the Servant of the LORD, who died for the sins of God’s people (Isaiah 53), as the one through whom God will fulfill His covenantal promises to King David (Isa 55:3; see Psa 89:24–29).
To be clear, Isaiah is saying that the same Servant of the LORD who was put to death in Isaiah 53 must, in light of God’s covenantal promises, rise again to rule forever from David’s throne (see Isa 9:7).
It is little wonder, therefore, that the Apostle Paul cites Isaiah 55:3 in his proclamation to the people of Israel that Yeshua’s death on the cross and resurrection prove that He is our promised Messiah!
