Sledges and Servants
By Denise Herr

A Commentary on the Sabbath School Lesson for May 22–28, 2004, on Isaiah 41, 42, 44, 45, and 49, "To Serve and to Save"

Lamson Hall, Andrews University, 1970. It was my turn to scrub the bathroom. Because I work better when listening to music, I chose the record "Bridge Over Troubled Water" to keep me company. I grabbed the Dutch Cleanser, and when the words of "El Condor Pasa" filled the suite, I sang along with Simon and Garfunkel: "I’d rather be a hammer than a nail, yes I would, if I only could, I surely would."

Canadian University College, 2004. Although I have no Simon and Garfunkel CDs, the words of "El Condor Pasa" circle my mind as I read Isaiah 41:14–15:

Fear not, you worm Jacob,
you men of Israel!
I will help you, says the Lord;
Your redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.
Behold I will make of you a threshing sledge,
New, sharp, and having teeth;
You shall thresh the mountains and crush them,
And you shall make the hills like chaff. (RSV)

I have seen many threshing sledges in the Middle East—one is even propped up in a library where I go to research in Amman, Jordan. The typical sledge is a wooden platform about a meter wide and two meters long. The underside is studded with sharp stones. A man would have stood on the sledge as domestic animals pulled it over piles of grain, the stones cutting the straw into shorter pieces and separating the grain from the chaff.

"I’d rather be a threshing sledge than a worm, yes I would.…" Israel, as powerless as a worm1 easily cut in pieces beneath a threshing sledge, was told it could become as powerful as the sledge itself. Perhaps the listeners would even have seen Yahweh as the one standing on the sledge, directing its path. Transformed and empowered, no wonder Israel would rejoice in the Lord (Isa. 41:16).

The contraction of Israel into the image of a worm, and Yahweh’s transformation of the vulnerable worm into a powerful threshing sledge asks us to try to comprehend the infinite, to understand the character and power of God.

The servant songs in Isaiah make similar demands upon the readers. Commentaries are filled with information regarding the identity of the servant: Cyrus is named as a servant, although he is not an Israelite (Isa. 45: 1–13); there is an individual servant (Isa. 42: 1–4) who is later identified with Jesus in Matthew 12:20; the nation of Israel is called the servant (Isa. 49:1–6). Rather than debating the time of the Cyrus prophecy, the implications of a messianic prophecy, or the identity of the servant, I would like to explore the meaning of the term servant and how this word calls us to comprehend the power and character of God.

As I grew up, my family certainly never had servants, but I imagined that servants were people whom one would look down on; they would be people who were less powerful, who, in some unspecified way, played a diminished role in relation to others.

But that is not what is meant by the word servant (ebed) in these passages.

Tall al Umayri, Jordan, 1984. A seal impression was found on an archaeological excavation. My husband, Larry, was excited when he read the ancient words, "Belonging to Milkom’ur servant of Ba’alyasha’" (lmlkm’r ’bd b^elyš’). This servant was not someone who swept the house or prepared the midday meal, important as those servants would have been. Instead, the servant had great power, for the term servant of generally denotes a high-level court officer such as a prime minister. This person was the vice regent, the one who knew the wishes and desires of the ruler, the person who was to represent him accurately. In Isaiah 42 and 49, the term servant "designates one who has a peculiar commission from Yahweh."2

The role of vice regent was Christ’s while he was on earth: as he said to his disciples, "If you had known me, you would have known my Father also.… He who has seen me has seen the Father.… I am in the Father and the Father [is] in me" (John 14:7, 9–10).

This vice-regal relationship occurs not only between Christ and God, but also between all humankind and God. In Genesis 1:26–28, we read that God said, "’Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over…every living thing that moves upon the earth.’" Men and women, made in God’s image, should know his character intimately and be able to reveal it to others. We are all God’s servants and his vice regents.

I understand my vice-regent responsibilities better as I read the role of the servant in Isaiah 42:1–4 and 49:1–6. Especially strong in my mind are the statements that the servant

will not cry or lift up his voice,
or make it heard in the street;
a bruised reed he will not break,
and a dimly burning wick he will not quench;
he will faithfully bring forth justice.
He will not fail or be discouraged
till he has established justice in the earth. (42:2–4)

I also read that God made the servant’s "mouth like a sharp sword" (49:2).

As I study this passage, I ask myself:

• Are there students who are bruised by choices they have made? Can I help them find ways to strengthen themselves and to heal?

• What can I do to help fellow faculty members who are struggling to stay awake and complete the lesson preparation, grading, committee work, and research they have committed to complete? Is there a way I can shelter them for a time until their "wick" can once again flame up?

• Are there ways that I can be more just? I don’t work on an international level, but can I be fairer to my students?

• I hate confrontation, so how can I use my words be a sharp sword—or perhaps a surgeon’s scalpel—to speak what I should?

The vice-regal servant shows me what God is like and reminds me that because I am God’s servant, I should be revealing his character to others. Because God "formed me from the womb to be his servant" (Isa. 49:5), I can change from a worm to a threshing sledge. I have the power to do good, to facilitate the harvest, to bring light, healing, and justice to the world.

Simon and Garfunkel sing about wanting to be a hammer—an instrument of change—but as the song continues, "if I only could, I surely would," the realization grows that this is a vain hope. In contrast, the words of Isaiah not only graphically present the promise of change, but also inspire us to be part of the transformation.

Notes and References

1. Some translators think the second line of 42:14 should be translated even more strongly than what is found in the RSV. They suggest replacing "men of Israel" with "insect," "maggot," or "louse," to show how small and despised Israel had become. See especially George A. F. Knight, Servant Theology: A Commentary on the Book of Isaiah 40-55 (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1984), 35.
2. John L. McKenzie, Second Isaiah. The Anchor Bible (Garden City, N.Y: Doubleday, 1968), xxxviii.

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