(Another sample from Gospel Red Herring: Spiritualizing the Text.)
In the prophetic literature of the Old Testament, Israel was characterized in many different ways. Sometimes as the land she occupied, or some of the fruit-bearing trees there, perhaps as a vineyard, various kinds of beasts based on alleged temperaments, and often as a daughter or wife of the Lord. The prophets also repeatedly used the image of Israel as God’s own son, as noted previously in this series (Matthew 2:15).
Starting around chapter 49 of his prophecy, Isaiah paints a stirring image of Israel as the servant of God. We refer to these passages as the Suffering Servant image. The prophet confuses things intentionally. At times he is himself the Suffering Servant striving to bring Israel back, but it was Israel that was meant to be this loyal servant. That these passages became viewed as Messianic in character was due largely to Israel refusing to be that servant. The nature of parable is that the symbol is bigger than any specific application, because the image bears a strong moral importance. In this case, the Suffering Servant is the divine mission. Thus, it could be Israel the Nation if the nation was willing to become Israel the Mission. She was unwilling, so the fulfillment of God’s will awaited someone who was so willing. There had to be a Messiah person because Israel refused to be the Messiah Nation. (Luke raises the issue more specifically in the later half of his chapter 13.)
One of the elders chosen to give family structure to the Diaspora Jews who had joined the church in Jerusalem was Philip. The Lord called him off to this special mission of meeting up with a high official from another country who had converted to Judaism. The man was riding in a carriage or large chariot and Philip hiked down some back roads to intersect this fellow as his vehicle went the long way around on nicer roads down from Jerusalem toward his home country on the northern coast of Africa. The man was reading from Isaiah in that Suffering Servant section, and Luke quotes a few verses to give us the context. As usual, this is a case of reverse spiritualization. Isaiah the prophet intended nothing literal from this quotation, but was pressing a moral vision of obedience to God, a willingness to suffer human oppression and just plain bad luck, in order to cling to God’s revealed moral character.
That the passage was so close to literal in describing what happened to Jesus was the whole point of this part of Luke’s account. Jesus fulfilled the mission of Israel, which mission Israel rejected. Thus, Jesus took the crown as God’s Suffering Servant. For Philip to teach this official the meaning of this passage meant explaining how it was fulfilled in Jesus the man.
