Charged with the Glory of God: Yahweh, the Servant, and the Earth in Isaiah 40–55

Isaiah’s servant songs reveal a true and better Adam

In Charged with the Glory of God, Caroline Batchelder provides a synchronic, theological, and canonical reading of the four Servant Songs in Isaiah, presenting how they relate to one another and message of the prophetic book.

A coherent message results when one reads Isaiah as a compositional unity and in conversation with the Old Testament. Isaiah’s polemic against idolatry reveals rebellious Israel to be false imagers of God. In contrast, Isaiah’s mysterious servant is an ideal embodiment of Yahweh’s image and likeness. Thus, the servant is a paradigm for those who wish to recapture and realize God’s good creation purposes for all humanity. The servant poems not only summon readers to reorient themselves towards God and his creation but also present a map and means for doing so.

In this study, Batchelder offers fresh insights from Isaiah for understanding God’s true image and its idolatrous counterfeits.