my God._"

The Servant of God, after having spoken of His sublime dignity and
mission, here prepares the transition for proclaiming His destination
to be a Saviour of the Gentiles, to whom His whole discourse is
addressed. He complains of the small [Pg 237] fruits of His ministry
among Israel; but comforts himself by the confidence placed upon the
righteousness of God, that the faithful discharge of the duty committed
to Him cannot remain without reward. The speaking on the part of the
Servant of God in this verse refers to the speaking of God in verse 3.
_Jerome_, who remarks on this point: "But when the Father told me that
which I have repeated, I answered Him: How wilt thou be glorified in
me, seeing that I have laboured in vain?" recognised this reference,
but erroneously viewed the words as being addressed to the Lord. It is
a soliloquy which we have here before us. Instead of "I said," we are
not at liberty to put: "I imagined;" the Servant of God had in reality
expended His strength for nothing and vanity. As the _scene_ of the
vain labour of the Servant of God, the _heathen world_ cannot be
thought of; inasmuch as this is, first in ver. 6, assigned to Him as an
indemnification for that which, according to the verse before us, He
had lost elsewhere. It is _Israel_ only which can be the object of the
vain labour of the Servant of God; for it was to them that, according
to ver. 5, the mission of the Servant of God in the first instance
referred: The Lord had formed Him to be His Servant, to bring back to
Him Jacob and Israel that were not gathered. Since, then, the mission
is directed to _apostate_ Israel, it can the less be strange that the
labour was in vain. To the same result we are led also by the
circumstance that, in ver. 6, the saving activity of the Servant of God
appears as limited to _the preserved_ of Israel, while the original
mission had been directed to the _whole_. And this portion to which His
activity is limited, is comparatively a _small_ portion. For that is
suggested by the circumstance that to have the preserved of Israel for
His portion is represented as a light thing--not at all corresponding
to the dignity of the Servant of God. As, in that verse, the preserved
of Israel form the contrast to the mass of the people _given up_ by the
Lord, so in the verse under consideration, the opposition which the
Servant of God finds, is represented as so great, that His ministry
was, in the main, in vain