Isaiah 49:8

In response to the Servant’s feelings of frustration (Isaiah 49:4), the Lord promised that at the appointed hour of salvation, He would support and enable His Servant (cf. Psalms 22:19-21). Watts interpreted this servant too as Darius. [Note: Watts, Isaiah 34-66, p. 188.] He would make the Servant a covenant of the people, namely, He would make a new covenant with His people that the Servant would embody (cf. Isaiah 42:6; Jeremiah 31:31; Jeremiah 32:40; Ezekiel 37:26; Luke 22:20; 1 Corinthians 11:25; 2 Corinthians 3:6; Hebrews 8:8-12). The Servant would fulfill God’s covenants with Israel.

"To speak of the Servant as the covenant means that while, as we know, it is through his work that covenant blessings become available, it is only in him, in the union of personal relationship, that these blessings can be enjoyed. Prophets preached the covenant and pointed away from themselves to the Lord; the Servant will actualize the blessings and point to himself." [Note: Motyer, p. 391.]

The Servant would restore the land, make the Israelites inherit desolate areas, and (Isaiah 49:9) free captives. The terms used in this verse recall the relief that came to the Israelites in their Jubilee Year (cf. Leviticus 25:8-22). The salvation in view will appear in the Millennium, which the Jubilee Year anticipated. Then too the Servant will represent Israel.

The Apostle Paul quoted this verse in 2 Corinthians 6:2. To him the present day was the day of salvation that Isaiah predicted. I take it that Paul meant that the day of salvation had begun because Christ had died on the cross, not that everything that will mark that day had arrived. Clearly God has not yet restored the land to Israel. The day of salvation will come to its glorious climax in the future Millennium.