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Question: I’m looking for mention of the coming Messiah in the OT. Isaiah 49-9 states “for my name sake” Who is God referring to? Your site is such a blessing to me, thank you so much!

Profile: Male, North America, 56–65, Christian

Answered by: Bob Scheyer, who has been a volunteer with us since November, 2004.

Answer: And it is a great blessing for me to answer your question. I’ve learned a lot about defending my faith in answering these questions over the years. Definitely a win-win situation.

I cannot find the words “for my name’s sake” in Isaiah 49:9. However, there are plenty of mentions of the Messiah in Isaiah 49 and we will take a look at those.

Before that I need to discuss some of the problems people have in general with the Old Testament prophets.

Perhaps the biggest problem is the prophet’s use of poetic or “flowery” language. The prophets use a lot of metaphors, similes and personifications in general. Figures of speech are very prevalent throughout all the prophets.

The best way to figure out what their poetic language means or is referring to is to look at the context of the verse or verses.

The other thing very important to the O. T. prophets is that God is “zealous for His reputation.” That is why the prophets are telling Israel about the coming judgment because God’s people, Israel, have seriously damaged God’s reputation.

So, Assyria was sent by God to invade the Northern Kingdom, Israel, in approximately 744 BCE. Why? Because God is zealous for His reputation. Israel’s apostasy and idol worship made God out to be something He never was, or ever will be.

This also answers your question: “for my name’s sake” refers to God’s reputation. It will also refer to God’s chosen one.

In chapter 49, God is having problems with His people, so God brings up the symbolic idea of a “Servant.”

Ultimately, the Servant is referring to Jesus and is mentioned in Isaiah from chapter 40 and on into the remainder of the book.

In order to make a way back to God for our own apostasy and our tendency to worship ourselves, Isaiah tells us about the coming “Servant” as we see here starting in verse 5: (NASB)

5 And now says the LORD, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant,

To bring Jacob back to Him, so that Israel might be gathered to Him

(For I am honored in the sight of the LORD,

And My God is My strength),

6 He says, “It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant

To raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel;

I will also make You a light of the nations

So that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

7 Thus says the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel and its Holy One,

To the despised One,

To the One abhorred by the nation,

To the Servant of rulers,

“Kings will see and arise,

Princes will also bow down,

Because of the LORD who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel who has chosen You.”

So, starting in verse 5, God is using symbolic metaphors to refer to Israel as His Servant, but a failed one.

If we think of this symbolism as referring to God’s anointed one, Jesus, then yes, He was despised by His own kind in the gospels, but in God’s eyes Jesus is the ultimate King; and Servant. 

Why was Jesus the final word of God’s servitude? Because He upheld God’s name and for that sake, Jesus’ name, and thus God’s name, is above all other names (Philippians 2:6-11).

Perhaps the best mention of the Messiah in Isaiah is found in Isaiah 53, another Suffering Servant passage.

But you probably already know that one.