Question: Is it possible that the Servant in Isaiah’s prophecy is the people of Israel?
Answer: There exist two “servants” in Isaiah’s prophecy: (1) the collective servant, who are God’s people on the Jacob/Israel level of Isaiah’s spiritual ladder; and (2) the individual servant, who is on Isaiah’s seraph level. At a time when God’s collective servant suffers from worldliness and idolatry, God sends his individual servant to restore the natural lineages of the house of Israel by gathering them from exile to lands of inheritance in preparation for Jehovah/Jesus’ coming to reign on the earth.
God’s collective servant, moreover, operates under the terms of the (collective) Sinai Covenant. They are ones whom God calls to repentance for their slothfulness: “O you deaf, listen; O you blind, look and see! Who is blind but my own servant, or so deaf as the messenger I have sent? Who is blind like those I have commissioned, as uncomprehending as the servant of Jehovah—seeing much but not giving heed, with open ears hearing nothing?” (Isaiah 42:18–20); “Ponder these things, O Jacob, and you, O Israel, for you are my servant. I have created you to be my servant, O Israel; Do not disregard me. I have removed your offenses like a thick fog, your sins like a cloud of mist. Return to me; I have redeemed you.” (Isaiah 44:21–22)
God’s individual servant, on the other hand, operates under the terms of the Davidic Covenant. Emulating Jehovah/Jesus, who obtained his people’s spiritual salvation, he obtains his people’s temporal salvation. As did King Hezekiah, he takes his people’s transgressions upon himself in order to merit their physical deliverance in the face of a mortal threat:
“In those days Hezekiah became gravely ill. And the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him and said, Thus says Jehovah: Put your house in order. You will die; you will not recover. At this Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall and prayed to Jehovah: I beseech you to remember, O Jehovah, how I have walked before you faithfully and with full purpose of heart and have done what is good in your eyes. And Hezekiah wept disconsolately. Then the word of Jehovah came to Isaiah: Go and tell Hezekiah, Thus says Jehovah, the God of your father David: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears. I will add fifteen years to your life. And I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; I will protect this city.” (Isaiah 38:1–6)
An additional category of individual “servants” in Isaiah’s prophecy consists of proxy saviors on Isaiah’s seraph level who minister in consort with God’s individual servant to restore the house of Israel. Like God’s servant, they operate as spiritual kings and queens under the terms of the Davidic Covenant to deliver Israel’s natural lineages from destruction in God’s worldwide Day of Judgment. (Isaiah 49:22–23; 65:8–9; Jacob 5:61–75)
