And he said,
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 give you for a light to the Gentiles, that you may be my salvation unto the ends of the earth.
Read Chapter 49
Ambrose of Milan
AD 397
It is one thing to be named Son according to the divine substance; it is another thing to be so called according to the adoption of human flesh. For, according to the divine generation, the Son is equal to God and Father, and, according to the adoption of a body, he is a servant to God the Father. “For,” it says, “he took upon him the form of a servant.” The Son is, however, one and the same.… According to his glory, he is Lord to the holy patriarch David but David’s son in the line of actual descent, abandoning nothing of his own but acquiring for himself the rights that go with the adoption into our race. Not only does he undergo service in the character of man by reason of his descent from David, but also by reason of his name, as it is written: “I have found David my servant”; and elsewhere: “Behold, I will send to you my Servant, the Orient is his name.” And the Son himself says, “Thus says the Lord, that formed me from the womb to be his servant and said to me: It is a great thin...
But when Christ appeared in the world they were gathered though faith in the one straight and blameless opinion, those whom Satan once had scattered and who formerly had deserted their love for God. They had run toward the enemy who produces and pursues sin. Those who had thrown away God’s providence of good things are now with Christ at peace.… So he reveals the ministry of his incarnation, that he was formed as a slave by the Father from the womb so as to gather Israel and Jacob. If anyone says that these are the Jewish people that are meant, he has not strayed from the intention of the text. For Christ said, “I have come to save the lost sheep of Israel.” But if anyone decides it is all those saved by faith who are called Israel and Jacob, he is right to do so. - "Commentary on Isaiah 4.4.49.5–6"
For a lowly appellation is given to the Word whose origin is from God, that he is called slave, that is, a household member. For such a title can sometimes indicate “son,” and at other times, as we have said, “household member.” In the economy of the flesh, it is appropriate to consider the Son as a slave. For he is God by nature and free as being from God the sovereign Father, yet he took the shape or form of a slave. For no one with right understanding could say that he was a slave by nature who was then able to be brought into the form of a slave. Rather, he was outside of slavery and constraint, but for the sake of a sign, in the freedom of his nature, he received the shape, that is, the form of slave.… For he was Emmanuel, and he revealed to us no less in this way his freedom which was real and by nature.… For he who was God the Word dwelled in them and among us for no other reason except so that he could save Israel and gather Jacob. For he had scattered all others who were on th...
He is called Servant and serves many well. And his being given the grand title “Child of God” agrees with this. For in truth he was subject as a servant to flesh and to birth and to the conditions of our life with a view toward our liberation. He was subject to all that he saved, held captive as we were in sin. - "On the Son, Theological Oration 4(30).3"
