It is the Lord speaking to the one He calls His "servant". "He said to Me, 'You are My servant, Israel, in whom I will display My splendor.' But I said, 'I have labored in vain; I have spent My strength for nothing at all. Yet what is due Me is in the Lord's hand, and My reward is with My God.'" (Isaiah 49:3-4) If this is God the Father speaking to God the Son, why does He call Him "Israel"? The various commentaries I consulted had this to say: the Lord did display His splendor in Israel, for Christ was from Israel. The Lord called Israel to be His servant, though many rebelled against Him, and the true Servant (Christ) came from Israel to draw not only Jews but also Gentiles to Himself.
We have begun a section of Isaiah in which very soon we will find a description of what happens to this Servant; what happens to Him in Chapter 53 is a description of the arrest, the trial, the beating, the crucifixion, the death, and the resurrection of Christ. In the section above we find Him saying, "I have spent My strength for nothing," because He was largely rejected by His own people. But at the same time He comforts Himself in the knowledge that He has done what the Father asked Him to do and will be rewarded by God. As the Lord Himself will say in Chapter 53, "I will give Him a portion among the great, and He will divide the spoils with the strong, because He poured out His life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors." (Isaiah 53:12) The Apostle Paul says something similar about Christ, saying that because He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to death, "Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name". (Philippians 2:9)
This next segment refers to how the Gentiles will turn to Christ and how that many Jews (more than ever before) will eventually turn to Him as well. "And now the Lord says---He who formed Me in the womb to be His servant to bring Jacob back to Him and gather Israel to Himself, for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord and My God has been My strength---He says: 'It is too small a thing for you to be My servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make You a light for the Gentiles, that My salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.'" (Isaiah 49:5-6) In Luke 2:32, when Mary and Joseph bring the baby Jesus to present Him to the Lord at the temple, an old man named Simeon recognized Him as the Messiah and blessed Him, saying He would be "a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of Thy people Israel."
"This is what the Lord says---the Redeemer and the Holy One of Israel---to Him who was abhorred and despised by the nation, to the servant of rulers: 'Kings will see You and stand up, princes will see and bow down, because of the Lord, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen You.'" (Isaiah 49:7) The One who was formerly despised by so many will be King of kings and Lord of lords. He will reign eternally over the earth.
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