Isaiah 49:3
1 Listen to me, you coastlands! Pay attention, you people who live far away! The Lord summoned me from birth; he commissioned me when my mother brought me into the world. 2 He made my mouth like a sharp sword, he hid me in the hollow of his hand; he made me like a sharpened arrow, he hid me in his quiver. 3 He said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, through whom I will reveal my splendor.” 4 But I thought, “I have worked in vain; I have expended my energy for absolutely nothing.” But the Lord will vindicate me; my God will reward me. 5 So now the Lord says, the one who formed me from birth to be his servant— he did this to restore Jacob to himself, so that Israel might be gathered to him; and I will be honored in the Lord’s sight, for my God is my source of strength—
Galatians 1:15
13 For you have heard of my former way of life in Judaism, how I was savagely persecuting the church of God and trying to destroy it. 14 I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my nation, and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my ancestors. 15 But when the one who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace was pleased 16 to reveal his Son in me so that I could preach him among the Gentiles, I did not go to ask advice from any human being, 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before me, but right away I departed to Arabia, and then returned to Damascus.
Notes and References
"... It can hardly be doubted that in Galatians 1:15–16 the apostle is alluding to Jeremiah 1:5 (“Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you; before you came out of the womb, I sanctified you; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations”) and Isaiah 49:1-6 (“Pay attention, you Gentiles ... from my mother’s womb he called my name”). In the latter passage the Servant is further told, “I have made you a covenant for a race, a light to the nations, that you may be my salvation to the end of the earth” (49:6 LXX, quoted in Acts 13:47). In the view of some scholars, the allusion to Isaiah indicates that Paul was selected to continue the work of the Servant (compare Romans 15:21). In any case, Paul must have seen his own ministry as integrally related to the work of the Old Testament prophets, and in some sense even as its culmination ..."
Silva, Moisés "Galatians" in Beale, G. K., and D. A. Carson, editors. Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament (p. 1810) Baker Academic, 2007