Deeper Commentary
Isaiah 42:1 Behold, My servant, whom I uphold-
My chosen, in whom My
soul delights-
The reason why there are no accusers against us, not even our own sins, is
because we are “God’s
chosen” (Rom. 8:33
Rom 8:33 "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's chosen ones? It is
God that justifies. Who is he that condemns? It is Christ Jesus that died,
yes rather, that was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of
God; who also makes intercession for us"). The supreme chosen one of God
was of course the Lord Jesus, “My elect
/ chosen, in whom
My soul delights” (Is.
42:1). And yet later on in the servant songs of Isaiah, “My elect
/ chosen”
clearly refers to the people of Israel (Is. 45:4; 65:9,22). The true
Israel of God are therefore those counted as somehow “in” the elect one,
the singular servant of God, Messiah Jesus. Those baptized into Him are
therefore His elect. And how do we know we are “God’s elect”? If we are
baptized into Christ, “My
chosen”, then for sure we are.
And further, we
have heard the call of the Gospel, we have been called- so, we are God’s
elect, His chosen ones. Of course the objection can be raised that the
whole idea of calling or election may appear unfair. Indeed, the Greek
word for “elect” can carry the idea of ‘the favoured / favourite one’.
There is no ultimate injustice here. The chosen One is the Lord Jesus,
beloved for the sake of His righteousness, His spirit of life. Those who
respond to the call to be “in Him” are counted likewise. And all this is
the way, the method used, in order for God to be the one who counts us as
right in the ultimate judgment- for “It is God that justifies”.
I have put My Spirit on him- The Is. 42 passage concerning Jesus as preaching to the Gentiles is
quoted in the Gospels from the LXX. But this reads: “Jacob is my servant, I
will help him: Israel, is my chosen, my soul has accepted him... he shall
bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up his
voice... but... He shall shine out, and not be discouraged” (Is. 42:1-4
LXX). The passages primarily exhorts Israel at the time of their living in
Babylon to live up to their role as a missionary nation; they didn’t need to
cry or lift up the voice in preaching, because their own example and being
would be the witness. They would “shine out” as the light of the Gentile
world in which they had to live. But they failed in this; and yet the
prophecy came true in the Lord Jesus, the true servant of Yahweh. But the
prophecy still has to be fulfilled in us, the servants of the Lord, as those
in Christ, as we live through our Babylon years.
He will bring justice to the nations- "Justice" can be understood not as social justice but as the legal judgment arising from the court case just described at the end of Is. 41. The judgment was that the idols of the nations were vanity and Yahweh would save His people. This bringing forth of justice, or declaration of the sentence (s.w. Ps. 17:2), will be "unto truth" (:3). The result of the judgment will be "truth". Mercy and truth are associated with the Abrahamic covenant. The idea may be that through their condemnation and judgment, they will learn Yahweh's ways and accept covenant relationship with Him. That was the prophetic vision for a remnant of all the nations in the eretz; they were to join a repentant Israel and Judah in returning to the land to form a multiethnic people of God in the restored Kingdom. But they didn't repent and so this has been deferred to the last days.
Isaiah 42:2 He will not shout, nor raise his voice, nor cause it to be
heard in the street-
When
Paul wrote that “the servant of the Lord must not strive” in his preaching
ministry (2 Tim. 2:24), he was alluding back to how the servant song
described the Lord Jesus in His preaching as not striving or lifting up
His voice in proud argument (Is. 42:2 cp. Mt. 12:19). We are the servant
in that we are "in Christ". All that is true of Him is to be true of us.
"Shout" is always used in Isaiah of shouting or crying in distress,
condemnation or disappointment in human strength (Is. 19:20; Is. 33:7;
46:7; 65:14). The idea may be that He will not cry like
this, but rather be heard by Yahweh and bring blessing to others. Yet the
verse is quoted in Mt. 12:19 about the teaching style of the Lord Jesus.
The Lord didn’t shout out in the streets who He was. He wished His
followers to follow His example in showing the
message to the world just as He did- in who He was (Mt. 12:18).
The Lord Himself withdrew from controversy with the Pharisees and
instructed
His recent converts not to spread the Gospel in an unseemly way, because
it was written about Him personally that “he shall not strive nor
cry; neither shall any man hear His voice in the streets". In
other words, the true preacher of Christ is solidly identified with Him by
the very act of preaching. Truly "we are ambassadors for Christ" (2 Cor.
5:20) in our witnessing. His voice is our voice.
The Lord understood these words of Isaiah to mean that He should cease from controversy with the Pharisees at that point. He withdrew from the Pharisees in order that His voice not be heard in the streets, and so that He would not quench a smoldering wick: "The Pharisees went out and took counsel against him, how they might destroy him. And Jesus perceiving it withdrew from there; and many followed him and he healed them all, and charged them that they should not make him known. That it might be fulfilled which was spoken through Isaiah the prophet, saying: Look at My servant whom I have chosen... He shall not strive, nor cry aloud, neither shall anyone hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he shall not break and a smoking wick he shall not quench" (Mt. 12:14-20). He withdrew from controversy with the Pharisees at that point so that He would not quench a smoking wick. He realized that exposure to argument and controversy is carcinogenic to faith. But at other times He did engage with the Pharisees, as often recorded in the Gospels (especially Mt. 23). But at this point He "withdrew from there" and from the Pharisees, lest the weak, bruised faith of others not be destroyed completely. In the context, His miracles were powerful enough; further argument was unnecessary and would be destructive to the faith of others. We are in Him and are to act with a similar wisdom and sensitivity. For how we treat the spiritually weak, those with just the last or slightest spark of spiritual life, is a litmus indicator of spirituality and Christ-likeness. We are saved exactly because of His especial patience with us the weak; including the smoking wicks, those who fill the house with more smoke than light or heat, the people kicked out because they are seen as a pain to the rest of us. The reed plant is easily damaged; people are weak, sensitive and vulnerable. Bruising is the language of suffering; a bruised reed is a hurt person. The servant would seek to bring them to life, to work with the hurt and the weak. The immediate context of Matthew's quotation of these words is that the Lord had cured a man with a withered hand, perhaps analogous to the bruised reed (Mt. 12:9-13). The Lord Jesus was the strongly burning light of the world; but He showed His supremacy by His patience with the smoking wick. He was the shoot that grew up strongly from dry ground (Is. 53:1); who had patience with the bruised reed that was wilting.
Isaiah 42:3 He won’t break a bruised reed. He won’t quench a dimly burning
wick. He will faithfully bring justice- "Bruised reed" in Is. 36:6 is better "broken reed", and this is the very
phrase used here about how the Messiah, the Lord Jesus, would not
break a "bruised / broken reed" (Is. 42:3). Egypt were a broken reed,
recently broken in battle and now useless to save Israel. They were too
weak to uphold the weight of Judah if they were to lean upon it for
strength. God turns the figure around- He as it were is in need of man, He
wishes to trust upon us; and although we are broken reeds, we will not be
crushed nor will He be disappointed. He so wishes to work with us.
The events of the crucifixion were so packed with fulfillment of Old
Testament prophecy and shadows that the Lord’s discernment of them must
have given Him a wonderful boost of strength, in knowing who He was and
where He was destined. For example, when they put a broken reed in his
hand as a mock sceptre, His mind would have flown to the Messianic Is.
42:3: “A bruised reed shall he not break...he shall bring forth
judgment”, as they mocked him for his apparent inability to do.
The Hebrew words used in Is. 42:3 suggest this is a reference to the candlestick; the words respectively mean a shaft / stem, and a wick. Little strength, little light (if the reference is to the reed which took oil to the lamps of the candlestick), little heat- but all the same, the Lord Jesus seeks to fan it into life rather than walk away in disappointment; and by doing so, sets a challenging example to many of us, whose most frequent complaint is the weak state of the brotherhood's members. If the reference is to a damaged and smoky candlestick, this becomes the more poignant- for the candlestick was a clear symbol of Israel and then of the ecclesias (Rev. 1:12,13,20; 2:1).
When judgment is finally cast out by mercy at the last day, then the dysfunctional candlestick will be quenched or destroyed in condemnation. Note how the metaphor of quenching a fire is used here for condemnation; but in another metaphor, condemnation is spoken of as the very opposite- unquenchable fire. This is sure proof that we are not to read 'unquenchable fire' as literal.
Isaiah 42:4 He will not fail nor be discouraged until he has set justice
in the earth, and the islands will wait for his law-
LXX "He shall
shine out"; He the perfect,
brightly burning lamp would continue to shine, despite the weakness of the
candlestick of God's people.
The Lord's patience with the useless candlestick of Israel and
the weakness of the ecclesia (see on :3) will be "until" His final victory
over judgment. That happened in one sense on the cross, but in another
sense it will only happen when death is swallowed up in victory at the day
of judgment. Until then, both He and us are to patiently bear with the
damaged and dysfunctional ecclesial candlestick. But in that day, those
elements of the candlestick which refuse to give light to the house will
be "broken", the Greek in Mt. 12:20 meaning 'broken in pieces'- the
language of condemnation (Mt. 21:44).
Ezra, Nehemiah, Joshua, Zerubbabel... all overlooked the encouragement of Is. 42:4 concerning the servant-Messiah: “He shall not fail nor be discouraged”. Of course, the Lord Jesus Himself, along with these earlier potential Messiahs, could have failed and been discouraged. This was a conditional prophecy, if ever there was one. But the Lord Jesus made it real and live in His own experience; the others assumed, as we so often do, that these kind of scriptures are meant for someone other than us. Just as so many in the world assume that the good news of the Kingdom applies to us who preach it, and it must be very nice for us...but refuse to let the personal reality of it sink in for them.
"Justice" can easily be misunderstood as some reference to social justice. But the original word continues the frequent legal allusions in Isaiah. The word is used of a judicial decision or sentence (Num. 27:21; Dt. 16:18; 1 Kings 3:28; 20:40), the case presented for litigation (Ez. 23:24; 1 Kings 3:11; Job 13:18) and the execution of the sentence (Jer. 7:5; Ez. 18:8). Hence there is the parallel in this verse with "the islands shall wait for His law". God's judgment throughout all the judicial allusions in Isaiah is that He will save His people and judge all others. This judgment of salvation for God's people is to be effected through the Servant, who will not falter [NEV "fail"] until this has been achieved. We think of the Lord setting His face to go up to Jerusalem and die there to effect all this, unflinching and utterly determined for our salvation. "Discouraged" is the same word as "bruised" in :3. He would not falter nor be bruised or otherwise weak, in order to save those who do falter and easily bruise. And that is really the ultimate indicator of spirituality; to love and be patient with others who are weak in ways that we are strong.
Isaiah 42:5 Thus says God Yahweh, He who created the heavens and stretched
them out, He who spread out the earth and that which comes out of it- The simple fact we are created by God means that we are responsible to
God in some sense, and therefore liable to His judgment. The stretched out
hand of God is used as a figure both for His judgment of man (Is. 31:3)
and also for His creation of man (Is. 40:22; 42:5; 44:24; 45:12; 51:13).
The knowledge that we are created by Him makes us responsible to His
judgment, and we have to look at our bodies, our lives which He has
created… and act accordingly.
But the reference is also to the simple fact that God created the heavens,
earth and man upon it.
Isaiah 42:6 I, Yahweh, have called you in righteousness, and will hold
your hand and will keep you, and make you a covenant for the people, as a
light for the nations- The hands of God's servants were held or
[s.w.] strengthened at the return from exile (s.w. Ezra 1:6; 6:22; 7:28;
Neh. 2:18; 6:9). They could then have fulfilled the Kingdom prophecy of
Is. 35:3 that the weak hands would be strengthened (s.w. "hold"). This
taking by the hand would supremely have been through entering the new
covenant; to give the hand was to enter covenant (s.w. Jer. 31:32). But
these potentials were refused by the exiles. And so they became fulfilled
in the Lord Jesus personally, who became the essence of the covenant and
the light of the world.
The servant was not literally a covenant nor a light, he was to be the one who dispensed that covenant and light. He was the "messenger of the covenant" (Mal. 3:1), the mediator of the new covenant with Israel / God's people. This was supremely fulfilled in the Lord Jesus, as we celebrate in taking the cup of the new covenant in His blood. It was ultimately through the Lord's blood that He was made a covenant for us God's people. We note how "the people" are parallel with "the nations". The idea surely is that the new covenant mediated by the servant would redefine God's people as those of all nations who accepted that covenant. Quite possibly the Lord alludes here when declaring all His people are being both the salt of the earth [the land of Israel?] and the light of the world (Mt. 5:13-16). Salt is often connected with covenants; insofar as we are in the Lord Jesus, we too are for a covenant for the people and a light to the world.
Isaiah 42:7 to open the blind eyes, to bring the prisoners out of the
dungeon, and those who sit in darkness out of the prison-
There are many connections within Isaiah between the servant songs, and the
descriptions of the people of Israel into which the songs are interspersed.
The Saviour-servant was to bring out the prisoners from the dungeons (Is.
42:7), so was every Israelite “to let the oppressed go free... loose the
bonds”, and to “undo the bands of the [heavy] yoke” (Is. 58:6) as the Lord
Jesus Christ did
(Mt. 11:28,29); His work of deliverance is to be replicated by each of us in
our witness. Whoever is in Him will by this very fact follow Him in this
work. In Isaiah’s first context, the suffering servant was King Hezekiah.
Yet all Israel were to see themselves as ‘in’ him, as spiritual Israel are
to see themselves as in Christ. Significantly, Isaiah 40-53 speak of
the one servant, whereas Isaiah 54-66 speak of the plural “servants” who
fulfill in
principle the work of the singular servant.
Isaiah 42:8 I am Yahweh; that is My name. I will not give My glory to
another, nor My praise to engraved images- The implication is that
the Jews had tried to praise Yahweh through praising their images. They
never rejected Him, and yet they accepted idol worship. They achieved this
in their conscience, as we can be tempted to do, by reasoning that idol
worship was done in the name of Yahweh worship. But praise of Yahweh is
because of His unique characteristics or Name, which no other idol has.
Therefore as
His Name is, so is His praise world-wide (Ps. 48:10); beyond the barriers
of distance and language, those who know the Name are united in praise.
Is. 42:8 speaks as if God's Name is itself His praise, so strong and
inevitable is the link between knowing His Name and praising it. Therefore
"Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name" (Ps. 29:2) suggests that
the Name of Yahweh demands praise from us. To simply declare the Name is
of itself to praise (Heb. 2:12). This explains why at least 15 times in
the Psalms and often elsewhere, praise is to be given to God's Name (Ps.
7:17; 9:2; 44:8; 54:6; 61:8; 69:30; 74:21; 99:3; 113:1; 135:1; 138:2;
142:7; 145:2; 148:5,13; 149:3).
Isaiah 42:9 Behold, the former things have happened, and I declare new
things. I tell you about them before they come up- As explained on
Is. 41:22, t
Isaiah 42:10 Sing to Yahweh a new song-
And His praise from the end of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all that is therein, the islands and their inhabitants- The frequent mention of the ends of the earth / land is understandable, because the exiles were located, both those of Israel and Judah. They along with the repentant remnant of the Gentiles were intended to unite together as a new multiethnic people of God in a restored Kingdom.
Isaiah 42:11 Let the wilderness and its cities raise their voices, with
the villages that Kedar inhabits- The picture is of the
villages along the direct path from Babylon to Zion bursting into praise
as the exiles travelled that way, having accepted Israel's God. Is. 21:13-16 mentions these areas
as those who will have remnants who survive and are envisaged as repenting
and turning to Yahweh. Even remote Bedouin villages will accept Israel's
God.
Let the inhabitants of Sela sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains!- "The inhabitants of the rock"; the reference is probably to Petra, which like "Sela" means "rock". Even Edom, the sworn enemy of Israel and Yahweh, would ultimately have a remnant who turn to Yahweh; although this and :12 may be an invitation for them to do so, a call for their repentance.
Isaiah 42:12 Let them give glory to Yahweh- Connecting with Is. 42:8,
the "them" is those who have now quit idolatry.
And declare His praise in the islands- The same phrase only in Ps. 51:15 about David's praise of Yahweh after his repentance; and it again is repentance which is in view here.
Isaiah 42:13 Yahweh will go out like a mighty man, He will stir up-
Yet Yahweh would "stir up" Cyrus (s.w. Is. 41:2,25; 45:13), so this could
have been fulfilled through that "mighty man". But he failed. The "mighty
man", the gibbor, therefore became reapplied to the Lord Jesus
(Is. 9:6 s.w.). But He will act through the stirring up of a repentant
Judah (s.w. Is. 51:9,17; 52:1), seeing that no man would be 'stirred up'
(s.w. Is. 64:7). All the potential candidates had refused the Divine
nudges to be stirred up.
Zeal
like a man of war, He will raise a war cry. Yes, He will shout aloud, He
will triumph over His enemies- The Hebrew word translated " zeal" in the context of God's zeal for us
(Is. 9:8) really means the jealousy which flares up in a man for a woman
(the same word is in Num. 5:14,15; Prov. 6:34; Song 8:6 etc.). That
jealousy burning like fire (Ps. 79:5) is His passion for us His people. He
is a jealous God in His zeal for us; and therefore any other relationships
with the things of this world cannot be contemplated by us. That zeal of
God will be poured out upon us at the second coming, resulting in a
consummation with Him as the wife of His covenant (Is. 42:13,14; 64:1).
This is a figure which would be unseemly for a man to devise. But this is
His passion for us, which the humility of God drives Him to use; and
surely it will one day be revealed. To use this very figure of a man in
love and consummating his relationship in marriage is so apparently
inappropriate that it reflects the humility of God in even considering the
use of it. We are God's heritage, His reward / wages (Heb.), His
recompense for all His labour for us (Ps. 127:3 Heb.).
Isaiah 42:14 I have been silent a long time, I have been quiet and
restrained Myself; now I will cry out like a travailing woman, I will both
gasp and pant-
The "long time" refers to the 70 years exile. This is as nothing to God but due to His great sensitivity to His peoples' exile, He felt the time to have dragged. Tragically they considered He had forgotten them. But in fact this was just the warrior of :13 becoming increasingly stirred to wrath until He bursts out in power. Or, matching the male image with a female image, until a woman goes into the last stage of labour and delivers her child.
The image of a woman in childbirth is of a person at the absolute maximum extent of human possibility, physically and mentally- gasping and panting, totally focused upon the end result of giving birth. This is the amazing picture of God's efforts to give birth to His people spiritually. Our spiritual birth is His maximum focus, the focus of an otherwise unbounded God, with all mental and physical possibilities. God Almighty gasping and panting for our sakes... is an amazing figure. 'Breath' is 'spirit', the same words in Hebrew. The gasping and panting in heavy breathing involves a lot of breath going out from the woman- and that breath surely represents God's Spirit, given to us, and represented in its most extreme form in His Son dying with a conscious outbreathing of His breath towards His weak and confused people, located as it were before His cross. Within Isaiah, it is the breath of God which destroys the nations and prepares the way for Judah's exodus from Babylon (Is. 40:7,24 "He blows upon them and they wither"). The tragedy was that all this Divine effort was ignored or not used by His people. The image of childbirth is also inevitably that of pain. The pain of God for our sakes is again a hugely powerful image, again coming to full term in the physical sufferings of His Son.
Insofar as we realize that God is not passive, but has feelings toward us
far more deep and passionate than we can ever know, so far we will realize
that life with Him is a daily, passionate experience. It cannot be ‘the
same old scene’. Consider the passion of God: “For a long time I have kept
silent, I have been quiet and held myself back. But now, like a woman in
childbirth, I cry out, I gasp and pant” (Is. 42).
“How can I give you up,
Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? My heart is changed within me;
All my compassion is aroused” (Hosea). The prophets are full of such
passionate intensity. The prophets are not just predictions of the future.
They reveal the passion of God’s feelings for His people. At the very time
when He condemns them for their adultery against Him, their ingratitude,
their worthlessness, He cries out His belief in the blessedness He will
one day grace them with.
Isaiah 42:15 I will destroy mountains and hills and dry up all their
herbs. I will make the rivers islands and will dry up the pools-
The bringing down of hills and mountains
was required in Is. 40 in order to create a way for Yahweh and His people
to come from Babylon to Zion. That way wasn't prepared in that the people
didn't repent. Now God in His zeal to force through His plan says that He
will do this. Just as in :7 the intention was to make the blind see and
then lead them out of Babylon; whereas in :16 God decides to bring the
people out whilst they were still blind.
This looks forward to the literal changes in the eretz promised to Abraham spoken of in Isaiah's 'little apocalypse' in Is. 24. Politically this will mean the collapse of all mountains or nations within that territory. God's mountain of the Dan. 2 vision is to be over all. We note that "islands", a common word in Isaiah, here simply means the dry land where non-Israelite people live within the eretz.
Isaiah 42:16 I will bring the blind by a way that they don’t know, I will
lead them in paths that they don’t know. I will make darkness light before
them, and crooked places straight. I will do these things, and I will not
forsake them- This is the message of Is. 40; that a way would
be made for the exiles to return. This is the scene of Jer. 31:8, where
the blind and limping Jacob and his family are brought back to the land
from exile in the east. The literal way or path was also to be a spiritual
path which they had not then yet known; for the blindness here is
essentially spiritual (:18). It was all by grace; they would be returned
despite their unbelief and impenitence. Their crooked ways would be made
straight in that God would as it were make their ways straight.
Isaiah 42:17 Those who trust in engraved images, who tell molten images,
‘You are our gods’ will be turned back. They will be utterly disappointed-
The idea may be that any who left Babylon for
Zion but continued trusting in their idols would be turned back to
Babylon. "Turned back" is the phrase used in Ps. 129:5 of the Assyrians who
hated Zion being turned back to their own land. But it
also applies to
those within Judah who were idolaters. Their judgment will be at the same
time as that of their national enemies. For they worshipped the same idols
as their enemies. But the term essentially means 'to backslide' in moral
apostasy (Is. 50:5 s.w.). How they lived in their lives will be how they
are at judgment day. They will not suddenly appear as different people.
"Utterly disappointed" is better 'greatly shamed', the shame of
condemnation, of realizing that all human political help has come to
nothing (s.w. Is. 30:5; Jer. 2:26); that the way and trust of a lifetime
has come to nothing.
Isaiah 42:18 Hear, you deaf, and look, you blind, that you may see-
The paradox is that Israel considered
Yahweh to be blind and deaf, feeling that their way was hidden or not seen
by Him (Is. 40:27). God's response to this was to ask "Have you not
heard?". It is blindness to think that God is blind, deafness to think
that God is deaf. Hence the challenge "Do you not know? Have you not
heard?" that God is in fact hugely aware of and active for His people.
Isaiah began with the challenge to hear, listen and understand (Is. 1:3;
6:9,10). This highlights the grace of how God would bring the blind
[spiritually blind, in the context of Isaiah] from Babylon to Zion (:16).
Their blindness was willful, but still God would seek to bring them to His
Kingdom despite their lack of understanding. A far cry from the typical
idea practiced in many Christian denominations, that lack of understanding
their doctrinal positions is a deal breaker for relationship with God.
Israel was God's servant but was a blind servant (Is. 41:8; 42:19). But
the Messianic servant of God, ultimately the Lord Jesus, would lead the
blind and give sight to them. He was of quick understanding in spiritual
things; and thus through His work as their representative, their blindness
was dealt with. And yet they still had to make the effort to even want to
be cured. We note that blindness and deafness are only put together like
this here in Isaiah. The conditions are not particularly linked medically.
It was a deafness to God's word which made them blind. And it has been
observed that those who are both blind and deaf are the most difficult
people to work with or care for. But this was and is Israel.
The Hebrew has the idea of 'Look so that you can see'. LXX "Look up, ye blind, to see"; if there was a desire to see, shown by looking up; then they would see. These are the spiritually blind of :16, the exiles who by grace were to experience the psychological transformation of the Spirit which is part of accepting the new covenant. But they must have the desire to see and hear; and the exiles didn't even have that (see on Is. 48:8). And so this becomes true of a new, repentant Israel in our days and the last day.
Isaiah 42:19 Who is blind, but My servant? Or who is as deaf as My
messenger whom I send? Who is as blind as he who is at peace, and as blind
as Yahweh’s servant?- see on Is. 44:2.
The spiritual transformation of the blind and deaf was to be on account of
their identification with the servant of Yahweh who was representative of
them in their blindness. This may have had potential fulfilment in Isaiah,
but Judah refused this. The sending forth of Isaiah was the sending forth of God's word to His
people (s.w. Is. 6:8; 9:8). Isaiah like the Lord Jesus and like us, was
the word made flesh. The man became his message; there was a congruence
between him personally and the word preached. In the immediate context,
Isaiah himself was the servant messenger sent forth (s.w. Is. 42:19;
48:16; 61:1); but he was largely rejected, and Jewish tradition has it
that Isaiah was sawn in two by Hezekiah's son Manasseh (Heb. 11:37). And
so the messenger came to fulfilment in the Lord Jesus.
The servant-Messiah is described as being blind and deaf (Is. 42:19)- just as those who returned from Babylon were called blind, yet having eyes; deaf, yet having ears (Is. 43:8). They had the potential to see and hear; and the servant-Messiah likewise was at that time deaf and blind, but had the potential to see and hear with the vision and words of Messiah. It is hard to understand these words otherwise. So we conclude that another reason why the restoration didn’t turn into the promised Messianic Kingdom was simply due to poor leadership. Heldai, Tobijah and Jedaiah returned from Babylon and were intended to be leaders who would crown Joshua / Jesus as the Messiah-Priest-Branch who would rebuild Jerusalem. But nothing is heard of them further. Perhaps it is to them that Zech. 11:8 refers: “Three shepherds also I cut off in one month; and my soul loathed them…then said I [on God’s behalf], I will not feed you: that that dieth, let it die”. They had gone into captivity because of poor shepherds, and now at their return they again lacked men willing to be their Saviours; and God is saying that He would not do the shepherding job which He had delegated to others. It could be that Heldai, Tobijah and Jedaiah all died in one month as a result of Zechariah’s prophecy at the time of Ezra 5:1. Or it could be that the three potential shepherds who failed were Zerubbabel, Joshua and Nehemiah.
And so the blind and deaf servant came to be fulfilled in the Lord Jesus.
He was the servant who was ultimately "at peace" [AV "perfect"] with God
personally. Because the Lord on the cross truly felt a sinner, He felt forsaken by God. This is to me
the explanation of one of Scripture’s most enigmatic verses: “Hear, ye
deaf; and look, ye blind, that ye may see. Who is blind, but my servant?
Or deaf, as my messenger that I sent? Who is blind as he that is perfect,
and blind as the Lord’s servant?" (Is. 42:18,19). The Lord Jesus, as the
servant, was to share the blindness and deafness of an obdurate Israel. He
identified with us even in our sinfulness; and yet He was the blind who
was perfect; and this is the very thing that empowers the spiritually
blind to see.
Jeremiah mourned Israel’s lack of spiritual sensitivity and failure to live up to their potential- they had eyes, but didn’t see (Jer. 5:23), they were God’s servant, but a blind one; His messenger, but unable to hear any message (Is. 42:19). So the prophets weren't satisfied just because a minority responded to their message of God's love. They were heartbroken because the majority rejected it. I suspect we tend to think that 1 response in 1000 is good, 1 in 10,000 isn’t bad. But what about the other 999, or 9,999, who receive our tracts, hit our websites, hear our witness- and don’t respond? Is our witness in the spirit of the prophets? Are we happy that the tiny minority respond, and don’t spare a thought for the tragedy of the majority who don’t? Not only their tragedy, but the tragedy for God?
There is a real
paradox here: a blind servant, or slave. What master would keep a blind
servant? Only a master who truly loved him, and kept him on as his servant
by pure grace. Yet this useless blind servant was God's servant and
messenger- even though the blind were not acceptable as servants or
sacrifices of God under the Law (Lev. 21:18,22)! God uses His spiritually
blind servant people to proclaim His message to the world. The disciples,
still blind to the call of the Gentiles, were sent out to preach to the
whole world! And we too, blind as we are, are turning men from blindness
to light. Paul points out the humility which we should therefore have in
our preaching: there are none that truly understand, that really see; we
are all blind. And yet we are "a guide of the blind, a light to them that
sit in darkness" (Rom. 2:19). Therefore we ought to help the blind with an
appropriate sense of our own blindness. The first century Jewish
Christians failed utterly in this. And sadly much of our earlier Christian
preaching was not accompanied by an awareness of our own limited spiritual
horizons and vision.
"At peace" or AV "perfect". This could as well be translated "he who has repaid / paid again". This would continue the figure of Israel's debt having now been paid by God, they are themselves counted as having paid it- and yet they were blind to this grace.
Isaiah 42:20 You see many things, but don’t observe. His ears are open,
but he doesn’t listen- The idea is
that by grace their eyes and ears had been forced open, but still they
refused to perceive the obvious grace and salvation action of God.
Possibly this provides the explanation and context for :21. Their eyes had
been opened to how God would make His law glorious in that they could
accept the new covenant. But still they refused.
LXX "Ye have often seen, and have not taken
heed; your ears have been opened, and ye have not heard". If they desired
to see and hear, then the gift of the Spirit would have opened their eyes
and ears (see on :18). But they didn't show any desire to be spiritually
perceptive. And so the opening of eyes didn't happen. The gift of the
Spirit works likewise today. The Corinthians were given the Spirit, but
were not "spiritual" (1 Cor. 3:1) because they refused its operation. And
this can be true of all who have been baptized and potentially received
the gift of the Spirit.
Isaiah 42:21 It pleases Yahweh, for His righteousness’ sake, to magnify
the law, and make it honourable- GNB "The LORD is a God who is eager
to save, so he exalted his laws and teachings, and he wanted his people to
honor them. But now his people have been plundered; they are locked up in
dungeons and hidden away in prisons". The context speaks of
God's attempt to open the eyes of His people to His law; we could read
this with GNB as meaning that God tried to make them obedient, but they
refused. But we can read with AV that Yahweh "is well pleased for his
righteousness' sake", and the referent would be the blind and deaf
righteous servant of :19, the representative Lord Jesus, who identified
with their blindness but Himself was righteous. "He will magnify the law"
(AV) would then refer to His perfect obedience to the law and honouring it
in His own person, whilst also representative of sinful Judah.
Isaiah 42:22 But this is a robbed and plundered people. All of them are
snared in holes, and they are hidden in prisons. They have become a prey,
and no one delivers; and a spoil, and no one says, ‘Restore them!’-
"Restore" or "Return!". None amongst
their prophets or leaders grasped the message of Isaiah, and encouraged
the people to "return". See on :21. They need not have remained in the holes and prisons of
captivity, but they refused the saving work of the representative servant.
And the exiles in Persia, as the book of Esther makes clear, didn't
perceive their prosperity as actually being in holes and prisons,
spiritually snared by their own materialism.
See on Is. 49:24.
Israel as a nation are often spoken of as being in prison in a Gentile
world (Ps. 79:11; 102:20; Is. 42:7,22; 49:9); just as Joseph was. Prison
and death are often associated because a spell in prison was effectively a
death sentence, so bad were the conditions. Israel being in prison is
therefore a symbol of a living death. And yet they
were materially prosperous, so much so that Haman sought to kill them to
expropriate their considerable wealth; there was a Jewish queen and prime
minister of Persia, according to the book of Esther, and the Jews were
popular. Jeremiah had told them to build houses and plant vineyards there.
They were not literally abused and in prison- this language is clearly
symbolic of their spiritual deprivation. Indeed a city called al-Yahudu,
'the city of Judah', has been unearthed which suggests the Jews were
extremely prosperous in Babylon. This of course is why they generally
failed to respond to the call of Cyrus to leave and return to Judah. Just
as blindness and deafness are used in spiritual terms here in Isaiah, so
is the language of imprisonment and abuse: "to open the eyes that are
blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those
who sit in darkness" (:7). The paradox is that they who had taken
Babylon's wealth to themselves were in fact being spiritually plundered by
Babylon.
Isaiah 42:23 Who is there among you who will give ear to this? Who will
listen and hear bearing in mind the time to come?- In the first
instance, this is an appeal to the exiles to repent. "The time to come"
could refer to their further suffering, or to the wonderful Kingdom which
potentially they could have a part in if they repented (s.w. Is. 41:23).
But they retained their deaf ears (see on :18), refusing to have them
opened. And so the appeal becomes a timeless one, for all who would seek
to have a part in the restored Kingdom.
Isaiah 42:24 Who gave Jacob as plunder, and Israel to the robbers? Didn’t
Yahweh, He against whom we have sinned? For they would not walk in His
ways, and they disobeyed His law- LXX "For what did he give to Jacob
up to spoil, and Israel to them that plundered him? Did not God do it
against whom they sinned? and they would not walk in his ways, nor hearken
to his law". This is in answer to the skepticism of the exiles encountered
by Ezekiel, who considered they were suffering unjustly and the entire
deportation had been unfair.
Isaiah 42:25 Therefore He poured the fierceness of His anger on him, and
the strength of battle; and it set him on fire all around, but he didn’t
know; and it burned him, but he didn’t take it to heart- See on :24.
The tragedy was that those taken into captivity weren't reformed by their
sufferings, and now their children likewise refused to "take it to heart"
and repent. Here we have another connection with Job, the book which
appears to have been rewritten for the exiles with Job as representative
of both the exiles and the righteous servant. "Have you considered My
servant..." (Job 1:8) is the same phrase here "take it to heart". The book
of Job was therefore written as a way of appealing for the repentance of
the exiles and for them to contextualize their own sufferings.
The Hebrew term for not laying to heart is commonly used in lament of how Israel saw all these things, but refused to lay them to heart. The same phrase is used like this in criticism of Israel in Is. 57:1,11; Jer. 12:11; Zech. 7:12, and in the frequent pleas for them to set their heart on God's words (Ez. 40:4; 44:5; Mal. 2:2 "If you will not lay it to heart"). All these passages are in the context of the exiles. It is one thing to tick boxes and hear ideas, but faith means setting these things in our hearts as a truth to live by.
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