Standing as a solitary herald before a needy people, Isaiah 42 begins with the call to "Behold," as good news for desperate people is announced. But that same word had already been used in the preceding two paragraphs. The previous chapter pictures a law court with God as Judge. "Present your case," the Lord says. "Bring forward your strong arguments," the King of Jacob says. What kind of case is He calling to the bar of justice?
Writing in the 8th century, Isaiah was witnessing the demise of the northern kingdom of Israel. His concern was to call Judah to repentance, warning of the same plight, not by the Assyrians as the case with Israel, but by the Babylonians whom God would raise up as His instrument of judgment.
The question raised for a skeptical nation in Isaiah 40-41 regards identifying the Lord alone as the true God. His majesty, power, and greatness are set forth incomparably in chapter 40. He is contrasted with the man-made gods of the nations in chapter 41. Strangely enough, just as Israel had fallen for such false gods, Judah appeared to be doing the same. Thus, the imaginary courtroom comes into the picture. Notice how Isaiah sets this forth as he prepares to introduce the Lord's Messiah.
While men choose gods for themselves, the Lord God, in contrast, chooses men for Himself (41:5-9). The idolater goes to great lengths to have a craftsman produce his god. He labors with metals and soldering to make sure that it doesn't topple over as it is worshiped (41:17)! But not the Lord God! He chooses His own from "the ends of the earth" (41:9). While the idol sits dumbly on its stand, the Lord strengthens, protects, upholds, and helps those He has chosen (41:10-16). They have needs but idols of silver and gold cannot quench thirst or satisfy hunger. In contrast, the Lord "opens rivers on bare heights and springs in the midst of the valleys" (41:18). Judah must consider: who has done these things—the Lord or an idol made by men's hands?
The case goes forward to prove who alone is God. The Lord demands that the idols "bring forth and declare to us what is going to take place," and to explain the meaning of what has already happened in their national life. "Declare the things that are going to come afterward, that we may know that you are gods." Do something! "Indeed, do good or evil, that we may anxiously look about us and fear together" (41:22-23). The court waits for an answer or some action…and waits…and waits. But there's nothing; so the Judge declares, "Behold, you are of no account, and your work amounts to nothing; He who chooses you is an abomination" (41:24).
Then He takes up a theme that runs through this section of Isaiah, that of God's sovereign rule. Here it is demonstrated by the Lord declaring nearly 200 years before it happens that He will raise up Cyrus as a liberator of exiled Judah. More details will follow, even identifying Cyrus the Persian king by name (44:28; 45:1), but here the Lord explains him as the one from the north and east, locations of Cyrus' origin and conquering. "Who has declared this from the beginning, that we might know?" Certainly not the gods of stone or silver! Yet who listened to the Lord? Did the gods declare the end from the beginning? "Behold, all of them are false; their works are worthless, their molten images are wind and emptiness" (41:29). The second use of "behold" calls attention to the vanity of idolatry and the vanity of all that would follow them.
But God's Servant is different. The first two uses of "behold" signify the worthlessness of idolatry while the third (in 42:1) announces good news for desperate souls. Just as surely as the Lord would raise up Cyrus as a temporal liberator for Judah, He would ultimately raise up Messiah who would liberate globally and eternally. And He did. The God who sovereignly rules sent His Servant, Jesus Christ, to establish His kingdom forever. Many would have had difficulty picturing such a promise due to the threats of exile surrounding them. Yet God's promises never waver; they are not predicated on our circumstances but on God's eternal decrees. God sent His Servant to be our Liberator. How does Isaiah's prophecy bear this out?
Sixteen times in Isaiah we encounter "My servant." It may refer to a particular servant, such as Isaiah or Eliakim; or to Israel as a national servant; or to an appointed deliverer such as Cyrus (who is called "anointed" rather than servant, though servanthood is implied in 45:1). The context determines the extent and function of the service. Chapter 42 is the first of four "Servant Songs" found in Isaiah, with each pointing to Jesus Christ (cf. chapters 49:1-6; 50:4-9; 52:13-53:12 for the other three) and being either quoted or alluded to in the New Testament as referring to Christ. It is fitting that we consider this prophecy concerning Christ eight centuries before His birth.
"Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold." The Lord God identifies with the Servant—"My Servant." He pledges that all the work given to His Servant will assuredly take place because He is one "whom I uphold," which literally means, "to grip fast" [J. A. Motyer, The Prophecy of Isaiah, 319]. Such language in reference to the Son of God is striking. We normally do not think of God as servant but rather as master. Indeed, He is master, yet Jesus Christ in the Incarnation, "although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, and taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men" (Phil. 2:6-7). "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served," declared Jesus, "but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45). Throughout His ministry we see Him serving the poor, needy, sick, blind, crippled, hungry, and bereaved. Ultimately, we see Him serving all sinners at the cross through His substitutionary death. The language of the servant points to the fidelity of Christ in His God-ordained mission. "He will faithfully bring forth justice," Isaiah affirms. His service is specific, pointed toward bringing about the redemptive work planned before the world began.
As God's Servant, Jesus had a specific responsibility much larger than the borders of ancient Israel. He came to "bring forth justice to the nations." In an era when Israel bled nationalism, God's promise was that the Messiah would not limit His redemptive work to them. The nations are included in God's eternal plan for His kingdom. Christ's faithfulness and the certainty of completing His assignment implies that he would go to whatever lengths God demanded to complete His work. That's why we find Him praying to the Father on the eve of the cross, "I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do" (John 17:4). The Father required "justice," and the Servant—Jesus Christ—delivered at the cross.
We learn something essential about God and about what is required for salvation. God's moral nature, reflected so carefully in the Ten Commandments, demands justice for every violation of His law. He is a holy, righteous God that does not tolerate sin but rather requires an appropriate judicial reckoning for every sin. So He sent His Servant to satisfy His demands for justice on behalf of the elect. The other three Servant Songs shed light on this work of eternal justice. "He will bring forth justice to the nations," expresses the reach of His judicial work at the cross. "I will also make You a light of the nations so that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth," not only shows the reach of God's justice but emphasizes that it is divine action to bring about salvation or deliverance from His own wrath (49:6). But a price would be paid for it. The Servant would suffer: "I gave My back to those who struck Me, and My cheeks to those who pluck out the beard; I did not cover My face from humiliation and spitting" (50:6). His suffering continued, bearing our grief, carrying our sorrows—"stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted." The prophet describes how Christ stood in our place before the judgment of God: "But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him" (53:4-6). It was not for His transgressions or iniquities, for He had none, that the blow of judgment fell upon Him. But God's Servant took God's wrath as a Substitute for those He would redeem. What fell on Him should have fallen on you and me; but it fell on Him so that God's justice might be shown in calling sinners righteous, "that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus" (Rom. 3:19-26).
Further, the Lord calls the Messiah, "My chosen one in whom My soul delights." It's the same language used in Luke 9:35 when God spoke from the Shekinah cloud at the Transfiguration, "This is My Son, My Chosen One; listen to Him!" While Israel was an antitype of Messiah as God's chosen to bear light to the nations as a prophet, and Cyrus was an antitype of Messiah as God's chosen deliverer as a king, Jesus Christ perfectly embodies both as God's Prophet and King. He combines the divine offices of Prophet, Priest, and King. "I will appoint you as a covenant to the people, as a light to the nations" (42:6)—there's His prophetic office; "To bring out prisoners from the dungeon and those who dwell in darkness from the prison" (42:7)—that's His kingly office. "But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him" (53:6)—that's His priestly office.
But what qualifies the Servant to bear such royal offices on behalf of God and men? We have two clear indications of God's delight in this text. First, He is "My chosen one in whom My soul delights." The New Testament writers reiterated this as they recorded the occasions of God expressing His delight in the Son. At Christ's baptism, the voice came out of heaven saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased" (Matt. 3:17). And at the Transfiguration the voice was heard again with the call to listen to Him above the Law and Prophets, "This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!" (Matt. 17:5). As Jesus affirmed His acceptance of the Father's sentence of death upon the Son as our Substitute, Christ prayed, "Father, glorify Your name." Then the voice from heaven affirmed God's pleasure with the Son's perfect sacrifice of Himself, "I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again" (John 12:28). And indeed, in the resurrection the Father displayed His perfect pleasure in the Son as He "was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father" (Rom. 6:4) so that "God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name" (Phil. 2:9).
Second, "I have put My Spirit upon Him." We find the Holy Spirit working in unique ways in God's Servant, Jesus Christ. (1) At the conception of the Son in the womb of Mary, she was told, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God" (Luke 1:35). (2) At His baptism the Holy Spirit descended upon Christ "as a dove" (Matt. 3:16). (3) The Spirit then led Jesus into the temptation in the wilderness where our Lord faced the strongest temptations that Satan could hurl at our Representative. Unlike the first Adam who succumbed to Satan's temptation, the Second Adam perfectly resisted the devil and remained sinless (Matt. 4:1-11). (4) In His public ministry, Jesus regularly demonstrated that the Holy Spirit was upon Him. Luke tells us that Christ returned from the wilderness "to Galilee in the power of the Spirit" (Luke 4:14). Demons were subject to Him; so were diseases and every effect of the fall that had plagued men since sin entered into the world and brought with it untold misery. (5) Finally, in His death, resurrection, and ascension we find the Spirit at work in a unique way. It was through the eternal Spirit that He "offered Himself without blemish to God" (Heb. 9:14). Peter tells us that Christ was put to death in the flesh "but made alive in the Spirit" (1 Pet. 3:18). Then Christ ascended back to the Father, having received the promise of the Spirit, and thus poured forth His Spirit upon the Church as His ascension gift to the redeemed (Acts 2:33) [adapted from Derek Thomas, God Delivers, 279-281].
Israel and Judah had seen many prophets, priests, and kings come and go. Some faithfully executed their offices; others did not, leading the people away into idolatry. Some abused their offices by mistreating the people they were charged to serve. Yet that can never be said of God's Servant Jesus Christ.
The theme of justice that runs through this passage identifies the reason for the Servant's work. "He will bring forth justice to the nations." This justice includes deliverance from sin. But how would He do it? The mind immediately goes to the picture of a conquering king, which is certainly the primary idea that the Jews had of Messiah. He would be a mighty king that would lead his troops with military power to conquer their foes. With great fanfare, clashing swords, and thundering horses the military king would deliver those held captive by the enemy. Later on, Cyrus would do just this on behalf of the captured and exiled Jews, as the Persian king liberated the Jews from their Babylonian captors.
But the prophet gives a contrast when it comes to the liberating work of Christ. "He will not cry out or raise His voice, nor make His voice heard in the street." We never find self-promotion or self-aggrandizement or manipulation in the ministry of Christ. Even in the triumphal entry into Jerusalem He rides on the colt of a donkey rather than on a kingly horse. He told those under the weariness and weightiness of their sin: "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and You will find rest for your souls" (Matt. 11:29). Without shouting or barking orders, Jesus came quietly and humbly as the Savior of sinners. Even in His death, He did not fight or complain or try to draw attention to Himself. The last of the Servant Songs puts it like this. "He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth" (Isa. 53:7). He quietly and gently embraced the cross on our behalf.
But what of those Christ came to save? Did He come to save those who seemingly have everything in good order? Did He come to save the righteous? On the contrary, we are shown the compassion of Jesus Christ for broken, shattered sinners. "A bruised reed He will not break and a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish; He will faithfully bring forth justice." The reed might have been used as a shepherd's flute. But once it is bruised or crushed it is worthless and discarded; yet "He will not break" it. The smoldering wick, burned to the point of being so fragile that the least touch would destroy it, "He will not extinguish." The point that the Lord drives home is that Christ is a compassionate Savior. The weak, broken, shattered, and wrecked lives that He finds, He does not toss aside because of unworthiness. None are worthy of Him; yet His object is not to find those worthy whom He might deliver from sin but those desperate, helpless, and needy. Those that can offer nothing to God, too weak to pursue the good and godly things, Christ does not overlook or forget. He has come to redeem sinners. He came for weak and helpless people. Until we see ourselves in that condition, we probably will feel no need of Christ. But if that is you—if you know that you are helpless, Christ can come to your eternal aid. Look to Him to faithfully bring God's saving justice to you.
There's a turn on the words between verses 3 and 4. Though we may be "bruised" the Servant will not be "crushed." Though we may be "dimly burning"—smoldering—the Servant will not be "disheartened" or faltering. What affects us by our sin and moral weakness does not affect Him. We must not look at the Savior through eyes that only see the weaknesses of the flesh. That's why some turn from the gospel. They think that Christ is just like them—weak, faltering, discouraged, bruised from the weight of sin. What the Lord does is declare that He is not like that at all. We may bruise but He will not be crushed. We may smolder as though dying out but He will not falter even under the strain of delivering us from our sin and guilt. "He will faithfully bring forth justice." Nothing can deter Him. And nothing did as He perfectly obeyed the Law on our behalf, and as He bore the weight of our sin at the cross—nothing deterred Him. Though all the hosts of hell sought to turn Him away, nothing did. He faithfully carried out the redemptive plan of God as He stood in our place before the wrath of God and felt the blows of divine judgment for us. That's why Paul could tell the Philippian believers: "He that began a good work in you will continue it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Phil. 1:6). What God does, He does in faithfulness. You may think, 'but I'm too weak, I'm too great of a sinner, I have far too many problems for God to shoulder!' Then, my friend, this passage is for you. "He will not be disheartened or crushed until He has established justice in the earth." Nothing is going to dissuade Jesus Christ in the work of redemption accomplished and applied. The work has been accomplished; in faithfulness He applies it [cf. Motyer, 320, for details of the Hebrew meanings noted].
Jesus Christ came to bring justice to the nations. That's the assertion of this passage. So what does it mean?
Three times in these four verses we find "justice" mentioned. The three-fold repetition emphasizes the certainty of what God's Servant will do. "He will bring forth justice to the nations… He will faithfully bring forth justice… Until He has established justice in the earth." What does He mean by "justice"? The Hebrew word, mispat, is versatile in its usage. In Isaiah 40:14, justice "has to do with the order God has given to the whole universe by his creative acts" [Barry Webb, BST: The Message of Isaiah, 171]. A little further in 40:27, justice "refers to the maintenance of Israel's position in the world as a nation in special relationship with God" [Webb]. Then, in 41:1, justice "has to do with the false claims of the nations and their gods being silenced, and the truth about the Lord's total sovereignty over history being established" [Webb]. So, what is the meaning as justice is used in 42:1-4? Barry Webb writes, "It is nothing less than to put God's plans for his people into full effect, and to make the truth about the Lord, Israel's God, known everywhere, especially the fact that he alone is the sovereign creator and Lord of history" [171]. John Oswalt adds that justice "is nothing less than the salvation of God defined in its broadest sense" [NICOT: The Book of Isaiah 40-66, 110-111].
In New Testament language, justice refers to the work of Christ in the gospel by which eternal justice was established for the nations through the cross of Christ. In that work of justice, sinners are brought near to God and accepted before Him, acknowledging His Lordship over their lives. It is both an external action by Christ at the cross and an inward experience through faith in Him. Jesus brings forth this justice and establishes it. It's not something that men can do for themselves; nor is it something that men seek. Christ brings it to them through His redemptive work. Do you want to understand this justice? Then look to the cross of Christ!
Israel had a severe problem of thinking that God was for them and them only. But the justice of salvation was not just for Israel but "to the nations." The last phrase expresses this poetically, "And the coastlands will wait expectantly for His law" (or His instruction, which Calvin points out ultimately refers to the gospel). "Coastlands" implies the farthest reaches of the earth. Or in good Southern vernacular, "Way out yonder!" It's what John describes in identifying the redeeming work of Christ for people "from every tribe and tongue and people and nation" (Rev. 5:9). No people group is left out of the redemptive work of Christ. Believers shall stand shoulder to shoulder with every race and nationality and tribal distinction and language group. That's the power of Christ's death and that's the reach of His love and mercy.
That good news of Christ's eternal justice reaches even to you. Have you believed Him? Have you cast yourself upon Him and His mercies?
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