Isaiah 42 - ESV - Bible Reading / Study Notes

Isaiah 42

The Lord’s Chosen Servant

42:1   Behold my servant, whom I uphold,
    my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
  I have put my Spirit upon him;
    he will bring forth justice to the nations.
2   He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice,
    or make it heard in the street;
3   a bruised reed he will not break,
    and a faintly burning wick he will not quench;
    he will faithfully bring forth justice.
4   He will not grow faint or be discouraged¹
    till he has established justice in the earth;
    and the coastlands wait for his law.
5   Thus says God, the LORD,
    who created the heavens and stretched them out,
    who spread out the earth and what comes from it,
  who gives breath to the people on it
    and spirit to those who walk in it:
6   “I am the LORD; I have called you² in righteousness;
    I will take you by the hand and keep you;
  I will give you as a covenant for the people,
    a light for the nations,
7     to open the eyes that are blind,
  to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,
    from the prison those who sit in darkness.
8   I am the LORD; that is my name;
    my glory I give to no other,
    nor my praise to carved idols.
9   Behold, the former things have come to pass,
    and new things I now declare;
  before they spring forth
    I tell you of them.”

Sing to the Lord a New Song

10   Sing to the LORD a new song,
    his praise from the end of the earth,
  you who go down to the sea, and all that fills it,
    the coastlands and their inhabitants.
11   Let the desert and its cities lift up their voice,
    the villages that Kedar inhabits;
  let the habitants of Sela sing for joy,
    let them shout from the top of the mountains.
12   Let them give glory to the LORD,
    and declare his praise in the coastlands.
13   The LORD goes out like a mighty man,
    like a man of war he stirs up his zeal;
  he cries out, he shouts aloud,
    he shows himself mighty against his foes.
14   For a long time I have held my peace;
    I have kept still and restrained myself;
  now I will cry out like a woman in labor;
    I will gasp and pant.
15   I will lay waste mountains and hills,
    and dry up all their vegetation;
  I will turn the rivers into islands,³
    and dry up the pools.
16   And I will lead the blind
    in a way that they do not know,
  in paths that they have not known
    I will guide them.
  I will turn the darkness before them into light,
    the rough places into level ground.
  These are the things I do,
    and I do not forsake them.
17   They are turned back and utterly put to shame,
    who trust in carved idols,
  who say to metal images,
    “You are our gods.”

Israel’s Failure to Hear and See

18   Hear, you deaf,
    and look, you blind, that you may see!
19   Who is blind but my servant,
    or deaf as my messenger whom I send?
  Who is blind as my dedicated one,⁴
    or blind as the servant of the LORD?
20   He sees many things, but does not observe them;
    his ears are open, but he does not hear.
21   The LORD was pleased, for his righteousness’ sake,
    to magnify his law and make it glorious.
22   But this is a people plundered and looted;
    they are all of them trapped in holes
    and hidden in prisons;
  they have become plunder with none to rescue,
    spoil with none to say, “Restore!”
23   Who among you will give ear to this,
    will attend and listen for the time to come?
24   Who gave up Jacob to the looter,
    and Israel to the plunderers?
  Was it not the LORD, against whom we have sinned,
    in whose ways they would not walk,
    and whose law they would not obey?
25   So he poured on him the heat of his anger
    and the might of battle;
  it set him on fire all around, but he did not understand;
    it burned him up, but he did not take it to heart.

Footnotes

[1] 42:4 Or bruised
[2] 42:6 The Hebrew for you is singular; four times in this verse
[3] 42:15 Or into coastlands
[4] 42:19 Or as the one at peace with me

Commentary

v1-4: Contrasting with idols, "my servant," Jesus Christ; chosen by God, dependent upon God, accepted by God, anointed by God; meek and humble, gentle and compassionate, faithful and persevering. See 52.13-53.12; Luke 4.18-19; Phil 2.7; Heb 4.15. The words here are quoted in Matt 12.18-21.

Commentators have identified the 'Servant Songs;' 42.1-9; 49.1-6; 50.4-9; 52.13-53.12.

The bruised reed would be about to break, the smoking flax about to be extinguished; but the servant of the Lord brings strength and light. Men would cast out a bruised reed as useless, but the Lord Jesus would not break it, but strengthen it. Men would reject the smoking flax, but the Lord will breathe on it, and make it shine even brighter. Yet He is more than just a comfort to the weak, but persevering to bring in "justice on earth." Through Him the islands, Gentiles, will find hope.

'There is a great want about all Christians who have not suffered. Some flowers must be broken, or bruised before they emit any fragrance. All the wounds of Christ send out sweetness - all the sorrows of Christians do the same. Commend me to a bruised brother, a broken reed - one like him the Son of Man. The Son of Man is never far from him.' (Mr Purves, of Jedburgh (19th century), quoted by Andrew Bonar in Robert Murray M'Cheyne.)

v5: God the Lord, speaking with authority. See also Amos 4.13; the creator of all things; inanimate creation, and also living, breathing people.

v6-7: The Servant of God comes first to Jew, then to Gentile. Christ is truly the light to all the world. This light opens the eyes of the blind, both physically and spiritually. He releases those imprisoned (Luke 4.18), in the snare of the enemy, in the snare of legalism, of false religion.

v8: God is unique, and intolerant of those who claim His throne. Yet He has given His glory to Jesus Christ, His Son, the Servant of God. He displayed the glory of the Godhead.

v9: New things declared before they happened, as in 41.27. The prophet warns the people that God is about to do something new and different. He describes the Servant of God, the Messiah, through these 'songs.' Through the coming of Christ, these 'new things' are made known.

v10-13: People throughout the earth will be led to praise God. The light of God would no longer be restricted to one small nation.

v14-17: The Lord had delayed His judgment, through His longsuffering. Israel, having trusted in idols, would be ashamed and repentant, and would be restored.

v18-19: The Servant's secret, He is deaf and blind, not influenced by the world around Him, only listening to the voice of God. The world brings tempting sights and sounds, and the Servant rejects them.

v20: The image of the Servant's deafness and blindness is used to expose the spiritual deafness and blindness of the people; those who claimed to be wise were actually ignorant, John 9.41.

v21: The Lord God will honour His law, even though the people rejected it. See Rom 3.31; under Christ, the law's true meaning is revealed.

v22: Those who disobeyed suffered loss.

v23-25: Israel had been ignorant of the course of the judgments he suffered. "Was it not the Lord?" We must learn our lessons.