ISAIAH 42:1-9
THE SERVANT
[Matthew 12: 17-21]
The prophet now adds another theme, the Servant of Yahweh. It is the first of four "Servant Songs" in Isaiah 40-55 (49:1-6; 50:4-9; 52:13-53:12). The character and function God’s Servant are revealed in this section. Israel as God’s servant was supposed to help bring the world to a knowledge of God, but she failed to live up to her privileges and responsibilities. But the Lord’s will would not be thwarted by Israel’s failure. The Messiah, the Lord’s Servant, will become God’s means to fulfill God’s will to bless His world.
I. THE SERVANT’S MANNER OF MINISTRY, 1-4.
II. THE SERVANT’S SOVEREIGN PURPOSE, 5-7.
III. THE SERVANT THAT SHARES GOD’S GLORY, 8-9.
Verse one describes the Servant’s relationship to God. "Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen one in whom My soul delights. I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations.
Behold calls attention to what is to be said and is a contrast with what went before. God has a special Servant He calls our attention to. He is God’s chosen one. God takes great delight in Him, and God upholds or supports Him. He will not serve in His own strength. He is supported by God and finds His deepest satisfaction in God.
The title Servant is one of honor, not belittlement. This One has the Spirit of God on Him (11:2), meaning the Servant is sent in the Spirit. This Servant is the One who is fully able to carry our His God given ministry of justice because God’s Spirit is upon Him. The servant will gain power for His mission from the divine Spirit as earlier rulers and prophets had.
[In 1832, a young German man and his wife arrived in Bristol, England, to pastor a small church. When two orphans were unexpectedly put into the church’s care, a new ministry began. Although God sent more than seven million dollars to George Mueller’s orphanage in the next sixty years, Mueller never lost sight of his role as God’s servant.
He once wrote, "A servant of God has but one Master. It ill becomes the servant to seek to be rich, and great, and honored in that world where his Lord was poor, and mean (common), and despised."
In the OT we see Holy Spirit’s work of breathing life into creation, leading God’s people, and filling God’s leaders with wisdom and power. We see Him directing the prophets and giving them God’s words. Here we see the essential link between God’s Spirit and service to God.]
The servant’s mission surprised Israel and it surprises us. His mission was not to deliver Israel from captivity and exile. The mission was for the nations. The servant’s task was to bring justice to the nations (9:7; 11:3-4; 16:5).
[Justice involves a much broader meaning than the English term. In verse 4 it stands parallel to Torah, law or teaching. It is the verdict handed down by a judge (2 Kgs. 25:6); the whole court process (Isa. 3:14); the gracious and merciful judgment of God (Isa. 30:18); or the natural right and order claimed by a person or group of persons (Exod. 23:6). The term for the servant’s mission apparently encompasses a broad meaning. It refers to the natural world order and the rights expected by the nations of the earth within that order. God restores that order with its natural rights through His gracious and merciful judgment on the basis of His law or teaching. Max Anders, OT Commentary, Isaiah, 232]
The language here can only describe one Servant of God. The Servant is the Messiah and He is tasked with activities that will bring justice to the nations.
Verse 2 and 3 begin the unique manner of the Servant’s ministry that will bring justice to the nations. "He will not cry out or raise His voice, Nor make His voice heard in the street. (3) "A bruised reed He will not break, And a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish; He will faithfully bring forth justice
The way the servant was to accomplish His task is also surprising. Unlike the foreign conquerors of the day, God’s Servant wouldn’t come shouting His decrees in the streets, nor would He crush the oppressed or discourage the disheartened. He would not be a city street preacher or political rebel inciting the population, nor a royal messenger reading the king’s proclamations. The servant had been given royal power by the divine King. Yet He would exercise that power in such a way that He would not damage the hurting or the disenfranchised -not even a broken reed that appears useless or a wick so uncared for it could no longer produce clear light.
Conquers use their power to squash and rebuild. This one will be radically different. He will be gentle or meek. Most people, especially conquers, would break a weak, useless reed, but He will not do so. Rather He will support it and straighten it out. He will not even blow out a untrimmed dying light. He will trim it and give it His oil. He will strengthen and encourage people.
[God’s servant would succeed. The word for faithfulness should be translated "he will bring to reality" with an undertone of "lasting, enduring," implied. Justice would prevail! He would report to the LORD, "Mission accomplished." ]
God’s answer to the oppression of the world is not more oppression. His answer to arrogance is not more arrogance. Rather in quietness, humility, and simplicity by the Spirit of God, He will take the evil of the world and return grace. That is power. [Oswalt, Isaiah, 111]
Though He is meek we learn in verse 4 that He is not weak. "He will not be disheartened or crushed, Until He has established justice in the earth; And the coastlands will wait expectantly for His law."
This servant would faithfully administer God’s justice, eventually to the ends of the earth. He will not merely offer justice, He will put it in place or bring it about. Though the task would be impossibly difficult He would not turn away from it.
He will establish or put in place the justice in which the islands, people in remote parts, ( 41:1), not Israel, will . . . hope. God is sending a messenger in whom righteousness would triumph and in whom wickedness would be judged.
Matthew 12:18-21 quotes Isaiah 42:1-4 with some minor variations, relating it to Jesus and His ministry in Israel. Matthew saw the fulfillment of the first servant song in the healing ministry of Jesus. The meek and mild Savior showed the world the meaning and hope of world justice even as He suffered under the injustice of His own people and a foreign government. As God’s Servant, Jesus did what Israel could never do. He perfectly carried out the will of the Father so that people everywhere may believe in the Holy One of Israel and have access to God’s justice.
[Wait again indicates the turning away from one’s own efforts to unreserved dependence on God. He is the earth’s only hope.]
II. THE SERVANT’S SOVEREIGN PURPOSE, 5-7.
The rest of the passage reveals how God’s Servant will bring salvation to the peoples or nations. Thus says God the Lord, Who created the heavens and stretched them out, Who spread out the earth and its offspring, Who gives breath to the people on it, And spirit to those who walk in it,
Having introduced the Servant to the audience, God here speaks directly to the Servant through a prophetic oracle. He began by quoting a hymn that praises God as the Creator of the heavens and the earth as well as the only source for breath and life among earth’s inhabitants. This creation language confirmed the Servant’s power and importance for all people everywhere and indicates the Servant was going to do a new creative thing also.
Verse 6 declares the manner of the Servant’s calling. "I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness, I will also hold you by the hand and watch over you, And I will appoint you as a covenant to the people, As a light to the nations,
God then confirms His calling to the Servant. It was a calling to righteousness. God will empower Him to restore the right in the world-that is, to bring salvation. He could do this because God will take hold of your hand. [The translation and meaning of keep you remains uncertain. It may mean "I have formed you" (NAB, REB), "shaped you" (NJB), or "created you" QPS). Or more likely it may simply mean "will watch over you" (NASB). Max Anders, OT Commentary, Isaiah, 233.]
Also the Servant was assured that He would be a covenant for the people (49:8). The servant represents the covenant. He would do more than fulfill God’s covenant promises to Israel. He is God’s covenant to His people. Jesus said "I am the way the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father but by Me" (Jn. 14:6). God’s purpose for the Chosen Servant was clear. He represented God’s covenant, God’s promise to the nations to bring light into their darkness. He would be a light (42:16; Luke 1:79) for the nations or Gentiles (Isa. 49:6).
Verse 7 tells us what is the purpose for the Servant’s light. To open blind eyes, To bring out prisoners from the dungeon, And those who dwell in darkness from the prison.
This means help for the helpless, sight for the blind, and freedom for the prisoner. Spiritually unredeemed Israel and the Gentiles are blind, and they are captives . . . in darkness. Though Cyrus would be the servant to release Jewish captives from exile, the Messiah gives spiritual release (61:1; John 8:32; Col. 1:13), sight (John 9:39-41), and light or understanding (John 8:12) to those who trust Him. (On eyes being opened; Isa. 32:3; 35:5.) This spiritual deliverance is for both Jews and Gentiles and will culminate in the glorious messianic kingdom.
[What does it mean for the Lord to make the Servant a covenant of the people and a light to the nations? By means of this Servant God will deliver the people of earth from that spiritual darkness in which they are bound by their own self-idolatry. Insisting on making reality a mirror of ourselves, we have plunged ourselves into darkness. Not being self-originating, we nevertheless try to explain the origins of things in terms of ourselves. Not being self-existent, we try to explain the end of all things in terms of ourselves. The result makes existence an endless cycle that comes from nowhere and goes nowhere. By flaunting the grossest elements of our flesh, we expect somehow to find release to the higher realms of spirituality. The hope of self-transcendence is ultimately the destruction of our individuality by absorption into the all. This is darkness and this is bondage, the darkness and the bondage in which the whole world lives by its own choice (Rom. 1:18-32). But by means of His servants, both the collective and the individual, God wants to break into sin’s dungeon with the light of His revelation.[Oswalt, Isaiah, 118]
Though the mother had been nurtured in a Christian family, the father had not. The mother diligently led her children toward the Lord, studying the Bible with them and taking them to church. Eventually the man had a profound experience with Jesus Christ. His manner and attitude changed completely. Later, one of the children asked the mother, "Who is this man who comes to our home every night? He looks like our father, but he, acts so differently." The transforming power of Jesus Christ had changed him into a new person and called him to a life of service.
Because Jesus was obedient to God’s, call, all the promises in Isaiah 42:6-7 came true, and more. As Christians today respond to God’s righteous call on their lives, others will see God’s light and experience the liberation that God’s transforming power offers. [Father, help me to respond when You call. Transform my life through Your will and power.]
III. THE SERVANT THAT SHARES GOD’S GLORY, 8-9.
"I am the Lord, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another, Nor My praise to graven images.
The Lord, Israel’s covenant-keeping God, will accomplish the prophecy recorded in verses 6-7 and He will not let idols take credit for it (41:21-24). Isaiah was affirming that God, unlike idols, can tell the future. And this divine ability adds to His glory.
Yahweh alone must receive proper honor and praise. This Servant therefore must be One with Him. Worship of other gods or their images was forbidden. Why? Because God alone had proven Himself to be God through His acts in history and He would do so again through the Servant. He had done former things, including the exodus from Egypt, and He would do new things, such as the delivery from exile of sin’s slavery.
Which is what verse 9 declares. "Behold, the former things have come to pass, Now I declare new things; Before they spring forth I proclaim them to you."
Verse 9 is the last word of the Judge, summarizing His verdict on world history and pointing to the future. In view of all that God had already done for Israel (the former things) these new things (48:6) of which He had been speaking would certainly happen. These new things will be the work of the Servant. No other god can foretell such things, nor do such things.
The you of verse 9 is plural, not singular, indicating that God’s announcement and warning (v. 8) are applied not just to the Servant but to a larger audience-the people of God who have sung the hymn of verse 5 in their worship for many years.
The something new was Jesus! He came in the unassuming form of an infant who grew into a meek and humble Savior. God’s answers to our prayers and needs may exceed our expectations.
CONCLUSION
God announces His way of salvation and deliverance not only for Israel but for the nations. He will send His Servant, who will be empowered and guided by His Spirit. He will establish justice on earth and bring salvation even to the Gentiles. Only the One true and powerful God can announce something this remarkable and then do it.
Charles Colson is known around the world as the founder of Prison Fellowship Ministries. Colson’s first book, Born Again, tells the dramatic story of his conversion after being sentenced to prison for his role in the Watergate scandal during Richard Nixon’s administration. As a brand-new Christian facing prison, Colson was ministered to by Senator Harold Hughes, a believer who offered to serve Colson’s sentence if the judge would let him go. The judge refused, but Colson was deeply impacted by the example of servant leadership he saw in Hughes.
The terms servant and leader are opposites in the world’s lexicon. Charles Colson had never seen loving sacrifice during his years in the inner circles of political power. Maybe that’s because the concept of servant leadership did not originate on earth. It came straight from heaven in the person of Jesus the Messiah, who "did not come to be served, but to serve" (Mk.10:45).
We can see the traits of servant humility that characterized the Messiah during His life on earth. Jesus did not create an uproar or make a scene, so to speak. He restored the most broken of lives. He was the very fulfillment of God’s covenant promises to Israel, and He brought light to the Gentiles. And above all, Jesus came to be the servant of all. No wonder Matthew quoted from Isaiah 42 in referring to the Lord (Mt. 12:18-21).
It’s interesting that the symbol for Prison Fellowship is the bruised reed of Isaiah 42:3, which is the ministry’s theme verse. This passage is a wonderful reminder that Jesus Christ can mend broken lives. All of us are broken to some degree. Where do you feel the weakest and most inadequate in your life and service for Christ? That’s the place where He desires to show you His power. He can exchange your weakness for His strength today.
