Isaiah 42:1-9--The LORD's Chosen Servant

Isaiah 42:1-9
English Standard Version

The LORD's Chosen Servant
42 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 discouraged
    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 you 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.”

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This prophecy reads somewhat generic at first.  We might wonder if the LORD is encouraging the prophet Isaiah himself.  However, we quickly see that this is yet another Messianic prophecy that only the Christ can fulfill.  He is the one who will bring forth justice to the nations.  He is the one that did not fight with the weapons of human warfare, and brought the Law (and the Gospel) to far-away lands.

The words that the LORD speaks in verses 5-9 are generically for all of Israel, but more specifically for Jesus (the True Israel and the only begotten Son of God).  Where Israel failed to be a light to the Gentiles, Jesus has succeeded.  We are called to be righteous.  Don't miss that--not by our own righteousness, but by the righteousness of the one who made the heavens and the earth who as at work within us and working through us.  We are to help give sight to the blind and set the prisoner free.  There is some physical aspect of this that Jesus certainly fulfilled by giving sight to the blind and setting those who were under the control of demons free from their enslavement, but we did not see Jesus going around starting a political revolution and emptying the jails and prisons and starting a slave rebellion.  Therefore, be careful with verses like this that you don't buy into some other kind of gospel.  Jesus was first and foremost concerned about the spiritual blindness of the people and their imprisonment to sin.  Those who were in spiritual darkness would see a great Light, and they would give glory to the LORD because who Jesus is and what He does that no one else can do.

Now we come back to the issue of idols.  If the LORD is so powerful that He can give sight to the blind, make light from darkness, and set those in bondage to sin free, why in the world would anyone want to worship an idol that can do none of those things?  The answer is obvious, yet many are not willing to admit it--it goes back to the Garden of Eden when the temptation was that we would be like God not only knowing good and evil but deciding good and evil for ourselves.  You see, the issue most people have with God is that they don't want Him to be the Moral Lawgiver.  They don't want to feel convicted about breaking His Law so they try to make their own inferior version of the Law that they think they can obey--yet they oftentimes can't even obey that.  The world hates the Law because it shows them both the nature of Man and the nature of God and that they are not the same.  Man imagines that if he can fashion gods for himself that they will have to obey his rules not realizing that the LORD is the one who fashioned us and breathed life and His Spirit into us and therefore, He has the right and authority to set the rules and boundaries for us (and all the rest of His creation).  One day though, all of the old things, including the idols that people worship, will pass away.  In that day, all things will be made new, and we will worship the LORD together and live with Him in a way similar to that of the Garden of Eden, yet different and better.  No more will we need to face the temptation of sin--we will be freed from its power and its presence.