42:1. “Behold
my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have
put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.”
This description fits only
One: the Lord Jesus Christ, for He alone is God’s perfect Servant, His
elect, i.e., His chosen One. In Him alone has the Father found unalloyed
pleasure, for never once has that Son offended in thought, word, or deed,
see Matthew 3:17 for the record of the Divine approbation at the time of the
Lord’s baptism, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” See
also the record of the Lord’s own words in Luke 4:18-19, “The Spirit of the
Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the
poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to
the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them
that are bruised. To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”
The perfection of Christ’s
rule will be demonstrated in the Millennium.
42:2. “He
shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street.”
Other renderings of this
verse are, “He will not scream, nor urge with vehemence: nor will his voice
be heard abroad in the streets,” Sept: “He will be gentle - He will
not shout nor quarrel in the streets,” Taylor. The Lord was never
strident, nor should those who proclaim His word.
42:3. “A
bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench:
he shall bring forth judgment unto truth.”
The “bruised reed”
represents the failing servant, of whom Peter is an outstanding example, see
Matthew 26:75; and the “smoking (smouldering) flax” represents one whose
witness has almost ceased. Such ones God will not cut off, but will make
every effort to renew the vigor of their former testimony.
This speaks of the Lord’s
gentleness in dealing with his weak and failing servants; and relative to
that gentleness, see David’s words recorded in 2 Samuel 22:36, and Psalm
18:35 “... thy gentleness hath made me great.” Those who would render
effective service must cultivate that same gentle spirit.
“... he shall bring forth
judgment unto truth,” is also translated, “He shall bring forth justice in
truth,” ASV; “He will make the right go forth according to the
truth,” JPS; “Faithfully he will bring forth justice,” RHM.
42:4. “He
shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth:
and the isles shall wait for his law.”
The present state of the
world might tempt some to think that this promise has failed, but
spiritually instructed believers recognize that the present darkness is
simply that which precedes the dawning of Christ’s millennial reign, during
which He will rule the nations with a rod of iron, see Psalm 2:9; Revelation
2:27; 12:5; 19:15, His inflexible rule making that era the most blessed
earth has ever known.
“... the isles” as noted
already, represent all the countries of the earth.
42:5. “Thus
saith God the Lord, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he
that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth
breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein:”
Science (sic) would have
us believe that everything that exists is the result of the multiplication
of an original single cell, the origin of which however, it can’t explain!
The clear impress of Divine Authorship on every page of Scripture however,
confirms the wisdom of accepting the reality of our eternally existing God
Who has created all things out of nothing, “by the word of His power,”
Hebrews 1:3, “For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood
fast,” Psalm 33:9.
Man, in common with the
animal creation, possesses a body, with which he has world-consciousness;
and a soul, with which he has self-consciousness; but only man has also a
spirit: that with which he has God-consciousness. Only man evinces the
desire to worship, even if the object of his veneration be but a stone or a
tree.
42:6. “I the
Lord have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and keep
thee, and I will give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the
Gentiles;”
The application is to
Christ, for only He is perfectly righteous, i.e., inherently sinless; and He
alone is the One through whom men can enjoy a covenant relationship with
God, that is, live in the assurance of dwelling in heaven eternally through
faith in His sin-atoning sacrifice, that covenant being made first with
believing Israelites, and then embracing believing Gentiles also. “For God,
who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts,
to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ,” 2 Corinthians 4:6, “Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews
only, but also of the Gentiles” Romans 9:24.
The held hand speaks of
Divine enablement.
42:7. “To open
the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that
sit in darkness out of the prison house.”
Man in his natural state
is spiritually blind, “... the natural man receiveth not the things of the
Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them,
because they are spiritually discerned,” 1 Corinthians 2:14. He is the
prisoner of Satan, living in spiritual darkness; and unless saved through
faith in Christ as Savior, will dwell in “the blackness of darkness for
ever,” Jude 13.
42:8. “I am
the Lord: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither
my praise to graven images.”
The definite article
preceding “Lord” is exclusory. He alone is Lord, a fact which automatically
excludes any other, “For there is one God....” 1 Timothy 2:5. He will not
share that glory with any other, nor will He suffer anyone or any thing to
receive the worship that belongs to Him alone. The man who bows to an idol
makes himself the object of God’s righteous wrath.
42:9. “Behold,
the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare: before they
spring forth I tell you of them.”
Taylor’s translation of
this verse reads, “Everything I prophesied came true, and now I will
prophesy again. I will tell you the future before it happens.”
Fulfilled prophecy is an
irrefutable confirmation of the Divine authorship of Scripture, leaving no
doubt that the small fraction still to be realized will just as certainly
come to pass.
42:10. “Sing
unto the Lord a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth, ye that
go down to the sea, and all that is therein; the isles, and the inhabitants
thereof.”
The contemplation of God’s
omnipotence ought to evoke praise and worship from every creature on the
earth and in the sea, but we tend to focus almost exclusively on His work as
Redeemer so that we neglect this other aspect of worship.
42:11. “Let
the wilderness and the cities thereof lift up their voice, the villages that
Kedar doth inhabit: let the inhabitants of the rock (Sela) sing, let them
shout from the top of the mountains.”
Kedar, in Northern Arabia,
means darkness, and in the present context may refer to those who
have no knowledge of God; while Sela, a virtually impregnable mountain
fortress in Edom, may represent those whose evaluation of worldly knowledge
begets contempt for what is spiritual. In the Millennium there will be
neither ignorance of Scripture, nor contempt of spiritual knowledge, but
rather universal knowledge of God, though the obedience of some will be
compelled rather than voluntary.
42:12. “Let
them give glory unto the Lord, and declare his praise in the islands.”
This continues to describe
millennial conditions. Many will glorify God by willing obedience and
grateful worship, while the obedience of others will be yielded by
compulsion, their worship being a mere outward form to avert the instant
execution of His wrath.
42:13. “The
Lord shall go forth as a mighty man, he shall stir up jealousy like a man of
war: he shall cry, yea, roar: he shall prevail against his enemies.”
In that coming era the
Lord will rule the nations with a rod of iron, “jealousy” here meaning
zeal, fury. He will tolerate no disobedience.
42:14. “I have
long time hidden my peace; I have been still, and refrained myself: now will
I cry like a travailing woman; I will destroy and devour at once.”
God’s great patience is
declared also in 2 Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise,
as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing
that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
His patience however, is
not limitless, see Job 36:18, “Because there is wrath, beware lest he take
thee away with his stroke: then a great ransom cannot deliver thee,” the
further warning being given in Genesis 6:3, “My spirit shall not always
strive with man,” hence the solemn additional admonition, “He, that being
often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that
without remedy,” Proverbs 29:1, and again,
“Behold, now is the
accepted time; behold; now is the day of salvation,” 2 Corinthians 6:2.
Israel’s lament recorded in Jeremiah 8:20, “The harvest is past, the summer
is ended, and we are not saved,” will be the bitter wail echoed eternally by
the multitudes in the terrible lake of fire, because they refused to heed
God’s warning given them while on earth.
42:15. “I will
make waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs; and I will make
the rivers islands, and I will dry up the pools.”
There is no reason to
reject the literal meaning of this warning, but neither is there any reason
to dismiss the spiritual application of it. As has been discussed already,
mountains and hills are frequently-used metaphors for rulers great and
small, so that the reference may be to God’s disruption of stable government
in the Great Tribulation; while the withering of all the herbs, and the
drying up of rivers and pools seem to speak of drought and its dreadful
concomitant, famine.
42:16. “And I
will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths
that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and
crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake
them.”
Unconverted men are
spiritually blind, and they travel on the broad way “that leads to
destruction,” Matthew 7:13; but “God is longsuffering ... not willing that
any should perish, but that all should come to repentance, 2 Peter 3:9,
hence the truth declared here in the verse being studied.
This should not be
construed however, as the assurance that everyone will ultimately be saved.
Scripture teaches otherwise, see e.g., Lukw 13:24, “Strive to enter in at
the strait (narrow) gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in,
and shall not be able,” and again Matthew 7:13-14, “Enter ye in at the
strait (narrow) gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that
leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because
strait is the gate, and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few
there be that find it.”
The blind being brought
“by a way that they knew not,” are those who believe the gospel (their
blindness is healed), and who are willing to follow Christ along “the narrow
way that leads to life, i.e., to heaven.” Their spiritual darkness is
dispelled by the light of the knowledge of Christ, as declared in 2
Corinthians 4:6, “for God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness,
hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” Matthew 7:14.
42:17. “They
shall be turned back, they shall be greatly ashamed, that trust in graven
images, that say to the molten images, Ye are our gods.”
This declares the terrible
end of the unconverted. Only when they find the door of heaven closed
against them, and the abyss of hell yawning open at their feet, will they
learn the enormity of the folly that led them to ignore God, and worship
instead the things of earth: its worthless wealth, its fleeting fame, its
passing pleasure. Well might Matthew propound the question, “For what is a
man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or
what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” Matthew 16:26.
Fanny Crosby declared the
proper evaluation of the world’s wealth, fame, and pleasure, when she wrote,
“Take the world, but give me Jesus, All its joys are but a name; But His
love abideth ever, Through’ eternal years the same.”
42:18. “Hear,
ye deaf; and look, ye blind, that ye may see.”
Taylor has translated this
verse, “Oh, how blind and deaf you are toward God! Why won’t you listen?
Why won’t you see?”
42:19. “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?”
Commentators are generally
agreed that the censured servant here is disobedient Israel.
42:20. “Seeing
many things, but thou observest not; opening the ears, but he heareth not.”
“You see and understand
what is right but won’t heed nor do it; you hear but you won’t listen,” is
Taylor’s rendering of this verse. It is sadly true that the same charge can
be leveled against all too many of us who are part of His body, the Church,
for wilful disobedience is more heinous than that which results from
ignorance of what God requires of us.
42:21. “The
Lord is well pleased for his righteousness’ sake, he will magnify the law,
and make it honorable.”
Other translations are,
“It pleased the Lord, for the furtherance of his justice, to make his law a
law of surpassing majesty,” NEB; “The Lord has magnified His law and
made it truly glorious. Through it He had planned to show the world that He
is righteous,” TAYLOR.
The only One who has ever
met this perfect standard is the Lord Jesus Christ Who could say, “I have
glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me
to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the
glory which I had with thee before the world was,” John 17:4-5.
That God has granted that
petition is affirmed by what is written in Hebrews 2:9, “But we see Jesus,
who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death,
crowned with glory and honor; that he by the grace of God should taste death
for every man,” and again, “Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him
from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far
above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name
that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:
and hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all
things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all
in all,” Ephesians 1:21-23.
42:22. “But
this is a people robbed and spoiled; they are all of them snared in holes,
and they are hid in prison houses: they are for a prey, and none delivereth;
for a spoil, and none saith, Restore.”
Israel, by her
disobedience, had forfeited God’s protection, and had thus become fair game
for all who choose to despoil her, so that for almost 2,000 years she has
experienced the evils mentioned here, being hounded from one country to
another by foes seeking her destruction. The restoration of her land by
British mandate in 1938, and the continuous flow of Jews back to Palestine
since then from virtually every country on earth, confirm that the end of
this present age will climax with the terrible judgments of the fast
approaching Great Tribulation that will precede the inauguration of the
Millennium.
A professing, but equally
recalcitrant Christianity, exhibits the same rebellious spirit, and will be
left on earth to suffer the terrible Tribulation judgments after the true
Church has been raptured to heaven.
The evils described in
this verse will overtake the harlot church at the hand of the Beast in the
Great Tribulation.
42:23. “Who
among you will give ear to this? Who will hearken and hear for the time to
come?”
The small believing
remnant within the apostate nation would understand and obey; and so is it
today: only a similar small believing remnant within the professing mass of
the apostate church understand God’s Word by the enlightenment which the
Holy Spirit gives to obedient believers. Instructed out of the Scriptures
they look for the Rapture: the coming of the Lord “in a moment, in the
twinkling of an eye,” 1 Corinthians 15:52, to translate them to heaven
without dying, before the Great Tribulation judgments devastate the earth.
42:24. “Who
gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers? did not the Lord, he
against whom we have sinned?
As has been discussed
already, Jacob speaks of what pertains to the flesh: Israel, of what is
spiritual. The godliness of the small believing remnant within the apostate
nation didn’t exempt them from the judgments with which God visited the
nation’s rebellion; nor are believers of this present age exempt from having
to suffer the judgment with which God visits the disobedience of the world
at large; but there is a difference: He will not permit those judgments to
destroy those who belong to Him. They too may die of famine, disease, the
ravages of war, etc., but death transports them into His presence in heaven,
while it consigns unbelievers first to hell, and eternally to the lake of
fire.
42:25.
“Therefore he hath poured upon him the fury of his anger, and the strength
of battle: and it hath set him on fire round about, yet he knew not; and it
burned him, yet he laid it not to heart.”
No matter what strategy
God used to arrest Israel’s attention, they remained blind and deaf, and
continued in their self-destructive rebellion, as does also today’s rebel
world. Whether He employs the language of war, or of peace, that world will
neither see nor hear, but plunges on to perdition, as it is written, “God
speaks once, yea twice, yet man perceives it not,” Job 33:14, heedless of
the warning, “My spirit shall not always strive with man,” Genesis 6:3,
“He, that being often reproved hardens his neck, shall suddenly be
destroyed, and that without remedy,” Proverbs 29:1, and again, “Because
there is wrath, beware lest he take thee away with his stroke: then a great
ransom cannot deliver thee,” Job 36:18, “Behold, now is the accepted time;
now is the day of salvation,” 2 Corinthians 6:2.
