Devotional Commentary on Isaiah 42
There is something in Isaiah that is coming to the front
clearer in these chapters: God chose a remnant to be His messenger or servant
but humanity failed in this task in every generation in this way that they had
the Laodicea Church attitude: they had ears but did not hear, they had eyes but
did not see, and became the blind and deaf servant.
For that reason God sent His chosen One, His Divine Servant,
Jesus Christ as the solution to succeed where the remnant and church fell
short. Christ the Chosen One is divinely intertwined with the Trinity since God
does not share His glory with any (v. 8b). It is definitely Christ and His
mission, purpose and role outlined here as the Servant sent by God the Father.
M. L. Andreasen in his Sabbath School Quarterly of 1928 on
Isaiah page 8, exactly repeated in the 1956 Sabbath School Quarterly on Isaiah
pages 29-30 also understood it to be Christ. “The work of Christ is definitely
set forth in this chapter. He is the elect of God, a term which occurs six
times in this portion of Isaiah. He is gentle, quiet, compassionate. He does
not come to crush life, but to develop it; not to despise the weak, but to help
them. If there is but a dimly burning wick, He does not give up hope. He will
not stop until the work is accomplished. Many of the blind shall see the light,
and the whole earth shall praise the Lord.” In his 2004 dealing with this
verse, R. Gane said in the Sabbath School Quarterly page 74: “The servant in
Isaiah 42 is, obviously, the Messiah.”
On the New Testament support that it is Christ the Messiah,
R. Gane said the following in 2004: 74: “Matthew 12 quotes from Isaiah 42 and
applies it to the quiet healing ministry of Jesus, God's beloved Son, in whom
He delights (Isa. 42:1; Matt. 3:16, 17; 17:5). It is He whose ministry
reestablishes God's covenant connection with His people (Isa. 42:6, Dan. 9:27).”
He commented on verses 1-4 and moved on to chapter 44.
The preterist F. Delitzsch could not but admit the same as
Ellen White, Andreasen and Gane here in historicist manner: “But the Servant of
Jehovah here set before us has too pronounced individual characteristics to
allow it to be taken as a personified collective. Nor can it be the author of
these prophecies; for what is said of this Servant of Jehovah goes far beyond
all within the range of a prophet's call or man's power. It is therefore an
ideal picture of the future—the future Christ …” (Delitzsch Volume II 1890: 165
[English translation]). The Targum Jonathan to the Prophets translated the
opening of verse one as: “Behold my servant the Messiah…”.
The style of phraseology of Isaiah catch our eyes.
He loves to employ synonyms
and park them in parallel sentences almost repeating in the second line the
same thought as in the first line. In this way, we learn a lot about the
meaning of a word since it is repeated and elaborated upon in the next pair.
The pair words, pair thoughts and pair phrases help us understand faithful
living better:
the Father’s Servant
is His Chosen One and the Spirit is upon Him (v. 1);
cry is to make
the voice heard in the street (v. 2);
disheartened is crushed
(v. 4);
created means
stretching out the heavens and spreading the earth (v. 5);
to give breath to
people is to give a spirit to them (v. 5c-d);
to be appointed as
covenant to people is to be a light to the nations (v. 6c-d); prisoner is one who dwells in darkness
(v. 7b-c);
God’s glory means God’s
praise (v. 8b-c);
new song is His praise
(v. 10a-b);
end of the earth
is to go down to the sea (v. 10b-c);
sing aloud is to shout
for joy from the tops of the mountains (v. 11c-d) [not in the temple or church
though];
give glory to
the Lord
is to declare His praise (v. 12a-b);
a warrior is a man
of war (v. 13a-b);
utter a shout is to raise a
war cry (v. 13c);
utter a shout is to prevail against his enemies (v. 13c-d);
keep silent is to keep
still (v. 14a-b);
to groan is to gasp
(v. 14c-d);
to lay waste
mountains is to wither the vegetation (v. 15a-b);
to make
coastlands of rivers is to dry up ponds (v. 15c-d);
by a way and in paths
are the same (v. 16a-b);
to be turned
back by the Lord means to be utterly put to shame (v. 16e-f);
idols are molten
images (v. 17b-c);
he that is at
peace with God is a servant of the Lord (v. 19c-d);
not to observe
the things of the Lord is to not hear His instructions (v. 20); plundered is to be despoiled (v. 22a);
trapped is to be
hidden (v. 22b-c);
to be a prey is to
be a spoil (v. 22d-e);
to deliver is to give
back (v. 22d-e);
to give ear is to give
heed (v. 23a-b);
[remnant] Jacob is
the same as [remnant] Israel (v. 24a);
to sin against the Lord is to not be willing to walk in His
ways (v. 24b-c) and to not obey His law (v. 24d);
heat of His
anger
is the same as fierceness of battle and aflame (v. 25a-c); recognize is to pay attention (v. 25d-e).
Indeed, Isaiah is a master in using a Hebrew Thesaurus or
Synonym Dictionary to clarify the meanings of his thoughts or words to the
reader.
About Christ’s manner of performance as listed in verse 2,
M. L. Andreasen in his 1928 Sabbath School Quarterly page 9, cited Ellen White:
“In marked contrast to all this [the manner of the Pharisees] was the life of
Jesus. In that life no noisy disputation, no ostentatious worship, no act to
gain applause, was ever witnessed. Christ was hid in God, and God was revealed
in the character of His Son.” Ellen White, Desire of Ages page 261.
C. W. E. Nägelsbach (1878 English translation in the Lange
series, all sources online available) in his commentary on Isaiah 1878 page
448, said the same as Ellen White on this verse: “The Servant of Jehovah
supports Himself on Jehovah and Jehovah supports, holds and bears His Servant”.
When God the Father announced the coming of Christ as Savior
and covenant to the people (v. 6c) He listed all the things we can find in the
gospels identifying Christ as the promised Messiah.
Delitzsch noted the same connection to Christ here: “The
mediator of this covenant with Israel cannot be Israel itself, nor (where is
anything of the kind to be read?) the true Israel in relation to the mass, or,
as Reuss thinks [another critical commentator on Isaiah], to the human race; on
the contrary, the remnant left after the mass is destroyed is the object of
this covenant; nor yet the body of prophets, or a collective of any sort, which
is disproved by the strongly personal language and the more than prophetic work
to be done. For the Servant of Jehovah is Himself the covenant of the peoples and
light of the heathen; His person is the bond of a new communion between Israel
and Jehovah, His person becomes the light enlightening the dark heathen world”
(Delitzsch Volume II 1890 page 170-171).
The excellence of this Chosen One, described by Isaiah in
vv. 1-8a stands in contrast to the performance of the humanity servants of the
past “the former things have come to pass” and a need was seen to “declare new
things” (v. 9).
Andreasen said on this verse 1928: 9: “The former things
which God had foretold had all been fulfilled. He was now telling of new
things. These would as surely come to pass.”
The insufficiency and inadequacy of the remnant servant led
to Isaiah’s description of the sufficient One and adequate One, Christ the
Messiah.
C. W. E. Nägelsbach said in 1878 page 461 in his Isaiah commentary
about the connection of this Servant to the Messiah and the Messiah to Yahweh: “But
since the Messiah is Himself God, and there is no God but Jehovah, He, too, may
be name with the name Jehovah.”
The new song [or new covenant] means that Christ should be
preached “to the end of the earth” (v. 10b).
At the End of Time Christ would come “like a warrior” and “prevail
against His enemies” [in Hell after the millennium] (v. 13). God the Father and
Christ will send plaques to earth before the Second Coming of Christ and it
seems to be indicated in vv. 14-17.
On verses 13-15, M. L. Andreasen in his 1928 Sabbath School
Quarterly on Isaiah noted on page 10: “The reason for singing the new song is
given in these verses. God is about to manifest Himself. The second coming of
Christ is here brought to view.” Is it not remarkable how two Adventists, one
in 1928 and one in 1917 can work independent of each other on the same verse
and come to the same conclusion?
The blind and deaf Laodicea church servant will be led by
Christ “by a way they do not know in paths they do not know I will guide them”
(v. 16a-b); “I will make darkness into light before them” (v. 16c).
M. L. Andreasen cited Ellen White here in verses 16-18 in
his commentary on Isaiah in 1928 page 10: “The blind here must have reference
to the spiritually blind. In [Ellen White] ‘Prophets and Kings,’ page 378, this
text is applied to ‘all the honest in heart in heathen lands.’ There are many
who are blind, but honest. That which seems to them to be darkness will then be
made light, and the crooked things will be made straight. This should give us
hope for many who apparently are rejecting light.”
The definition of the blind of Ellen White is exactly found
also in F. Delitzsch Vol. II 1890: 174 “The blind are they whom transgression
and wickedness have robbed of power of spiritual sight.” C. W. E. Nägelsbach (1878)
said the same in his Isaiah commentary (Lange Series as English Translation)
page 456: “It is, therefore, spiritual and not physical blindness that is
meant.”
We know it is the End Time remnant spoken of here since this
theme of the blind and deaf servant of the Lord (see v. 19) “Who is blind but
My servant or so deaf as My messenger whom I send?” Humanity failed but Christ
is Victorious on our behalf. Christ our Substitute.
Ellen White defined “Israel” and “servant” here: “The terms
‘My servant,’ Israel, ‘the servant of the Lord,’ mean anyone that the Lord may
select and appoint to do a certain work. He makes them ministers of His will,
though some who are selected may be as ignorant of His will as was
Nebuchadnezzar.”— Ellen White, Testimonies, Vol. 9, p. 138 cited on page 10 of M. L.
Andreasen, Sabbath School Quarterly on Isaiah 1928.
Delitzsch have the same idea as Ellen White here in his
commentary in 1890 Vol. II page 174: “the Servant of Jehovah is set forth as a
messenger to the heathen. The Servant of Jehovah is everywhere Israel. But
because Israel is viewed now in regard to the mass which ignores its calling,
now in regard to the kernel which is faithful to it, now in regard to the One
in whom Israel reaches the summit of its destiny, the most diverse things may
be affirmed of the one homonymous subject.” It is also maximalist use of the
term by Delitzsch just as Ellen White.
A book prescribed by some Adventist school as a good
commentary on Isaiah, by J. Mortyer, 1993 page 319 is very depressing on this
passage in the light of Ellen White’s statement and that of the preterist
Delitzsch similar to her: “The title, my servant, says little about the person
who bears it. It is mainly used of Messianophoric individuals like Moses and
David, and this indicates its importance in the purposes of God. Its use with
reference to Nebuchadnezzar shows that it can spotlight the function rather
than the person.” In the whole chapter, the name Christ does not appear in
Mortyer’s treatment of it. He is eschatologically evasive to the point of
nihilism.
Ellen White said that to be blind and deaf for the world’s
computer engines’ data is fine but a problem is blind and deaf of our own
shortcomings to be, as M. L. Andreasen pointed out on these verses in 1928: 10:
“God does not wish us to hear all that is to be heard, or to see all that is to
be seen. It is a great blessing to close the ears, that we hear not, and the
eyes, that we see not. The greatest anxiety should be to have clear eyesight to
discern our own shortcomings, and a quick ear to catch all needed reproof and
instruction, lest by our inattention and carelessness we let them slip, and
become forgetful hearers, and not doers of the work.”— Ellen White, Testimonies,
Vol. 1, pp. 707, 708.
With the bad news comes the good news. Despite the church of
Laodicea condition of the End Time remnant “The Lord was pleased for His righteousness
sake to make the law great and glorious” (v. 21).
Ellen White said that later in the writings of John the
beloved disciple he said that the law existed long before Sinai: “The beloved
disciple, who listened to the words of Jesus on the mount, writing long
afterwards under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, speaks of the law as of
perpetual obligation. He says that 'sin is the transgression of the law,' and
that 'whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law.' He makes it plain
that the law to which he refers is 'an old commandment which ye had from the
beginning.' He is speaking of the law that existed at the creation, and was
reiterated upon Mount Sinai.”—Ellen White, Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing,
p. 77 cited by M. L. Andreasen in 1928 page 10.
Delitzsch (1890) also thought it is the Sinaitic Law meant
here, just as Ellen White: “The Sinaitic law is first of all and chiefly meant,
and the verbs relate, not to the solemnity of the promulgation, but to the
wealth and loftiness of the contents” (Delitzsch Vol. II 1890: 177, English
Translation).
Despite the difficult situation that the End Time remnant
find themselves in, Isaiah in this verse, provided the pony to ride
successfully out. This Laodicea condition is hectic though and described in vv.
22-25e.
Isaiah is describing this future condition but his
description of the weeds that will be found in the remnant at the End Time did
not preclude him from including himself “was it not the Lord against whom we have sinned?” (v. 24b).
Isaiah was not participating in the sinful acts of the weeds
of the remnant otherwise the Bible would have said so. He is merely
acknowledging a sinful conscientiousness because of historical sins in his
unconverted life long ago which his flesh is daily experiencing when the Evil
one around him bring up the memory chips to flash him into temptation again. He
realized his sinful deteriorating aged flesh getting weaker and weaker as a
condition that lacks perfection and eternity. But in God’s eyes, Isaiah is
perfectly in Christ. Isaiah longs for heaven too.
Dear
God
We
are this Laodicea remnant and our condition includes ourselves just like
Isaiah. We are in dire need of Christ our Righteousness, our Chosen One, our
Savior and Lord, our Advocate in heaven on our behalf. Save us in Your glory.
Amen.