Isaiah 42:1-9

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.”

Target Date: Sunday, 22 December 2024

Word Study/ Translation Notes:

Thoughts on the Passage:

The most important message of this section is that God Himself will save His people.

No idol, no earthly power will share in His glory.

The darkness will try to comprehend Him, but He will always be a mystery to the world.

Only His revealed salvation will accomplish His work to save.

The Servant of God will be of God’s making – not made by the hand of man.

This passage is quoted in Matthew 12:18-21:

1 -Jesus, aware of this, withdrew from there. And many followed him, and he healed them all 16 and ordered them not to make him known. 17 This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: 18 “Behold, my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my Spirit upon him, and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles. 19 He will not quarrel or cry aloud, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets; 20 a bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not quench, until he brings justice to victory; 21 and in his name the Gentiles will hope.” - Matthew 12:15–21

1 – The Servant will bring justice. This means He will accomplish God’s just ends in salvation.

It is well known that Heb. mišpāṭ connotes much more than judicial equity. In its broadest sense it involves societal order in which the concerns of all are addressed. A society in which there is no mišpāṭ is one in which the only rule is brute force used to aggrandize the few.

2 - The very point being made by the minimalist figures of speech here (litotes) is surely that, whereas all the other royal figures who have claimed to set up justice on the earth have done so through a gleeful use of their power to smash and rebuild, this one will be radically different. He is so far from smashing the mighty that he will not even break off the reed that is bent over and cracked.

The point is plain: like the child of ch. 9 and the branch of ch. 11, God’s answer to the oppressors of the world is not more oppression, nor is his answer to arrogance more arrogance; rather, in quietness, humility, and simplicity, he will take all of the evil into himself and return only grace. That is power.

4 - Years later, when the people in Malachi’s day asked, “Where is the God of justice (mišpāṭ)?” (Mal. 2:17), they received a similar answer: God was sending a person, a messenger, in whom righteousness would triumph, and in whom wickedness would be judged. In himself the Servant of the Lord would establish justice in the earth. Because this is so, the nations await his tôrâ, his instruction, his law.

6 - Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. - Hebrews 9:15

7 - By means of this Servant God will deliver the people of earth from that theological 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.

Young is correct that the darkened dungeon here is not a figure for the exile; rather, it is the darkness and bondage of sin, as Jesus’ use of the similar language of 61:1–3 (Luke 4:17–21) and the context of chs. 40–41 indicate.

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. - Galatians 4:4–5

Sermon Text:

This week is the last Sunday before Christmas Day.

I’m not telling you that to remind you how few shopping days are left before the holiday.

I want to think about something much more important than that.

This is the time we remember and celebrate the event called the “Incarnation”.

What that big word means is that God, the Son, became flesh and lived among us.

God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit – one God in three eternally distinct persons.

And that second Person, the Son, became fully man as well as fully God.

I fear that even among Christians, that truth gets lost or obscured for us.

I understand the nostalgia of the season, remembering gatherings and families in years past.

I understand the excitement of gift-giving and gift-receiving, with some of us anticipating the treasures awaiting us.

I understand the family gatherings, the laughter, the celebrations.

The music, the break from our routine into shopping and cooking and planning and sharing.

The time off for some, and the parties with friends and colleagues.

I applaud the generosity of the season, when people might sometimes be nicer to one another.

And we should enjoy the good things God has given us with gratitude.

Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do. 8 Let your garments be always white. Let not oil be lacking on your head. 9 Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your [vaporous] life that he has given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun. 10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might... - Ecclesiastes 9:7–10 (amplified)

And while those things are great blessings to us, they pale in comparison to the full truth we celebrate.

And before you think I’m going to go off on some “Keep Christ in Christmas” rant, I point you back to our text today to see if you find that anywhere in the passage.

The truth is that we, as mankind, don’t really need Christ to have a great party or celebration.

I work with a large team out of India, and they have a huge blowout called Diwali each year – a five-day festival devoted to the idols of Hindus and Buddhists.

And what great work of God causes us to launch fireworks each year on the fourth of July?

But which of those idols can make the declarations we see in this 42nd chapter of Isaiah?

God created the heavens and the earth.

God gives breath to the people who walk upon it.

What we celebrate at this Christmastime is not simply the birth of a baby or the ideals of a life pleasing to God.

The birth of the baby named Jesus in Bethlehem is nothing short of the POINT of EVERYTHING the Bible is given to tell us about.

Take nothing away from the Cross and the Resurrection, but the Incarnation had to happen BEFORE those things could take place.

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. - Galatians 4:4–5

Before the beginning of Genesis, when nothing other than God existed, He marked the day of the Incarnation as the fullness of the time He was creating.

All His redemptive promises point first to that day.

A real day, a day in history.

A day where all the shadows and examples of the Old Testament converge in a single Person.

A day when the eternal God of everything emptied Himself to be born as a baby.

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. - Philippians 2:5–7

Let’s marvel at that a minute:

God could have simply taken on our appearance – pretended to be a man.

Taken our form without taking our nature.

Appeared fully-grown on the scene without all that being born and growing up stuff.

In the book of Hebrews, the Holy Spirit tells us why:

Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. - Hebrews 2:17–18

Becoming flesh and blood was necessary to accomplish everything God intended in the salvation of His people.

And it all is to His glory – and none other:

v.8 – I am the LORD; that is my name; My glory I give to no other.

Christmastime seems to be the easiest time of the year for people to talk about the love and grace of God.

When we talk about the baby or the angels proclaiming His birth to the shepherds, it’s not hard to feel the abiding love of God.

It’s just easy, when we think of a newborn or a host of angels, to feel the majesty and gentleness of God.

When the angels proclaimed “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” - Luke 2:14

We see in Isaiah the one with whom God is first pleased:

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. - Isaiah 42:1

Just about anyone you talk to in our city this time of year will be willing to give a nod to the love of God.

In fact, for many, if you ask them what will happen to them when they die, they will confidently or hopefully talk about the love of God:

“God is love, so He will save me.”

“He will let me into heaven because He forgives sin.

God is love – that is true.

God forgives sin – that is true.

But if we ignore HOW God does those things, these great truths of Scripture become tools the devil uses to drag unrepentant souls to hell.

Notice the last phrase in verse 1:

He [Jesus] will bring forth justice to the nations.

The Servant, Jesus Christ, will bring JUSTICE to the nations.

Do you think it’s JUST for God to simply declare an amnesty to all people, regardless of their sins?

To say to them “I forgive you because I am forgiving.”?

There are a lot of people in this world who think so.

But ask them: what about Hitler and Stalin – should they receive God’s blanket forgiveness?

And the reply from those same people becomes “Maybe not them…”

But then what about murderers?

And they might reply “Well, they probably deserve to go to hell also.”

So even those who might depend on God’s goodness as they wish for salvation understand that God wouldn’t be JUST if He just forgave everybody.

But God declares here that His Servant will bring forth JUSTICE to the nations.

And that is why the baby was born in Bethlehem.

That eternal Son, the Word made flesh, came to deliver God’s justice and God’s salvation in a single Person.

The truth God has revealed is this: He does not and will not just FORGIVE sin.

All sin must be paid for;

All sin incurs a debt against Him.

All sin is rebellion again Him and His good and perfect Law.

God would not, could not, simply close His eyes to sin and pretend it never happened.

He wouldn’t be JUST if He did.

And if your hope today is that God will look at your sin on the Day of Judgment and declare you weren’t bad enough to deserve hell, you are in great danger.

... sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— - Romans 5:12

What God is promising through Isaiah is not a general amnesty, a salvation of the entire world regardless of their sin;

He is promising that through one man, Jesus Christ, salvation would be given to all who trust in Him.

Because the justice of God would be poured out on Him, crushing Jesus in the wrath of God.

And giving to those who trust in Him forgiveness and eternal life.

THAT is the good news – the gospel of God.

If you trust in Jesus Christ by faith, your sin is paid for by Him, not you.

And His perfect righteousness is placed on you.

God’s salvation, and His forgiveness, is perfectly JUST – saving every single person He intends to save.

And saving all His people through the one Man, the Servant Isaiah is talking about here.

But maybe you are all too aware of your sin.

You know how incapable of goodness you are.

You have done things you would never confess to anyone else.

Perhaps you are guilty of great crimes against man and God.

You aren’t counting on being forgiven in the end – you are dreading death because you will come face to face with the holy God in His great wrath.

And you tremble at the thought.

Perhaps you feel like you have been crushed by life and by sin and by the devil, and you have no hope of standing.

Please look at verse 3 here:

a bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. - Isaiah 42:3

That bruised reed is YOU.

The stalk, ready to collapse under its own weight, He will not break off.

The smoldering wick, where the flame has all but died, He will not quench.

If you are overwhelmed by your sin, if you are ashamed and shamed by it:

If the things you’ve done have caught up with you, and you can only cry out for mercy,

Cry out for mercy to Jesus Christ, and He will save you.

He will faithfully bring forth justice:

And the justice He is bringing forth is the justice we have been talking about today:

If you cry our to Him in repentance and faith, alll your guilt is put on Him and PAID for before God.

And all God’s Law, every last jot and tittle, every last dot and dash, declares you RIGHTEOUS before God, even as it teaches you to walk in that righteousness.

God’s great justice IS our hope, our confidence, in His salvation.

And Jesus Christ is the one who delivers that justice to all who believe.