For our scripture reading this morning, we are turning to the prophet Isaiah, chapter 42, verses 1 through 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. He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth, and the coastlands wait for his law.
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: 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, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.
I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols. Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth, I tell you of them.
This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Let us pray. Lord, you have given us your word; you have given us words of prophecy so that we would know these things when they happen, so that we may recognize them, so that we may understand them. Open our hearts and all those who hear to see your Son in this servant, to recognize him when he comes in his first appearing and when he comes once more. We look forward to the day of his appearing when justice is established. With bated breath we wait for it and long for it until you come. In your name we pray, amen.
Now, Isaiah is the book of the Bible most frequently quoted or referenced in the Old Testament by the writers of the New. Over 60 quotations are firmly decided; others still debate concerning many other additional probable illusions and references within Isaiah. There are very many prophetic portions that we hold to understand as holding specific reference to our long messiah, Jesus.
In particular, there are five special prophetic messenger passages that frame the life, ministry, and work of Jesus Christ into the decidedly messianic context by which we Christians understand him. These passages are commonly referred to as the servant songs, for they revolve around someone whom the Lord calls ‘my servant,’ which we interpret as being a direct reference to the incarnate God, the Son. We are going to be exploring them together throughout this season of Lent.
It is important for us to note here that our Christological or messianic interpretation of these songs is at this point where Christian and Jewish theology divides into very different directions. Now, the Gospels and other contemporary literature of the time make it quite clear to us that generally the Jews of Jesus’ day had a vastly different idea concerning who the Christ or the Messiah would be and what he would do when he did appear.
So, it should not surprise us that our Christian interpretation of these scriptures is so different from theirs. However, the vastness of our difference in interpretation is much greater than a Jewish expectation for a conquering hero like King David versus the humiliation of an itinerant rabbi executed on a Roman cross as a criminal, yet who is also the atoning sacrifice for our sin. We believe that the servant about whom Isaiah writes is the singular Messiah, Jesus Christ, God’s Son.
But today, the Jews understand Isaiah’s servant as being the Jewish people as a whole rather than one particular or unique individual person. They use this interpretation to explain the why and how they have seemed to be hated and persecuted by all the nations of the world throughout history. To their mind, they, the Jews and Israel, are Isaiah’s suffering servant.
Nor is this only a recent or modern idea and interpretation; it is one that was being formed evidently all the way back during the inter-testamental period between the Old and New Testaments. When Judea and Israel were under foreign Gentile rule, while Jerusalem and the Holy Land were being ruled by the Seleucid kingdom, many Jews were scattered across the world.
The Jews who had resettled in Africa, particularly in Egypt, after the time of the Babylonian conquest and the wars of Alexander the Great were eventually called upon and requested to translate their holy scriptures into the Greek language for the purpose of their eternal preservation within the library of Alexandria. The story goes that 70 rabbis and Jewish scholars translated the scriptures independently, miraculously resulting in 70 identical translations, granting this translation a sense of divine authority.
It is important for us to note that this is the translation of the Hebrew scriptures which the New Testament writers most often quoted, especially the Apostle Paul. Now, the important thing to understand about translating anything from any language is that a translation is always an interpretation.
While our English Old Testaments are translated from the original Hebrew text, the Greek text of the New Testament makes it clear that Jesus, the apostles, and Paul also considered the Septuagint to be inspired, or at least those portions that they specifically quoted and referenced.
For the ordinary life of the average Jew some 2000 years ago, this translation of scripture in the lingua franca of the day, Greek, was what they were most familiar with, just as we are today with our English Bible.
Now, within Isaiah 42, we find two significant points of difference between the Hebrew and the Greek texts. The first is regarding the stated identity of the servant. Here, the Hebrew exclaims, ‘Behold my servant whom I uphold, my chosen,’ whereas the Greek text simply describes ‘Jacob, my child, whom I aid, my chosen Israel.’
We will recall that after the division of the kingdom during the days of King Rehoboam, whenever the prophets used the language of Israel and Jacob, they were always referring to the whole people of God, intending the Jewish descendants of Abraham. This shows how the Greek translators interpret the Hebrew ‘servant’ to mean themselves as a people because it was not until the 5th century A.D. that Rabbinical Judaism returned to using the Hebrew texts, thereby differentiating themselves from the newer rival religion of Christianity.
So, we see that until our modern times, this older and erroneous interpretation has been carried over interpreted back onto the original language’s use. But on the other hand, both reasonably and theologically, our Christological understanding of God’s servant here contains within itself a very natural reconciliation of both the Hebrew and the Greek use of Jacob and servant.
The servant is God’s mediator for the people, a covenant mediator, as we’ll see when we look at verse six. He is described as acting as the singular representative on behalf of the whole people, one representing the whole. Furthermore, this understanding is not just a creative explanation that Christians devised; it is rooted in the Jewish Torah with Moses.
Moses is named at the time of his death and remembered by scripture uniquely as the prototypical servant of the Lord. In Deuteronomy 34 we read, ‘So Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord, and he buried him in the land, in the valley, in the land of Moab, opposite Beth Peor; but no one knows the place of his burial to this day.’
He is named the servant because of what he did and accomplished for God on behalf of the Israelites by mediating the covenant at Mount Sinai and by bringing them to the promised land. Furthermore, the Apostle John connects and identifies Moses with the servant and the Lamb of God together in Revelation 15:3 where he writes, ‘And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb.’ One song, but connected to all three.
Now, by definition, individuals like Moses, Joshua, King David, the prophet Jonah, and even the patriarch Joseph are each a Christ and Messiah. We consider them to be prototypes of Christ, foreshadowing and directing us to the antitype, Christ Jesus, he who is the perfected and ultimate type. So we will on occasion refer to Jesus as being the greater Moses, the greater King David, and the greater Melchizedek, prophet, king, and priest.
When Isaiah here describes the Lord’s servant, we understand that he will be someone who is like Moses, with a similar yet far greater role to play in the narrative of redemption. Speaking to us, the Lord says, ‘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.’
The servant works for the Lord as his agent; he acts at God’s express command, doing his divine will. He is chosen and established by God Himself, and the Lord is well pleased with him. The servant is a godly man, faithful and obedient, returning joy to our Creator through all that he does.
God declares that ‘I have put my spirit upon him,’ in his sovereignty, divinely anointing him as priest, prophet, and king throughout redemptive history, making the servant to be Meshiach Christos, the Christ. We hear that he will possess and be guided by the Lord’s spirit, just as Moses and the kings Saul and David were, all to better serve God and his people.
We witnessed the fulfillment of this anointing when Jesus was baptized by John, as the heavens were opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came from heaven: ‘You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.’
But what is the mission of this servant in Christ? Isaiah tells us, ‘Now he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.’
Now, you may notice that I’ve shifted to the old King James here from the ESV which I read earlier. Within this passage, in particular, there is one word which makes a very significant difference in the English translation between the two; the ESV and the NIV interpretively declare that the servant will bring forth justice, while the King James literally says it will be judgment brought forth.
Although these two words, justice and judgment, can be different in their plain meaning, they are closely related, so there is no error or disagreement between these translations. Judgment just happens to be the more direct word used from the Hebrew sense, while justice is more interpretive of the servant’s judgment in application, being established on behalf of the Lord. His judgment must necessarily be just; the nations, the Gentiles, are the ones who will be judged justly by the servant according to the divine and holy law, according to God’s sovereign standard of righteousness.
Not man’s justice will be done; wickedness and sinfulness will be punished. All the peoples, all creation, will be subject to this judgment.
‘He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench.’ Divine justice will come, but when it does, it will come without violence, or belligerence, or force of arms. Instead, it will come with gentleness, kindness, and the tender softness of love.
Justice is something which can never result from violence, even though violence may sometimes be the righteous consequence of civil judgment. We followers of Christ are called to work in this world for justice in a manner like unto him gently, kindly, and with love.
I believe truly that one day we will see his justice come, but not through theft, or forced financial reparations on account of sins from past generations, not through discrimination or reverse discrimination, or by raising the downtrodden up while at the same time tearing down others, nor through demands for equity which is defined as being the same and equal results for all involved regardless of their ability or effort.
Instead, Christians are called to be charitable and generous, giving to those who lack and have need to help raise others up to better themselves, whether it be financially, socially, in education, or in their interpersonal relationships, and to offer everyone equal opportunity for success and access to our finite resources without extra artificial barriers, all the while sharing the gospel of Christ with them.
All should have an equal opportunity to hear God’s gospel, even as we know that not all will equally receive Christ. The Lord God made every single one of us equally in his image, and he has also given each of us different gifts and abilities, making us individually unique.
So because he first loved us, we will work and help to establish his justice through our loving of others. ‘A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench.’ The servant will strengthen the weak and encourage the faint-hearted until his judgment is rendered and true justice is established among all God’s creation.
When he shall bring forth judgment unto truth, divine judgment, divine justice is inevitable. It is unstoppable. It is as certain and sure and dependable as the Lord himself. The servant will not rest in truth until all the Lord’s purposes have been achieved, and the isles shall wait for his law.
Within the books of the prophets, and here in Isaiah particularly, islands and coastlands refer to the many peoples of the Mediterranean Sea, like the seagoing Phoenicians of Tyre and Sidon, and even the Greeks. Simply, it is used here to mean people who are certainly not Jews, nor who are expected to be desirous of or waiting for the Lord’s judgment.
Yet God declares here that these Gentiles will wait for and are waiting for the Lord’s holy law, his instruction in what is right, good, just, and true. Their acceptance of God’s sovereign rule will be the fulfillment of the servant’s mission and acceptance we see beginning to happen through the apostolic ministry of Paul.
Now, in the Hebrew and Jewish mindset, the sea, particularly the Mediterranean Sea in scripture, always symbolizes disorder and chaos as opposed to the order offered by God’s Torah. The sea is a lawless, unpredictable, wild, frighteningly dangerous, and untamed place. It feels to us as if every ocean-going sea captain from history would affirm something to the effect of the sea being a harsh mistress or a fickle woman, and certainly, nothing is to be taken for granted.
So at the establishment of this judgment, the servant will bring order out of chaos like a new act of creation, as in Genesis when the earth was without form and void. This establishment will be that of the originally intended divine plan, setting things to as they ought to be—imagery we see fulfilled in Revelation 4:6 and 15:4 by the glassy sea within the throne room of the Lord.
Now this verse also contains the other significant deviation in the Greek from the Hebrew. Alternatively, it may be read as, ‘And on his name the nations will hope,’ an interpretation which the NIV tried to incorporate and reconcile, translating it as, ‘In his teaching the islands will put their hope.’
Now, there could be a scribal error in the Septuagint, as the Greek words for name and law or teaching are written quite similarly and sound very much alike—onoma and nomos. Yet the Hebrew rendering is retained as correct for our English translation; however, the Greek reading is also an appropriate interpretation for Christians, as if it is upon the name of the servant that the Gentiles or nations will find their hope.
If the servant is the agent of the Lord God Almighty, his representative and image, then it is truly the Lord himself who is ultimately their hope. We believe that Jesus is God the Son, co-eternal of the very same substance and being as God the Father and God the Holy Spirit.
Jesus, whose name is that which Peter proclaimed before the Sanhedrin, saying, ‘And there is no salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved,’ and which Paul called the name that is above every other name—the name of the servant, Jesus Christ the Lord, Yahweh.
Now here Isaiah transitions from the declaration of who the servant is, turning our focus to the one who sends him, the Lord God, who declares before us all his sovereignty and primacy over all things. God, the Lord, Yahweh, the I AM—the one who possesses self-sufficient being within himself—God who created the heavens and stretched them out, the non-created creator, the original source from which all things come.
God who spread out the earth and what comes from it, ordaining, selecting, establishing all things that are, were, and ever will be—God who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it, who provides the air we breathe, preserving human life, who provides our spirit as well, our motivating force, our core being, our ‘us’ and our ‘I,’ as in who a person is.
The Lord God establishes himself here before us as the only sovereign creator, all-sufficient and without need, the provider and giver of everything, the elector and sustainer of all that he decrees and all that is.
Thus, the only God commissions and commands his servant in our presence as witnesses to his charge to the servant. He declares, ‘I, the Lord, have called thee in righteousness; I have justified you; I called, proclaimed, and declared you to be just, to possess my justness. You, my servant, will be just and righteous as I am just and righteous.
I will hold thine hand and will keep thee; holding your hand I will guide you, I will lead you; keeping you, I will guard you, protect you, persevere you. I will preserve you through all things, trials and tribulations; I will preserve you as I preserve myself. Nothing of lasting consequence will harm you; I will sustain you throughout your mission.
I will help you achieve my sovereign purposes in establishing justice among the nations by my judgment in truth. I will give thee for a covenant of the people; you shall be the mediator of my eternal covenant. You are the totality of the covenant; you shall receive both the blessing and the curse of my covenant.
By my imputed righteousness you will uphold these terms, and for their unrighteousness, you will uphold these terms. You are to be the sign and the seal, the security and the sacrifice by which my covenant is established for my people, who are your people.
Through this covenant you shall be a light for the nations; you are the beacon of hope, drawing all my people to me. You shall teach them to follow my ways, how to walk justly in the paths of righteousness. Through this covenant you will be both the just one and the justifier; my people will be declared and made just like you are.
Because you are righteous, your bright light will be to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house. Those who dwell in wickedness are spiritually and morally blind, for they cannot see the truth.
They are enslaved to their passions, to their selfishness, and sin, which drives and controls them. Justly are they condemned, and so deserve to be punished for their deeds. But you are the light of my mercy and grace; you will call them out to true freedom, freedom from sin and guilt, and those who see your light and look to you in hope will follow your bright beacon and come to me to receive forgiveness and peace.
They will be released from their captivity and bondage by my will, in my mercy, because of your faithfulness to this covenant. My servant, you are my agent of justice and mercy; you will judge the nations, you will punish the wicked in righteousness, and you will also give grace to my people, suffering their punishment and taking their guiltiness upon yourself, always remaining faithful to my covenant.
‘Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare; before they spring forth, I tell you of them.’ The way things have been, the wrong ways that things in creation have gone are done. They are finished, over; they have been completed and will be replaced, are being replaced.
I am telling you this now so that when it happens, all will recognize it, understand it, and glorify me for what I have done. Isaiah’s prophesied servant is one who is the greater Moses, whose work was foreshadowed and prefigured by Moses. He is the mediator of a greater covenant; he is the one who leads God’s people out from the darkness of our bondage in captivity to sin and death into the light of life in him.
He is the one who justifies us, changes us, transforms us, rescuing us from the old order and making us into something new. As the Apostle Paul explains: ‘Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away; behold, the new has come.’
The work of the servant, the mission of Christ Jesus, was to reconcile his chosen people to himself, to the Lord, establishing God’s just rule in creation and sanctifying himself a people who will now do what obedience requires: to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God.
Jesus has reconciled us to God our Father, granted us forgiveness for our sins, and rescued us from this evil age. He has justified us as his chosen people, and even now the Holy Spirit continues to sanctify us so that we may become obedient to the Lord as we ought—as his people, as his adopted children, and as his treasured possession.
Jesus Christ is the true servant of the Lord, and we, his brothers and sisters united together in and with him, are called and charged to join him in both his ministry and mission. The work is completed and has been fulfilled by him and by his efforts entirely, yet we are invited still to participate, doing the good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
Never forget it was Jesus who said, ‘I am the light of the world; whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life.’ And also, ‘You are the light of the world; a city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.
In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.’
We are in him; if he is in us, he is the true light so that we may also be light, projecting and expanding his light throughout the whole world until the things of the past age have been washed away and the kingdom of God is made manifest to our sight with the new heavens and new earth.
So let us then glorify God for all the good things he has done, is doing, and will ever do, now and forever. Amen.