The intent of this unit of material was to assure Israel that God had both the power and the desire to deliver her and to bring salvation to the whole world. It contains three basic themes: the pagans' inability to refute Yahweh's sovereignty, the promise to deliver fearful Israel, and the divine plan to use an ideal servant as redeemer.
The Lord, through His prophet, assured fearful Israel in this segment. Israel need not fear the nations (vv. 1-7) because Yahweh remained committed to His people and would use them to accomplish His purposes in the world (vv. 8-20). This expression of God's grace would have encouraged and motivated the Israelites to serve their Lord. The courtroom setting pictured in verses 1-7 enabled Isaiah to make God's transcendent monotheism clear and compelling (cf. 1:18; 43:26; 50:8). Verse 1 is a call to judgment, verses 2-4 set forth God's case, namely, his acts in history, and verses 5-7 relate the frightened response of the Gentile nations.
41:1 The coastlands were the farthest reaches of the Gentile world, the ends of the earth. By summoning them to be silent the Lord was appealing to all the Gentiles to listen to Him (cf. 1:2).411By heeding Him they would gain new strength, the same strength that was Israel's privilege (cf. 40:31). The Gentiles were to be fellow heirs with Israel (cf. 19:24-25; 27:13). But before that could happen they had to meet with the Lord and arrive at a decision (cf. Job. 38:3).
41:2-3 The Lord asked the nations a question. Who had righteously summoned a conqueror from the East who would defeat nations and overcome kings as easily and swiftly as one blows away dust and chaff? Later Isaiah would identify this conqueror as Cyrus the Persian (44:28; 45:1), but here the emphasis is on the one who sovereignly called him into action, namely, Yahweh.412This invader would proceed safely over previously unused routes.
41:4 The Lord has always been the one who has called forth such conquerors to carry out His will in the world. The military history of the world is simply the outworking of God's sovereign plan. God is the ultimate strategist who controls history. It has always been so, and it will always be so because no other god preceded Yahweh nor will any other succeed Him. He has no genealogy (cf. John 8:58; 18:5; Rev. 1:8, 17; 22:13).
41:5-6 Upon hearing this message of Yahweh's sovereignty, the nations fear and try to encourage each other. They do not bow before the Lord but gather together and quake (cf. Ps. 2:1-2).
41:7 Furthermore they proceed to build idols (cf. Gen. 1). Rather than turning to the Lord they make gods to whom they turn.413It is not these idols who strengthen their worshippers but the worshippers who strengthen their idols.
"What a god he must be that needs a common laborer to pass inspection and declare that he is in good condition!"414
"The purpose of all this detail is not clear, but the prophet may want to heighten the ironic effect by showing what a complex and arduous task idol making is. Thus he is implicitly asking his hearers if simply trusting the sovereign Lord is not a great deal easier. Another purpose may be to point out how dependent the gods are. They cannot be created by just one person; it takes a whole host of people to keep them going."415
Regardless of the nations' refusal to acknowledge Yahweh, He would intervene in history for the welfare of His people. Israel would not need to fear like the nations because the Lord would be with them and protect them.
41:8 The Lord turned from addressing the nations to speaking to Israel. God had chosen the Israelites for special blessing because He chose to love them more than other peoples. Election rests on love (cf. Deut. 7:7-8). The reference to Jacob recalls the unworthiness of the Israelites, and the mention of Abraham the fact that Abraham loved God (Gen. 18:17-19), the proper response to electing love (cf. 1 John 4:19). Both references also connect to God's covenant with the patriarchs. God had called Israel to be His servant.416
"Old Testament slavery/servanthood must never be thought of on the model of the West Indian slavery of the Christian era. Mosaic legislation extended protection to the slave and--such was the institution--had to make provision for the slave who loved his master and would not leave slavery (Ex. 21:2ff.). Such a slave', as a matter of social status, may have been at the bottom of life's heap, but in another sense he was as powerful as his master, for should he ever have been molested, it was the master the molester had to reckon with."417
41:9 God reminded His people that He had called them from the remotest part of the earth to be His servant. He did this in Abraham's case when He called him out of Ur into the Promised Land, and He did it in Jacob's when He brought him back into the land from his sojourn near Haran. God had determined not to reject His people. Israel had nothing to fear (cf. John 15:14-15).
41:10 Moreover, the Israelites did not need to fear because God was with them, and He had committed Himself to them (cf. Matt. 28:20). They need not look one way and then another trying to find safety (cf. vv. 5-6). Furthermore their God promised to help them in every way with His powerful right hand, a symbol of strength, and to do what was right (cf. 40:10-11).
"Even though no exiled nation had ever before in history been brought back to start life anew in their ancestral homeland, and even though the Gentile government would have no practical means of inducing the Jews to return home, nevertheless God would bring this seeming impossibility to pass."418
41:11-12 "Behold"urges continued attention to more promises. The anger of Israel's enemies against her would prove to shame them. Their claims against Israel would come to nothing. Their opponents would vanish. And their enemies would cease to exist. Increasing opposition would become increasingly ineffective. Those nations that would meddle with this servant would have to contend with an all powerful master.
41:13 Yahweh restated His promise and His exhortation from verse 10. Israel's God would strengthen, encourage, and help His people. He would stand with them while He defended them because He was Yahweh their God (cf. Exod. 20:2).
41:14 The Lord employed a second picture to comfort the Israelites. He would enable what was essentially weak to be strong (cf. 2 Cor. 12:10). Israel was like a worm in that she was weak and vulnerable. However, she had a next of kin (Heb. go'el, redeemer) in the Holy One of Israel who would take on her care and provide all she needed and more. This is the third time in this passage that Yahweh explicitly said He would help His people (cf. vv. 10, 13).
41:15 The Lord would transform the helpless worm, a tiny thresher of the soil, into a powerful threshing sledge by giving her His power. Threshing sledges were heavy wooden platforms fitted with sharp stones and pieces of metal underneath. Farmers dragged them over straw to cut it up in preparation for winnowing. The sledge that Yahweh would make of Israel, however, would be so good that it could chop down mountains and hills, not just straw. The modern equivalent would be giant earth-moving equipment.
41:16 Yet this sledge would do more. It would winnow the nations as well as threshing them. The strong wind that God would provide would drive Israel's enemies away, as the wind separated the wheat from the chaff and blew the chaff away.
". . . every hindrance to God's ultimate purposes in the international scene is overcome through a judgment executed through Israel [cf. Mic. 4:10-13]."419
Israel would then rejoice and make its boast in its great God who had both empowered it and removed its enemies.
41:17 A third picture unfolds. It is of Israel thirsting in the wilderness. The Lord promised to answer the prayers of His crushed and helpless people for their need Himself. He promised to come to their aid and not forsake them because He is their God.
41:18 He would provide by innovation (water where it did not usually appear, on hilltops), multiplication (more water where there was some, in valleys), and transformation (water where it never existed, in deserts).
41:19 He would also provide the other necessity in the wilderness of life's experiences beside water, namely, shade. All the trees mentioned (seven in all) were shade trees, but they did not normally grow together. This enhances the picture of God working wonders to provide for His people. Seven may symbolize the perfection of God's work in this connection.420The emphasis on water and trees also marks Genesis 3 suggesting a return to Edenic conditions.
41:20 The Lord would do this so the afflicted and the needy (v. 17), His people, would reflect and learn that their God had done a powerful creative work for them.
"The righteous God of verse 8:13 and the Redeemer of verses 14-17 is now the Creator (20), transforming his creation (18-19) for the benefit of his needy ones (17)."421
How is it clear that Yahweh and not the idols directs world history? Yahweh alone can predict the future and then bring it to pass (41:21-29). Since Yahweh is the God of Israel, does He have any regard for the Gentile nations? Yes, a servant of the Lord will bring forth justice to the nations (42:1-9). The court case with the nations begun in verse 1, but interrupted with comfort for the Lord's servant Israel in verses 8-2, now resumes. Before it ends, however, the Lord will explain the ministry of His Servant Messiah (42:1-9).
41:21 The Lord, through Isaiah, challenged the idolaters to prove that their gods were truly deity. The Lord presented Himself as the King of Jacob, from the nations' perspective no more than one national God among many, but He is really the King of Kings.
41:22-23 He ordered the idolaters to bring their gods in and have them explain the flow of past history. Can they explain history? Are they able to explain how past events will unfold into the future? Can they predict the future and bring it to pass? In a word, are they transcendent? This would prove that they were really gods. Indeed, the Lord challenged, have them do anything, good or bad, that they might have some real effect on people.
41:24 Since these challenges go unanswered, the Lord judges the idols as nothing, and their supposed work amounts to nothing (cf. 1 Cor. 8:4). Furthermore, people who worship them are an abomination because they follow such nonentities and because in doing so they become like their gods.
"It is not the idea of polytheistic idolatry that is abominable [in itself], but rather the act of replacing the truth with that system [cf. Rom. 1:18-23]."422
41:25 The Lord, in contrast to the idols, claimed that He would do something in the future and predicted what it would be. He would arouse a conqueror from the north, one who was presently dormant, as if sleeping. This individual proved to be Cyrus the Persian (44:28; 45:1), who originated in the East and the North in reference to Palestine. He would call on the Lord's name in that he would proclaim the reputation of the Lord by fulfilling His prophecy (cf. Ezra 1:2-4), not by worshipping Yahweh. He would thoroughly defeat his enemies.
41:26 Yahweh is the only predictor of Cyrus, and His prediction proves Him unique among the "gods."In Isaiah's day the pagans claimed that their gods sent them messages, but these messages were vague and not specific. The fulfillment of this prediction would prove that Yahweh was the true God.423
41:27 Yahweh had announced to His people that Cyrus' invaders would come. Cyrus would be a messenger of good news in two senses: his coming would validate the truthfulness of Isaiah's prediction of his coming, and his coming would mean return from captivity for the Jewish exiles (cf. Ezra 1:2-4).
41:28-29 When the Lord looked for a messenger from another god who predicted the coming of Cyrus, He could find none. Not one of them could give any information about his coming (cf. 40:13). So He concluded as He began (v. 24) but this time passing judgment on the idolaters rather than on the idols. "Behold"ends each subsection (vv. 24, 29). The idolaters are false in the sense of being untrue and delusive. Their works, the idols, are worthless, and their idol images amount to nothing.
Yahweh had challenged the nations to behold the folly of idols (41:24) and idol worshippers (41:29), but now He urged them to behold His Servant (42:1). This Servant would reveal God to the world, something the idols could not do. The Lord first spoke ofHis Servant (42:1-4) and then toHis Servant (42:5-9). Who this Servant is does not become clear until later (cf. Isaiah's identification of Cyrus). Earlier (41:8-16) the servant was Israel, so the readers would naturally assume that Israel is the servant here too.424Only later does it become clear that this Servant must be an individual, namely, Messiah.425He will be the ideal representative of Israel who will accomplish for the Lord what Israel did not regarding the world (cf. Gen. 12:3). Matthew quoted 42:1-4 as finding fulfillment in Jesus Christ (Matt. 12:18-21).
42:1 Yahweh called on the nations to see (give attention to) His Servant, in contrast to the idols (cf. 41:29).428He would uphold, or grip firmly, this Servant; He would sustain Him with deep affection. He would be one in whom the Lord delighted wholeheartedly, not just one He would use (cf. Matt. 3:17; 17:5). The Lord would place His Spirit on this Servant blessing Him with His presence and empowering Him for service (cf. 11:2-4; Num. 11:16-25; 1 Sam. 16:13; Ps. 33:6; 139:7; Matt. 3:16; Luke 4:18-19, 21). This Servant would bring forth justice to the nations of the world (cf. 9:7; 11:3-4; 16:5). Justice (Heb. mishpat) connotes societal order as well as legal equity. The Gentiles would not find this justice on their own, but the Servant would bring it to them (cf. 11:1-5; 32:1).429
42:2 He would not serve the Lord ostentatiously nor would He advertise Himself. His ministry would be quiet, non aggressive, and unthreatening. Obviously Cyrus was not this Servant.
"In verse 1 we met the quintessential servant; here is quintessential service. It was forecast by Isaiah, exemplified perfectly in the Lord Jesus Christ, and is to be reproduced in all who would serve the Lord with true service."430
42:3 The Lord's Servant would be gracious and patient. He would not discard what seemed to others useless, and He would not extinguish what seemed to others too spent. He would be faithful to His calling to bring forth justice to the nations (v. 1; cf. 11:3-4).
42:4 The pressures and blows that cause others to stop serving the Lord would not have that effect on Him. This reflects the Spirit's empowerment in His life (cf. v. 1). He would complete His mission of establishing justice on the earth. The farthest reaches of the earth will, therefore, anticipate the coming of His law, as Israel did at the base of Mount Sinai (Exod. 19; cf. Isa. 2:3). They would do so eager for justice to come to the earth, not necessarily eagerly anticipating it to come through the Lord's Servant.
The Lord now turned from describing His Servant's task by speaking aboutHim to confirming His task by speaking toHim.431Two aspects of the Lord's glory that earlier exposed the plight of the Gentile world, namely, that the Gentiles do not know the only true God and that they worship idols, bracket this passage dealing with Gentile hope.432The task of the Servant, not His identity, continues to be the focus of attention. Each segment begins with a reaffirmation of the identity of the true God (vv. 5, 6, 8).
42:5 The speaker identified Himself, for the comfort of the idol-worshipping nations (cf. 40:1). He was the transcendent God who created all things (Heb. ha'el, cf. 40:18), namely, Yahweh, the covenant-keeping God of Israel. He described Himself further as He who established the earth and who alone cares for it and sustains its inhabitants. The Servant's ministry will fulfill the Creator's original intention for the earth.
42:6 Yahweh not only called an invader in harmony with His righteous purposes for humankind (41:2), but He alone also called this Servant at the right time, in the right place, and for the right purpose. Cyrus would destroy, but Messiah would build. The Lord promised again to uphold His Servant (cf. v. 1). The Servant would fulfill the covenant requirements and promises that God had given His people, becoming a covenant to them in that sense, and so bring them into intimate fellowship with Himself (cf. 49:6-8).433The coming conqueror would drive the nations further into idolatry (41:5-7), but the Servant would lead them to God by serving as a light to the nations who sit in darkness (cf. Luke 2:32; John 14:6). The Lord Himself would do all this through His Servant (cf. Exod. 3:15; 6:3).
42:7 As light, the Servant would heal disabilities (physical and spiritual), end restrictions that others imposed, and transform individual circumstances (cf. Luke 1:79; John 1:4; 8:12; 9:5, 39-41; 12:46; Acts 26:18). He would bring people out of bondage, including their bondage to sin (cf. 61:1; John 8:32; Col. 1:13).
42:8 The Lord--Yahweh is His covenant name--is a distinct person with His own name (cf. Exod. 3:13-15). He would keep His covenant with Israel. He is not an idol that someone made and received the glory for making. The praise for His great acts belongs to Him, not to some image fashioned by His creature (cf. 41:21-29).
42:9 "Behold"concludes this passage as it began it, forming an inclusio(cf. v. 1). The former things that God had predicted through the prophets that had come to pass already provided assurance that the new things that Yahweh just revealed, about Cyrus and Messiah, would also happen. Yahweh had revealed them before they happened thus proving His uniqueness and superiority over the gods of the nations.434
Thus ends Yahweh's disputation with the gods (41:1-42:9). The appearance of Cyrus over 150 years after Isaiah's prophecies about him would be a kind of sign that the prophecies about the Servant would also come to pass in the more distant future.
