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.
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