“The
Servant of the Lord”
(Isaiah
42:1-9)
June
14, 2020 YouTube
Last week, we looked at the idolatry of Jerusalem – how
easily they turn from trust in God and put their faith in creations of their
own hands. And God invites them to bring
their idols into the courtroom to judge between God and them – and God is vindicated. The idols do not know the future and they
cannot do anything. God knows everything
that shall be because He has ordained everything that will be.
Now God turns and gives a prophecy about something that
will begin to happen some seven hundred years after the prophecy is given.
First, God tells them His Servant is coming.
“Behold
my servant,”
The
obvious question is, Who is the Servant?
Israel
has been called God’s servant. And Cyrus
is called God’s servant. And these
options are argued for by various people even to this day. However, God reveals Who this is, so we have
no need to wonder. In Matthew’s Gospel,
we read of Jesus:
“But
the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him.
“Jesus,
aware of this, withdrew from there. And many followed him, and he healed them
all and ordered them not to make him known. This was to fulfill what was spoken
by the prophet Isaiah:
“’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. He
will not quarrel or cry aloud, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets; a
bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not quench, until
he brings justice to victory; and in his name the Gentiles will hope’” (Matthew
12:14-21, ESV).
If
we believe that the Bible is the Word of God, inerrant and infallible, superintended
over by God the Holy Spirit over the generations, there is no question as to
Who the Servant is in this text.
So,
“Behold – look – see, My Servant, Jesus!”
“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.”
Jesus,
the Son and Servant, is upheld by the Father – He is exalted, glorified, filled
with God the Holy Spirit. He is held in
deepest affection by the Father, God delights in Him with His Whole Being. God
the Son is chosen to Incarnate as the vehicle of salvation – it is through Him
and His work alone that any are saved.
We
remember this well at His Baptism:
“And
when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the
heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove
and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my
beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased’” (Matthew 3:16-17, ESV).
And
we remember the angels appearing to the shepherds:
“And
the angel said to them, ‘Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great
joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city
of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord’” (Luke 2:10-11, ESV).
And
His work is to bring justice to all peoples – the Jews and the Gentiles.
What
does that mean?
We
live in a strange time when we don’t understand what justice is. Justice is the impartial assignment of what
is right according to the law.
But
by that definition, Jesus coming to bring justice is terrifying – because sin rightly
deserves eternal punishment according to the Law! However, we must take the whole context into
consideration: Jesus came to take on
justice for all those who would ever believe and to confirm it on those who
never believe:
Jesus
says, “Whoever believes in [Jesus] is not condemned, but whoever does not
believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the
only Son of God” (John 3:18, ESV).
What
is the Servant like?
“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.”
Three
characteristics:
First,
He will not come proclaiming Himself; He will not announce Himself with loud
cries. He will not be like the
conquering armies that Jerusalem is used to – who come in screaming, announcing
themselves, making bold announcements of conquest.
No,
Jesus came as a little baby. The only
people who knew about Him were some shepherds and some astrologers. It wasn’t until He was thirty that His
ministry began. Even then, He frequently
told people not to tell anyone Who helped them.
Second, He will support the weak and the broken-hearted.
Jesus does not treat the weak and broken-hearted as
lesser people – as unworthy of His presence.
Rather, He uplifts them, and His heart goes out to them, and He promises
to work through the sparks and smoke to bring forth a blaze of light that shows
others Who He is.
Jesus spoke of His Kingdom and those who were too busy to
come:
“So the servant came and reported these things to his
master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go
out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and
crippled and blind and lame.’ And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded
has been done, and still there is room.’ And the master said to the servant,
‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house
may be filled” (Luke 14:21-23, ESV).
The ultimate statement is made as Jesus says, “I am the
good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11,
ESV).
Third, He will complete the work He is sent to do.
Jesus is completely human, and He has the same bodily
weaknesses we have, but in His Will and Spirit, He pressed forward to do the
Father’s Will, even when He wished the cup could be taken away. Jesus never turned from the work the Father
sent Him to do – He went forward with joy, as the author of Hebrews tells us –
to see the elect of God – all of His chosen – the sheep of His pasture, saved,
made right with God, and brought into His Kingdom:
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud
of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so
closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking
to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set
before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right
hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:1-2, ESV).
This is the Servant God would send: He Who is chosen by God to be the One to come
to proclaim God’s Will. One Who will not
be conceited and push the weak and suffering aside but will gather them close
to Him and eventually restore them to perfect health in His Kingdom. One Who will do everything necessary to save
His people – not just from the horrors of captivity – but from the Wrath of
God. Rather, He will give them His
Righteousness and Holiness and changed them to be like Him and fit for His
Kingdom.
The people of Jerusalem did not know Jesus, but they
understood that Isaiah is proclaiming God’s Word and promise that God will send
a Servant Who will deliver them from every ill and make them right before
God. So there is hope – in the slaughter
of war and in being carried off into captivity – there is hope because God does
not forget His people, and He has sent His Servant to eternally heal and secure
His people to be with Him.
Second, God says that the Servant is sent to glorify God.
And we have three sections:
First, God is the God Who creates and sustains all things,
so He is to be glorified.
“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:”
Before
God created, there is God. Everything
that exists apart from God, God created.
And God caused all life to come to life and God keeps all life
living. Without God continuing intervene
in history and life, nothing would be alive, and nothing would continue to
live.
As
Paul explains, “The
God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth,
does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as
though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and
breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live
on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the
boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel
their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of
us, for ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own
poets have said, ‘For we are indeed his offspring’” ( Acts 17:24-28, ESV).
Another strike against the idols is
that God created everything that is – including the stuff that the idols are made
from. No idol can claim to be self-existent
and to have existed before everything else existed or to have created
everything in existence, or to be He Who keeps everything living alive for as
long as He wills it. This is God alone.
Second, God calls the Servant to His work and empowers
Him to carry it out, so He is to be glorified.
“I am the LORD; I have called you in righteousness; I will
take you by the hand and keep you;”
God calls the Servant – God gives Him His mission – God
establishes Him in faithfulness and secures His completion of His mission. God gives the Servant immediate assistance
when He needs it and promises that He will always take His Hand and lead Him in
faithfulness and to the accomplishment of His work. God chose Him and will sustain Him for this
work.
The people of Jerusalem needed to hear this and Jesus
needed to hear this and we need to hear this.
The
people of Jerusalem knew that God promised in the Garden to send a savior – but
they didn’t know who or when, and some assumed that the savior would be a mere
human being. So, to know that God would
supply the ability and secure the outcome of the work of the Savior is an encouragement.
Jesus also needed to hear this because He is at the same
time in One Person the One True God and a real human being – with two natures
and two wills. So, Jesus could be
tempted, He could be afraid and not wish to go ahead – we remember Him in the
Garden asking if there was any other way because He knew the horrors He was
about to face. So, He knows He will be
upheld by God, empowered by God, and He will complete the work of salvation.
And we need to hear this because Jesus is a real human being
– the same as you or me – though He is also God and we are not. But we might be tempted to say that Jesus
doesn’t really understand our temptation because He is also God and God would
prevent Him from ever acting on temptation.
And it is true that Jesus never sinned.
However, He also was truly tempted to sin because the Incarnate God has
two natures and two wills. So, Jesus had
the ability to sin. He had the ability
to abandon the work of the Gospel. So,
He truly understands our temptation and sin – though He doesn’t excuse it.
“I
will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations,”
God
says the Servant will be given as a covenant for the people. How can that be? God already made a covenant with Abraham that
God cannot breach.
We
read: “Now the LORD said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and
your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a
great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will
be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I
will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed’” (Genesis
12:1-3, ESV).
The
promise to bless all the nations of the earth – Jews and Gentiles – is an
unconditional promise. God swore to do
what He promised, and nothing was required of any mere human for it to come to
pass.
So,
what does it mean for God to tell the Servant that God is giving Him as a
covenant for the people?
The
answer is found as Paul tells us, “For no one can lay a foundation other than
that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (I Corinthians 3:11, ESV).
And,
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation
to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16,
ESV).
What
does this add up to?
God
gives the Servant to be the Foundation of the Covenant between God and all
types of humans. Without Jesus, the
Servant, the promise to bless every type of person – with salvation – would not
be possible. So, God is not talking
about a new covenant, but He is explaining what the Abrahamic Covenant stands
on. Without the Servant, Jesus, there is
no salvation.
“to
open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from
the prison those who sit in darkness.”
As
Isaiah has been telling Jerusalem – they are going into captivity, but the day
will come when God will set them free.
John tells us this about the Servant:
“The true light, which gives light to everyone, was
coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him,
yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not
receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave
the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the
will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:9-13, ESV).
And as John the Baptist is waiting to be executed, he
sends his disciples to Jesus just to double-check to make sure that He is the
Savior – the promised Servant, Jesus says, “And Jesus answered them, ‘Go and
tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame
walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and
the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not
offended by me’” (Matthew 11:4-6, ESV).
Jesus, the Servant of God, is the Light of the
World. He removes the darkness from our
hearts and in that day and on the Final Day, He will remove the darkness from
our bodies, and we will be filled with His Light never to experience the
effects of sin again.
And third, God alone is to be glorified and He will only
allow Himself to be glorified.
“I
am the LORD; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to
carved idols.”
God
speaks using the same Name He told Moses, “I AM” (YHWH). And what God says should immediately remind
them of what God said regarding idolatry to Moses:
“You
shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous
God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the
fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands
of those who love me and keep my commandments” (Exodus 20:5-6, ESV).
God
will not share His Glory with anyone or anything else. God will not deny Himself – all glory is His.
We
remember that last week we saw that God defines covetousness as idolatry and
says that those who remain unrepentant in their idolatry will not be welcomed
into the Kingdom but will suffer the Wrath of God.
Why? Because only God is God, and God knows all
things and causes all things to come to pass.
And we come full circle:
“Behold,
the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they
spring forth I tell you of them.”
God
says that He prophesied things that would come to pass that the people of
Jerusalem know came to pass, so it only makes sense to trust God for the
promises that He has made concerning the future yet to come – including the
coming of the Servant Savior.
And
to us, let us turn away from all those things we talked about last week that
are idols for us – all those things that we covet.
As God continues to condemn idolatry, let us remember
that God promised to send the humble Servant Savior to bring the Father’s
promise to pass regarding the salvation of His people. And let us recognize that the Servant did
come in the Person of Jesus, and we are now sent out by Him, filled with God
the Holy Spirit Who leads us and strengthens us and brings God’s promise to
pass that there is salvation in Jesus alone – and one day He will return to
judge all those who have ever lived throughout time and space. Those who have believed in the Servant will
be received into God’s Kingdom, and those who reject Him will receive God’s
Eternal Wrath.
The Servant of the Lord proves that God is greater than
idols and worthy of all glory for the salvation He gifts us.
Let us pray:
Almighty God, we are humbled as You reveal Yourself and
Your Sovereign Plan throughout history.
Help us to trust You and to follow You always. Strengthen us by the power of God the Holy
Spirit and lead us in all holiness that You would be known and glorified. For it is in Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.
