Isaiah 42:18-25 – Learn to nurture gratitude!

Comparing Christ Jesus, God’s Chosen Servant to Israel, the other servant of His, the latter had failed Him miserably. As a nation, she was chosen and called out from the nations to be God’s own people and to be His witness to the world. If she had been true and had remained faithful to her mission, she would have demonstrated the reality of the only true God to the world. But she had failed in her calling miserably.  The description of Israel, as God’s servant, in these verses showed us why they failed in their calling.  

As a nation, Israel and her people had lived in unbelief. So here God was addressing them. In verse 18 God called them to attention. He was admonishing them to see and carefully examine in order that they might be able to have a clear view of their distinct and unique calling. They were described as blind and deaf. Despite being so uniquely positioned in their relationship with God, these unbelieving people were not able to see and realize how privileged they were.

 

Exaggerating to prove a point, God said there was none so blind and deaf as Israel, His people. Despite the marvellous wonders God had done, all His attempts to communicate with them were futile. They did not respond positively but remained blind and deaf to His kind overtures. For His own righteous purpose,  God had provided the great Law to ensure that they could live right. They however, had been disobedient and indifferent to His love and had become victim of His judgment by their own design. They had forfeited themselves of the good plan God had for them. Hence, they became a people that had been robbed, plundered, and pillaged.  

 

In verses 23-25, Isaiah urged the people to pause and take stock of her present condition, and evaluate how they had gotten to this state. If only they would learn from the history of their chastening, they would be able to see how rebellious they had been to God and His graciousness. They had been thoroughly insensitive to Him though they had been so severely disciplined.

 

Be careful not to take the calling of God in our lives for granted. It is a privilege that we need to reciprocate with responsible action and living. We must take effort to make our calling sure. Taking time to reminisce how God had brought us through the challenges we face in life will help us to be grateful to Him. It will also make us more sensitive to Him and His goodness. In everything give thanks. Nurture gratitude, you will not regret it!

Isaiah 42:13-17 – In God our deliverance is sure

Having called on the people to raise a new song to God in Isaiah 42:10-12, the prophet proceeded in verses 13-17 to describe the way the LORD would bring about the deliverance.  

Verse 13 described the deliverance as a military campaign. The LORD would go out like a warrior in warfare. He would attack the enemies, prevailing over them and keeping them at bay. For a long time, He had been patient and forbearing and had shown great restraint. Now he would no longer remain silent. He would adopt a more aggressive stance and attack.

 

In verse 14, Isaiah used the imagery of a woman in travail and ready to bring forth her baby. As the time draws near for a baby to come forth, the birth pangs of the mother would increase in intensity. She would be blowing hard, groaning, and panting vigorously as the time of delivery drew nearer. Like a laboring mother about to bring forth her baby, God’s righteous anger had been increasing in intensity. It was an indication that the time for deliverance was drawing nearer. God was about to bring forth something new.  

 

Verses 15-16 show the LORD aggressively thrashing the enemies and delivering His people by removing all obstacles. He would ensure that their path would be smoothened. Besides, He would be their guide leading them in ways they would not otherwise know. He would turn their darkness to light to enable them to see clearly.  His people could expect His active involvement to deliver them. And the last line of verse 17 left caution to those enemies who rely on and trust their idols. They would turn back and return in shame.

 

The LORD not only promises deliverance but also guidance for those who dare to trust Him. Know that God delivers in different ways. He will bring forth light in the darkness and bring clarity. He will also remove all obstacles so that our path is smoothened, and our victory ensured. To those of us who are puzzled, God says to you, “I will turn the darkness before you into light.” To those struggling, He says, “I will  turn uneven land and make them plain.” Trust Him absolutely. His promises are sure!   

Isaiah 42:9-12 – In praise of God for the Redeemer

In Isaiah 41:22-23, God challenged the idols that the nations had made to prove that they were indeed gods. He told them to show proof by predicting coming events. Of course, they could not tell what was coming because they were only the products of men and not gods. Therefore God said that they were less than nothing, meaning they were non-existent. But the God of Israel was unlike them. He was and is and has always been the true God. So here in Isaiah 42:9, He said He would present as proof of His deity, the same thing He demanded of the idols. Being the true and Sovereign God, He has the ability and will declare the events before they happen. A thing that dumb idols are not able to do.

In verse 10, Isaiah immediately called on the people to rejoice and celebrate the mercy of God in the provision of the Redeemer. His gracious act would certainly be worthy of a new song and a new level of praise. What He had done should engender new praise even from the ends of the earth. Song of the past would be too inadequate an expression of the new, wonderful, and great mercy of God. So the prophet called for fresh new songs that would be more befitting of the occasion to celebrate God’s goodness.   

 

Knowing that those who used the great sea for their trade and travel would be critical in the spread of the good news and the work of the Redeemer, Isaiah began addressing them. He was calling on the community of seafarers to rejoice as well as declare the Redeemer’s work. He also encouraged the pockets of people who dwelt in the wilderness to welcome and rejoice in the good news of the Servant. They were also called to raise their voices and celebrate and shout for joy. Everyone everywhere should rejoice and celebrate and raise their song of praise to the LORD, for the provision of the Redeemer who would bring God’s benefits to mankind.   

 

What would be a befitting response to what God had done in sending His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, as our Redeemer? Firstly, we show gratitude by offering ourselves to Him for His sacrificial love. We commit ourselves to faithfully worship and serve Him. Secondly, we nurture a life that will bring praise to His name. We live life in such a way that will motivate others to praise Him as well. Thirdly, we must actively share the good news of the Redeemer so that more will benefit from His sacrificial work. Let us determine to be the proclaimers of this wonderful and great news!

Isaiah 42:5-8 – Living and laboring for the glory of God

Isaiah 42:5 left us without a doubt that the declaration concerning the Servant of the LORD, made in the preceding verses, was not something that came from the prophet’s deduction. It was the declaration of the Creator God, the One who made the heavens and the earth and everything therein, including every life. He is the One who has given breath and spirit to every living person. It is He who has made and sustains every living person by the spirit He puts within each one.

In Isaiah 42:6-9, the Lord then addressed and assured His Chosen Servant personally. There is no doubt that Christ Jesus whom God has sent to save the world is that Chosen Servant. Verse 6 said that God called Him in righteousness. This means that the role Christ has been called to accomplish has to do with God’s righteous purpose concerning fallen mankind. He was also appointed as a covenant to the people. Meaning in Christ we have the embodiment of God’s covenant with the people whom He came to redeem. That is why Christ is referred to as “our salvation” and “our peace”.   Furthermore, He is the only true light to a darkened world. Only in Him can mankind see and experience God’s eternal plan and purpose for a fallen world.  

 

The fallen world is blinded by sin, imprisoned in darkness, and in bondage to sin. Until the light of Christ shines through, sin would obscure mankind from the plan and purpose of God for them. Christ came to open the blind eye of fallen humanity. His ministry includes opening spiritual blindness and restoring the spiritual sight. He will also bring both spiritual and physical healing.  

 

In verse 8 God then turned from addressing His Chosen Servant to the people. He declared to them that He alone, the covenant LORD Himself would bring all that He had said to pass. He distinguished Himself as the LORD, the Covenant God. And He would not allow Himself to be mistaken and be put on par with man-made idols. He is infinitely different and there is none like Him. All glory belongs to Him alone! He would not allow the glory of the accomplishment that only He alone could bring to be attributed to the so-called gods. Neither would He allow the praise due to Him alone be given to any other being, man or idols.  

 

Gratefully, in Christ, our spiritual sight is restored. In Him, we have become God’s new covenant people. We are now enlisted into His band of workers to co-labor with Him to set captives free. We must also never forget that God alone deserves all the glory. So it is important that we worship and serve Him alone. We should never allow the glory and praise that are due to Him alone to be offered to ourselves or any other man or idol. We must always adopt the posture of living our lives aright so that we will bring praise and glory to Him alone. Let us live to the glory, honor, and praise of His name!

Isaiah 42:1-4 – Emulating Jesus, the Messiah

While talking about Cyrus and the would-be deliverance of Judah from their Babylonian captivity, Isaiah was led to talk about a greater deliverance. He was led to talk about the deliverance of sinners from the bondage of sin. Isaiah’s prophecy here leads us to conclude that the Servant of the LORD described in Isaiah 42 is none other than Jesus the Christ. For it is easy to see how naturally the description of this unique Servant fits so perfectly with what we know of Jesus Christ in the Gospels.

Firstly, the Servant described in verse 1 is God’s Servant, whom He upholds. Furthermore, He is God’s Chosen in whom God finds great delight. Jesus as the Son of God was appointed from eternity to serve God and to fulfill His plan and purpose. In the Gospels, God twice openly declared Jesus as His Son, in whom He, the Father God was well-pleased, once at Jordan during His baptism, and once at the mount of transfiguration. Truly God had chosen Jesus as His Messiah Servant to bring redemption to mankind.  

 

Secondly, like what is described of the Servant here, Jesus was conscious of the Spirit of God within and had operated under that strong anointing. He Himself during his ministry quoted exactly what Isaiah 61:1 had said, to authenticate His Spirit-filled and led ministry. So we read in Luke 4, His declaration that “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He anointed Me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed.”

 

Thirdly we see in the Gospels, how Jesus devoted Himself to bring justice to the people. He did so with meekness and gentleness and not with a loud cry of violence. He tenderly dealt with the needy and oppressed, who were wounded by sin and the bitter realities of life in a fallen world. Jesus did so without compromising the justice that God required. Though He had to face harsh oppositions, He was not easily discouraged. Neither did He show any sign of weakness till the demands of God’s justice on earth be met. Here we see hints of the suffering Jesus the Messiah as God’s Servant had to endure, to bring about the redemptive plan of God.

 

What a picture! The Master became the servant of all. In Him, we see how authority can be exercised in humility. He shows us how we can lead through serving. And like Him, we must seek to recognize our place in God’s plan and destiny, and obediently and humbly fulfill our call. Jesus is our ultimate example!

Isaiah 41:21-29 – The wonders of God vs the helplessness of idols

In the first eight verses of Isaiah 41, the nations confronted by the coming of King Cyrus got together to encourage each other. Their craftsmen also got together to make idols hoping that their handmade gods could help them deal with him. The craftsmen even flattered each other’s work in the process of making those idols. God of course knew that these dumb idols had no power. So in these remaining verses of Isaiah 49 these dumb idols were being confronted by God, who called Himself the King of Jacob.  

God challenged those man-made idols to do three things, as proofs that they had power like Him. Firstly, if they were like God and had the power, they should be able to reveal what happened in the past. So He challenged them to make known the former things, meaning events of the past. Secondly, if they have power like God, they should be able to foretell the future. But they could not. Thirdly, if they were like God, they should have the power to make things happen. The call for them to do “good or evil” should not be mistaken as God is capable of doing evil. God was merely calling for them to do something that would authenticate their claims as a deity. In all three issues, they were not able to meet the challenge.  It proved conclusively that they were merely dumb powerless idols and had no inherent power like God. They were pathetically “less than nothing.” In other words, they were unreal and only a figment of man’s imagination. To God, those who worshipped them were as dumb and despicable as those idols themselves.  

 

In contrast, Israel’s covenant God has all the power to make things happen to vindicate His own power and divinity. He said He would raise someone who would call on His name. Cyrus, in Ezra 1:2-3 indeed called on the name of God and acknowledged Him,  as he decreed the release of the people of God from Babylonian captivity. Being the king of Persia, Cyrus hailed from the East. But verse 25 said that God would put one “…from the north into motion.” It simply meant that when Cyrus invaded Babylon, he came down from the north. He came powerfully and trampled down all who opposed him.  Apart from God, there was none, neither the man-made idols nor any man would have known about the coming of Cyrus. But God did. He had already made the announcement of the good news of all that would happen in Zion. The silence of the idols proved conclusively that they were not deities but only vain idols.    

 

In this passage we see the powerlessness and futility of man-made idols as they stand alongside the wonders of the Powerful God. We are certain that no true believer of God would worship or trust any physical man-made idol. Nonetheless, each of us may have “idols” of some sort which we may unconsciously venerate. They can come in the form of ourselves, our spouse, our children, our boyfriend or girlfriend, our fiancé or fiancée, our family, our career, our car, our hobbies, and yes even our ministry. The list can go on endlessly. Take time to review your life to make sure that none of these is an “idol” you venerate. While we enjoy them as blessings that God has added to make our lives more colorful, they must never take the place of God. Be sure to worship the Lord only, and Him only shall we serve!

Isaiah 41:11-20 – With God we can never lose

These words were really for the remnant of Judah. It would be a reminder that they have a special place in God’s heart. He had chosen Jacob whom He later named Israel, and made his descendants His own special people. They not only became His people but also called to serve Him. The process of becoming God’s unique people started when God called Abraham, whom He addressed as “My friend”, out of the Ur of Chaldee, saying in Genesis 12:1-2:  

“Go from your country,
And from your relatives
And from your father’s house,
To the land which I will show you;
And I will make you into a great nation,
And I will bless you,
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing…”

 

Because of the covenant God had made with Abraham, his descendants became God’s covenant people. Though they had been unfaithful to God, He remained faithful and committed to them. While He would chasten them, He also promised to deliver them, to grant victory and prosper them.   

 

In verses 11-14, God assured them that He would deliver them. He would deliver them through Cyrus. Israel’s adversaries who were now hostile toward them would be put to shame and dishonor. All of them would, in fact, be eradicated from the face of history, never to be seen again. But they, His people, would have a different experience. He would be with them in all their hard struggles to encourage them and see them through. He, the Holy One of Israel, would be their Redeemer.

 

From the assurance of deliverance, God in verses 15-17 assured them of ultimate victory.  God would make them into “a new, sharp threshing sledge with double edges.” A threshing sledge is an appliance drawn by oxen over a threshing floor of the harvested kernel to separate the husk from the grain. The enemies are likened to the husk that would be blown away by the wind. But God’s people would experience victory and enter a time of rejoicing. They would then do the befitting thing, i.e. to boast in their Lord, the Holy One of Israel.

 

Not only were the remnant assured of deliverance and ultimate victory, but were also assured of needful provision. Firstly, He promised to answer the cry of their needy and poor. As their God, He would never abandon them in their hour of need. Their barren land would become fertile again. Their once desert land would be well irrigated. And their once barren forest would become productive and lush. Their land would become thick forestry, richly cultivated with trees of all sorts, such as cedar, acacia, myrtle, olive, juniper, elm, and cypress. As the people experienced His deliverance, His granted victory, and bountiful provision, they would be able to gain insight. They would  know that the faithful hand of their covenant LORD, the Holy One of Israel had been behind all their experiences.   

 

There are endless lessons to be drawn from our musing of these verses. But one thing that will immensely help us in our journey is to know that as God’s people, our lives are secured in His hand. Nothing ever happens to us by happenstance. Events will never take place in our life without His go ahead. But through every experience, He expects us to gain insight and become more adept at living for Him. Is there a hardship that one of us is going through? Know that He has permitted it. Know that He is there with us. His goal is to shape us to be like Christ so live for the greater glory of His name!