Behold, My Servant!

The Word of the LORD to Isaiah had not held back. God had pointed out the errors of the way Israel and Judah had walked. Their idolatry was glaring, their propensity for false gods was odious in God sight. They had long turned from the One True God to Baal, Ashtoreth, and many other false gods. These idols fashioned by the hands of craftsmen could not save them. Only the One Who Created All Things could do that. The Eternal Creator of Heaven and Earth was the God who had made a covenant with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and David. It was He who had brought them into their land, and it was He who would exile Judah just as He had exiled Israel for their transgressions against His Law and Covenant.

God had looked out among His people to see if there was anyone who could help them. No one was there who could perform the task necessary, so God pulled out Plan A, written from before Creation itself. God Himself would do it, He would come as His Servant, filled with the Holy Spirit of God, to bring justice to the nations and righteous salvation to Israel and to the nations. ‘Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My Chosen One in whom My soul delights. I have put my Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry out or raise His voice, nor make His voice heard in the street. A bruised reed He wil not break and a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish; He will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not be disheartened or crushed, until He has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands will wait expectantly for His Law.’

These are not the words of Isaiah, spreading hopeful messages to anyone who might hear. These are the Words of the Almighty God - El YHWH in Hebrew. This is the One Who Created All Things! He created Heaven and earth and gave breath to mankind. He gives spirit to those who walk on the earth. YHWH Himself spoke this, the Eternal Creator would come Himself and do what no man could do. ‘I am YHWH, I have called you in righteousness, I will also hold you by the hand and watch over you, and I will appoint You as a covenant to the people, as a Light to the nations, to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon, and those who dwell in darkness from the prison. I Am YHWH, that is My Name; I will not give My glory to another, nor My praise to graven images.’

Because Israel and Judah had rejected YHWH and turned to idols, God would not come as these false gods had. No man would fashion His image into an idol that could stand on a shelf. God had always planned on personally coming to be with mankind whom He had made in His image. He would come Himself and do the task no idol could do. ‘Behold, the former things have come to pass, now I declare new things; before they spring forth I proclaim them to you.’ God differentiates Himself from the false gods by telling us what He will do long before it happens. So 700 years before Jesus was born, Isaiah foretold that God would take on flesh and dwell among us, walk the earth beside mankind, and perform the task no man could.

‘Sing to YHWH a new song, sing His praise from the ends of the earth! YHWH will go forth like a warrior, He will arouse His zeal like a man of war, He will utter a shout, yes, He will raise a war cry, He will prevail against His enemies.’ Where God would come silently the first time, a day would come when He would come as a mighty warrior to crush His enemies. On that Day, He will fulfill the rest of Isaiah 42. ‘I have kept silent for a long time, I have kept still and restrained Myself. Now like a woman in labor I will groan, I will both gasp and pant. I will lay waster the mountains and hills, and wither all their vegetation; I will make the rivers into coastlands, and dry up the ponds. And I will lead the blind by a way they do not know, in paths they do not know I will guide them. I will make darkness into light before them and rugged places into plains. These are the things I will do, and I will not leave them undone.’

YHWH will put to shame those who have trusted in idols, who say to molten images, ‘You are our gods.’ They are the blind and deaf ones, whom God is calling out to, ‘Hear, you deaf! And look, you blind, that you may see. Who is blind but My Servant, or so dead as My Messenger whom I send? Who is so blind as he that is at peace with Me, or so blind as the Servant of the LORD? You have seen many things, but you do not observe them. Your ears are open, but none hears. YHWH was pleased for His righteousness sake to make the Law great and glorious. But this people plundered and despoiled; all of them are trapped in caves, or are hidden away in prisons; they have become a prey with none to deliver them, and a spoil, with none to say, ‘Give them back!’

The situation that Judah would soon find themselves in was much like what Israel had already discovered. They would be exiled from the land. Hezekiah had heard that Babylon would come and take them all away. Jerusalem would be destroyed, the Temple gone. They would become captives because they had rejected the Law and the Covenant. Thinking that they had become enlightened so they could see the hidden mysteries of the false gods, they had rather become blinded fools. So they would become plunder for others. Since they had stopped up their ears to the Word of YHWH, they would not be delivered.

‘Who among you will give ear to this? Who will give heed and listen thereafter? Who gave Jacob up for spoil, and Israel to plunderers?’ God Himself is pointing out facts, not that Judah would listen. Who gave Israel over the the hands of their enemies? And who would do that to Judah and Jerusalem? ‘Was it not YHWH, against whom we have sinned? And in whose ways they are not willing for walk, and whose Law they did not obey? So He poured out on him His fierce anger and the fierceness of battle; and it set him aflame all around, yet he did not recognize it, and it burned him, but he paid no attention.’ 

Isaiah was faithful to deliver God’s indictment of the sins of Israel and Judah. Their idolatry had already ruined them and they would be taken away until God Himself came to deliver them from their sin and idolatry. Only God can save, only God Himself would be able to accomplish this impossible task. Jesus would come, God incarnate, to do what no sinful man could do - redeem Israel and the nations, and open their blinded eyes and stopped up ears so they could see the truth.