Isaiah, Chapter 42

We'll look at our passage here in Isaiah chapter 42 in just a moment. Right now, just to review, we've got electives that have now been in their third week. Romans is continuing from a year ago, continuing into September of next year, should the Lord allow us that long.

Identification truths began October 1st, as well as 1st and 2nd Peter. And then after here, there is the beginning today of the marriage, family, and finances elective. And the idea is that there is a potluck, and then we'll meet after that and begin that elective. All right. Looking at our passage here this morning, I want to first kind of review quickly what we did last week. And it's not just to backtrack, but there's a purpose in it. Isaiah chapter 41 that we looked at last week was actually a court case. The entire chapter is a court proceeding.

From the initiation of the legal action, it is God versus the pagan idols. The Lord is calling the pagan idols to task in a legal environment, is the way it's presented. To the presentation of the case in a pre-trial process, this is verses 2-20. The proceedings in the court case, verses 20-28.

And then to the final verdict, verse 29. By the way, verse 28 says that the pagan gods don't even have a lawyer, don't even have a counselor on their side. And the final verdict in verse 29 that we'll look at shortly here. God presents his unique and eternal character, his sovereignty over everything in his creation, his capabilities to act to which the pagan gods have no parallel, These are sharply contrasted with the pagan God's total lack of character, the rank ignorance, and the inability of the pagan idols to do anything. So the Lord contrasts it and summarizes that in verse 29.

One of the things we're going to see as we look from here on out in the book of Isaiah, 66 chapters, we're starting chapter 42 here today, We're going to see Isaiah turning more to the Gentiles. That's going to be one trend. Initially, we've seen a lot of focus on the people in the nation of Judah, to the Jews, and the city of Jerusalem, a lot of focus there. It's now going to be shifting more to the Gentiles, the nations. From here on out, we'll find him addressing the Gentile peoples and using words like nations, islands, coastlands, and even ends or end of the earth. So those words are going to show up increasingly as we look in the chapters in front of us. One more thing, and you might be relieved at this, the message will increasingly be good news.

We've gone through a number of chapters that have included a lot of judgment, a lot of statements of this or that bad thing is coming, or this threat is upon them. We're going to see increasingly, not exclusively, but increasingly more and more good news as Isaiah gives hope and looks to the future that the Lord has ahead.

One other thing to point out is the servant songs that are in the chapters ahead of us, beginning with this one and proceeding on into chapters 53 and then the subsequent refrain to that song, chapters 54 and 55. So today is the first of four servant songs in the book of Isaiah. We're, of course, looking at this passage here, the first four verses of chapter 42 as the servant song. We're looking at the refrain and a few verses following that. One other thing to point out as we start into these servant songs is what does Isaiah mean by servant? When we think of a servant, we may have kind of a stereotypical idea fall into our head.

Isaiah uses the word servant, but he's not picturing a lowly slave. He's not picturing someone who just deals with menial things. No, this is a word that has a higher calling. This is more the idea of a trusted envoy, a royal representative, an ambassador, someone who has a particular high calling. That's the idea when he uses the word servant here.

He'll use this word for servant of King Cyrus, the Persian, and actually in the next few chapters, we'll increasingly up through chapter 45, see that focus. Cyrus will be the one who will, a century and a half after Isaiah's time here, who will bring the Jews by his declaration back into their land. It will also be used for Christ, as we'll see in this chapter, and for the Jewish people. So the word servant gets used in several different ways.

We'll take a look at that in each time. Isaiah 42 in a nutshell, okay? You don't have to get there, but the passages, all right. Verses 1-4 make up the first four verses of these servant songs, the first of the four. This song is about God's chosen servant, again, God's ambassador, God's royal representative. Jesus Christ in both his first and second comings are shown up in this passage here.

We'll take a closer look at the refrain, that's verses 5-9, and then a few verses immediately following that. Let's start another section. We won't go into the entire section, but just verses 10 through 12. Verses 13 through 25, and again we're summarizing the chapter, the rest of the chapter is what is known as a chiasm. We've explained that before as kind of a mirror image in writing. Here is the content and it's reflected in reverse in the rest of the chapter. So there's a mirror image in literary form. from verses 13 through 25.

In summary, Isaiah chapter 42 is all about Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the focal point in his first and second comings. He is the focal point of chapter 42. Here is the first part. We'll take a brief look at it. He starts off, Behold my servant, whom I uphold, this is Jesus Christ, my chosen one, in whom my soul delights. I have put my spirit upon him. This is what you see, it's quoted in Matthew 12, 17-21. And so Matthew quotes these verses. Then the next part, what do you see starting it? Where have we heard that message before? Behold Jesus Christ.

This is beholding the Lord, 2 Corinthians 3.18. Beholding the Lord Jesus Christ. We'll talk about that more in just a minute.

The next part that comes out there is in Matthew 3.16 and 17. My chosen one, in whom my soul delights, I have put my spirit upon him. This is the message we see on Christ's baptism. John baptizes Christ in the Jordan. And this is my Son, in whom I am well pleased. And the Holy Spirit comes down like a dove. We see that very thing pictured here.

And then finally, He will bring forth justice to the nations. Christ, though His initial ministry is to the nation of Israel, And he really stays entirely within or very close to the people of Israel the entire time he's on earth on his first coming. And yet, his ultimate message is to be carried to the nations beyond Israel to the ends of the earth. Now, there's a contrast at the end of chapter 41.

And this is why I brought up the fact it was a court case. Verse 29 is the verdict. the final verdict of the court case. Behold, all of them are pagan idols. All of them, pagan idols, are false. This is the conclusion after the court case. Their works are worthless. Their molten images are wind and emptiness.

That's the decision after hearing all the evidence, after everything is presented, the final verdict at the end of chapter 41. Chapter 42, and remember our chapter and verse breaks put in later. Isaiah didn't put them in. The very next verse, the one we're starting to in chapter 42 here, Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one, in whom my soul delights.

Behold him. So the idols, they're worthless. They're useless. They don't do a thing. Behold my servant, in great contrast, he is the one whom I uphold. He is the one, the chosen one, in whom my soul delights. Isaiah starts here in this particular pair of verses having his readers behold the falsehood, the worthlessness, the emptiness of the pagan idols, and then in turn has them behold in sharp contrast God's servant, Jesus Christ. That's the sharp contrast, the change between the two chapters there.

We in the Church are also called to behold Christ in the Word of God, 2 Corinthians 3.18. And as we do, we are transformed from glory to glory. That's something that we have particularly has a marvelous promise, that transformation from glory to glory as we behold the Lord.

Something else as we go into this passage, starting with verse 5, there are three self-declarations of the Lord. God the Lord is the first one showing up in verse 5. Verse 6, I am the Lord. And again, the same declaration paired with a different message. I am the Lord. Those three self declarations of the Lord in this passage.

First verse there, Isaiah 42, 5. Thus says God the Lord who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and its offspring, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it. This is the first of the three self-declarations of the Lord. Other than these beginning words in this passage, we have the two that start the same in verses 6 and 8.

I am the Lord, he says. Now, God the Lord is El Yahweh, and I just want to tell you that's not Spanish, just so you know. El is God, who is God over all creation. This is from Genesis 14, is the first place that that name shows up. This is Genesis 14, 18 through 22. Yahweh is God's covenant name with Israel. And that is presented as Moses is with the burning bush.

All right, now, what's going on here? Oh, well, okay. Here's the Hebrew poetry pattern. And remember, the Hebrew poetry pattern is the idea of rhyming, not word sounds, but rhyming meanings. And so we see a repetition or a restatement as a common theme among these Hebrew poetry patterns. Thus says God the Lord. And then we find three who statements there.

Who created the heavens and stretched them out? Who spread out the earth and its offspring? Who gives bread to the... For heaven's sake, what's happening? All right. Gives breath to the people on it and the spirit to those who walk in it. All right. Now, here is the who statement that begins each of those things here.

Isaiah 42.5 is a poetic summary that actually summarizes in a poetic fashion in three statements, Genesis chapters 1 and 2. God created the heavens and stretched them out is the beginning there. God created the heavens and stretched them out. A very similar message to what we see in the beginning of Genesis chapter 1.

Spread out the earth and its offspring. And then finally, breath to the people on it. On the sixth day, the Lord created man, male and female. Now, what else? There's also a zoom lens scale here. Do you see that? He starts out, here's the heavens, big scale. then zeroes in, here's the earth, then zeroes in, here's mankind created. So on a physical scale, the Lord has a zoom lens approach taking place here as He speaks through Isaiah. Zooming in, here's the heavens, then the earth, and then mankind. It's through that sequence.

The other thing to point out here is this word created. that Isaiah chose to write with here. It's the exact same word as in, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. This is bara. When used of creating, it is only used of God. Human beings or any other being is not said to create using this word. This is uniquely of God.

Genesis 1.1, in the beginning God created bara, the heavens and the earth.

The next one is breadth, who gives breadth, and this is out of Genesis 2-7. God is the one who gives physical life, who gives life and breath. Verses 6 and 7, Isaiah writes here, we have another Hebrew poetry pattern, amazing, and it has two sections, let's take a look at them in sequence.

He starts off with, I am the Lord, that's the self-declaration we talk about, the second one. And what it says is, Lord, here, I am the Lord as Yahweh. That's the covenant name that the Lord used with Israel. I am the God who is the God of the covenant, the God of promises to you. That is what He is telling them. I am the one who promised, who made all these promises to Israel. I am the one who keeps His promises. I am the promise keeper, the Lord is saying. I've called you in righteousness.

Certainly this is the God of Israel speaking to Jesus, because remember, who's the you? This is Jesus Christ, before His incarnation. We'll show that in just a minute here. Yahweh is by character righteous. He is by character righteous. Jesus Christ is the very definition of righteousness. Christ our righteousness. He is the one in whom we have righteousness because we are in Him.

Now, here are some passages out of the Old Testament that illustrate this. Here's God the Father speaking to God the Son. Psalm 27, I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord He said to me, you are my son. So here's God the Father speaking to God the Son, even in the Psalms. You are my son, today I have begotten you.

You can see John 3.16. For God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son, right? Psalm 110a, the Lord says to my Lord. How about what? The Lord says to my Lord. What we have there is two different Hebrew words. Here's Yahweh says to Adonai, the Lord, the one having authority. Jesus said, all authority has been given unto me. Here's the one having authority. Sit at my right hand.

This, by the way, is the most quoted verse of the Old Testament in the New Testament. The New Testament quotes this verse more than any other in the whole Old Testament. And Psalm 110, same chapter and Psalms later down, the Lord is at your right hand, the relationship between the Father and the Son. Acts 22-33 references this verse.

Something I put on page 4 of your handout, because it's of a larger size and it kind of would mess up the layout, so I put it on page 4 of your handout. This is kind of a diagram and a set of verses that helps convey the understanding of the Trinity.

We're used to thinking of one person, one essence, aren't we? Hopefully you don't think of Verne and think of three people. But one person, one essence. That's the way our minds are accustomed to thinking. Scripture lays out clearly from one end to the other, God is three persons, one essence. That kind of blows our circuits. But Scripture continues to convey that message from Genesis all the way to Revelation. So it's something that's quite clear. You can take a look at that at your own time. Let me know what you've got memorized and we'll give you the next part. Now, it's back to this passage here, verses 6 and 7.

Here is God the Father speaking to God the Son, I will also hold you by the hand and watch over you. This line implies a close relationship, a guidance, and a watchful care of the Father over the Son. What we find is Jesus claimed these very things. As you look at the Gospels, Jesus said it's the Father who tells me what to say. The Father is taking care of me. The Father is the one in whom I have relationship and ultimate trust. There is intimacy between the Father and the Son.

What is not referred to commonly as the Lord's Prayer, but is actually the Lord's Prayer, is the prayer in the garden. And what is it? But a conversation between the Father and the Son. Intimacy. And who does He pray for? You and me. You and me. That intimacy that is implied here between the Father and the Son, and the great care and the guidance. The Lord Jesus prayed for us to be taken into that in reality, since we are in Him, we are in Christ.

I will appoint you as a covenant to the people and as a light to the nations. This means two figures of speech. What do I mean by that? Jesus Christ in His first and second comings was and will be the fulfillment of God's promises. Christ Himself will be the fulfillment of the living out of the covenants or the agreements, the promises that the Lord made. That's the first figure of speech.

The second one is He is a spiritual light to the nations. Christ is a spiritual light to the nations. That's spelled out. We'll see it a little farther on a few chapters later in Isaiah. It also shows up in Acts 26 and Revelation 21 in eternity in the new heavens and the new earth. Christ is indeed the light, the spiritual light to the nations. In Revelation 21, it is His glory. Remember, glory is the radiant essence of who God is. It is His glory. that eternally lights all the saints, provides light to all the saints all the time. No day, no night, no need for lights, because He is light. He is the radiant essence.

Verse 7, to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon and those who dwell in darkness from the prison. Now opening blind eyes was literally fulfilled. The Lord did that. We have examples of that in miraculous form. But the primary message of this passage is, spiritually speaking, that he would open the eyes of those who are spiritually blind. Now, nobody has that problem, right? Not so much. No, he would open the eyes of those who are spiritually blind, and you find actually repeated reference to that as we go through Scripture.

We get in the Gospel of John, Acts 26, Ephesians 1.18, Paul writes to the church at Ephesus. I pray, and actually in a lot of translations will say, that the eyes of your hearts may be opened. It's actually written in the perfect tense, that the eyes of your hearts having been opened.

Then, here is the Hebrew poetry pattern. I am the Lord, that is my name. I will not give my glory to another, nor my praise to graven images. Alright, there they go again. One of the things that comes across in this passage here is that God knows the future. God knows the future. We saw that last week in chapter 41. It comes across clearly here and we're going to see it six times in total from here into chapter 48. We'll see the repeated declaration, God knows the future. There is no question about that, as Isaiah writes here. Repeatedly laying that out is something in contrast between the God of Scriptures and these pagan idols.

Now, one question I have is, what difference does that make to you and me? Why does it matter? You might initially think, well, that's great hypothetically. What difference does that make in my life? Well, it does make a difference. God is sovereign over history, not only the big things that you read about in the history books and the front pages of the paper and on the news, but also all the details that happen in our lives. One of the things that we talked about in the first Peter elective this morning is the fact that we will encounter trials. We will. It's clear.

But rather than the world's frustration, why am I having this trial? Ever find yourself or hear somebody else ask the question, why me? Or even, I'm mad at God. This points out the Lord has purpose in everything. It's the eternal purpose, God's eternal purpose that's being fulfilled. The phrase that we saw shows up in both the first and the fifth chapters of 1 Peter. A little while. A little while. Compared to eternity, this is a time. A little while.

I am the Lord and that is my name. I will not give my glory to another. And my praise to graven images. We saw this phrase before in verse 6. This time it's, that is my name. That's who I am. The name isn't just a tag and a title. It's not just a sound that we associate with the Lord. But that's who He is. It's confirming the message that the Lord gave with Moses. Yahweh is God's covenant name with Israel.

And then, I will not give my glory to another. The Lord shares His glory with us, but He won't just hand it off to some pagan idol. He says, look, if you want the genuine thing, I'm the singular one. Nothing else. Nothing else. has glory, essentially, like me. Not even a Broncos Super Bowl win. Nothing else has glory like the Lord. The Lord is the source of all glory. He is the definition of glory. His glory is infinite. He will not transfer that glory to anyone or anything else. He will share His glory to those who believe. He will share that glory, but He will not transfer it and hand it off.

Verse 9, God is saying He knows the future, though there are things He's prophesied that have already come to pass. We've seen some of those in the book of Isaiah already. Things that came to pass within, say, one to three years. We've seen some of those. He's saying, I'm going to lay out more things. One of the passages we're going to... stop and take a close look at is Isaiah 53. He's going to talk about what's going to happen seven centuries from the time of this writing where Christ would come and where Isaiah 53 says, by his stripes we are healed. He's wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities. He's going to tell it seven centuries in advance. You'd be amazed, astounded at the detail that's there.

God continued to reveal truth throughout the writing of these authors of scripture up until the book of Revelation. Here's the Hebrew Old Testament chronology. I won't expect you to watch the detail other than to see this line. It's the things from here on out that include 12 Old Testament books that had yet to be written as of the time of Isaiah's writing, four books that were still in the process of being completed, including the rest of Isaiah. This was part of a handout given some weeks back here.

In the New Testament, all 27 books yet to be written. So we basically have about 39 books entirely yet to be written and four more in the process of being completed. Most of Scripture, most of the books by count of Scripture had not yet been completed or even begun by this time. The Lord says, I still have more things to write, more things to tell you about what's going to happen. I've told you some. Those have been fulfilled. and yet there's still more to come.

Isaiah 42, 10-12, last three verses of our passage here. Also have a Hebrew poetry pattern. Boy, that's amazing. Sing and sing and then you and you. The two rhyming themes, if you will, of this first set of verses there. Verse 10. Now, let's take a look. Here is Israel. over in the Eastern Mediterranean. Here's an area we're going to zoom in on here. So, all right, you got that. We're going to zoom in on it. This is the area, mostly it is now Greece and Turkey. What you see is a lot of islands and coastlands. That is probably what Isaiah primarily had in mind when he was writing the islands and the coastlands and the people that go down to the sea. All these places that the sailors would travel to.

Scriptures out of this passage that have a phrase the noose a new song show up numerous times in Psalms. This is the last time we're going to see in Isaiah this phrase, a new song. All nine verses of a new song are songs to the Lord or praising Him, about Him.

The two verses in Revelation are in the heavenly scene and they include us. What's interesting, we pointed out a few years back when we studied through Revelation, What's astounding is here is the Apostle John getting a chance to see the saints, and he's one of them, those who are of the church, there in the heavenlies, praising the Lord and singing the new song. So he's writing about, guess who? You and me, praising the Lord in the heavenlies, after we've been taken up, raptured.

All right, Isaiah 42.11, here's another Hebrew poetry pattern.

Let the wilderness and its cities lift up their voices, the settlements where Kedar inhabits, let this inhabitants of Selah sing aloud, let them shout for joy. Why is he bringing up these names, Kedar, Selah, names you don't hear of too often? We'll see here in just a minute. What's happening is God's design is not just for Israel. He's starting to talk about places and locations, geography, that's way outside of Israel. And he's starting to, I guess, as we mentioned earlier, point to the Gentiles. He's pointing to the nations, the people scattered abroad, not just Israel.

Now, where are Kedar and Selah? Think about that. Where are they? All right, let's find out. Here's Kedar, which would be out over in what is now Northern Saudi Arabia, or in that general area. Kedar would be a nomadic tribe mentioned in Genesis 25. We'll look at that in a minute.

Second son of Ishmael is the name. Selah is a city likely, it's not absolutely nailed down certain, but seems to be Petra in Roman times was the name. Selah in Isaiah's day was likely the same as the city later called Petra in Roman times. And you see it's kind of halfway between the Southern end of the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba there on the map. And there are these passages here in the Old Testament that list, and we've got the last of them, that list this name Selah. Here is Petra, means massive rock. This is a place that's called the treasury.

And what they would do rather than building buildings is they would carve out from the rock the building so that the rock would already be there. And it's all one massive solid piece built into the mountainside. This is sandstone. That's pretty solid stuff. Petra means massive rock. Here is Sela means cliffs. There are the cliffs and between the cliffs, you can see a little bit of that same building that's right there. So either name, massive rock or cliffs, both of those fit. Here would be a picture of some of the things that are built into the massive rock. That's the place that Isaiah is talking about that later on became called Petra, it seems from Roman times. And here this 2 Kings 14-7, we reminded folks a few weeks ago. You're wondering where 2 Kings is? There's 1 and 2 Kings.

Next we have the family tree from Terah to Abraham down to Ishmael to Kedar. Now here's Terah, Abraham's father, and here's Kedar. I know that's hard to see. Get out your pubinoculars and you'll see this. Here's Abraham and Hagar had Ishmael, and then there were 12 sons of Ishmael. The second of those was Kedar. That's the peoples that are being referred to here. Kedar was the second son.

Oh, I tell you, I'm not sure I'd pick those names, but he did. And then Kedar appears to have settled in this area of Northern Arabia, typically a nomadic people. So that's why I say appears to be, people keep moving around. It's tough to tell where they are, but moving around constantly.

All right, in verse 12, let them give glory to the Lord and declare His praise to the coastlands. Here's another Hebrew poetry pattern that shows up. Let them give glory to the Lord and declare His praise. Give glory to the Lord and declare His praise where?

In the coastlands. Here's again a reference to something not just Israel, but farther away. Places where there's plenty of coastland and where a lot of the more seafaring people head off. What's going on here? Anyway, these coastlands would include, in Isaiah's thinking, the cities of Lebanon. And I put it here known as the Phoenicians. The reason I put it that way, the people who lived in Lebanon identified with their city name. It was other people, the Greeks particularly, that called them Phoenicians. So isn't that interesting? As a group, they didn't identify themselves that way.

It was other people that gave them that summary name. and then such as Tyre. And the Greeks and the Phoenicians established throughout the Mediterranean and even other areas all the way up to Britain. They established a bunch of trading colonies and shipping routes. And the Phoenicians within a century after Isaiah's time even went circumvented all the way around Africa. So a lot of sea travel among those people.

So, what are we to make of this chapter? We look at it, the whole chapter is about Jesus Christ. We can take comfort as we look at this chapter in God's sovereignty and foreknowledge. With everything that happens, and you know, you and I may have some things happen in our life, we look back on it and say, boy, I sure wouldn't have signed up for this.

Ever have something like that happen? Probably you have at least one thing come to mind quickly and two or three easily. Things that we didn't sign up for, but You know, the Lord knows about those things and He has purpose in them. In the big picture, after this little while, what the Lord intends to do with those things will be far more apparent. The glory of them will be far more apparent.

Everything that we go through, though it may not all be pleasant, and certainly won't be some of it, it will still be with purpose. Every small thing. And that's wonderful because we don't have to go through life thinking, well this is a waste, well that's useless. No, it's not wasted, it's not useless.

We can see through this chapter, although Isaiah called the Jews in their place of blessing, in their manner of blessing, to behold the Lord, there is also Our call, as believers, is to behold Christ. We behold Christ through His Word, as we're doing this morning, and are therefore transformed from glory to glory. We are also privileged. Think of Isaiah. What was he doing? He looked ahead to Christ's first coming and looked to Christ's second coming. We're privileged to look between them. Think of Isaiah.

Here's Christ's first coming, and he would say, Christ in His first coming would be born of a virgin, chapter 7. Christ in His first coming, chapter 53, would pay the price for our iniquities, would take the penalty all upon Himself. In His second coming, He will come with glory. In His second coming, He will be the one through whom the entire earth is blessed.

Isaiah could look at both of those. We have a tremendous privilege, you and I, tremendous privilege of being between those. We can look back on what Isaiah only looked forward to. We can look back on what the Lord accomplished in his first coming. We can look forward to what the Lord has for us in his second coming. with things revealed to us that Isaiah, even Isaiah, as marvelous as these things are, never knew. We had tremendous privilege and incredible perspective.

Isaiah wrote at a time when there were 43 books of the Bible, either entirely unwritten, or in the case of his own and three others, in the process of being written. We have the privilege of having all 66 books. What perspective we have in Revelation and in time, to look back on what the Lord has done and to look forward on what the Lord will yet do for this little while that we're here, this little time. Isaiah didn't see the church. That wasn't revealed to him.

That was given to the apostles. We have it through Paul's word that that's how it came about. He wrote about the Gentiles and the light to the Gentiles, Christ, coming through the Jews. And he wrote about them praising and giving glory to the Lord. And in that, in doing that, we can take part even this morning, fulfilling it in a way that Isaiah never knew about.

Amazingly. Phenomenally. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you that we can give glory. What an amazing thing that here as we meet this morning, we in real time fulfill a small part, but a significant part of your eternal purpose. That your glory be declared and revealed. That you share your glory with us. The radiant essence of who you are. and that you be glorified because of it. Thank you for that privilege that we have even now in the minutes ahead of us. In Jesus name, Amen.