The Lord’s Chosen Servant
Context: Isaiah spoke of Messiah as both the root and the branch of Jesse (king David’s father), Isa 11:1-2, 10. Chapter 42:1-4 describes him as the Lord’s chosen servant. The New Testament regards this prophecy as fulfilled in Jesus (Mt 12:17-21). Interestingly, the same chapter in Isaiah speaks also of the nation of Israel as a servant (v24), albeit one who cannot hear or see, 42:19-21. This stark contrast suggests that the servant who is neither blind nor deaf can be none but Messiah. Accordingly, when the Bible later speaks of those who are truly Israelites, the image describes people who are in fellowship with this servant king as members of his body, Jn 1:47-49; cf Ro 2:28-29. The vision here is that all forms of racial segregation and ethnic barriers will be overcome in the body of Christ by abolishing all claims of superiority of any one member over another.
Warm-up: What do we like about new songs that they become ‘hits’?
Read: Isaiah 42
1) What causes God to delight in the servant described in Isa 42:1?
- For what mandate is this servant ‘anointed’ (Messiah, in Hebrew) by the Spirit, vv2-4, v7?
- Read Mt 12:17-21. Why did Matthew quote there Isa 42? v16
- Why did Jesus command his disciples to not tell their fellow Jews about his divine nature? How was this pleasing to God? Hint:
- How did this discrete style fit the mandate of Christ to become a servant?
2) In 42:19-25, the faithful servant of vv1-13 is contrasted to a servant of God that is described as blind and deaf. Could this be the same servant?
- Who is the “people” (singular) of v6, and what is its relationship to “the nations”? cf Isa 49:6
- Why can’t this people also be the servant of whom v6 said that He will be their “new covenant”?
- In Isa 42:6, who is called the “light for the nations”? The people of Israel, or Christ?
3) vv6-7: In what sense is Messiah a new covenant? v9; cf Heb 9:20; 10:9-10
- v6: What was wrong with the old covenant that ‘the house of Judah‘ needed a new one?
- Read 2Cor 3:14-18 and Heb 8:6-13.* Why didn’t they all know God in the old covenant, and how did that change in the new, Heb 8:11b?
- v7: If the mission of the Messiah is to cure the spiritually blind, why did this require to become a servant? cf Jn 13:6-8; Heb 10:22; Rev 3:18
4) vv10-12, sing a new song: Why, for whom, and what is it about?
- What metaphors did Isaiah use to describe the nations?
- How do they resemble a desert? Isa 41:17-20
- How do inhabitants of the coastlands resemble a stormy sea? e.g. Isa 17:12
- v12: What does it mean if they and their song will “…give glory to the Lord”? 2Cor 4:6
5) vv13-16: How did Christ bring light to the Gentiles, and how did the other servant try in vain? cf Eph 3:6; Ro 2:19
- v13: How does the exalted Christ resemble a battle commander? Acts 2:32-36; Rev 19:11-26
- Whom did Isaiah name as God’s foes, and why? Isa 1:23-24
- v14: What has changed compared to when God “kept still”? cf Acts 14:16; 17:30
- How does the final eon resemble birth pains? Mt 24:8; Jn 16:21-22; Ro 8:22-23
- v15: Why did Isaiah compare kingdoms to ‘mountains’ (Isa 2:14-15; 13:5; 41:15), and what will happen to those? Why such upheaval?
6) vv17-22: In what sense did God “magnify” the law? **
- Are vv17-20 about Gentiles, or about Israel?
- What’s the problem about idolatry, v17?
- Why do people love and even worship what God is loathing, and at what cost?
- Did Isaiah think the law is the solution, v21? Why not?
- If the law could have fixed them, would a new covenant be needed at all? cf Gal 3:21
- v22 mentions prisons: Why? cf Gal 3:22-23
- How was Israel a servant and a messenger even under the law, and even if they were spiritually “deaf and blind”? cf Ro 11:15
- What is spiritual blindness? cf Jn 8:43; 9:39-41
- How did the (new) “covenant” open eyes and ears of the spiritually dead? cf 2Cor 3:14-18; Eph 2:5
7) Personal & application
- Why does the whole discussion matter? i.e. what difference does it make what anyone thinks about who brings any light to Gentiles, and how?
- Especially colonialism has given a bad name to Christianity and its idea of bringing enlightenment to the ‘heathen’. Why? Could lesson(s) from Israel’s history and its analysis in Isaiah 42 have avoided deviations such as Apartheid (and in the name of Christianity)?
- Judging our forebears is easier than judging ourselves: How does Western culture continue its same claim of leading the world to a supposedly brighter future?
- In the famous song Amazing Grace, a famous line is “…I once was lost, but now am found, was blind but now I see”: How does that resonate with you?
- Paradoxically, spiritual blindness makes people think of themselves as no less enlightened (see above: Jn 9:39-41; Ro 2:19). Why?
* Heb 8:8 should follow the manuscripts that read “finding fault with it” (the covenant), not with them (the people), Heb 8:7. If the fault had been with the people, God would have transferred the old covenant to the Gentiles, which he didn’t. Instead, he made a new covenant for the same people (Heb 8:8b), even including now with them the Gentiles, Isa 42:6.
** In the Septuagint (a Greek translation of the OT by Jews that predates Christianity), v21 mentions no law: “The Lord God has taken counsel that he might be justified, and might magnify his praise.“
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