This is a lengthy discourse.
😏 Thank you for warning us. I’ll get snacks.
No… I meant Isaiah. This one discourse actually continues on, repeating the themes in this section, at least through chapter 53, (as far as I can tell).
The main idea across these 11 chapters is Yahweh’s Two Servants. It doesn’t SAY there are two servants, but there are two very distinct personas described; both called “The Servant of the LORD” or “Yahweh’s Servant.” Let’s get into it.
ISAIAH 42
It begins with Yahweh describing someone He calls “my servant.” Here are the characteristics of this servant from v1-9:
- Upheld by Yahweh
- Chosen. Delights the LORD.
- Carries God’s Spirit
- Brings justice to the nations
- Quiet & gentle & persistent
- Given as a covenant for the people – both Jew and Gentile
- Will open blind eyes
- Will release prisoners from “darkness”
- Light is often a metaphor for Truth so Darkness may point to the absence of Truth. The prison is one of the heart: deceived, devoid of the light of truth.
I want to unpack the bit about opening the eyes of the blind and how the LORD has already talked to Isaiah (and WILL speak to the other prophets and apostles) about blindness.
⏸️ 🤓
What’s the Pause button for?
🤓 You’re about to side-quest aren’t you?
Yes.
🤓 I’m pressing pause on Isaiah 42 while you chase rabbits. 🐰 Let me know when you’re ready and I’ll press play ▶️ again.
Ok. Sounds good.
Let’s go back to Isaiah’s call and heavenly commissioning experience:
“And he said, “Go, and say to this people: ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.’”
Isaiah 6:9-10 ESV
Note that God is not making Israel something they weren’t. It says “keep on…” They were already deaf and blind to God’s Word. They had already been ignoring the prophets. It’s like when God “hardened” Pharaoh’s heart. He merely locked Pharaoh into a choice he had already made when “Pharaoh hardened his heart.”
Isaiah wasn’t the only prophet to address the spiritual blindness of Israel and Judah. Jeremiah was in Jerusalem as it fell to the Babylonians.
“Hear this, O foolish and senseless people, who have eyes, but see not, who have ears, but hear not.
But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart; they have turned aside and gone away.”
Jeremiah 5:21, 23 ESV
Ezekiel was in Babylon during the exile. And the blindness was still a problem:
“The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, you dwell in the midst of a rebellious house, who have eyes to see, but see not, who have ears to hear, but hear not, for they are a rebellious house.”
Ezekiel 12:1-2 ESV
I bring this up because we know that Jesus healed physical blindness. But what about the spiritual blindness? Jesus Himself provides the Divine Commentary on Isaiah’s prophecy about blindness. He gives it after the Disciples ask why He taught in parables. It’s an extensive quote but we can’t get better insight than from the lips of Christ:
“And he answered them, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.
This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says:
‘You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive. For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.’
But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. For truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.”
Matthew 13:11-17 ESV
When Paul writes to the believers in Rome, he refers to this same passage from Isaiah 6 (in Rom. 11:7-8) as he explains how God has used the hardness of Israel’s heart as an opportunity to “graft in” the wild Gentile olive branch.
When he finally makes it to Rome (as a prisoner under house arrest), Paul quotes this same Isaiah passage to the Jewish leaders who come to see him. After proclaiming the Gospel to them, a few believed but most did not and they fell to arguing about it. So Paul quotes the passage to them which was the final straw. They all left at that point. See Acts 28:16-28.
In 2 Corinthians 4:3-6 Paul explains that spiritual blindness is caused “by the god of this world” to keep people from seeing the light of the Gospel.
THIS is the blindness that the Lord’s Servant will address. It’s not just about healing the defective optical organs 👀 of blind beggars. AND… The opening of spiritually blind eyes is the same as releasing prisoners from darkness. Here’s that text again:
“to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.”
Isaiah 42:7 ESV
This is describing ONE thing. The blindness IS the dungeon. The blindness (as the prophets and Jesus and Paul explained) is a stubborn and rebellious (willfully deceived) heart. 🖤
Ok… You can press play now. Time to continue in Isaiah 42.
😐 Are you gonna do many more rabbit trails like that? Cuz if you plan to cover 3.5 more chapters, we’re gonna be here ALL DAY.
No. That was the only wasscally wabbit I’m chasing today.
😯 A what kind of rabbit?!
Never mind. I guess you’re too young to get that reference. IYKYK
👴🏼 What is that IYKYK nonsense? You kids and your alphabet soups and slang. In my day we were taught to write in complete sentences! WITH proper punctuation!
It just means: “If You Know, You Know.”
👴🏼 Well why not just say so!?
Cuz it’s quicker to type 5 letters than 16 letters plus 4 spaces.
👴🏼 And I suppose you think a microwave Hot-Pocket is superior to a home-cooked meal.
Not a chance.
👴🏼 Humph. Well at least you haven’t lost all your good sense.
🤓 Excuse me. Tryin’ to press play on Isaiah 42 here… (or we WILL be having Hot Pockets for dinner).
▶️ 👈
Song Of Praise… verses 10-17
In this praise-break to proclaim the greatness of God, the LORD says that HE is the one who will guide the blind out of darkness:
“And I will lead the blind in a way that they do not know, in paths that they have not known I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground. These are the things I do, and I do not forsake them.”
Isaiah 42:16 ESV
So the LORD is connecting His work with that of the Servant in whom He delights.
Then we are introduced to another servant who is very different from the first. If the earlier “Servant of Yahweh” wins the Employee of the Universe award, this second one is the LVP – Least Valuable Player. We see the worst, most bumbling servant ever in verses 18-25. He’s like that guy at work who does the bare minimum and complains all the time.
- THREE times we’re told he is blind
- He’s also deaf
- Sent by and dedicated to Yahweh
- Sees but does not observe
- Hears but does not listen
- Plundered, looted, trapped, & imprisoned
Sounds kinda like Israel. And, indeed, the LORD confirms in v24 that He is speaking of Jacob.
ISAIAH 43
So… Who’s gonna rescue the world if Yahweh’s Servant (Jacob) is being stubborn and has gotten himself into trouble?
Where I come from, if a person gets stuck in the ditch, you send a tractor to haul them out. But what do you do if the tractor gets stuck?
Who rescues the rescuer?
You get a bigger tractor.
The answer is in v3 “I AM the LORD… your Savior.” He is rescuing the rescuer.
“I will say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Do not withhold; bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.” Bring out the people who are blind, yet have eyes, who are deaf, yet have ears!”
Isaiah 43:6-8 ESV
In verses 14-21 the LORD is Israel’s Divine King who rescues His bumbling servant. But…
In verses 22-28 Israel doesn’t worship their Divine Rescuer, so He delivers them over to “utter destruction” and “reviling.”
ISAIAH 44
Even though Israel doesn’t honor their God Who saves them, in verses 1-6 God says they are STILL His servant; still chosen. He delivers them over to “utter destruction” but it will not actually be the end of them. There will be offspring.
In verses 7-8 we get another praise-break to remind everyone that Yahweh is completely unique. No other spiritual being is in His class. He alone fills His unique space.
And, based on THAT, verses 9-20 unpack why idols are a waste of time and effort and are completely illogical. And the idols have something in common with the people. Or rather, the people who worship idols have something in common with them:
“Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see. They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell. They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; and they do not make a sound in their throat. Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them.”
Psalm 115:4-8 ESV
We are becoming like whatever we worship.
This is why Israel is blind. They have been trusting in the idols of the gods of the nations. There is no light there. No truth. Like a blind cave salamander they’ve been in the dark so long their eyes don’t actually function.
BUT… (v21-28) They are STILL Yahweh’s Servant.
🤔 Question.
Yes?
😐 After all their idolatry and blindness and stubbornness, how is it that the Boss doesn’t say, “You’re fired!”? If I ignored everything MY boss said, that’s what would happen.
Verse 22 is the answer:
“I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you.”
Isaiah 44:22 ESV
God had made a covenant with them. And He’s committed to it. Not only does He blot out their sins, in verses 26-28 He makes 5 specific promises:
- Jerusalem will be inhabited
- Cities of Judah will be rebuilt
- “The Deep” will be dried up (possible reference to death/destruction being stopped?)
- Cyrus chosen to fulfill God’s purpose
- Temple rebuilt
Note that at this point, Jerusalem and the temple have not yet been destroyed, most of the cities of Judah are fine, and no one has a clue who this guy is “Cyrus” is.
They probably called Isaiah a “conspiracy theorist” for saying this stuff.
ISAIAH 45
About half of this chapter (v 1-13) is a specific message to this Cyrus. He will be powerful and have rule over nations. He will be mightily wealthy and influential.
God calls him by name to prove a point- that HE alone is GOD and capable of ordering the events of human history.
He says this because Cyrus is not yet even born.
Cyrus the Great was born circa 590-580 BC.
Isaiah receives this prophecy somewhere between 702 and 687 BC; or about a century before Cyrus is born.
Imagine being a young king Cyrus the Great of Persia. You have conquered the great empire of Babylon. The world is at your feet. There is this group of people in your empire- the Jews. They were deported from their homeland and brought to Babylon to be a labor and artisan class. It was likely the prophet Daniel (who served in the court of King Cyrus) who had a copy of the prophecies of Isaiah. Imagine someone unrolling a 100-year old scroll… and your name is in it.
🤓 Sounds like that scene from Back To The Future 3 where Doc Brown sends a letter from 1885 through Western Union to Marty who is stuck in 1955 after the Delorean is struck by lightning. The Western Union guy delivers the letter at the specified time and place to Marty McFly…
Well, God did it first. Back To The Future just copied Him.
Yahweh is not like Doc Brown, time-traveling around (in a Delorean or otherwise). He is not IN time at all. He is outside of time altogether. But He is also (in some way we can’t get our heads around) present inside and outside of all points of time at once. It’s not that He just peers into the future and tells Isaiah Cyrus’ name. Yahweh is already there, in the future with Cyrus and yet still there with Isaiah.
Oh- and in that moment, He was also still with Noah in the Ark, and at the parting of the Red Sea and the Battle of Jericho, and David’s coronation, and the birth of Jesus, and the missionary journeys of Paul and the Dark Ages, and the Reformation and WW2 and today and next week and next year and 20 years from now. He’s still in your past (redeeming it and getting you to today). And He’s already in all of your tomorrows waiting for you there.
I find tremendous comfort in that.
When theologians speak of God’s “omnipresence” and His “transcendence” this is what those words mean. God is everywhere and everywhen at once. But He is not limited to being within His creation. He exists beyond and outside all matter, space, and time because He made them.
😫 Ok. Stop. Brain cramp. Brain cramp!
🤓 Is that like a brain-freeze? 🥶
😩 No. It’s like a mental Charlie-horse.
Well you made it to the end. Just take some deep breaths. We’re done time-traveling today.
In verses 14-25 the text returns to the theme of Yahweh being Israel’s Savior and tucked inside it is the message that He is also the Savior of the whole world. He appeals to all nations in v20-22 to turn to Yahweh and trust in the God of Jacob.
And from there in the next 2 chapters, the LORD is going to almost give a sales-pitch to Babylon in particular; why they should give up their idols and believe in the God of Israel.
See you over there.
To The Reader 