The Servant of the Lord

Open your Bibles, please, to Isaiah, chapter 42. We are going to call to your attention the key verses of this chapter, and then we will be looking at it verse by verse and paragraph by paragraph without reading the entire chapter before our discussion. Notice verses 8-9:

ISAIAH 42

You will recognize the import of these verses, recalling that they provide a point of transition from chapter 41 to chapter 42, because you will remember that in chapter 41 God called a great committee meeting of all the gods of the world. He challenged them to prove their deity by declaring what was going to happen before it happened. As He challenged them to do this, they failed miserably. They were not able to tell anything about the future. He said to them, ``I'll tell you something about the future. Two hundred years from now there is going to be a man born on the earth whose name will be Cyrus, and he will deliver My people from the land of Babylon." History has proven that the prophecy of Isaiah was correct, for two hundred years from the time that Isaiah voiced the prophecy recorded in chapter 41, Cyrus made his appearance and delivered the children of Israel from the land of Babylon.

God said that the reason He was anxious to give these idol gods a chance to show their power is that He is the LORD; He is God, and His glory He will not give to another, nor will He give His praise to graven images. Unless one think perchance that was a stroke of luck that He could prophesy that someone was going to come two hundred years after the date in question, He says, in so many words, in Isaiah, chapter 42, ``I'll do one better. I will prophesy that there will be an individual who will come upon this earth, not two hundred years after I make this statement, but seven hundred years after I make this statement," and the prophecy that Isaiah made in chapter 42, has proven to be true.

Notice, please, verse 1 of chapter 42, as we consider God's Word about this individual who is to make His appearance upon this earth:

ISAIAH 42

This individual, so described in the first four verses, is designated by the word servant. The word servant has proven to be a problem to people who have written commentaries on the book of Isaiah, because they are not really sure who this servant is. They say, for example, that it well could be the nation of Israel. If we were limiting ourselves to the word servant, there would be an argument, because if you will glance at verse 8 of chapter 41, you will find God saying:

ISAIAH 41

So, many folk, beginning with verse 8, follow this word servant through the book of Isaiah and declare that God is talking to the nation of Israel. This is the Rabbinical teaching of the book of Isaiah, and that is the reason that if you attempted to show a Rabbi Jesus of Nazareth in the book of Isaiah, he would be in total disagreement with you and would point out to you immediately that the word servant, here, refers to the nation of Israel and to no one else.

There are others who insist that the word servant refers to Isaiah. These individuals, of course, are the problem. That problem we have consistently pointed out to you: they do not believe in the inspiration of the Word of God. They say, ``How could Isaiah possibly write about anybody who didn't live in his day? How could he possibly write about an individual who was not even in earthly existence when he wrote these words?" Since we believe in the inspiration of the Word of God and since we are able to compare Scripture with Scripture, we are bold to declare to you that in this particular instance---not in every instance---we have none other than the Lord Jesus Christ.

Notice with me what is said about Him here in verses 1-3:

ISAIAH 42

What individual could have come upon the earth that would look in any way like this? Turn to the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 3, and notice in what we commonly refer to as the baptismal scene of the Lord Jesus Christ , His words:

MATTHEW 3

What did we read in Isaiah, chapter 42? ``I have put My Spirit upon Him." You may wonder why the tense is past tense, when the Lord Jesus Christ had not yet come to the earth until Matthew, chapter 3. Keep in mind that in Hebrew grammar, it is a matter of the verbs being written in perfect present tense, because God looks upon the whole thing as accomplished, even though the details had not yet come to pass.

Again we read in Matthew 3, verse 17:

MATTHEW 3

What was it we read in Isaiah, chapter 42? ``Behold, My servant whom I uphold. Mine elect; My chosen One." In Matthew, chapter 3, verse 17, we read, ``This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." In Isaiah, chapter 42, verse 1, we read, ``I have put My Spirit upon Him, My elect, in whom My soul delighteth, in whom My soul is well pleased."

This is one comparison of Scriptures of which there are many, but we are not going to take the time to follow them out in detail in this lesson. They prove beyond all doubt that this passage of Scripture is speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Look now at Isaiah, chapter 42, verse 2, and notice the kind of ministry that the Lord Jesus Christ carried on. This, too, you will find quoted in the New Testament, though we will not take the time to look at it. Notice verse 2:

ISAIAH 42

``He shall not cry aloud, nor lift up his voice and shout and yell in the street. He will not be calling attention to himself." When the Gospel writers used this prophecy of Isaiah to prove this characteristic of the Lord Jesus Christ, they told the story of how He had healed many people, how a great number of people came to Him and said, ``Stay, and let us bring the biggest crowd that we can get together, and do something for them." Then He said, ``I want to ask a favor of you. Don't tell anybody that I have been here. I'm going up into the mountains. I don't want any attention drawn to Myself." He didn't make a noise and He didn't yell and draw attention to Himself. He carried out His ministry in a quiet way, characterized by meekness and humility.

I wonder if there is not a lesson in that for us as personal witnesses for the Lord Jesus Christ. Sometimes we get the idea that we are heard for our much speaking. Sometimes we get the idea that we are more effective if we make more noise, but the Lord Jesus Christ went about quietly taking advantage of every opportunity that He had for meeting the needs of those with whom He came in contact. He didn't have an advance agent to let folk know that He was coming to town, and He didn't put on a promotional campaign to let everybody know where He was. ``He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street." Look at verse 3:

ISAIAH 42

I never read this verse without my own heart being convicted. The Lord Jesus Christ never broke a bruised reed. A bruised reed in the Scripture is typical of that which was weak. He never trampled down that which was weak. He didn't make it weaker. He didn't break the bruised reed; He strengthened it and encouraged it until it became something that somebody could lean on. How many weak individuals are there today, perhaps unsaved people with real problems, with real questions, or perhaps Christians with real burdens, but we are all so very busy that we are not interested in trying to meet their needs, and we are not interested in encouraging their hearts. The first thing you know, because we are willful and unkind, we have broken the bruised reed.

Did you notice what else He said here? ``A smoking flax he shall not quench..." Literally, this is a smoldering flax, ``a little smoldering ember almost gone out." He didn't quench it, but He fanned it into a flame. How many folk are there with whom you come in contact who can manifest just a spark of interest in the things of God, but you handle them roughly, you handle them carelessly? You don't handle them prayerfully, and before you know it, you have smothered the spark; you have quenched the smoking flax. If you had taken just a little bit more time, you could have fanned it into a flame and it could be burning instead of out. Look at verse 4:

ISAIAH 42

This is the kind of person who came to earth---the Son of the living God. He would not fail nor would He be discouraged, though He faced the most difficult task, until justice was set in the earth. Of course, justice is not yet set in the earth, but the Lord Jesus Christ has not failed and the Lord Jesus Christ has not become discouraged as we are going to see before we are through with this chapter. The Lord Jesus Christ is waiting patiently for the hour when He may fulfill His mission in its entirety and accomplish the purpose that God intended.

Notice the words of God to His servant as they are recorded in the paragraph which begins with verse 5:

ISAIAH 42

We learned in detail about the first statement of this verse in chapter 41. This earth didn't just happen. God created it, and He stretched out the heavens. This individual who created the entire earth said, in verse 6:

ISAIAH 42

If you will look at that word covenant and change it to mediator, you will have the correct meaning, and a better picture of why the Lord Jesus Christ came to the earth. Did you ever stop to think that the Lord Jesus Christ, however many trillions of miles away from whom He was, because when He was on this earth He limited Himself to His humanity, became lonely, and needed God to hold His hand? He did.

These words were, perhaps, more appropriate at the time the Lord Jesus Christ hung upon the Cross than at any other time, because we are told in the Psalms that God gave the Lord Jesus Christ assurance that if He died, He would not leave Him dead. He would raise Him again from the dead. Do you realize that Jesus Christ, limiting Himself to His humanity while He was on the earth, was just as concerned about not being raised from the dead as you and I would be. He had to rest upon the promise of God's Word, who said, ``I will not leave My Holy One to see corruption, but I will raise Him again from the dead." He said, ``I will give Thee for a mediator of the people and a light for the whole world." The Lord Jesus Christ became that mediator. The Apostle Paul could say, ``There is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus." There is no other mediator, and He himself claimed to be the Light of the World. Verse 7:

ISAIAH 42

From a spiritual standpoint, perhaps even more than from a physical standpoint, He did this very thing. Spiritual eyes which were opened are innumerable because men who had been blind and never been able to see anything at all, were able to see after the Lord Jesus Christ came to this earth.

How many people were there in prison who found the doors unlocked after Jesus Christ came? How many people were there who sat in the darkness of the prison, who were brought out to the light of day? We couldn't began to say how many, but when we skip down to verse 10, having already looked at verses 8-9, we have something brought to our attention.

We have been noticing God's Word to His servant, and now I would notice with you God's plan for the mission of His servant. You see, His mission was interrupted, and His message was never finished. He was interrupted before He had a chance to complete it. Isaiah said in chapter 53, ``He was cut off in the midst of His ministry, and His message was never finished because the whole world did not have the opportunity to hear it."

Beginning in the paragraph which begins with verse 10, God places a very real obligation on you and on me when He tells us what His plan is for the unfinished message of our Lord. Look at verse 10:

ISAIAH 42

Who is supposed to sing unto the LORD a new song? Who is supposed to see that His praise is carried to the ends of the earth? Look down at the next statement: ``ye that go down to the sea..." Travelers, everywhere they go, are supposed to carry the message. That is the reason we are told in Acts, chapter 17, that God settled the Jews in the very center of the earth and designated that as the birthplace of our Lord, because the travelers that came from all parts of the world were to cross this so-called bridge of the nations, and had the Jews been faithful in their testimony, the message would have been given out, and as the travelers went down to the sea, the message would have gone out and reached the whole world, but the vast majority of the world still sits in darkness. Perhaps it is because we, figuratively speaking at least, have gone down to the sea in ships and haven't carried the message.

May I make an application? What do you do when you travel? Do you make any provision at all for leaving a witness? Do you make any provision at all for leaving a testimony for Christ? It is true that you cannot stop every waitress who waits upon you, and you can't stop every gasoline operator who fills your car with gas, back him into the corner and make him accept Jesus Christ. You can't do that. The Spirit wouldn't lead you to do it, but when you travel, are you prepared to leave any kind of witness, either verbal or written, to let folk know that the light is still shining and the Gospel is still going forth? I always pray when I travel that the Lord will give me an opportunity to witness in every place that I am.

Notice what I said: Witness, not to win a soul to Christ, but to witness. By the grace of God, I endeavor to do that if it is no more than a word to let people know that I belong to Christ. Now, again, I do not want to draw the wrong picture. I don't mean to say that we should stop everybody that we come in contact with and make them accept Jesus Christ. We never would get to our destination. But, we can carry the message.

Look at the verse again and notice:

ISAIAH 42

That is, all the people who are in the earth, the isles, and all the inhabitants---that is, all the people who are in the immediate land of Palestine and the far, distant lands. Let everybody---all the inhabitants of the earth---witness to this message. Look at verse 11:

ISAIAH 42

Again, we remind you that this word island in the Old Testament doesn't mean ``an island" as we commonly think of it. A better translation is ``coastlands," and a more accurate translation as far as our understanding is concerned is ``far, distant places." The Lord Jesus Christ went back to Heaven before He completed His mission. He went back to Heaven before he finished His message, but He didn't plan for His mission to stop; He didn't plan for His message to cease; He planned for you and me to carry it on. May we ask our hearts, ``Are we doing it? Are we carrying on the message as He intended we should?"

Let me suggest to you that if we are not, we had better get busy, because there is a promise that the Lord will return, and if we are able to interpret the signs of the times, then we do believe that the coming of the Lord Jesus must be near.

Notice what God's Word says about the Second Coming of Christ as it is presented in the paragraph which begins with verse 13 and concludes with verse 17:

ISAIAH 42

Are you thinking? When He came the first time, what did we read in verse 2:

ISAIAH 42

When He came the first time, it was a quiet, meek coming. Not very many folk knew that He was here. He didn't lead any demonstration march. He did not rouse any of the rabble. It was a meek, quiet thing. But when He comes the second time, did you notice the difference?

ISAIAH 42

He didn't prevail against His enemies the first time. They prevailed against Him, but when He comes back the second time, He will prevail against His enemies.

Have you wondered what He is waiting for? Have you wondered why He doesn't come? Look at verse 14. He tells you why. He said:

ISAIAH 42

Notice what He said: ``I have long time holden my peace; I have been still, and refrained myself..." It isn't that the Lord Jesus Christ does not want to come. It isn't that He is missing any dates appointed; it is simply that He has refrained; He has held Himself back from appearing. Why? To give you and to give me a little more time to get the job done that we have failed so miserably to do.

Turn to II Peter, chapter 3, and refresh your minds about what the Apostle Peter says in verse 3:

II PETER 3

They are going to go on and say that everything is going on just as it always has. Notice in verse 9, where Peter answered them. He said:

II PETER 3

What is it that God said in Isaiah, chapter 42? He gives the Lord Jesus Christ the opportunity to speak, saying:

ISAIAH 42

Why? ``Because, I am not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."

We have failed so miserably. One of these days He will not be able to restrain Himself any longer and He will come in mighty power and majesty. He will make war upon the earth, and a new age will be born. That is the reason He uses the figure of speech of a travailing woman who, in great pain, gives birth to a child. Because a new age will begin when the Lord Jesus Christ returns, things will be different. Look at verse 16:

ISAIAH 42

When the Lord Jesus Christ comes back, He is going to take the blind (He is speaking of the nation of Israel now, as we shall see in a moment)---they who have been blind to their Messiah, they who have not acknowledged the Son of God---and He will lead them by a way that they did not know. That way will be the way of the Cross. The nation of Israel must be saved in the same fashion as any other people are saved, by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. They can't see it now, as far as the nation is concerned, but when the Lord Jesus Christ comes back, He will lead them in a way they knew not. Look at verse 16:

ISAIAH 42

That is what the Spirit of God meant when He said, ``A nation shall be born in a day." He doesn't mean that the nation of Israel will be saved without any individual responsibility to Jesus Christ or without a responsibility according to the individual to Jesus Christ. He simply meant that what we have failed so miserably to do for the whole world in 2000 years, Jesus Christ will do in a brief moment.

Wait just a moment; don't jump to conclusions. This is not to suggest to you that anybody is going to have a second chance. Before the Lord Jesus Christ returns in the manner in which we are studying here, the Antichrist will have made his appearance and God will have sent a strong delusion upon those who did not love the truth, and they will believe a lie that they might be damned. This is referring to the great group of people who never understood and who never heard, that great multitude of people whom we have failed by not getting the Gospel message out.

You might say, ``If these folk are going to hear the Gospel when the Lord Jesus Christ comes, why do we need to be concerned about it?" Think of the multitudes who are dying every second before the Lord Jesus Christ comes and then look into your own life. Is the only reason that you are a child of God is so you can escape going to Hell? Is that the only reason? That is a pathetic appropriation of the truth, if you have only appropriated the truth of the Gospel so that you won't have to go to Hell.

We are not talking about an escape from Hell; we are talking about a manner of life. An individual who comes into a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ learns how to live. No, I am not talking about a social Gospel where you pull the boo-boo that some folk did when they loaded up a train of food for a bunch of Indians in Mexico who didn't need it, because they never ate anything like we eat. We're not talking about that. We are talking about introducing people to the Lord Jesus Christ and letting them live the way they have always lived, if that's what they want to do, with the joy of the Lord in their hearts.

You will find that the Word of God is not a western book, so that we need to go out to the various corners of the world and dress everybody like we dress in America. The Bible is a universal book. All that we need to do is carry the message, and if they want to wear a skin, let them wear a skin. We don't need to worry about it. The Gospel is what is going to change their lives.

The Israelites were not hearing any more than we are hearing, and so Isaiah, in the remaining portion of this chapter, addresses himself to the nation, beginning with verse 18 and concluding with verse 22:

ISAIAH 42

Here is the word servant again. You have to think when you read this portion of the Word of God, because we have been talking about the servant Christ, but now we have come back to the servant Israel. Look again at verse 19:

ISAIAH 41

Who is as blind as the nation of Israel? Turn with me to the book of Romans, and notice how the Apostle Paul comments on this particular portion of the Word concerning the tremendous pride of the nation of Israel even in the midst of their blindness and their deafness in relation to the things of God. He says, in chapter 2, beginning with verse 1:

ROMANS 2

Now look at verse 17:

ROMANS 2

This was the opinion they had of themselves. Notice verse 21:

ROMANS 2

Go back to Isaiah, chapter 42, where we read verse 19:

ISAIAH 42

Oh, how blind Israel was! May we borrow this passage of Scripture for an application to our hearts and recognize that not only Israel with its deafness, and not only Israel with its blindness, but the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ is afflicted as well? Look at verse 20:

ISAIAH 42

That is the condition of most of us today. Look at verse 21:

ISAIAH 42

The nation to whom God had committed the oracles was a miserable failure, and God transferred the oracles to a new nation called the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. It, too, has been a miserable failure. According to the Word of God, the oracles of God will be taken from the Church and will be given back to the nation of Israel because we have failed. Thank God, though the body of people may fail, the individual need not. Thank God, though the body of people may disappoint God, the individual may not.

We read in the last paragraph of Isaiah, chapter 42, an appeal to the individual. Will you accept it as an appeal to your own heart? Verse 23:

ISAIAH 42

Why is it that the nation of Israel has had such a hard time? That is what God is saying. Why did God give Israel to the robbers? Why did God permit millions of them to perish in the concentration camps of Nazi Germany? Why has God permitted persecution of a people second to none all down through the ages? How did it happen? Verses 24-25:

ISAIAH 42

You talk to the average Jew today and you ask him why his people have suffered. Will he give you this answer? Will he tell you that he knows that he and his people refused to walk in the ways of God and were not obedient to the law of God? Will he tell you that they have sinned against their Maker? No. He will tell you that they have been persecuted because of their money. He will tell you that they have been persecuted because of their political manipulations. He will tell you that they have been persecuted because they happen to be a little bit different from someone else. That isn't true. God permitted those things to occur in their lives to stir up the ire of the Gentiles against them because God ordained that they should be a persecuted people. He said that He would build a fire round about them and that they would be burned, but they would not even lay it to heart. This because they never recognized the Servant of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, upon whom God had placed His hand of approval.

May I say in closing that though this is something that is written about the nation of Israel, it represents an eternal principle. Any nation to whom has been committed great opportunity and great blessing and who refuses to fulfill the opportunity and appreciate the blessings can expect God to deal with them in a similar manner. The nation that forgets God will be held accountable to Him. Remember that, and remember that nations are made up of individuals. When you recall that nations are made up of individuals, that any individual who has the tremendous opportunity of sitting under the truth of God's Word and hears and yet does not see is going to be held accountable to God and suffer dire consequences for not obeying the Word of God.