Isaiah 42 vs 1-9
Part of Isaiah
November 1, 2023
Isaiah Chapter 42 Verse 1
• This chapter is entirely Messianic and is foretelling with extreme accuracy and authority the coming Savior, who is Jesus. And, I take a ton of heart in relaxing in these promises myself. What do I mean by that? God proclaims, “Behold, My Servant whom I uphold…” How is it that Paul did all that Paul did…? How is it that he overcame who he was, redefined himself even to himself, and lived filled with joy and life for Jesus?
• Romans 1:1 opens, “Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ…” Paul was a servant (by the way that word can also mean a vassal king and we see that in 2 Samuel 10:19), but Paul was and had become a servant of the Most-High King. And Isaiah Chapter 42 tells me that the strength in, within, and behind Paul in everything was God Himself. “Behold, My Servant whom I uphold.”
• If you recall, that was a promise of God also in Isaiah Chapter 41 verse 10, which we went over last week… So, I am refreshed in that promise again and one other place in this first verse…, God says, “I have put My Spirit upon Him.” I like that. What has made me a Christian? God did that. Why am I who I am today? God did it. I didn’t buy it, earn it, can’t say I was ever worthy or good enough for it, God just did it. And that allows me to both relax and rejoice!
• But this is certainly, completely, entirely speaking of Jesus Christ who is to come. In fact, look at what Matthew 12 says, verses 15-21, “But when Jesus knew it, He withdrew from there. And great multitudes followed Him, and He healed them all. Yet He warned them not to make Him known, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, “Behold, My servant whom I have chosen…””
• And so, we know that this, and this thoroughgoing prophetic accurate chapter is speaking about not just the Messiah to come but specifically about Jesus Christ as the promised Messiah!
Isaiah Chapter 42 Verse 2
• Jesus never sought to make His name known. He always sought to point people to the Father. That was His M-O. Which is quite missing in the public eye of the church today, isn’t it!? If people love the preacher, then they’ll listen to him preach. And so, we have men and women that make ministries out of their own popularity and for good and right reasons…, but, it’s the preachers we have never heard of that quite possibly are greatest in the kingdom.
• I’m not saying that they are or that it really even matters…, what I am saying is that’s the way to think and it allows for a great love for all that work in the ministry, not just those that we know their names for whatever reason. The only name that matters is Jesus and He Himself didn’t desire notoriety…, but to point folks to the Father!
Isaiah Chapter 42 Verse 3
• What’s that mean? Take all of your cares to the Lord and place them at His feet and in His hands, for He cares for you. Never has the Lord, nor will He ever, increase the hurt that sin has caused. Sin is so destructive and when it breaks and bruises, we ought to come to the Lord who in His own way will provide the comfort and healing needed for whatever the issue or situation. AND, even if you are not on fire for the Lord, just a smoking flax…, He won’t stamp you out because you aren’t where you’re supposed to be but rather, He will fan your flame to increase your freedom!
Isaiah Chapter 42 Verse 4
• He will bring forth justice and He will establish justice… In the times of the Old Covenant, the human race was sinful. In a showing of mercy, love and forbearance, and at the same time in a showing of justice and holiness, God would Passover the sins of the people, having covered them (not in a removing way but in a way as to conceal/store them) for a time through the sacrificial system.
• However, at some point, because God is completely holy and completely just, at some point all of the sin of the world must be dealt with and the wages of sin is death. Jesus was born of purity, born miraculously of a virgin. He lived a sinless life; a life as was intended for creation and as was acceptable to a just and holy God. And therefore, He brought forth justice…
• And when He died in my place, and in your place, having no sin Himself, He established justice for the multitude of sin that had been passed over, the multitude of sin of His day, and the entirety of sin to come. Therefore, He established justice for the sin of the world in the relationship between Creator and creation. And now anyone found in Him stands just and upright in the presence of the Father…
Isaiah Chapter 42 Verses 5 – 9
• Some call this the “credit check on God.” As the promises and claims that He makes are so beyond human ability, He has to state His credentials in order to be received. And His credentials…, “I am the Lord, this is My name…”
• These promises are speaking of the coming Savior and also of Israel as a whole and as a people/nation. Romans 3:2 speaking of the people of Israel, Paul says, “To them were committed the oracles of God.” And it would be through the Jewish people and nation, Jesus Himself being Jewish, that God would and does shine a light to the gentile world and He has and will open the eyes of the blind…
• Folks may not like that, that God has chosen a certain people and nation in this manner but tough! And the hatred, pure racial hatred, we see across the world today is actually evidence of the fact that God has chosen them! I mean, how many times did Jesus promise that we, them, folks, us, you would be hated for His name’s sake…!?
• And yet God’s plan cannot be thwarted, God’s word cannot fail and so He will be glorified, has been glorified and is glorified…AND, this huge statement, “My glory I will not give to another…” BUT, we read in John 13:31, “So, when He had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in Him…” Also in John 17:5, “And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was…”
• BRUH! Fork in the road alert! Decision point! Either Jesus is God or Jesus is a demonic blasphemous heretic deserving of the darkest depth of hell. There is no in between… Perhaps why Jesus said in Matthew 12:30, “Whoever is not with Me is against Me. Whoever doesn’t work with Me, works against Me…” Jesus has no fans. You either give your life to Him or you stand against Him… God will not share His glory and Jesus being glorified proves who Jesus is…
• The former things have passed, speaking of the Old Covenant, speaking of the sin-soaked trajectory we are all on without the Savior, and new things God declares in your life and in mine…, and only God has the audacity to call out sin, to preserve holiness, to die and give His life for you and for me…, to declare that which is ruined as clean… That is the work of the cross hand-in-hand with the resurrection!